Alex Wilson VCReprter

https://www.vcreporter.com/news/history-will-wait-washington-school-historical-status-decision-tabled-until-october/article_8e32ef66-5516-11ef-be8f-9be1b950ecee.html

... After being confronted with diametrically opposed presentations on Washington School’s significance, two members of the state commission said they wanted more time to review the report commissioned by VUSD, which was received close to the submission deadline, according to historical resources commission staff members at the meeting. The board voted unanimously to table the Washington School nomination until its next meeting in late October, when board members are expected to make a final decision...

Read more on the VCReporter

Cheri Carlson, Ventura County Star, March 26, 2024.

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2024/03/26/national-register-historic-places-nominations-ventura-county-california/73075004007/

A Queen Anne style farmhouse near Oxnard and a mid-20th century equestrian center in Bell Canyon may soon get national recognition as historic places.

The spots, both in unincorporated areas of Ventura County, have been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. This week, the county’s Cultural Heritage board unanimously agreed to recommend that they met requirements for the list. The next step comes in May when a state commission will consider the nominations...

Read more on the VC Star website.

Tom Kisken, Ventura County Star, Feb 29, 2024.

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2024/02/29/junipero-serra-statue-finds-new-home-at-mission-san-buenaventura/72752514007/

A 3,000-pound bronze statue of St. Junipero Serra dangled from a crane Thursday on its return to Ventura nearly four years after it was removed in the dark of night from its long-held post in front of City Hall.

The landmark was hoisted away in a move authorized by the city in the wake of protests over the missionary priest’s role in ending the way of life for tens of thousands of Chumash people who lived in villages that dotted the coast. Counter-protesters filed a lawsuit and an appeal in a failed attempt to force the city to keep Serra in place.

On Thursday, the statue returned in the back of a truck, draped in blankets and plastic, delivered to the Mission Basilica San Buenaventura in downtown Ventura... 

Read more on the VC Star website.

Wes Woods II, Ventura County Star, Feb 25, 2024.

Full Story:   https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2024/02/25/patagonias-humble-blacksmith-shop-named-ventura-landmark/72512640007/

... Now, the old blacksmith shop that played a key role in the company's birth has been named a historic landmark in Ventura. The City Council approved the designation on Feb. 13.

The tin shed, as the shop is also known, is located on a site at 235 W. Santa Clara St. originally used by Ventura's first slaughterhouse, the Hobson Bros. Packing Company, established in the 1870s, according to the city's report on the property. The old packing company structure, now the Great Pacific Iron Works building and Patagonia's retail store, has previously been designated a local landmark. The blacksmith shop sits behind the Great Pacific Iron Works building.

The tin shed's original construction history isn't known, but the structure appears in a 1945 aerial photograph.

Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, moved his mountain climbing gear business ― then named Chouinard Equipment ― to the shed in 1967. The company would eventually become Patagonia in 1973 and grow to be an outdoor apparel giant sold in more than 3,000 stores. The shed's previous tenants were Bob Cooper Surf Boards and Morey Pope Surfboards...

...The blacksmith shop has remained the same since the 1960s. The single-story structure, about 660 square feet in all, has corrugated steel siding and a gabled roof. The city report noted the utilitarian building's design doesn't fit any particular style.

Inside, the shop has changed very little and contains many original pieces of equipment used to smith metal, including the coal-fired forge and an anvil Chouinard bought from a junkyard in 1957... 

... The historic designation places the blacksmith shop at No. 119 on the city’s register of landmarks and points of interest. The Great Pacific Iron Works building is local landmark No. 23.

While the historic designation means a lot to some people, Chouinard downplayed the significance during a recent visit to the site.

“It means nothing to me,” he said with a laugh. “It means everything to my wife (Malinda). My wife lives in the past. I couldn’t care less about history.”

...

“My wife spent all night loading up the car. I grabbed my passport and my bamboo flyrod, went back to sleep,” he said. “That’s basically it. Everything else, let it go.”

...

Items in the blacksmith shop spurred memories for Chouinard. A 138-pound anvil was the first piece of equipment he purchased, Chouinard said. A hammer and grinder summoned the early days of the business.

“We used to work long, long hours and get it over with, and then take off and go climbing or surfing,” he recalled. “Even when I had four or five guys working here, the place would clean out every time the surf was up. … That’s been an HR policy. As long as the work gets done, I don’t care when people work.”

...

Brian J. VarelaVentura County Star, Dec 5, 2023

" To help preserve a time when homesteads and farmland ruled the Oxnard Plain, the National Park Service added the site to its National Register of Historic Places last month. 

Jeff Maulhardt, president and director of the Oxnard Historic Farm Park Foundation, said the nonprofit applied for the list in August 2022. During the application process, the foundation had to make a case for the park’s historical significance."

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2023/12/05/oxnard-farm-site-makes-national-register-of-historic-places/71773480007/

 by: Isaiah Murtaugh, Ventura County Star

Ventura conservancy weighs historic preservation bid of former Christian school
Ventura County Christian School operated out of a former Ventura Unified School District property from 2001 until the end of the school year.Three months after leaders of Ventura County Christian School halted their attempt to add Ventura's former Washington School to the National Register of Historic Places, the San Buenaventura Conservancy is considering picking up the baton.
The conservancy, a historic preservation nonprofit, hosted a community meeting Wednesday night to discuss the fate of the century-old school buildings at 96 MacMillan Ave. Ventura County Christian, the site's most recent tenant, launched a preservation bid in March amid attempts to stave off eviction by Ventura Unified School District, the property's owners.
But in May, the Christian school signed a settlement agreeing to leave the property and abandon its preservation attempt in exchange for the district waiving 10 months of back rent. The school and district never reached an agreement on the eviction suit's central issue: whether or not the building was earthquake-safe.
Wednesday's meeting marks a potential renewal of preservation efforts, this time led by the conservancy. Stephen Schafer, the conservancy's board president, said the nonprofit's work could build on the school's early groundwork but has no other connection. Schafer said the conservancy is pursuing a national designation because the local historic site process requires the property's owner to be on board.
Marieanne Quiroz, a district spokesperson, said via text Friday that the district still has "no current plans for the site," which remains on the district's list of surplus properties.
Schafer said the nonprofit's decision to reopen conversations about historic preservation is "due diligence."
"It's empty. We don't know what's gonna happen," Schafer said in a phone interview Thursday. "The neighborhood is anxious about it."
In March, the school distributed flyers for its now-defunct preservation effort in the surrounding residential neighborhood that said the school was "certain the entire property will be developed into high-density housing."
School administrator Perry Geue downplayed the flyer in an April interview, saying it was "probably a bit overstated," and Ventura Unified leaders rejected the claim, saying the district had yet to make plans for the property.
But Schafer said some community members he spoke with still harbored concerns about a large development landing on the vacant land. Others, he said, were worried that the empty building would fall back into the disrepair it was in before the Christian school moved in. "It's not hard to look back at 1995 and go 'uh-oh,'" he said.
Quiroz said the district is increasing security patrols and landscaping rotations at the property in addition to boarding the property's windows from both inside and out. If community members see "anything unusual," she said, "please give us a call."
More than 70 community members attended Wednesday's evening meeting, Schafer said, enough to signal to the conservancy that there is community interest in preservation "We've got a mandate from the neighborhood that says we want to be part of this," he said.
Sabrena Rodriguez, president of Ventura Unified's board of trustees, joined the meeting along with Trustee Calvin Peterson. Rodriguez reiterated that the district has not established plans for the site and said the board hasn't yet had a conversation about historic preservation.
"We attended just to listen," she said. "It was a great opportunity to hear directly from the community."
Some meeting attendees, Schafer said, were Ventura County Christian School parents, part of a group that launched an online fundraising campaign on July 20 to have the school designated a historic site.
The campaign’s web page says the group is composed of parents and volunteers — not school staff — and that organizers hope "to preserve this land monument and help keep it running as a school." Ellen Henderson, the person listed as the fundraiser's organizer, did not respond to an emailed interview request.
Schafer said the Christian school had already found a new location for the fall and that the conservancy's efforts are "not about the school," only preservation.
Geue, the school administrator, did not respond to multiple phone calls and text messages.
If the conservancy is successful in obtaining a historic site designation for the buildings — a process Schafer said could take at least until early 2024 and isn't guaranteed — the tag would protect the older structures but not prevent the district or a future owner from building on the property.
"All we are trying to do is preserve the building," Schafer said. More than half of the site consists of fields and ball courts that Schafer said would remain unprotected. "This is not anti-growth. It's about preservation."
The nonprofit's board will meet on Aug. 9 to officially vote on whether to throw its weight behind a preservation effort. If approved, Schafer said the conservancy is likely to reach out to ASM Associates, the firm who did preliminary work for the Christian school, to take the bid down the road.
"The school is pretty awesome," Schafer said. "There's so much potential for what could fit in there."

 by Alex Wilson, Ventura County Reporter

It was nearly 100 years ago that Washington Elementary School was built at 96 MacMillan Avenue in Midtown Ventura, which at the time would have been near the eastern edge of the expanding city. By the 1980s the Ventura Unified School District had shuttered the campus, partly due to safety concerns about the aging buildings, and neighbors started complaining about graffiti, vandalism and unsheltered people who moved in. Things looked brighter for the campus after it was leased and renovated by Ventura County Christian School in 1999, but that school recently moved after VUSD officials concluded Washington School fails to meet current earthquake standards.
Now leaders of a Ventura nonprofit focused on preserving historic architecture are contemplating ways the school might be reused as offices, another school or possibly housing for teachers, and whether or not it may qualify for the National Register of Historic Places. San Buenaventura Conservancy for Preservation President Stephen Schafer told the Ventura County Reporter there are fears the building will be vulnerable to vandalism once again now that it’s vacant.
“So we’re back at the point where we have a school that’s a vibrant building that still has all of its bits and pieces attached to it and it hasn’t been boarded up yet, it actually hasn’t been vandalized yet. And the community is concerned about a vacant building that could attract issues and what can we do about it,” he said.
Schafer will lead an informational meeting on July 26 to discuss historic preservation options and potential adaptive reuse.
“We are trying to, first of all, meet with the neighbors and do questions and answers about the school. What do we know about the school? What do we hope to find out about the school? And one of the main things we hope to find out is, is the school eligible for the National Register of Historic Places,” Schafer explained. “If the community isn’t interested, then it’s up to the conservancy to decide whether we’re interested.”
Schafer said many people who live near Washington School are fearful it might be sold and torn down, and efforts to preserve it could be enhanced if it’s deemed to have historical significance.“I think there’s a lot of misinformation and a lot of worry. There might be some fear of giant buildings, which I don’t believe is warranted, but, you can’t say exactly because if it is on the surplus properties list and it gets sold outright and there are no protections applied to the buildings, then who knows what can happen,” he said. VUSD spokesperson Marieanne Quiroz told the VCReporter in an email that no final decision has been made by the district’s Board of Trustees about what will happen to Washington School, which was deemed to be surplus property in 1993. According to Quiroz, district officials were not notified about the meeting planned by the San Buenaventura Conservancy. 
The informational meeting about Washington School will be held at Grace Church across the street from the school, starting at 6 p.m. on July 26.
“We’re not 100% sure what to expect from this meeting,” Schafer said. “We want to see if there are people in the community that are interested in joining with us to preserve the school, and if there are, sending that message to theschool district.” 

Former Elks Lodge in downtown Ventura to become Hotel San Buena

VCSTAR newspaper, June 6, 2023, by Wes Woods II 

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE:

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2023/06/05/former-elks-lodge-in-downtown-ventura-to-become-hotel-san-buena/70271977007/

Excerpt and correction:

The new boutique hotel, at 11 S. Ash St., is expected to open to the public this summer. A Sunday tour with members of the nonprofit San Buenaventura Conservancy for Preservation is sold out... 

...The property operated as Elks Ventura Lodge No. 1430 from 1928 until 2004 when the building was put up for sale...

The supplied quote in the article by Schafer was incorrect, and should have read: “To date there hasn’t been as grand a rehabilitation of a landmark in Ventura since the former Ventura County Courthouse was adaptively reused as Ventura City Hall and saved from demolition in 1974.”

Adaptive Reuse in Downtown Ventura.

https://www.cityofventura.ca.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_07202022-2761

The Mission Hotel, 87 S Oak Street. Rehab Project at the Ventura Historic Preservation Committee this week. WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2022 – 6:00 P.M.

COMMUNITY MEETING ROOM, 501 POLI STREET. This is a great example of Adaptive Reuse of an historic building with seismic and fire/life safety improvements to allow this building to stand another 97 years.

https://www.vcreporter.com/features/ventura-county-historic-landmarks-honor-and-protect-local-architectural-treasures/article_c08611c0-eaad-11ed-96f8-c7c260adbc75.html

Camarillo Acorn Newspaper. Historic farmhouse faces demolition to make room for development story in Camarillo Acorn August 7, 2020.    https://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/articles/historic-farmhouse-faces-demolition-to-make-room-for-development/

San Fernando Valley Business Journal - https://www.sfvbj.com/news/2020/aug/07/battle-brewing-over-120-year-old-camarillo-farmhou/

Serra statue not historic landmark, Ventura committee decides

NASA Seeks cultural protection for Simi's Burro Flats

Virginia Savage McAlester, the architectural historian, author and preservationist who was a Dallas institution in her own right, died Thursday, April 9, 2020, at Baylor Hospital. 

The Museum of Ventura County Research Library houses over 150,000 resources pertaining to the history of Ventura County and its outlying regions. 

VenturAuthentiCity ArtWalk, Ventura Architecture Weekend & Ventura Music Festival Team Up

The City of Ventura has partnered with the San Buenaventura Conservancy, which produces Ventura Architecture Weekend, and the Ventura Music Festival during the weekend of the Harvest ArtWalk, November 4 to 6, 2005