A Date With Fate : Just what does the future hold for some of L.A.’s touchstones of the past? Renovation, dancing, seismic retrofitting and, possibly, the wrecking ball.

With the news that Chasen’s would close April 1, the phone started ringing off the hook with people desperate for reservations. Want a table this weekend? Good luck. On Valentine’s Day? Forget it. The very last night? Not a prayer.

If only the restaurant had been that busy before the announcement of its imminent demise.

Los Angeles’ prized institutions and buildings are not impervious to financial or structural ruin. And no landmark is completely safe, even if it’s been cherished for decades and is listed on federal, state or local historic registers.

Some buildings in jeopardy have been saved--the May Co. on Wilshire Boulevard is one wrecking ball survivor--usually after a loud public outcry, combined with intense preservationist efforts and legal wrangling.

But others have been plowed under to make way for the new. An amusement park with pony rides gave way to the Beverly Center; a Westwood high-rise office replaced kitschy Ship’s restaurant, and a shopping plaza stands where the Brown Derby once did. These are the ghosts of the city’s past.

“Buildings are touchstones,” said Los Angeles Conservancy Executive Director Linda Dishman, who oversees preservation efforts in and around the city. “Nothing can bring a memory back like seeing a building or walking down a certain hallway.”

The latest preservation fight is over St. Vibiana’s Cathedral in Downtown. The Roman Catholic archdiocese would like to demolish the earthquake-damaged church and build a new complex including a larger cathedral (incorporating some pieces of the old one), a conference center, an underground parking lot and a new residence for the archbishop.

Preservationists, including the L.A. Conservancy, are trying to persuade the archdiocese to consider a renovation.

Although the church is designated as a “cultural heritage landmark” by the city, it’s not protected from demolition. Preservation laws here and throughout the West, Dishman laments, are much less stringent than in the East. “I think in those (Eastern) communities there is a greater relationship with history, and people understand the history of their community better. It’s much more in the context of their community. . . . The West has always had a much stronger view that a person’s property is theirs to do what they want to with it.”

As talks over St. Vibiana’s continue, the fate of other local landmarks is also being decided. The following buildings have been standing empty for years. Some are being readied for a new life, but the futures of others remain uncertain.

The Spanish Kitchen

Legends, myths and mysteries surround the Spanish Kitchen, a 4,000-square-foot building on Beverly Boulevard between Fairfax and La Brea avenues that opened in 1932. Owner Pearl Caretto filled the salt shakers and stuck a “Closed for Vacation” sign in the window in 1961 but never returned. Tales of murder and hauntings became part of the restaurant’s lore.

The truth is, Caretto left the business to care for her husband, who had Parkinson’s disease. After he died in 1967, she continued to live above the restaurant, eventually moving out in the 1980s. Caretto has passed away, and her daughter, who lives in Arizona, would like to sell the place. But the site will need restoration and seismic retrofitting work.

Toward that end, a $10,000 technical assistance grant was given by the Historic Preservation Partners for Earthquake Response--a collaboration of the National Park Service, the California Office of Historic Preservation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the California Preservation Foundation, the L.A. Conservancy and the Getty Conservation Institute.

Amy Forbes, an attorney for the Caretto family and an L.A. Conservancy board member, said the money will be used to test building materials and draw up plans, which will be submitted to the city Department of Building and Safety. A second grant will be needed to complete the work.

“There is some earthquake damage, but it’s not insurmountable,” Forbes said, adding that the site could be ready for a buyer by year’s end.

“(Caretto’s daughter) has a tremendous emotional attachment to the building,” she said, “and nothing would make her happier than to have the building open and reused.”

Terminal Annex Post Office

The building at Union Station near Downtown is still owned by the United States Postal Service, but the government is in partnership with the Ratkovich Co. to refurbish it. (The firm is also responsible for the overhaul of the Wiltern Theatre.)

According to Jack Germain, vice president and manager of construction, renovation of the 1938 structure will be “sensitive to its historical nature” and will begin as soon as lease negotiations for office and retail space are completed.

The building’s west facade, south facade and lobby will be returned “to their original splendor,” he said.

The Stock Exchange

In its most recent incarnation, the Pacific Stock Exchange building at Spring and 7th streets Downtown was a nightclub. The 1929 structure thrived for a little more than a year in the late ‘80s as a hip dance spot where VIP memberships went for $1,000. Then the club fell into deep financial and legal troubles.

The building was sold in 1990 to Robert Massi, who would like to lease part of it again as a nightclub and thinks he may have a taker. Massi said that at least two months’ worth of repairs must be done before feet hit the dance floor, and he predicted that the rest of the building could take two years to refurbish.

Dishman of the L.A. Conservancy said her group has an easement on the building, “which means we get to review any alterations, and that we would have to approve a demolition--but that’s highly unlikely.”

The building, Massi said, is also being used as a location for films.

The Herald-Examiner

The Hearst Corp. pulled the plug on the newspaper in November, 1989. Soon after the reporters, editors and pressmen vacated, film crews moved in. The building, at 11th Street and Broadway, has been a popular location site ever since.

Three years ago, rumor had it that the Hearst Corp. might raze the Julia Morgan-designed building and replace it with a parking lot. The mere hint of demolition prompted L.A. Conservancy cries of “tragedy” and “disgrace,” and no wrecking balls have been spied in the neighborhood.

“The fact that it’s being used for filming is very good because the return on that is pretty high,” Dishman said. “So we’re always pleased to see filming.”

Tom Campo, the New York-based Hearst Corp.’s manager of press relations, declined to discuss plans for the building.

“We haven’t announced any specific plans one way or another, or any future plans,” he said. “There is nothing on the immediate horizon. We get a number of proposals, and we evaluate them as they come in. But we’ve made no decisions.”

One proposal apparently under consideration is from L.A. fashion designer Irene Kasmer, who wants to create a Museum of Fashion Designers and Creators on the site.

The Community Redevelopment Agency is working to get Kasmer the money to help underwrite a March benefit, start the publicity wheel rolling and organize a board of directors.

Don Spiveck, the CRA’s director of operations, said, “We’re behind getting this thing done; it makes a lot of sense. Downtown is the right place for a museum of fashion.”

The museum is also mentioned in the Downtown Strategic Plan, a series of proposals designed to attract jobs, housing, entertainment, tourism, industry and commerce to the area.

The Golden Gate Theater

The family that owns the 68-year-old, 11,000-square-foot building at Atlantic and Whittier boulevards in East Los Angeles is trying to remove its designation as an historic landmark. The State Historical Resources Commission is scheduled to decide on the issue at its meeting next month.

Jerold B. Neuman, an attorney for the owners, said, “With the designation, the utilization of the building and the ability to develop a creative use for the site become more and more limited.”

Neuman said the building may no longer qualify for landmark status because an adjacent building and courtyard were demolished in 1992.

“The site has lost its original flavor and historic significance and no longer maintains its integrity,” he said.

But, he added, the owners see demolition as a last resort. They want to see if the building can be refurbished and possibly be used for something other than a theater. A possible MTA Red Line terminal in that area could also influence the building’s fate.