Hopes rise as foundation lifted on Redman-Hirahara house

By DONNA JONES
Sentinel staff writer

Watsonville 

For years a banner pleading for help hung from the ramshackle mansion in a field west of Highway 1 near the Santa Cruz-Monterey county line. 

But to the millions of observers who pass by annually, the decade-old effort to restore the historic Redman-Hirahara home appeared to languish. 

Not anymore. 

Wednesday, crews completed the first step toward bringing the mansion back to life, lifting the two-story structure off its foundation so the damaged underpinnings can be replaced. 

"Lots of people wondered whether we'd get something off the ground," said Dean Coley, vice chairman of the Redman-Hirahara Foundation. "We're definitely off the ground now" 

But not out of the woods. The next phase of the $4.2 million restoration calls for a new concrete foundation with an estimated price tag of $200,000, 10 times what the lift cost and money that's still to be raised. 

Project backers are looking to this week's work to boost fundraising efforts. A benefit is in the works for late October or early November. 

"We're hoping that this is going to tell people we're serious about this and hopefully make people open their wallets," Coley said. 

To Coley, fixing up the mansion and turning it into a cultural and educational showcase is worth the years and dollars he and other volunteers have spent laying the groundwork for the project. The group purchased the 14-acre property from a private developer in 2004 for $1.9 million and leased 10 acres to a local organic farmer to help pay the mortgage. 

The Queen Anne Victorian, designed by famed architect William Weeks, was built in 1887 for sugar beet farmer James Redman. In 1930, the property was sold to the Hiraharas, a Japanese American family who lived in the house before and after internment during World War II. 

"It really is a symbol, the gateway to Monterey County, to Santa Cruz County, to the Pajaro Valley, a symbol of our pride or lack thereof," Coley said. "It's a gem and we want to restore it" 

Contact Donna Jones at djones (at) santacruzsentinel.com


Song "Just an Old House" by Byrd & Street used with artists' permission