6/27 Redman House Moves Towards Opening Doors

BY ROGER SIDEMAN

More than six years after community members formed a committee to restore the historic Redman House, volunteers are literally starting to roll up their sleeves. Overgrown ivy and plywood boards still conceal the house’s once elegant Victorian facade, but renewal sprouts from decay just as perspiration follows inspiration. In anticipation of its multi-million dollar restoration, members of the Redman House Foundation spent the weekend clearing brush and hauling trash from around the house. Their hard work follows a vision set forth by community members to preserve the architectural jewel, which sits along Highway 1 at Riverside Drive.Renovation will include removing and cataloguing plaster and woodwork, structurally framing the house and installing new plumbing and electrical work, then adding original plaster and woodwork. The house was red-tagged after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.“The house is in much better shape than it looks from the outside,” foundation chair and Watsonville City Council memeber Dale Skillicorn said. Volunteer Barbara Powell admired an old pear tree that she thinks the Redmans planted. “It’s a tough old tree, just like the house,” she said.Skillicorn, volunteer Steve Bankhead and others removed old furniture and debris from the caretaker’s quarters adjacent to the house. They’re clearing the way for an archeology class from Cabrillo College. For a couple of weeks in July, the class will dig for artifacts left behind by generations past. Powell estimated the land has been farmed since 1843. A 14-acre organic farm on the property continues its legacy.Despite his comments on the condition of the house, Skillicorn said a new foundation is necessary because of structural damage from the 1989 earthquake. Foundation and roof work would take the rest of the year, he said.The Redman House was built in 1897 by Lamborn and Uren for James Redman and designed by local architect William Weeks. The Redman family sold the house in the 1930s to the prominent Hirahara family, who left the house during World War II when they were forced into internment camps for Japanese-Americans. Foundation members envision that the house, when fully renovated, will serve as a “gateway to the Pajaro Valley,” including an agricultural informational center and wine cellar. •••

6/26 Crew felled by padlocks at Watsonville’s Redman House

By NANCY PASTERNACK
Sentinel staff writer

WATSONVILLE — With a deed to the property now bearing the name of the Redman House Foundation, nothing could stop its members from beginning work on the 1897 Queen Anne mansion.

Except two industrial-strength padlocks.

An enthusiastic volunteer clean-up party arrived Saturday morning at the old mansion, which sits off Highway 1 at the Riverside Drive exit. The volunteers were to ready the grounds for a renovation crew and get their first peek inside the dilapidated building.

But the magic moment never arrived.

Foundation president and Watsonville City Councilman Dale Skillicorn stood outside the door on a platform of rotted wood, and lamented that a pair of heavy bolt cutters would be needed to remove locks left by previous owners.

The house’s many windows were boarded up.

It took nearly seven years for Skillicorn and his nonprofit group to acquire the 14-acres of land and the house.

Current renovation plans have the house slated to become a place to showcase the area’s agricultural heritage to the public — specifically tourists.

"It will be a kind of museum," said Skillicorn, "to let people see how things were" during the sugar-beet farmer days of original owner James Redman, and subsequent owners, the Hirahara family.

The house, which was an original design by famed California architect William Weeks, is scheduled to be removed from its foundation later this summer.

A room will be dug below ground, and a new foundation built. The original foundation was damaged during the Loma Prieta earthquake.

Standing in the tall weeds outside the locked house, the faded fish-scale shingles and ornate Victorian detail appeared to hold up the building.

Skillicorn says the appearance is deceiving.

"The inside is, structurally, in pretty good shape," he said.

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