SANTA ANA : Old House Saved From Bulldozer

With its white paint now faded and peeling and its windows broken, a bungalow built more than 80 years ago looks little like the breezy, sunlit home it once was.

Still, although the home was scheduled months ago to be bulldozed to make way for a new, 21,000-square-foot, FHP medical center, a local historical society has cooperated with the health maintenance organization to move the bungalow and eventually restore it to its previous luster.

“It’s a house that’s worth saving, and it can be recycled and used by another family,” said Diann Marsh, co-president of the Historical French Park Assn.

Built about 1913, the bungalow at 1131 W. Civic Center Drive is a model of the Craftsman-style houses popular in the early 1900s.

Marsh said such bungalows were designed plainly, with a “philosophy of nature” that offered large windows, sleeping porches and wide open rooms. That philosophy also dictated that such materials as wood, stone and brick be used in the construction.

For the move, the house will be cut into two pieces and hauled to a lot at 820 N. Lacy St., less than a mile away, and reassembled. Marsh said the estimated $120,000 cost of the move will be paid with state and federal funds. Once moved, the house will be sold to a low- or moderate-income family, in accordance with rules that govern the funding.

“The price will be reasonable, and it’s a piece of Santa Ana history,” Marsh said.

FHP spokesman Michael D. Henderson said at least one of the 10 other houses at the site of the new medical center may also be moved before construction on the $6-million facility begins. Houses not moved may be offered to the Fire Department for training purposes, he said.

“We’re trying to see that this redevelopment project fits into the community and meets as many needs as we can,” Henderson said. “We are interested in being a part of the community in which we care for our patients.”