Redman House Coming Along Nicely

BY ROGER SIDEMAN
About 15 volunteers showed up Saturday to the Redman House grounds, pruning apple tree saplings and painting their roots white to ward off pests. The work was part of an ongoing effort to restore the dilapidated 118-year-old Victorian mansion, a familiar sight to passersby on Highway 1.

“We’re planting all the apple varieties that were present at the beginning of the house,” said Steven Pedersen, who farms 10 acres around the house using organic growing methods. More than 300 small trees were planted on one acre. Some replaced trees that were either dead or stolen.

The house will eventually undergo a $4 million facelift, provided the Redman House Foundation can raise the funds. Foundation member Barbara Powell said Saturday that the home would serve as much more than just a museum. Volunteer foundation board members envision a gathering place that would host weddings, meetings and catered dinners. A new Web site showcases the project, the house and its history.“It will be the quintessential meeting place,” Powell said. “Besides the county fairgrounds, there’s nothing else to compare it to.”

As part of the renovation, the house will be lifted up and moved off its decaying limestone foundation while a basement is dug and a new foundation poured. A rose garden and gazebo are planned for the west side of the house.The foundation acquired title to the house last February for $1.9 million. The $500,000 first phase of the restoration focuses on waterproofing the home from top to bottom. It has stood vacant since the early 1990s and was at one time threatened with demolition.

Redman House Apple Orchard Gets Pruned

Volunteers converged on the property at the Redman House on Saturday, pruning the more than 300 apple saplings planted around the 119-year-old house. The Redman House Foundation plans to lift the house off its foundation this summer, giving it a new face as the beginning of painstaking work to restore the house, located on Lee Road off Highway 1 near the Riverside Avenue exit.

The Redman House, a two-story Queen Anne Victorian, was purchased by the Redman Foundation nearly two years ago for $1.9 million for purposes of sprucing it up and some day turning it into an historical museum.

Foundation member Barbara Powell said "although complete restoration and conservation of the house is the heart and soul of the project, the planned land use as a venue for weddings, cultural events, art shows, a wine-tasting/tourist center will benefit the entire community and produce revenue to keep it self-sustaining and accessible to the public."

For information or to donate, visit http://www.redmanhouse.com/ or call 768-1867.

The Redman Foundation looking for a few good volunteers

The people trying to bring the old Redman House back to life are looking for volunteers to tend to more than 300 apple trees now growing on the periphery of the century-old edifice.
On Saturday, Stephen Pedersen, who farms 10 acres surrounding the dilapidated house, is hoping that at least two dozen volunteers interested in the cause will help him prune and paint the bases of an acre's worth of apple trees.

The house, located on Lee Road off Highway 1 just west of the Riverside Street exit, was built in 1887 and is in the process of being restored to what it looked like back in the day.
Part of the restoration effort includes growing the sort of apple trees common during the late 19th century, when the Pajaro Valley was the epicenter of apple growing in the region.

"We've got about 20 varieties out here right now," said Pedersen, ticking off a few examples like the newtown pippin to the red delicious to the bellflower. "And there's a lot of work to be done."
Pedersen said 10 a.m. would be the perfect time to show up to volunteer, and he suggested bringing a pair of gloves for the work - for the task is not exactly a clean one.

Some of the other duties would consist of pulling "suckers" that grow around the tree - essentially long branches that suck the energy from saplings.

The Redman House, a two-story Queen Anne Victorian, was purchased by the Redman Foundation nearly two years ago for $1.9 million for purposes of sprucing it up and some day turning it into an historical museum of sorts.

To get a sense of how old the property is, the house was built at a time when horse and carriages ruled the region, and oxen were the beast of burden who bore the brunt of the plow and apple orchards.

But over the years and through the decades and on into a new millennium, it's obvious that time has taken its toll on both the house and the farmland.

By summer, the Redman Foundation is hoping to start the restoration in earnest by removing the huge house from its base and rebuilding its foundation.

But for now the apple trees need to be tended to.