 |
|
MICHAEL WHITE ADOBE
The San Marino Unified School District has issued a draft environmental impact report (EIR) that proposes to demolish the Michael White Adobe on the campus of San Marino High School. The school district originally planned to demolish or move the adobe as part of a project to expand the adjacent pool. This plan has since been abandoned, with the district now claiming that it needs to raze the adobe to avoid potential liability. This new plan calls for replacement of the adobe with an asphalt area.
The 168-year-old adobe is one of only thirty-nine nineteenth- century adobes remaining in Los Angeles County. Given the adobe's age and rarity, demolition should not be considered under any circumstance. The San Marino Unified School District put the adobe on the market in November 2008, offering to sell it for $1 to anyone willing to relocate it. Constructed circa 1845, the adobe was home to Michael White, an English sailor who arrived in California in 1829. With California under Mexican rule at the time, White adopted the name Miguel Blanco and became a Mexican citizen in order to be married and own land. In 1928, the San Marino School District acquired the adobe and its remaining land for a future school.
Construction of an elementary school started after World War II, and San Marino High School relocated to the site in the mid-1950s. The school district built a swimming pool and athletic facilities around the adobe. The San Marino Historical Society operated from the adobe for years, and they led tours for the public and local school children (with the permission of the school district) until around 1998, when they had to vacate the adobe due to campus construction. The adobe has sat vacant ever since. Read more about the adobe on the Michael White Adobe website. The Conservancy commented on the initial study for the pool expansion’s environmental impact report. We urged the school district to investigate alternatives for retaining the delicate adobe in place and, as a last resort, relocating and restoring the structure. The demolition of a historic resource
The Michael White Adobe is locally designated as a San Marino landmark and is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. It was documented under the federal Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in 1935, not long after the program was established in 1933.
|
||||||||
 |
 |
|
Wilshire May Company This Streamline Moderne department store with its prominent cylindrical gold tower signals the western entrance of Wilshire Boulevard's Miracle Mile district. The Conservancy swung into action when the May Co. building was threatened with demolition for office towers and a hotel during the early 1990s. After successfully nominating the building for City Historic-Cultural Monument status, the Conservancy worked with County officials to ensure the building's reuse by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Now LACMA West, the May Co. had a splashy reopening in 1999 when it played host to a blockbuster Van Gogh exhibit. Photo courtesy of Julius Shulman |
