Gift House Needs Home : 102-Year-Old Cottage Faces Demise If New Site Not Found

At the venerable age of 102, the E.D. Ten Eyck cottage in Del Mar has become a house in search of a home.

It’s a quaint old gilded-age dwelling with high ceilings, hardwood floors, a claw-foot bathtub--even a pot-bellied stove--suggesting a bygone era in Southern California when homes were built small, sturdy and simple.

Hand-crafted in 1888 as one of the first farm houses in the area, the structure has recently become the focus of a debate in this North County coastal town that has seen numerous reminders of its past torn down to make way for new construction.

The new owners want to build an updated two-story home on the property, which sits just across the street from Del Mar’s City Hall, two blocks from the Pacific Ocean.

But after realizing the historical value of the pink-shingled Ten Eyck home--named for its original carpenter-builder--they said they decided last year to donate it to the city.

“We were both born in India and in our country, we have a reverence for the past,” said Saurin Patel, who last year purchased the property with his cousin Suren Dutia, a San Diego businessman.

“The home has value as a place of history. And we want the city to preserve that history for people of this town with the city’s help.”

Del Mar city officials, while flattered by the gesture, decided last month they would have to “graciously refuse the offer of the gift,” according to Councilman Chris Helton.

The reason: A gift is not really a gift, council members say, when they have nowhere to put the house nor the approval to spend the $20,000 they say will be needed to move it.

Tonight, a group of about 50 concerned residents will bring the issue back before the council in hopes of working out a temporary solution--possibly moving the home to a patch of city-owned land across the street until a long-term answer is found.

Locals say the home could be used as a temporary children’s wing of the city’s soon-to-be-renovated library. Or it could be developed into a local nursing home. Or even moved onto someone else’s property.

Anything, they say, to keep this small piece of Del Mar’s past from meeting its demise.

In the meantime, the owners have warned that if a solution isn’t reached by first thing Wednesday morning, the Ten Eyck home has a firm date with a wrecking ball.

“Unfortunately, we’re in a Catch-22,” said Patel, a San Diego engineer. “We’ve waited 15 months to do something with this property and we have to move. It seems like a simple thing to decide whether they can use the house, but the city apparently has its own time frame with these matters.

“But no matter what, unless we get a firm answer from the city by Wednesday, that house is going to be demolished.”

Helton insisted that the city has not dragged its feet on any decision concerning the house and that he hadn’t even heard of the issue until late last month.

“Just a few weeks ago, we received a letter from Mr. Dutia inviting us to act on his proposal to accept the gift of his home,” Helton said. “His ultimatum was that if we didn’t decide in 7 to 10 days, he was going to destroy the house.

“My response to receiving that letter was ‘Sorry, it’s just too short a notice. We need more time to make such a decision.’ ”

Residents say that Del Mar is a small town where word travels fast and that officials have known for more than a year that the house was available.

“It’s academic when the city formally knew about the offer,” Dutia said. “Our purpose here isn’t to get involved in any controversy. It’s to make sure this wonderful house is not torn down, that it has a home within the city of Del Mar for years to come.”

Helton said it would take several months for Del Mar officials to accurately poll area residents to learn whether the community would actually back a project to find a new home for the old cottage.

Council members said they were also wary of taking charge of such a structure without first having a permanent site for it, especially after their experiences with the Alvarado House. That 112-year-old beach cottage, believed to be the oldest house in Del Mar, sat in the City Hall parking lot for almost four years until being relocated to its new home on the Del Mar Fairgrounds to serve as an exhibit at the county fair.

“Back then, people came to us and said ‘Oh, could we just leave that house in the city parking lot for a few months?’ ” Deputy Mayor Jacqueline Winterer said. “Well, four years later, it was still sitting there. We’re reluctant, frankly, to have that happen again.”

She said that since the city plans on developing its nearby City Hall complex and library complex within the next year, it would be impractical to relocate it there.

But several community residents seeking to rescue the old Ten Eyck home say the dwelling still has something to say to Del Mar residents--no matter where it sits.

And they have taken their fight to the streets. They’ve circulated hundreds of petitions with details of the council meeting and showing a fairy godmother sprinkling stars over the structure, which is referred to as a “story-time house for our children.”

These days, the vacant home is being kept open several hours a day so that local residents can take a look inside the structure that over the years has been home to several prominent Del Mar families.

Meredith Miller, an artist who rented the house until last week, has hung a banner outside the home which reads “This House Deserves to Live.” Garlands of flowers hang from the front porch, as well as a rubber snake--its neck dangling from a string, that Miller denied was supposed to represent City Council members.

In the front yard sat a dead Christmas tree, decorated with 1880s-era ornaments she found in the basement of the home.

The tree, even with the apples from a back-yard grove spread around its base, is intended as a symbol of the home’s impending death, she said.

“Just look at this front porch and those wooden columns,” Miller said. “It hearkens a time when people sat out on their front porches. It’s a symbol of old Del Mar that still exists, something we’ve lost and used to cherish.”

Miller, who along with others began a drive to save the house, says she will outline a plan to council members in which she will stage an art show of her work to help offset the costs to move the home, which she and others estimate to be about $4,000.

Lino Garriz, another resident who has taken an interest in the home, said the response of children who have toured its interior recently suggest it would be perfect for a children’s wing of a library.

“This house is a story-teller,” he said. “When they walked through it, they quieted down and were mesmerized by what they saw. It’s like Disneyland. But it’s real.”

Last year, the city voted down a move proposed by a local architect to move the house several blocks away after he revealed plans to build an underground garage on the proposed site.

Since then, several would-be benefactors who were willing to move the house onto their properties soon lost interest when learning of red tape that has been put in place by city staff, Garriz said.

“There’s all kinds of rules and codes and reasons that have been put in the way of the house being moved,” he said. “Either the housing codes say the structure is too big for the property or they won’t allow a house that big to be moved on city streets during race season.

“It’s been one roadblock after another.”

Garriz said he doesn’t know how many of the 50 or more residents who have backed the Ten Eyck house will show up at the council meeting.

“What we’re dealing with here is the issue of whether people are willing to take a stand on the issue of saving an old relic of a time that doesn’t exist anymore.

“When the council meets, that’s when we’ll find out how many people are ready to take a stand.”