Priceless Ceiling Saved From Ruins of Blaze in Villa Montezuma Attic

As a handful of onlookers held their breath and watched from the music room floor of Villa Montezuma, a construction crew rescued a bit of history Tuesday--a rare piece of silver-embossed 19th-Century linoleum.

The charred 7-by-15-foot section of the Victorian-era Lincrusta Walton ceiling was carefully lowered, the first step in a $500,000 restoration project at 1925 K St., said Cindy Freeman of the San Diego Historical Society.

Villa Montezuma received second-floor fire and water damage March 18 from a blaze caused by a faulty electric heater. Some of the artwork on exhibit at the time also was damaged, as were the building’s ceiling, roof, walls and moldings.

“The ceiling is one of the most valuable parts of the house,” Freeman said, adding that the Lincrusta Walton, linoleum used in the late 19th Century, is irreplaceable.

“You can’t find the grade of redwood used in the ceiling and the walls,” said museum curator Cindy Eddy. “And Lincrusta, we’ve found, is manufactured only one place in the Western world today--England--but they can’t even begin to reproduce the pattern here.”

Molds of the good Lincrusta pieces will be used to recast the patterns in microlyte, a modern-day flame-retardant substance that looks and feels like Lincrusta, Eddy said.

The next step in the $25,000 ceiling renovation project, said Chris Nelson, job supervisor for Luth & Turley Inc., a San Diego contracting firm, is to strengthen and stabilize the rest of the ceiling. While that restoration is being done, other workers will be demolishing the burned areas of the roof and rejuvenating the woodwork.

“Everything was photographed in detail, numbered, catalogued and carefully packaged so that when it comes time to put it all back together, we won’t be running around every which way trying to figure out the pieces,” Eddy said.

Nelson is positive that the complete restoration of Villa Montezuma will be finished in time for a June, 1987, centennial celebration.

Villa Montezuma originally belonged to Jesse Shepard, an Illinois-bred, English-born musician and author who designed the three-story house. It was built to his specifications by developers hoping Shepard would “bring culture” to San Diego, Freeman said.

Shepard had furnishings and tile imported from England and ordered special windows from San Francisco, Eddy said.

Although most of the current restoration costs will be covered by insurance, a Villa Montezuma Restoration Fund was established in April to make other improvements. The fund is being administered by the San Diego Historical Society.