SIMI VALLEY : Institute’s Lodge Faces Wrecking Ball
A historic lodge near Simi Valley that served as a central office for the Brandeis-Bardin Institute until its near-collapse during the Jan. 17 earthquake will fall to the wrecking ball, a county historical board has decided.
The Maier house, built in 1914 by beer-maker Henry Maier, was approved for demolition by the Ventura County Historical Heritage Board after officials from the institute said it would be too costly to repair.
Constructed of river rock and hollow, plaster-covered brick, the two-story Spanish-style house buckled during the quake, a glass atrium at its center crumbling to the ground.
“There’s absolutely no way you can put something back together that is so shattered,” said board member and Simi Valley historian Patricia Havens. “It would be like trying to put together a broken teacup and trusting it to hold hot tea.”
The house was purchased in 1947 by noted educator Shlomo Bardin to house the Jewish educational center he had founded six years earlier with Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis.
Hundreds of Jewish people from around the world gather at the center each year for programs on religion and culture.
The institute plans to raze the Maier house and construct a new center in its place, said Jeremy Barnett, assistant director of administration.
“The old house had a lot of good memories,” he said. “But it’s the people who really bring value to the institute.”
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