11/17 Experts laud Redman features

BY ROGER SIDEMAN

Local preservationists are excited about new work that will preserve a piece of the area’s rich heritage. Like any building worth saving, the Redman House serves as physical record of its time, place and use.

The house and 13-acre estate stand as a reminder of the splendor of Watsonville’s agricultural and architectural past, brought to the town by William H. Weeks, restoration architect Mike Garavaglia said.

The nonprofit Redman Foundation acquired title to the house in February for $1.9 million. The $500,000 first phase of the restoration focuses on waterproofing the home from top to bottom.

Because the house sits in a floodplain, crews will raise the building up after repairing its foundation. Then, the roof will be sealed and restored.

“When you really look at it, it’s beyond words how valuable it is for the community,” said foundation member Jeff Scurfield.

Garavaglia’s San Francisco firm was hired to start the general rehabilitation.“Some people look at it and think it should be torn down,” he said. “But the quality of materials can’t be reproduced, and there’s a lot more useful life in them. You can reproduce anything if you’ve got enough money, but the point is that you’ve got everything right there.”

The Redman farm originally extended east to the Pajaro River, but in later years, the land was sold off. The house now sits on 13 acres of agricultural fields and is highly visible from the highway. It has stood vacant since the early 1990s and was at one time threatened with demolition. From the exterior, it appears to be in poor condition, but it is structurally sound.

The house was designed in Weeks’ signature Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture. It includes applied plasterwork, a rough-hewn stone foundation, decorative shingling on the wall planes, false dormer windows and a witch’s hat roof over a rounded corner tower. Weeks used geometric patterning in the wall shingles to add an extra measure of character to the facades.

Those elements can be found in the grandest of Weeks’ residential homes, including the Judge Julius Lee house on Beach Street and the Tuttle house on East Lake Avenue, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The three homes are considered important examples of Weeks’ contributions to residential architecture during his early career.

“Modern construction tries to mimic traditional styles, but it would be much more expensive to recreate exactly the thickness and height of boardings, moldings and trims,” Garavaglia said. “You’d lose the sense of scale and proportion.”

The interior of the house is relatively intact and original, minus losses incurred through vandalism in the time since the house became vacant. Thieves took the stair rail, fireplace mantle, plaster medallions, door hardware and some of the Corinthian and ionic columns supporting the porch roofs and window hoods. But the quality of existing materials, such as old-growth Douglas fir lumber, is irreplaceable, Garavaglia said.

“You can reproduce lost parts using photodocumentation,” Garavaglia explained. “It’s forensics like on (television show) “CSI” — looking for patterns and clues the building provides.”

A room on the first floor still boasts surviving design elements, including what is assumed to be the original wallpaper running up half the wall to a high band of detailed woodwork.Foundation members envision that, when fully restored, the house will serve as a “gateway to the Pajaro Valley,” including an agricultural informational center and wine cellar.