Vivid Past, Present on Tour of San Juan : Walks Complement ‘Twin Streams’ Exhibit

When Jess Andrews lived in Chicago, she conducted tours of the city’s architectural highlights.

After moving to Orange County two years ago, she thought her tour days were over--until she discovered San Juan Capistrano. With its main street and Amtrak station, the town offered “a real strong sense of place.”

Her appreciation of the city grew when she saw the library, a “jewel” of a building designed by renowned architect Michael Graves.

“I was amazed to find a Michael Graves building here,” says Andrews, a former docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

So when the Decorative Arts Study Center in San Juan Capistrano decided to hold an architectural exhibit called “Historicism and Modernism: Twin Streams to the California Dream,” Andrews volunteered to organize an architectural tour of the town to complement the show. The first walks will be held today at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and last about an hour and a half. Tours will be held each Saturday at the same times throughout September.

Within a single square mile of San Juan Capistrano, one can find prime examples of California architecture dating back 200 years, says Andrews, who serves as co-chairman of the center’s docents.

While the mission founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1776 stands as the city’s most obvious architectural achievement and sets the tone for many other Spanish-style buildings, there are lesser-known but significant structures tucked away in the city.

The tour covers examples of adobe, craftsman, prairie, Spanish eclectic and streamline moderne styles dating from 1776 to the present.

“I don’t know too many areas where you’d find that much architecture in such a small area,” says Jan Siegel, another co-chairman of the docents. “Some of the structures are hallmarks of their style.”

The Esslinger building on Camino Capistrano is one of the best examples of the streamline moderne style in Orange County. Built in 1939 as a doctor’s office, the Esslinger’s curved aerodynamic structure stands out from the city’s predominantly Spanish-style buildings.

Not everyone likes its symmetrical lines and lack of ornamentation.

“It’s ugly,” remarked one docent on a preview of the tour.

Andrews and other fans of the moderne style do not share her opinion.

“It’s unusual. I love the rounded lines and the glass blocks and the porthole in the door,” Andrews says. “It’s the streamlined look. Clearly it doesn’t fit, but its size is very appropriate. It doesn’t kill the street, it just makes it more interesting.”

Graves’ library also arouses positive and negative reactions.

“I can’t imagine why anyone would find it controversial. It fits its site and the town so well,” Andrews says.

Graves, who studied architecture in Italy, gave the library a strong Mediterranean flavor that complements but does not duplicate the nearby mission.

While the building is full of historical references, its building-block geometric shapes and crisscross grillwork give it a fresh look.

“It’s never boring to be in that library,” Andrews says.

San Juan Capistrano has many excellent examples of adobe, including the Rios home, the oldest residence in California continuously occupied by the same family. Built in 1794 by the Juaneno Indians for Feliciano Rios, a Spanish soldier, the adobe structure is now home to attorney Stephen Rios, the ninth generation Rios to live in the home.

Fragile adobe is extremely susceptible to water, and keeping an adobe structure standing requires constant maintenance.

“If it’s unoccupied 25 years, it’s gone because of the rain,” Andrews says.

Stephen Rios’ father taught him how to protect his home. He regularly coats the walls with a whitewash made of water, lime, and the extract from an 8-foot California spineless cactus that grows in his back yard.

The tour includes several examples of craftsman-style homes and Spanish eclectic bungalows that dominated Southern California suburbs in the early 1900s.

“I love those bungalows,” Andrews says. “They’re so typical of the California style.”

The craftsman style features low-pitched roofs and full or partial porches, with columns or pedestals that extend to the ground. The Spanish eclectic style became popular after the 1915 Panama expo in San Diego that brought together Spanish cultures of Latin America. The eclectic style took the best of all the cultures--blending prominent arches, a stucco facade and a tile roof with little or no overhang. Good examples of both styles exist side by side on Camino Real.

Today’s architects face more limitations on the kind of building they want to erect in historic San Juan Capistrano. A moderne structure like the Esslinger, which ironically houses an architectural firm today, would have a tough time getting approved.

“Nobody could do that today,” Siegel says. “It’s too extreme.”

Judge Richard Egan’s neo-Victorian house (built in 1883) on Camino Capistrano, which served as home, office and court for the judge until his death in 1921, would probably have been ruled out, too. Its quaint gingerbread trim and terra-cotta brick walls look out of place amid all that stucco and red tile.

“It’s the only red brick building in the city,” Siegel says.

City laws prevent architects from straying too far from the town’s Spanish-style buildings. The Franciscan Plaza, completed just a year and a half ago, was built in the Spanish colonial style with arches, a red tile roof and stucco walls to blend in with the city’s historic downtown.

Architectural walks begin at the Decorative Arts Study Center, 31431 Camino Capistrano. A tour fee of $5 includes entrance to the architecture exhibit at the center. Call (714) 496-2132.