Huntington Beach Preservation Group Is Unable to Save 1910 Building

Barbara Milcovich was cruising through Huntington Beach on Saturday morning to conduct a survey of old buildings worthy of preservation. A 1910 bungalow-style building, once part of the Holly Sugar plant in the city, was near the top of the list.

But instead of finding the building, Milcovich found a bulldozer polishing off what soon became a pile of rubble.

“It was a beautiful bungalow,” said Milcovich, a member of the Huntington Beach Heritage Committee. “Even if it wasn’t beautiful, it was the last piece of industrial building in Huntington Beach.”

The building resembled a train station of the period and was the last remaining structure of the larger sugar plant, which was dismantled and taken to Colorado in the 1920s, Milcovich said. In August, 1983, a Holly Sugar plant in Santa Ana was torn down, to the dismay of residents who fought to keep it standing.

Within hours Saturday, a small group from the committee and its umbrella organization, the Huntington Beach Historical Society, had gathered at the site off Garfield Avenue, Main Street and Gothard Street to bemoan the loss.

“It’s really sad because we really don’t have much left,” said committee chairwoman Arline Howard, who was called by member Jerry Person. “He called me and could barely talk because he was so upset. He then asked me if I was sitting down.”

Roger J. Work, general manager of the Huntington Beach Co., which owns the property, said the building was razed because it had been condemned by the city and recently vandalized, and because it presented a health hazard. Work said he was not aware that any group had taken an interest in it.

“I had no awareness of their interest whatsoever,” he said. “I had never heard anything about that building going on the national register (of historic sites). It’s been talked about it being torn down for about three years.”

A lack of communication may have been a key in the building’s destruction Saturday. Milcovich said she had talked to a company spokeswoman both Thursday and Friday about rumors of vandalism and the building’s possible bulldozing, but was assured both times that no such plans were under way. The spokeswoman, contacted Saturday afternoon, said she did not know about plans to raze the structure and had planned to relay the group’s concerns to Work on Monday.

“I certainly would have discussed the alternatives before tearing it down,” Work said, “but I don’t know I would have changed my position.”

The Huntington Beach Co., a land development firm that owns the 110 acres the building sat on, plans to build about 1,200 homes there, a plan the city has been considering since last summer, Work said.

Until about a month ago, the building was used by a church, Work said.

“If the people can worship the Lord in it, why isn’t it good enough to keep on its pedestal?” Howard asked.

Work said he faced a May 1 deadline to either make the building earthquake-safe or raze it.

Committee members said they fear that before they finish their survey, similar deadlines will face other buildings that have met the half-century mark. In downtown, there are about a dozen commercial buildings and 500 or so homes built before 1946, Milcovich said.

The committee won approval for the survey from the City Council last summer. Now members are trying to finish it before city officials move ahead with redevelopment plans for the downtown area.

Planning Commissioner Richard B. Rowe and his wife, Teresa, who rode to the site Saturday on their bicycles to see the demolished structure, commiserated with the others.

“I teach American history at Golden West College,” Rowe said. “From a standpoint of teaching, it can all be so abstract. So it’s essential that we preserve our history.”

Councilwoman Ruth Bailey, contacted at home, agreed that some buildings should be saved, but said safety comes first and that many old buildings are beyond repair. And, she said, “it is not our property. It is private property. There is nothing the city can do.”