We need your help to save one of Alhambra’s few remaining Bungalow Courts and a Craftsman home.
On July 16, Alhambra’s Planning Commission will hear a proposed development to raze a 1923 bungalow court at 234 South Marguerita Avenue and an adjacent 1908 Arts and Crafts home at 237 South Curtis Avenue, which sits directly east of the bungalow court. The owner/developer proposes combining these two parcels. The development will destroy affordable housing units to build at-market valued condominiums.
“Alhambra Preservation Group strongly opposes this proposed development. We urge residents to join us in stopping the destruction of historic buildings and affordable housing units in Alhambra,” stated Oscar Amaro, Founder and President of Alhambra Preservation Group. “In other cities, a bungalow court and Craftsman home like this would be preserved and protected. Instead, in Alhambra, it is developers and a ‘pay-to-play’ system that is preserved and protected. This system sends a signal to outside developers and business interests that Alhambra is easy to pillage, plunder and profit from destroying our city’s character and neighborhoods,” continued Amaro.
Please join Alhambra Preservation Group in opposing this project. Here’s how you can help:
- Sign this petition opposing the development on South Marguerita and South Curtis.
- Share the petition on social media and encourage your neighbors to sign it.
- Write a letter opposing this development and e-mail it to Paul Lam at plam@cityofalhambra.org by 4:30 p.m. on July 16. Letters received by 4:30 p.m. will be read into the record at the Planning Commission meeting.
- Participate in the virtual Planning Commission meeting at 7 p.m. on July 16, 2020 and speak out against this project. Here is the Planning Commission Agenda. For those interested in speaking out, please e-mail Paul Lam at plam@cityofalhambra.org by 5:00 p.m. on July 16, specifying that you’d like to speak on Item #5. Include the phone number you will use when calling or the name you will use when logging into the meeting virtually.
Until the City of Alhambra adopts a historic preservation ordinance, which will put into place the appropriate review process to determine the historical, architectural and cultural significance of Alhambra’s homes and buildings, our city’s historic homes will continue to be destroyed.
At the July 13 City Council meeting, the City of Alhambra took historic first steps towards developing a historic preservation program, which will include an ordinance. Because Alhambra has begun the process of developing a comprehensive historic preservation program, Alhambra Preservation Group is advocating for a moratorium on all development that proposes the razing of homes and buildings.
Help us stop this development! It’s time the City of Alhambra prioritized people and preservation over profits!
Photos courtesy of Meehar Tom.
“We wanted to bring the ‘Wow!’ factor back,” explained Regina Cipriani, a lifelong Alhambra resident, explained. “Now, when you open the door, you see all the wood detailing that make Craftsman homes so stunning.
The home also revealed surprises. A now mostly illegible message written in pencil on the plaster in the rear bedroom dated August 1912 with the name “Schmidt” and “good night,” was found hidden under wallpaper.
An original Craftsman-style light fixture pendant was discovered in the basement. Probably one of the 10 fixtures that originally hung from the living room beams, and a match to the existing fixture in the library. It was rewired and now hangs in the breakfast room. “You think you know a house. But with these beautiful old Craftsman homes, there is still a lot to discover.”
The Prose of Preservation 