Preserving Historic Buildings, Artwork

Since we are celebrating Orange County’s centennial, it seems to be a good time to re-evaluate our practice of tearing down the old to build the new. Case in point: The Bowers Museum in Santa Ana is getting ready to expand, and there are plans to tear down not only the beautiful Torana House (used for many years by the Torana Art League for their art classes) but also the wall mural so beautifully painted by Emigdio Vasquez. This wall is a piece of history itself, since it depicts the progress of Orange County from the Indians to the present.

The excuse the officials at the museum give is that it will be too costly to move the mural. Well, why not leave it and work around it? This is surely what is done in other countries that treasure the old and beautiful. The museum staff has only recently been changed, and obviously the new officials are not into history, but isn’t that what a museum is for?

As for the Torana House, a lovely old building with all the classic beauty of design used only many years ago, this too has been deemed too expensive to fix up. It could be done and used as part of the museum for special small exhibits. Again, why not work around it? Another possibility would be to move it to Heritage Park.

We must start caring for the classic old buildings we have before there are no more and our world is filled with glass and steel!

If all concerned citizens would write to the Bowers Museum and express their thoughts about this matter, maybe they might reconsider.

JOY PATTERSON

Laguna Niguel