Altadena Town Hall Waits for a Home

With its peeling wallpaper, yellowed curtains, smoke-stained fireplaces and maze of upstairs bedrooms bearing the strewn-about belongings of a half-dozen student tenants, the Hawkins House fits its motto--”A Dream in the Making.”

While others may see just a worn, 99-year-old house, the Altadena Town Hall Board of Directors sees a future.

“It looks pretty awful, but I think we can do a lot with it,” said board President Geri Gauthier, as she stood inside the Hawkins House last week and enthusiastically pointed at empty rooms.

As she talked, visions formed of offices, a community theater, meeting rooms, heritage and historical museums, and a chamber of commerce headquarters office.

For the last two months, Gauthier and her 15-member board have promoted that vision, raising $100,000 toward relocating and converting the Victorian home into a town hall. The fund raising has been done mainly on a one-on-one basis, Gauthier said, because the unincorporated community of 42,000 lacks an official focal point or town center.

“This is what the town hall will do--unify the community,” Gauthier said.

But the group faces an Oct. 31 deadline by which they must raise an additional $200,000 and move the house. The developer, Nottingham Ltd. of West Covina, which donated the 6,000-square-foot structure to the Altadena community, needs to give away the house by that date in order to take advantage of tax breaks, said Jonathan Webb, a Nottingham official.

Nottingham plans to build seven condominiums and a commercial building on the 1.47-acre lot now occupied by the house. Construction on the condominiums is expected to begin this winter, Webb said.

The developer has pledged $20,000 toward the fund-raising effort, but $100,000 that was expected from developers Cantwell Anderson, builders of the unrelated La Vina housing project, has been in limbo ever since La Vina opponents succeeded in stopping that project by filing a lawsuit.

“We were almost there on our original (fund-raising) plan, but because of the litigation, we don’t know what will happen,” said Patricia Bunin, town hall board member.

With the $100,000 raised so far, the town hall group has enough money to pay for moving the house and placing it on blocks at the new site a mile away on El Molino Avenue, between the county sheriff and fire stations. There, under a low-cost lease from the county, it will be refurbished by volunteer efforts, Gauthier said.

But the town hall group wants to ensure that the house is functional after the move. The $200,000 would be used for a foundation at the new site needed to convert the house’s basement into a 250-person capacity ground-floor theater and change the house from two stories to three, architect George Fulks said. The new foundation would also take care of much of the earthquake safety work needed on the structure, he said. In addition, the money would fund electric and water connections.

The town hall group hopes to raise the money by the deadline by finding “founders” willing to donate $1,000 each and by holding a public event to gather smaller donations. “We’re optimistic,” Bunin said.

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