Owner Barred From Razing Upton Sinclair Home
The state Office of Historic Preservation has determined that the former home of author Upton Sinclair in Monrovia, which was damaged last year in the Sierra Madre earthquake, cannot be demolished by its owner.
Steve Hastings had sought a demolition permit after the muckraking novelist’s former house was damaged by the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the San Gabriel Valley June 28. He maintained that engineers from his insurance company said the structure was unsafe because it had moved significantly from its foundation and could not be repaired.
Monrovia officials, however, denied the permit after the city’s building inspectors found only small interior cracks and a slight shift from the foundation. Sinclair lived in the Spanish Colonial Revival-style home on Myrtle Avenue from 1941 to 1962. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
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