Local News in Brief : Mansion Will Be Moved, Converted

The 102-year-old Strong House, a historic landmark threatened with demolition because it is in the path of a Convention Center expansion project, will be moved to the MacArthur Park area and rehabilitated with a $550,000, low-interest loan from the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency.

The CRA board Wednesday approved the loan to the nonprofit Los Angeles Family Housing Corp., which plans to convert the mansion into six apartments for people with very low incomes, CRA spokesman Marc Littman said. The building is to be moved 2 miles from its downtown site to a city-owned lot on Coronado Street near Wilshire Boulevard.

The move, by flat-bed truck, is expected to take place by the end of next month so the $390-million Convention Center project can begin on schedule in March. The rehabilitation and conversion work on the house is expected to be finished by early 1990.

The once-elegant, three-story Victorian house, last used as a 27-unit apartment building, was built in 1887 and first occupied by a salesman named Edward Strong. It was declared a city historic landmark in 1976.

The CRA plans to sell or lease the house to the Family Housing Corp., Littman said.