The last chapter of the Redman-Hirahara house was written Tuesday when the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved a staff recommendation to delist it as a historic resource.
The decision will allow the property owner to eventually demolish the decrepit 128-year-old building, but not before offering it to the public for salvage.
The resolution will now go to the California Office of Historic Preservation, which will likely remove the house from the National Register of Historic Places.
It is unclear when demolition would happen, but what is certain is that nothing will happen immediately.
Santa Cruz County Mark Connolly said that state and federal entities still have to approve the de-listing.
Connolly added that the current zoning of mixed commercial agriculture will likely be changed to be compatible with the development around it.
That includes a gas station, hotel and coffee shop recently built nearby.
“That would be the eventual goal,” he said. “To foster development that is appropriate for the neighborhood there.”
Juggy Tut, whose company Elite Agriculture owns the property, said he has no immediate plans for either the house or the 14-acre parcel of land on which it sits.
The house’s story began in 1897 when architect William Weeks built a home for sugar beet farmer James Redman.
The Victorian was eventually sold to the Hirahara family, who lived in the house and continued to farm there until World War II, when they were imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp.
Local attorney John McCarthy protected the property so that it stayed with the Hirahara family, who moved back and housed others who had also been sent to the internment camps.
The Hirahara family lived there until the house was red-tagged after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.
That synopsis, superficial as it is, nevertheless encapsulates the spirit of Pajaro Valley—hard work, friendship and community, with a mix of agriculture and architecture thrown into the mix.
Still, the house’s stateliness notwithstanding, the structure has been deemed uninhabitable, dangerous and unrepairable. Uninhabited and unmaintained for four decades, it has been deemed uninhabitable and, saving for a last-minute donor willing to cough up the millions of dollars it would take to fix up, beyond the reach of restoration.
There were efforts to save the house. The Redman-Hirahara Foundation purchased the property and led efforts to place it on the National Register of Historic Places. That group planned to restore the house and use it as a visitor’s welcome center.
But the economic recession hit and the foundation declared bankruptcy.
The house has now deteriorated to the point where it is considered a safety hazard, said Santa Cruz County Mark Connolly.
The Santa Cruz County Historic Resources Commission agreed, and on Feb. 10 unanimously voted to recommend delisting and rezoning the property.
County Planner Matthew Sundt, who oversees the commission, said that the house would need new plumbing, new electrical, and new redwood lumber sourced from the Santa Cruz Mountains. It would take “millions of dollars” to restore the structure, he said.
“It would be a huge effort,” he said. “Nothing is impossible, but here we are 40 years later. This house—this thing, this grand dame—has been advertised to the world with thousands of people driving by every day. All it takes is one person to say, ‘I’d like to rebuild that.’ And it just never happened, and here we are.”
Becky Steinbrunner, has been at the forefront of recent efforts to keep the house, pointed to Emma Prusch Farm Park in San Jose as an example of a successfully restored historic structure.
She said that the building inspector that deemed the house uninhabitable didn’t bother to go inside.
“This is historic preservation,” she said.
Eloise Shim, who sits on the Historic Resources Board in Salinas, said the house is “the last remnant of a large Victorian estate in a rural setting, which is itself a historic accolade.
“To delist it for the purposes of demolition is a travesty, and should not have been recommended by the historic commission,” Shim said.
Supervisor Justin Cummings, the only dissenting vote, said he has seen examples in the past of historic buildings that were allowed by owners to deteriorate over time, and use that as justification to demolish them.
Supervisor Manu Koenig said that the deterioration is the “inevitable result of years of inaction.”
But the fact that no donor has come forward is evidence it’s time to act, he said.
“If this house was going to be saved—if there was enough community support to save it—then that would have happened by now,” he said.
Supervisor Felipe Hernandez agreed, saying that the house has gone unfunded through times of prosperity and of economic troubles. Anyone who wanted to purchase it, he added, would also have to purchase the property.
“There’s going to be no magic pill, and no one is going to come give us $7 million to fix the house,” he said.
Next, the county will coordinate with a professional historian to document the site for archival preservation funded by the property owner. The supervisors agreed that the property will eventually get a plaque with historic information.
Current generations do not understand or just simply do not appreciate history: the hard work that had to go into building this once beautiful and majestic home is incomprehensible! There weren’t big trucks and machines back then to do all the heavy lifting and moving – it was all literally manual labor. If I had the finances and capability to do so I would purchase this in a heartbeat: it’s one of the first major things I remember from when I moved to Santa Cruz County back in the 1990s. If there is ANYONE out there who has the means to save this I beg of you to do so! Too much of our history has been torn down and rewritten/deleted recently and it needs to stop or there’ll be no history to speak of …
This is so sad, save this big beautiful home. If I had the money, I would do it in a heartbeat. As someone who’s homeless, its just not fair that beautiful homes like this are allowed to rot. When someone like me would love and appreciate and care for them.
“Why hasn’t anyone offered to restore it?”
Probably because Pajaro isn’t full of billionaires who do things like restore vintage theatres and mansions… in Palo Alto and San Jose.
I’m new to the Central Coast, but I recognize this home from one trip where I stopped to photograph it. It’s majestic even in its state of decay. However, it’s unlikely for a donor out of the area to see it randomly like I did and decide it’s worth pouring that much money into a historical asset they don’t have ties to. I’m in debt myself and in no position to save it.
I’ve always wondered why this home is up on blocks and just left to fall apart. There are so many rich people in neighboring cities such as Monterey, Carmel and not so far from us San Jose even in Palo Alto.
There is this home and the Porter mansion in Pajaro which still has the carriage house where they would bring a horse and carriage into the property and the old water tank. It also had a letter in the home from President Lincoln to the Harbor Master but the last time we visited the county or city had torn out the kitchen which had carved knobs on the cabinets with all the presidents heads on it and I’m not sure what happened to the letter from President Lincoln.
Both these homes have history and are beautiful architecturally and I feel that if there was an effort to market these homes (Even nationwide) there would be someone out there who would restore them. I don’t know how true this is but I heard that there was interest in the Redmond home to restore it and bring it back agriculturally and make it so people could come to the property to learn about what it was like to live back during that time. Such a waste and tragedy!
I’ve always wondered why this home is up on blocks and just left to fall apart. There are so many rich people in neighboring cities such as Monterey, Carmel and not so far from us San Jose even in Palo Alto.
There is this home and the Porter mansion in Pajaro which still has the carriage house where they would bring a horse and carriage into the property and the old water tank. It also had a letter in the home from President Lincoln to the Harbor Master but the last time we visited the county or city had torn out the kitchen which had carved knobs on the cabinets with all the presidents heads on it and I’m not sure what happened to the letter from President Lincoln.
Both these homes have history and are beautiful architecturally and I feel that if there was an effort to market these homes (Even nationwide) there would be someone out there who would restore them. I don’t know how true this is but I heard that there was interest in the Redmond home to restore it and bring it back agriculturally and make it so people could come to the property to learn about what it was like to live back during that time. Such a waste and tragedy!
As builder/designer, it would be far, far cheaper to document it, tear it sown and build a new replica
of the original. Years ago, i offered to document it/draw plans for the home.(for free)
8 months later I finally heard back form the “Save the Redman House” group asking for a $$ donation, nothing more…..
To think that over 30 years ago I had given Tony Campos a jingle to see if I could purchase the house and move it to my property. I even met with the Rider’s who had moved a Victorian house over to Salsipuedes and obtained all of the information and resources to do so. I was told that they had open a non-profit and they were going to restore it. That house was in my soul. I could see it finished smack in the middle of my property in the country on Freedom Blvd., FOR the whole community to see and cherish the artechectual glory of it all. For years I pass it and think……what a dismal effort by them…. what a shame! AN ABSOLUTE TREASURE LEFT TO ROT!
Someone should have contacted Chip & Joanna Gaines of the “Fixer Upper”series, based in Texas,to ask if they had any ideas for marketing the property to buyers or contacts for restoration work in California.
That’s such a fantastic idea!
FTD
$7million is pocket change for some people. Have they even been asked?
You mention Santa Cruz County Mark Connolly twice. Is he a local rock? Or just someone with an opinion. Not being from the area I am not familiar with the name. Did something get left out? Job title or position?