The Moving Story of an Old House : The Irvine Ranch Water District saved a bit of the past by keeping a building from becoming history.

Two years ago, there didn’t seem to be much hope for saving a tiny ranch house built half a century ago by James Harvey Irvine Sr.

The cottage, which once sat across from the Irvine family’s bean and grain warehouse, was prized by historical preservationists. Even though Irvine himself never lived in the cottage, generations of warehouse managers did. One even killed himself in its garage after embezzling money from the company.

But while the house held a little of Orange County’s past, it also stood in the path of development by the company that bears the Irvine family name. Situated just a few feet back from Sand Canyon Road, the house was threatened with demolition by a road-widening project.

What’s more, even as the project bore down on the house, vandals were busily tearing it to pieces. Holes had been punched in the walls; 2-by-4s torn out for firewood; every window was shattered.

What a difference a few months make.

That same house, once dilapidated almost beyond recognition, now sits with two other cottages safely away from the road widening, sheltered from vandals and inhabited by employees of the Irvine Ranch Water District, which stepped in at the eleventh hour to save it from demolition and decay.

“The houses have been saved,” said Judy Liebeck, historical curator of the Irvine Historical Museum and the author of a new history of Irvine. “It’s just fantastic.”

The credit, Liebeck and others say, goes to Peer Swan and the water district, which came to the rescue just when it seemed that hope was fading.

Swan, a local businessman with an appetite for politics and a zeal for historical preservation, saw the opportunity to salvage a fragment of Orange County history and at the same time help the water district. Saving the houses, Swan said, could help him improve the service that the water district provides and give a boost to the morale of its middle managers.

The idea was to move the houses to the district’s Michelson treatment plant, and let a few employees live in them. Those workers would then be on call 24 hours a day to handle an emergency.

The city, led by Councilwoman Paula Werner, agreed to the plan; so did the water district board and the local historical preservationists.

So, one summer day last year, the water district sent over its trucks, hoisted the Irvine house and two others that were in danger of demolition and hauled them over to the treatment plant. They sit there today, freshly painted, scrupulously cared for and happily inhabited.

“I’m ecstatic,” Swan said. “This has worked out better than my wildest dreams.”

Three families now live in the houses, which sit at the edge of the Michelson property near the intersection of Campus and University drives in Irvine. At the edge of the property is an old duck club, also taken over by the water district, which now serves as a meeting room.

Altogether, the renovations have cost about $500,000, but Swan said the investment has paid substantial dividends.

“We now have the people who actually run the water and sewer operations for the district right there,” he said. “If you have an emergency, they’re at the plant. . . . We successfully moved key people right next to where they work.”

In fact, Swan added, the move has worked so well that he and the water district have their eye on a fourth house to save and turn into a neighbor for the other Michelson employees.

“We’ve sure been pleased so far,” he said. “Maybe that one will be next.”