Free to a Good Home: Old House. Really Old.

BY DAVE SCHWAB

Available for Free: Historic Harwood-Tichenor House built in 1887 at 1157 10th Ave.; Must be moved, owner will donate $35,000 toward moving and relocation costs.
Sound too good to be true?
The dwelling, one of the last four middle-class houses left in the Center City area from the Great Boom of the 1880s, is on the auction block. The asking price can’t be argued with. The problem, though, is you’ve got to have a proper place to move it to. And there’s the catch.
The Harwood-Tichenor home was bought several years ago by Brian Caine as an investment. But it didn’t figure into his plans. “My goal has been to demolish or remove the house to make way for a high-density, high-rise development, probably retail and some type of housing, condos or apartments,” Caine said. “And then the history issue came up.”
The “history issue” was the home’s involuntary designation as historical, which happened April 22, 2004. That decision was made by the city’s 11-member Historical Resources Board, which is empowered to so designate properties without the property owner’s permission, a policy that has been in place for some time.
“The city has never required owner consent for a (historic) designation,” said Cathy Winterrowd, principal planner/liaison for the Historical Resources Board. “The determination as to whether or not it’s historic is based on historic preservation principles, apart from whether or not the owner believes in it or agrees with it. The question goes to the Historical Resources Board and their decision is based on the adopted criteria.”
Adopted criteria include: the dwelling or the property exemplifies “special elements” of the community’s or neighborhood’s character, it has been identified with “significant” historical persons or events; it embodies distinctive characteristics of a style, type, period or method of construction; it is representative of the notable work of a master builder, designer, architect, engineer or craftsman; and it is listed, or has been determined eligible, for listing with the National Register of Historic Places or the State Register of Historical Resources.
The house, downtown between B and C streets, is currently a run-down rental property surrounded by a barbed-wire fence.
But a historically-designated home cannot be demolished unless the property owner successfully appeals to the City Council to have the designation overturned — which can be a lengthy and costly process. Caine filed his appeal within a month of the designation. In the appeal, Caine’s lawyer wrote that the property is not a valuable example of Victorian architecture since it has been “maimed” over the years by significant modifications and additions, is in very poor condition and full of dry rot. “Designating this structure on the basis of architecture causes significant economic hardship to the property owner with no substantial justification. There is no public benefit to designating such a blighted property,” the appeal stated.
A property owner may ask to have a house added to the city’s list of historic sites, or the city may do it. Often, such designations occur when a property owner wants to demolish or alter a structure older than 45 years, which automatically triggers a review to see if the building may be deemed historic — which is what occurred with the Harwood-Tichenor house.
While a historic designation usually qualifies a home for the state Mills Act, which could result in a property tax break, such a designation also comes with significant responsibilities. The designation requires the property owner to maintain the structure, and restoration must be done in compliance with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Treatment of Historic Properties. Any major alteration to the building, relocation or demolition would require a Historical Site Development Permit, which has be to be approved by the city Planning Commission, with a recommendation from the Historical Resources Board.
Overturning a historic designation is no easy feat either. Of the 2,030 structures and sites currently on the city’s list of historic resources (as of June), at least 35 property owners have appealed the designation. Of those, 10 have been overturned by the City Council, since historic designations began in 1967.
John Lemmo, chair of the city’s Historical Resources Board, said there is talk of altering the process by which owners can challenge their property’s being involuntarily designated as historical to the City Council for reconsideration. “The way it is now, the only thing that’s appealable is factual or process error made by the Historical Resources Board in involuntary designation,” he said. “The owner can say the HRB said the house is red when it’s really blue, or that the HRB didn’t process my application right or didn’t give me the opportunity to be heard. It’s a council decision to uphold the designation or not.”
Lemmo said the proposed change to the current appeals process could open the floodgates, allowing an extraordinary number of cases in. “What’s been proposed is that you review the entire process, let the city review all the facts, all the experts that were involved in making the historical determination. I think changing the appeals process as proposed would be fraught with many unintended consequences. The City Council could be faced with an overwhelming docket of excruciatingly intricate appeals cases, and I’m not sure they have the time or the staff capacity to handle that.”
Bruce Coons, executive director of Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO), said the involuntary historical designation is deliberately made difficult to overturn because it is intended to “retain the resource while allowing the project to go forward.” A prime example, he added, is Petco Park, where 11 of 12 historical buildings on-site, including the Western Metal Building, were saved and incorporated into the ballpark development.
Caine’s appeal eventually caught the attention of SOHO, which is a nonprofit devoted to promoting and supporting preservation of regional architectural, cultural and historical links and landmarks. Coons said it was a “natural” for the group to attempt to spare the Harwood-Tichenor House from the bulldozer, because the group truly believed it deserved protection and preservation.
Coons said Harwood-Tichenor is a relic of a bygone era. “The 1880s downtown was the biggest land boom we’ve ever had on a per-capita basis, with San Diego County’s population going from less than 5,000 in 1885 to 50,000 by the end of 1887,” he said. “And middle-class homes like this one were where most people lived.”
Coons said San Diego has done a poor job preserving those remnants of its early architectural history. “We’re down to only four of them out of literally thousands — and this is the best one,” he said.
So the stage was set for an unlikely alliance between a developer with an unwanted historically-designated home on his property and a local preservation group passionately committed to keeping such structures out of harm’s way.
Caine said he and SOHO reached an “accommodation” on the old house. “I told him (Coons) I’d help them by giving them the $35,000 cost of actually tearing down the property, rather then spend the money on demolition and on legal fees filing an appeal (challenging the historical designation),” he said. “I told them I was going to give them an opportunity to move it, or find someone to move it.”
SOHO thought they had one buyer lined up some time ago who was going to move the house to Sherman Heights, but that deal fell through. So they’re back for a second go-round. And thus far, the amount of interest the ad for the free Harwood-Tichenor home has drawn is encouraging.
“We’ve had between 70 and 80 respondents,” Coons said. The next step, he said, was for prospective buyers to stop by and check out the home to make sure it’s really something they’re interested in.
Of those who called, five people came to see the house, and three submitted proposals by the Dec. 4 deadline. Coons said hopefully one will be selected, and a deal worked out with the home’s owner, within the next couple weeks.
Admittedly, Harwood-Tichenor is a “fixer.”
“It needs a complete restoration,” said Coons, noting the dwelling, nonetheless, has good “bones.”
“It’s well built with first-growth Douglas fir framing and an all-redwood exterior,” he said. “It looks bad right now, but it could be a pretty cute little Victorian with a fancy porch and striped shingles.”
The residence, presently being rented out, could be a tough sell for other reasons. “Everybody’s interested in the big mansions, not the typical, Western Victorian middle-class house like this one,” Coons said. “Hopefully, this house finds a good, new home as it’s a very important chapter of San Diego history that is not well represented.”
Coons added that if the all-or-nothing sale fails this time around, there’s a good chance Harwood-Tichenor could be razed. A home that’s been involuntarily designated as historical can still be demolished, but it is a much more complicated process and one the City Council must sign off on, Coons said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t get rid of it, it just means you’ve got to have a good reason,” he said. “You have to make a case that it’s infeasible to keep the house and do the development. Or you have to have an overriding set of considerations: The new project is more important than the historical resource, or the new project is something for the public good like a hospital that provides essential services that can’t go anywhere else.”
Wanna buy a house?

Dave Schwab has been a journalist in San Diego County for more than 20 years and has worked on several publications including the San Diego Business Journal and the La Jolla Light. He resides in North Park and may be contacted at: [email protected].