San Juan OKs Demolition of Historic Victorian House

The small blue-gray house nestled in trees just off Ortega Highway has survived earthquakes, floods and developers who gobbled up the orange groves that once surrounded it.

But now the 110-year-old Victorian cottage may be demolished by the family that grew up there but says it is crumbling and beyond repair.

The Hankey/Rowse cottage was the center of one of the area’s earliest citrus farms and was home to several prominent people in the city’s history, including a French priest who served the Mission here.

However, time has taken its toll of the building, which is on the city’s list of historic landmarks. The Hankey family, which vacated the home three years ago, says it is a firetrap infested with termites, its heating and electrical systems outdated.

So last year, Hankey family members asked the city for permission to demolish what had been their home since the 1920s and to sell the one-acre property as four separate lots.

City planners, striving to preserve San Juan Capistrano’s historical past, rejected the request. The Hankeys fought the denial up to the City Council, which on Tuesday, after a 15-month battle that cost the family $25,000 in city application fees, granted approval to demolish the building.

The fight has left bruised feelings on all sides and a sense of sadness among local historians, who feel that losing the house would hurt the city’s reputation for preserving its past.

“I’d be sorry to see it go,” said Francie Kennedy Perguson, who has been active in community preservation issues. “The council doesn’t realize that there’s just a ‘Boom!’ and it’s gone forever.”

But the family, whose first choice, according to their attorney, Marjorie Le Gaye, has been to demolish the house, is offering a sliver of hope. The council’s decision also allows the Hankeys to relocate the structure if another site can be found.

“We’re going to have to sit down and find out what’s best for the estate,” John Hankey, 67, the fourth of Carl and Adele Hankey’s six children, said Wednesday.

“Anything’s possible,” he said.

City officials aren’t holding their breath. The only spot suggested so far for relocation is in the downtown Los Rios district, but that option has problems. Because of the district’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places, buildings there must conform to local historical style. The two-story Victorian Hankey home would stick out in the neighborhood of mostly single-story adobe houses.

“If you start bringing other buildings into the area, that has a tendency to dilute the importance of the district,” said Thomas Tomlinson, the city planning director. “You could jeopardize the historical listing.”

The family previously had tried donating the building to the city, but there wasn’t any city-owned space available for relocation. Instead, city planners suggested dividing the family’s one-acre property into five lots, with the home to be preserved on one lot.

However, the family rejected the compromise, holding out for four lots and removing the home.

The matter eventually wound up before the council, which approved demolition on a 3-1 vote.

“I believe in a person’s right to do what they want to with their own property,” said Mayor Gil Jones, who owns a historic home in the Los Rios district. “The Hankeys--that’s their house. They should have a right to decide if they want to put their heart and soul in the home.”

The vote left the Hankey family, several of whom attended the meeting, celebrating their victory.

“We’re thrilled. This is a shock. We didn’t expect it’d be finished last night,” Eleanor Widolf, 69, the second of the Hankeys’ children, said Wednesday.

Widolf said the family was happy to have the chance to get rid off the house, which she described as “crummy.”

“It’s not a good memorial for our parents,” she said.

She added that the house has no heating except a fireplace, the floor slopes severely in several places because of a decaying foundation, and the electrical system is so outdated that the family has not been able to secure fire insurance.

Still, local preservationists said they hoped the city and the family could work out some way to save the old building.

“I recognize that it’s an additional cost, but the Hankeys have always been good citizens of the city and I would call upon their citizenship to help preserve a part of our history,” said Tony Forster, a member of the Cultural Heritage Commission and himself the descendant of one of the area’s pioneers.

“I’d be disappointed if they just went out there and demolished it.”