Laundry Designated Historic Landmark

In an attempt to retain $100,000 in state grants, the Ventura City Council agreed Monday to designate an antique Spanish laundry as a local historic landmark.

The city has been in a dispute with the state Office of Historic Preservation over the money since May.

State officials maintain that they awarded the grant for the express purpose of preserving Peirano’s market, an old Italian grocery that was built on Main Street in 1877.

But the city, which now owns the defunct market, wants to tear down part of its walls and build a small shopping area in the interior and showcase the lavanderia, or laundry, which lies under the market’s storage rooms. According to the city, the lavanderia was built in 1782 and thus is just as deserving of the landmark designation--and the money--as is the aging grocery.

On Monday, however, state officials said they did not think the new designation would persuade them to let Ventura keep the funds.

“I’m sure that’s quite a discovery they found,” said Joyce Law, the grants coordinator for the historic preservation office. But she said the state “will probably stay by the same decision,” because the grant was given for the particular purpose of preserving Peirano’s market.