6/15 PRESS RELEASE

Redman House Progress Notes
Contact: Dale Skillicorn, President
Redman Foundation

Since closing Escrow on the property, Board members have been very busy taking the next steps to begin restoration of the historic Redman-Hirahara House. We have nearly $100,000 on hand to start. This includes working with the County Planning Department to obtain necessary permits, meeting with an historical architecture consultant and professional craftspeople who will work on details of the restoration, plus expand our research into the history of the property and those who lived and worked on it. As part of that research the Foundation has partnered with the Archaeology Department of Cabrillo College, whose students will be doing both archival research and on-site fieldwork for three weeks in July during the next two summers. Results of that work will be combined with findings by members of a metal detectors search club in creating a farm life artifacts collection. Members of the search club have already found buttons, buckles, hinges, a cast iron toy and a bullet.

One of the most important partnerings we've undertaken is with one of the Land Conservation organizations, with whom we are putting together an Agricultural Conservation Easement to protect and maintain about 10 acres of the operational / demonstration farm in perpetuity. Funds from sale of the Ag Easement, estimated at $500,000, will help start the restoration of the house. Although we have to wait (impatiently) for the water table to recede and the soil to dry out before we can lift the house, move it aside and start work on the foundation and cellar, we are going ahead with preliminary planning through our key project committees. You may have been one of our "Save the House" supporters who offered to do volunteer work on the project. If so, our volunteer coordinator or someone from the Restoration Committee, the Landscape and Garden Committee, or the Finance Committee will be in touch with you during July. If you haven't already volunteered and would like to, you can contact us at (831) 768-1867, or write to the Redman Foundation, P.O. Box 2526 , Watsonville , CA 95077 or contact us through our website http://www.redmanhouse.com/ . If you are reading this as an e-mail you can reply directly.

Now that we have title to the house we will be spending the next couple of weeks evaluating the structural reinforcement needed just to secure the house for its initial lift and move in order to get to work on the foundation and proposed cellar. Once the engineers and architectural consultants have completed their inspection we plan to have a weekend event when artists and photographers can help document the details of the house as part of an on-going record of the restoration. (Date to be announced.) We plan on having an exhibit of the graphics, and some of the drawings, paintings and photographs will be chosen for use on notepaper, postcards, posters and in a book.

Next year when we get to start the actual interior restoration, we will keep everything as authentic as possible. We have even tracked down the manufacturer of the original embossed wall covering. They found the mold used for the original embossment and our restoration crew intends to use new pressings to match what the Redmans themselves chose more than 100 years ago.

It's been an exciting journey over the past six years to get where we are today. We thank you for being a part of that journey to help save the house. We still have a long way to go, but through your continued involvement and that of others, I have no doubt we'll make it.
Dale Skillicorn President,
the Redman Foundation
831-768-1867
Tax ID 770509782