Newland House: Saving our pioneer history

ABOVE: The Newland House Museum after a rain. Once endangered and in disrepair, it was a decades-long community effort to save and restore the 1898 structure as part of the development agreement with the Newland Shopping Center.  As of 2017, the recent refurbishment of the Newland Shopping Center reflects design elements complementing the National Register of Historic Places-listed house museum. (Photograph, M. Urashima. October 24, 2016) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED     

   History takes a long time to make. And, a long time to save.  In the case of this local and national historical landmark, it took decades of community volunteer effort--and near loss to neglect, vandalism and disrepair--to save a historic site now considered a treasure.
1964
   It was 1964 when local residents began voicing a concern about the Newland House, calling for it to be saved and restored to its former glory as the headquarters of the 1,000-acre Newland Rancho.  In the fast-paced, mid 20th-Century building boom, the community discussion is reminiscent of most historic preservation efforts: What is historic?  Why did the original owners sell it?  Should the Newland House be demolished to allow for the construction of a new shopping center?  Why should historic preservation be part of community planning?

   The Newland family--no longer farming or ranching--had already sold their property and, in 1964, it was owned by Signal Oil & Gas Company.  The Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce manager, William Gallienne, advocated moving the house to get it out of the way of progress.   

RIGHT: Mayor Don Shipley with Miss Huntington Beach Rosemary Southward, in front of the Newland House in 1964. Shipley advocated for its historic preservation.  (Los Angeles Times, August 3, 1964)

   Mayor Don Shipley--for whom the Shipley Nature Center is named--advocated working with the property owner and developer to save the Newland House and make it a centerpiece of a public park site.  Shipley acknowledged the challenges of restoration, preservation and ongoing stewardship, but advocated his vision for historic preservation.  

LEFT: The Newland House with its outbuildings and the original Newland barn in 1948.  The outbuildings included a bunk house for ranch labor and a sizable barn that almost dwarfed the house.  The barn on the property today is not original and was constructed to provide event space. (City of Huntington Beach archives, 1948)

   Shipley told the Los Angeles Times in 1964 that the Newland House "would make an excellent historical tie for the City".  Shipley's unflagging advocacy of the elements that are important to retain in community planning--history, open space, natural landscapes--led to him being honored in perpetuity at the Shipley Nature Center in 1974.  

   The Shipley Nature Center--off Goldenwest Street--explains on their website, "Dr. Shipley’s vision was to have a place which reflected what California was 100 years ago...so that children would be able to see what Huntington Beach may have been like before intense development began..."  The Shipley Nature Center is today a center for community and school educational programming, and a respite in an increasingly urban environment that has removed most of Huntington Beach's early history.

LEFT: Delbert "Bud" Higgins in front of the Newland House. Behind him, the exterior paint is peeling and windows are either open or boarded up. Higgins advocated for saving the community's pioneer history and the pre-history of California's indigenous people. (Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1976)

1974-1980
   Twelve years after the first article, the Los Angeles Times published another article about the grassroots historic preservation effort to save the Newland House.  It featured a photograph of Delbert "Bud" Higgins, a long-time local and community historian, standing in front of the Newland House again.  The Newland House looked more neglected, but those involved in the preservation effort refused to give up.  By then, community residents had formed the Huntington Beach Historical Society and began holding fundraising events to generate funds and friends.

   Higgins--who, with his brother, Gordie, began making the first redwood surfboards in Huntington Beach after watching Duke Kahanmoku and "the Hawaiians" surf Corona del Mar in the 1920s--had seen radical changes to the Huntington Beach historical and cultural landscape in his lifetime.  He talked about the pre-history of the indigenous people of California and the 19th-Century pioneer settlement history represented by the Newland House.

   "Indians lived on this mesa more than a thousand years ago," Higgins, who was Huntington Beach's first lifeguard and first fire chief, told the Los Angeles Times, after picking up a clam shell in the yard of the Newland House while taking the reporter on a tour. "They'd go down into the tidal basin mud flats below, gather clams and cook them."

RIGHT: An example of the Native Californian basketry that was part of the Newland family collection of Mary Juanita DeLapp Newland.  The majority of the collection is held by the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.  The Works Progress Administration helped with an archaeological investigation of the Newland House property in the 1930s, resulting in "two wagon loads" of artifacts removed from the mesa and "housed in Santa Ana", according to local historian Bud Higgins.  Some artifacts were reported by the Times as dating to 5,000 B.C. In 1980, another archaeological investigation documented a native American burial on the property. (Image, Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1980) 

  A major breakthrough came to the historic preservation effort in April 1974, when Signal Landmark Homes donated the Newland House and land to the community for a historical public park, as mitigation for their housing development.  The original plans were to encircle the house with a retail center.  After community objections, Signal Landmark changed their plans and lowered an office buildng by ten feet to retain the Newland House's view  of the Pacific Ocean and promised that the retail center's architectural features would complement the historic structure.

LEFT: The Newland House in 1970, missing an exterior wall.  The old wooden garage structure--which no longer exists--can be seen in the yard. (Photograph, City of Huntington Beach archives, circa 1970)

   A dozen years after the historic preservation effort was initiated in 1964, the community was rallying behind the effort.  Students at three local junior high schools holding a bike-a-thon as a fundraiser.  Descendants of the Newland family offered support by donating a few artifacts, historical ephemera, and helping locate furnishings to re-create the dining room as they remembered it.  

   Very little of the original furnishings remained, as family members did not realize their home would be considered historic.  Community members scoured antique markets and asked for donations of period-appropriate items to furnish the house museum.

RIGHT: A table set for pioneer holidays inside the Newland House dining room.  The Huntington Beach Historical Society and Huntington Beach's Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force will roll the clock back 100 years again at their fourth annual "Holidays in Huntington Beach" at the Newland House on Friday, December 1.  This year, it will be 1917! (Photograph, M. Urashima, November 30, 2014) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED    

   Like most historic preservation efforts, the call to save the Newland House was initiated by people other than the family whose history it represents.  Historic preservationists took the larger view that the property's significance was important to the community and region, and that the community would undertake saving it.

   The Newland family had ten children, two of whom were born in the house.  The family had sold the property and had not lived in the home for more than 20 years.  The Los Angeles Times interviewed one of the descendants born in the house, Helen Newland Tarbox, in 1976.

LEFT: The Newland House, as it appeared prior to its stabilization and preservation, with barbed wire security fencing and in disrepair. (Photograph, City of Huntington Beach archives, October 15, 1976)

   Helen Newland Tarbox--then 75 years old and living in Newport Beach--remarked, "More power to the Historical Society! What they are doing is great. They've had a hard time of it with no city money. It's going to take time to do the restoration, but they are going to do it."

   Volunteers from Orange Coast College re-roofed the Newland House, while volunteer carpenters and electricians worked to restore the structure.  A crew from the Huntington Beach Fire Department installed a flagpole on the distinctive cupola.  The second floor of the Main Street Branch Library was used to store historical items, while the Newland House was undergoing stabilization and preservation work.  

   Higgins told the Los Angeles Times that the original estimated cost for the historic preservation effort was far less than projected, due to community volunteers and donations.  Once the historic preservation effort was permitted and the project had site control, everybody became a preservationist.  The effort to save local history brought residents together, rolling up their sleeves to help as a point of community pride and civic contribution.

RIGHT: By 1980, over fifteen years after the historic preservation effort began, the Los Angeles Times recounted the Newland House journey through neglect, blight, vandalism (which cannibalized historic fixtures), and the pressures of urbanization.  Members of the community persisted in their work to save the structure for future generations. (Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1980)

   Huntington Beach City Councilman Ted Bartlett told the Los Angeles Times in 1976, at the height of the country's bicentennial, "I'm 100% behind the society's restoration work.  I'm going to donate my money, just like the others."  

   Like Don Shipley, Ted Bartlett's leadership regarding the retention of historical places and open spaces in the city's planning and development prompted a grateful community to honor him in a permanent manner.  The natural wilderness area behind the Newland House--Bartlett Park--is named after Bartlett, who served five four-year terms on the city council.

LEFT: Alice Jumper, a member of the Huntington Beach Historical Society, inside the Newland dining room in 1980.  She is one of the many volunteers who donated countless hours to save the Newland House, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She described seeing the house from Beach Boulevard and stopping to take a closer look.  By 1980, Jumper said she was "up to my ears" in her volunteer efforts to help restore the Newland House.  When asked why she cared so much for a place to which she had no familial connection--a question often asked of historic preservationists--she told the Los Angeles Times, "how do you describe love?"  (Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1980) 

1982-1986
   By 1982, the 19.5-acre Newland Shopping Center had opened and was 75-percent leased.   The City of Huntington Beach committed $400,000 for the stabilization and preservation of the Newland House, including associated infrastructure for water and power to the property.  Community members had contributed more in their volunteer labor and donations.

    In 1985, the then 87-year-old  Newland House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  

LEFT: A new addition to the Newland Shopping Center in 2017, Miguel's Homestyle Mexican Food includes an artful rendering of the National Register-listed Newland House as part of its architectural decor.  The rendering reminds of local residents and visitors of Huntington Beach's agricultural past.  Miguel's is located on ground once occupied by the chile pepper dehydrating warehouses of Masami Sasaki, who was known as the "chile pepper king" and one of the largest chile pepper processors in Southern California prior to World War II. (Photograph, M. Urashima. July 2017)  © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    The City of Huntington Beach's financial commitment to the preservation effort led to the construction of a new barn on the Newland House property and the restoration of landscape for a cumulative bid of $272,733.  The barn was built to provide public event space to generate revenue to support the Newland House property.  Today, the "Newland Barn" is a popular site for weddings, birthday parties and other events, and is booked months in advance.  

   Currently, the barn--a single, 1,100-square foot structure with a "patio" area of 22 square feet--generates an average of $53,000 annually, per revenue records provided by the City of Huntington Beach for the years 2000 through 2014.  During those years alone--not including revenue for the mid 1980s through 1990s--the Newland Barn generated close to three-quarters of a million dollars for the City.   The City's Community Services department now holds a lottery to determine who gets reservations on available dates.

RIGHT: A view from Bartlett Park of the Newland House and the "Newland Barn", a new structure constructed in 1983 to provide event space a the Newland House Museum.  The 1,100 square-foot Newland Barn has generated well over a million dollars for the City since its opening. (Photograph, City of Huntington Beach, circa 1986) 

   The City of Huntington Beach's investment in the Newland House property has been repaid many times over.  The ongoing maintenance and continual improvement at the Newland House Museum is born by the Huntington Beach Historical Society, who also provide historical tours, train docents and provide events at the Museum.  The Society improved the property with the back yard gazebo and the reconstruction of the historic water tower, as well as restoration of the garden.  Each year, the Huntington Beach Historical Society awards a "Newland Rose" to community members who make contributions to the preservation of local history.

LEFT: The garden on the south side of the Newland House contains bricks rescued from the demolition of the Holly Sugar Factory, a 1911 sugar processing plant near the original Huntington Beach Township, once located off what is now Garfield Avenue and Holly Lane. Local residents had wanted to save the pioneer-era Holly Sugar Factory for adaptive reuse; it was demolished with little warning on a Saturday. (Photograph, Newland House garden, M. Urashima. November 30, 2014) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
1990   
   Eighty-one years after the incorporation of Huntington Beach, the City appointed Michael Mudd as the new cultural affairs director, following a historic resources survey in 1986.  Mudd told the Los Angeles Times that "cultural concerns and historic conservation haven't evolved in Huntington Beach."  He advocated devoting some City investment to organize the various historical organizations and create a long-term plan for preserving local history.  Alas, his position did not last.

1996  
   The Newland House rose garden was dedicated in 1987 and grew over the years through the work of volunteers.  The garden's present-day design was developed with input from the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society in order to avoid archaeological sensitivities on the grounds. 

RIGHT: Newland House trustee Virginia Whipple on the brick walkway of the rose garden in 1996. (Los Angeles Times, November 23, 1996) 

   In 1996, the garden was renovated by the Master Gardeners of Orange County as a volunteer contribution.  The garden has been used for master gardening classes and cooking demonstrations, and is in keeping with the 19th-Century intent of Mary Newland to be both useful as a kitchen garden and a beautiful spot to linger.

LEFT: Darrell Rivers, president of the Huntington Beach Historical Society,  in a photo frame at Holidays in Huntington Beach 1916, an annual joint event with the Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force.  The event recreates the community's holiday celebrations of 100 years ago.  It will be 1917 at this year's Holidays in Huntington Beach, on Friday, December 1. (Photograph, Darrell Rivers at the Newland House Museum. M. Urashima. December 2, 2016) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Present day 
   The Huntington Beach Historical Society--in addition to organizing the annual Civil War Days in Central Park, along with other events at the Newland House Museum--continues to provide the stewardship, ongoing maintenance and improvements for the Newland House and garden.  

   The lasting legacy of the Newland family--as well as the efforts of community volunteers who have worked over half a century to save, restore, and maintain this local gem--continue to provide a sense of place and heritage for Huntington Beach, as well as a place for local celebrations.  It is, as Don Shipley predicted in 1964, an "historical tie" that binds our community together.

ABOVE: One of the many cultural events at the Newland House reflecting local heritage, Dia los Muertos, in October 2014.  A group of event-goers, with Huntington Beach Historical Society president Darrell Rivers (far right in top hat) flashed a "W" for Historic Wintersburg, a present day historic preservation effort in Huntington Beach. (Photograph, Dia los Muertos at Newland House Museum. M. Urashima October 2014) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

MORE INFORMATION:
The Newland House Museum is located at 19820 Beach Boulevard, in Huntington Beach, California, in the Newland Shopping Center, and is open to the public. Call 714-962-5777 for more information and hours.  The Newland House barn rental information through the City of Huntington Beach can be found at http://www.huntingtonbeachca.gov/residents/parks_facilities/rentals/newland_barn.cfm. 

© All rights reserved. No part of the Historic Huntington Beach blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.

Huntington Beach history! Saturday, January 23, at Orange County's Heritage Hill Historical Park in Lake Forest

   Learn more about Huntington Beach's unique pioneer history and about America's newest---and Orange County's first and only---National Treasure at this presentation and book signing.

   The presentation will feature rare photographs not included in the book and an update on the effort to preserve Historic Wintersburg in Huntington Beach.

Pacific City: Our first City Hall

ABOVE: Pacific City Hall remains standing today at 122 Main Street, in its new life as Mangiamo's Gelato Caffe.  It was a cash grocery and feed store on the lower level, with the town governance meetings held upstairs.  This photograph is from a booster flyer entitled, "Homes with Pleasure and Business," circa 1904, which included the new Pacific Electric Railway station near the Huntington Beach pier and Ocean Avenue (now Pacific Coast Highway). Sanborn fire insurance maps document the building at this site in 1909, while the Historic Resources Assessment report by PCR Services Corporation dates the building to this location in 1902. Research by the City Historic Resources Board, with assistance from the Orange County Archives, documents the building was at 122 Main Street in 1901, placed there by Pacific City founder Philip Stanton.  (Photograph courtesy of the Helme Worthy Collection) © All rights reserved.

Updated January 29, 2015 - On January 20, 2015, the Huntington Beach  City Council voted 4-3 to approve the environmental report and demolition of the majority of the Pacific City Hall building.  The action requires the property owner to move their structure back six feet, with an attempt to save the facade on the building as an architectural treatment for a new four-story building.

   The picture worth a thousand words is above.  And, the question about whether or not 122 Main Street was our first City Hall has been answered.  It's right there, painted on top of the wooden pioneer building, right above the grocery and feed store.

A "filler" advertisement for Pacific City in the 1903 Orange County Directory. (Image, Fullerton Public Library)

   This is where pioneer business was conducted, perhaps the first discussions about how to  get Henry Huntington to bring the Pacific Electric Railway to town.  Pioneer leaders might have sat on the hanging balcony to survey the comings and goings on Main Street, smoking their cigars and making big plans. Or, more likely, anxiously wondering if this dusty little seaside village was going to succeed and how on earth could they attract investment. 

   This first seat of city government is now living large more than a century later serving up Italian ice in Mangiamo's Gelato Caffe, something pioneers probably would have loved in ice box days.

LEFT: Peek in the back of 122 and 124 Main Street to find 122's original hardwood batten board in remarkably pristine condition (to the left). An early 1900s storm drain solution runs the gap between the buildings.  The original corrugated tin siding from 1910 can be seen on 124 Main Street, now a souvenir shop.(Photo, December 2014) © All rights reserved.

   In ironic timing, the question of the building's history and fate comes at a time when the "new" Pacific City* is taking shape along Pacific Coast Highway, more than a century after the original Pacific City was dreamed up in 1901.  This sturdy little building has a story to tell.

ABOVE: A bit neglected on the alley side, a doorway to the second floor once had an outside stairway, direct to Pacific City Hall meeting rooms. This is an easy preservation fix, considering the hardwood construction.  (Photo, December 2014) © All rights reserved.

Pacific City
   The City of Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board (HRB) explained at a recent planning commission meeting the significance of 122 and its neighbor, 124 Main Street, which "critically document the commercial development of Huntington Beach.  These lots were originally surveyed as Lots 22 and 24 of Block 5 of Pacific City dating back to our city's infancy.  This, combined with the paucity of commercial buildings in the first decade of the 20th Century, reinforce the probability that 122 Main Street housed the early City Hall.  Certainly, it is among the earliest structures on Main Street."

ABOVE: Main Street prior to the 1909 incorporation of Huntington Beach, in 1907.  The distinctive balcony of 122 Main Street can be seen on the south side of the dusty, unpaved road. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   HRB member and historian Kathie Schey further detailed in a supplemental letter to the planning commission, "the evidence for this conclusion has stemmed from the recollections of Mr. Bud Higgins.  Higgins, an early resident of Huntington Beach was certainly in a position to know.  Not only had he lived in the city for many years but he had known others who had been alive at the time of the city's creation who had first-hand knowledge of those earliest years."

   "Further, there was no reason to embellish this information since there was no threat to this structure at that time and no reason to inflate its importance," Schey explains.  "Far from simple 'hearsay' this evidence is important to oral history, a type of resource widely recognized by historians today."

   Delbert "Bud" Higgins was one of Huntington Beach's first surfboard shapers (he had met Duke Kahanamoku in the 1920s), first lifeguards, and also its first fire chief.  His oral and personal historical accounts of Huntington Beach history are retained at California State University Fullerton, Center for Oral and Public History.

A snip from the Los Angeles Times article, 'Shrine' a Target for Condemnation, from December 1989, indicates the Pacific City Hall survived an earlier demolition threat.  The article references the building had been the first city hall with a quote from Charles Sarrabere, whose pioneer family owned the building for over six decades. (Image, Los Angeles Times, December 5, 1989)

   Schey further documented that, "In his memoirs, My Sixty Years in California, Huntington Beach pioneer Tom Talbert notes the first city post office was located on Main Street "where Sarrabere's have their cleaning shop (122 Main St.)" 

   Talbert , one of Huntington Beach's early mayors, published his book in 1952.  The Sarrabere family's 65-year ownership of the building began in 1916, with Charles Sarrabere running the family's cleaning business there until 1981.

   In the late 1980s, the City of Huntington Beach pursued acquisition of 122 and 124 Main Street under California redevelopment law, "authorizing the acquisition of such property by eminent domain" for development purposes of what was known as the "Main-Pier Redevelopment Project Area."  Many of the structures noted as contributors to the historic district were on the list for acquisition.

A July 1990 letter from the Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board to the Planning Commission included this list, noting 122 Main Street was "Pacific City City Hall." The letter was signed by Jerry Person, the present-day historian for Huntington Beach.  Note, the Historic Wintersburg property on Warner Avenue in Huntington Beach also is on this list, listed as "Japanese Church Buildings." (Image, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   More than one Sarrabere family property was proposed for acquisition, including the property that was the family residence on Pacific Coast Highway, south of Main Street.  Charles Sarrabere sent a letter to the City registering his opposition, stating his family's long land ownership in Huntington Beach.  When interviewed by the Los Angeles Times in 1989, Sarrabere, then 78, commented about 122 Main Street that, "I was practically raised there."  

   Local businessman and then member of the City of Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board, Douglas Langevin, told the Los Angeles Times in 1989 the building was "one of the very few of the original wood structures left in the city...In my view, that is the most important (of the old wooden buildings) given its history with the city."  Langevin faced opposition from the city council when he went about restoring another wooden pioneer structure: the 1904 Talbert-Leatherman building at 217 Main Street, now the Longboard Restaurant and Pub.

ABOVE: A closer look at Pacific City Hall, a center of community activity with the market below and the barber next door.  Both 122 and 124 Main Street were included in a map sent by the California State Office of Historic Preservation to the City of Huntington Beach in 1988, outlining the downtown structures they believed contributed to a historic district that would qualify for the National Register of Historic Places. (Photograph snip courtesy of the Helme Worthy Collection) © All rights reserved.

   Then, the photograph appeared, courtesy of the Helme Worthy Collection,** with "Pacific City Hall" painted in large letters on the building's Western False Front facade, further confirming its history.  This is where the founding fathers of Huntington Beach dreamed up a resort town with a pleasure pier and "Red Car" train.  How much we owe that little building, which has survived the 1933 earthquake, the ups and downs of the last century's economy, and the 1980s redevelopment era that removed many of its brothers.

   Nevertheless, the building's important civic history was misplaced over the years, while half of the community's historic structures were lost to development.***

   This is how we lose things.  Time fades community memory, as documents and historical photographs are lost.  Ultimately, pioneer roots are removed and the sense of place is altered.  Then, people pay to have the history they miss "re-created."  

   But, it's not the same.  New buildings weren't touched by earlier generations.  They don't tell the authentic story of horse-drawn wagons, land baron schemes, the oil boom wildcats, the lean Depression years, two world wars, and the earthquakes and floods that made Californians more resilient.  For more than a hundred years, 122 an 124 Main Street shared our journey, from the settlement of Huntington Beach into the 21st Century as Surf City.

ABOVE: The corrugated siding on 124 Main Street likely dates back to 1910 when the building was constructed, just after the incorporation of Huntington Beach in 1909.  The building originally was the Tripp Market, then the location of O'Barrs Drugstore in 1914.  After that, it became the U.S. Restaurant (1919), the Huntington Beach Stock Exchange, Fowler's Paint, the Buckhorn Cafe (1939), and the 20/30 Cafe (1943). (Photo, December 2014) © All rights reserved.  

   The fate of 122 and 124 Main Street, will go before the Huntington Beach city council soon.  The original Western False Front facade with hand-painted sign on 122 Main Street is believed to be under the facade added in the 1920s; covering over building materials was the practice of the day when materials were scarce.  

   As the historical consultant, PCR Services Corporation, notes: "The false front commercial building type is an icon of the urban pioneer West.  When movie directors or theme park designers erect a typical western town, the false front commercial building usually plays a prominent role. Unlike many myths of the West, the false front commercial building truly was a common sight in Colorado as well as California."

   "For a developing town in the early 20th Century, like Huntington Beach, the false front commercial building was an economical solution," further explains the historical consultant. "Sound business economics led commercial building owners to budget their spending for substantial facades while relegating the secondary sides of buildings to a cheaper utilitarian treatment."

   PCR Services later explains "fire often swept through early commercial districts, eliminating most of the wood western false front buildings."  How lucky we are that 122 Main Street survived.  Even the later embellishment of the fancy Western False Front facade---telling the story of pioneer business practices in a developing town---is now nearing the century mark.

   The history is undeniable.  But, history repeats and some of our history is the removal of historic places from our landscape.  On December 1, people gathered to watch the unveiling of a plaque for the Golden Bear, another important icon of Huntington Beach history lost to 1980s redevelopment.  The looming question now is what can be done to save the very beginnings of Pacific City and Huntington Beach.

ABOVE: Main Street in 1906, looking from the second block west toward the Pacific Ocean and the pier.  The balcony of Pacific City Hall can be seen on the south side of the street. (Photo snip, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   "It is extremely clear that these two buildings, born with our city, have stood mute witness to our city’s growth and historic legacy," explained the HRB in their November 26 letter to the planning commission. "Closely surrounding structures that may also have remained to celebrate even some portion of this past are long gone.  Even the adjacent Standard Market, which replaced an earlier structure when it began operations as early as 1926, is gone today.  This loss of most of the historic fabric of the downtown area  has been tragic."

   These are not just buildings any more, remarked a planning commissioner after seeing the photograph, "It's now a place."  

MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD: 124 (circa 1910) and 122 (circa 1902) Main Street, two of the handful of pioneer structures left in downtown Huntington Beach. (Photo, December 2014) © All rights reserved.

*Learn about Huntington Beach's "new" Pacific City at http://gopacificcity.com/

**The Helme Worthy Collection is held by Susie Worthy--the great grandaughter of pioneer and early mayor Matthew Helme--and her husband, Guy Guzzardo.  They currently are restoring the M.E. Helme House Furnishing Co. and Worthy House in the historic downtown on Walnut Avenue, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Read more about the Helme-Worthy buildings at http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/historic-walking-tour-6-me-helme-house.html

***Over half the properties noted in a 1986 survey of the city's historic resources have been lost to demolition and development.  An update initiated in 2009 is pending review by the city council in 2015.

READ the Huntington Beach Independent article about the discussion at the December 9, 2014, planning commission meeting: http://www.hbindependent.com/news/tn-hbi-me-1211-planning-20141210,0,2345434.story

Frequently Asked Question: What makes a property historic?
AGE - A property must be at least 50 years old as a general rule of thumb, but, not always if there has been a significant event or person associated with the place.  It must be old enough to have been studied by historians, architectural historians, or archaeologists regarding its place in history.  Both 122 and 124 Main Street have been studied, as part of the 1986 historic resources survey almost 30 years ago, and by the State Office of Historic Preservation as part of their recommendation for a downtown historic district in 1988.
INTEGRITY - In addition to age, a property should retain its historic physical integrity.  For a building, structure, landscape feature, historic site, or historic district, this means the property is relatively unchanged. Some alterations made 50+ years ago can be considered part of the history, reflecting certain time periods.
SIGNIFICANCE - A property can be defined as significant in three ways: 1) direct association with individuals, events, activities, or developments that shaped history or reflect important aspects of history; 2) by embodying the distinctive physical and spatial characteristics of an architectural style or type, method of construction, or craftsmanship; 3) having the potential to yield information important to our understanding of the past.

© All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Huntington Beach blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation visits Huntington Beach

On a hot August afternoon, the team from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Washington D.C. and West Coast offices tour downtown Huntington Beach.  They stopped in to meet the owners at the M.E. Helme House Furnishing Co. on Walnut Avenue, now an antique store and a National Register for Historic Places property. (Photo, August 20, 2014)

   In town to see Huntington Beach's Historic Wintersburg property---named this year as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation---a team from the National Trust also viewed some of the historic downtown.  One of their stops was the M.E. Helme Furnishing Company and Worthy House (read about it at http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/historic-walking-tour-6-me-helme-house.html).

   This is the first time ever in the 27-year history of the America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list that an Orange County historical site has been included.  Historic Wintersburg is the only historic site named in the western continental United States, the majority on the list being east of the Mississippi.  Also on the list are historic places such as Frank Lloyd Wright's Spring House in Tallahassee, Florida; The Palisades in New Jersey; the Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio; and the Chattanooga State Office Building in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

   Read about why Historic Wintersburg made the list here http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2014/06/national-trust-announces-americas-11.html and about how preservation of Historic Wintersburg can transform a north Huntington Beach neighborhood here http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-history-of-wintersburg-village.html

Southern California photographer Prentice Danner was assigned the feature about the effort to save Historic Wintersburg for the Summer 2014 edition of the National Trust's Preservation Magazine, Penning History. (Photo, April 18, 2014)

   The endangered pioneer farm and mission property of Historic Wintersburg is bringing national and international attention and recognition to the rich history of Huntington Beach.  A sampling of the regional and national media coverage:

Preservation Nation: http://blog.preservationnation.org/2014/02/19/race-save-japanese-american-history-historic-wintersburg-village/#.U_jhOWPnGXM

Smithsonian Magazine: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/americas-most-endangered-historic-places-180951839/?utm_source=twitter.com&no-ist

Rafu Shimpo: http://www.rafu.com/2014/06/wintersburg-site-named-to-list-of-endangered-historic-places/

KPPC Southern California Public Radio: http://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2014/07/18/17025/oc-japanese-american-most-endangered-wintersburg/

   Aptly put by the National Trust, "This site has a much broader and much more uplifting story about building community, establishing your identity.  The ultimate American immigrant story."  An American story embodied by a Huntington Beach pioneer property.  Help save Historic Wintersburg's historic goldfish farm and mission from demolition.

Join the effort to save Historic Wintersburg:

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/pages/Historic-Wintersburg-Preservation-Task-Force/433990979985360

DONATE to the dedicated Historic Wintersburg Preservation Fund http://www.huntingtonbeachca.gov/i_want_to/give/donation-wintersburg.cfm

TWITTER @SurfCityWriter and  @WintersburgHB

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