Crumbling Treasures : Stalled Restoration Plans Threaten Historic Mansion’s Murals

For nearly 65 years, they’ve quietly existed in the shadows of a grand old mansion.

Tucked away out of sight in the outdoor courtyard of the historic Casa Romantica, they have survived decades of heat, countless storms, even a host of wild animals that took over the vacant house in the 1940s after its original owner, Ole Hanson, lost his property during the Great Depression.

So when historical preservationist Don Allen Shorts recently stumbled upon the two obscure murals, he could not believe his eyes.

Here, in the dark, musty corners of this once-lavish villa, lay the beautiful works of one of California’s foremost muralists of the 1920s--Norman Kennedy, an artist renowned for the work he did for Hollywood movie stars as well as for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

The two scenes, one depicting Spanish galleons at anchor in a bay, the other an idyllic marketplace, tell of a California long before it was scarred with housing tracts and freeways.

But to Shorts’ horror, he found that the murals were rotting, the paint crumbling like flaky biscuits.

“The community is completely unaware of what they have,” said Shorts, 61, a resident of Ventura who routinely travels throughout California searching for historical pieces of art. “If I do anything, it will be to make this community aware of these treasures.”

Now, after years of neglect, attention has finally fallen on the rare murals, created at a time when mural art was uncommon, before President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal put hundreds of artists to work painting scenes in buildings around the country in the 1930s.

But with the city’s plans to restore the Casa Romantica largely on hold because of ongoing litigation, time is wasting. The longer the city waits, the more tattered the murals will become.

“They are deteriorating rapidly,” said Dorothy Fuller, president of the San Clemente Historical Society. “They were fairly renewable a year ago, but now I’m really concerned.”

In an effort to save the dirty and worn murals, Fuller is planning a fund-raising campaign with the San Clemente Arts and Crafts Club to collect the estimated $10,000 needed to restore them to their former splendor.

“This would be a move toward saving what culture San Clemente has,” Fuller said.

Few people in the city administration know of the murals’ significance, said Jim Holloway, director of community development.

Since the city Redevelopment Agency bought the historic home in 1989 for $2.5 million, plans for the house have undergone a number of revisions, including to make it a museum, a vacation resort and, most recent, a restaurant.

“As an artist and restorer, a painting of that caliber is worth saving,” said Michael Kelly, 45, an international fine art and cultural development consultant who is trained in mural restoration. “There are very few murals like that in California--it’s not an area where pre-World War II murals exist. They definitely have significant value.”

The murals were commissioned in 1928 by Ole Hanson--the founder of San Clemente--to adorn the stucco walls of his new, 20-room bluff-top home so often visited by movie stars and millionaires.

Hanson wanted the best artist, and so requested Kennedy, a well-known muralist who had done work for a number of silent screen stars, and who had painted murals for many buildings, including the now-defunct United States Building & Loan Assn. in San Diego and a bank in Ventura.

His work was described in news accounts as “brilliant” and “seething with creative genius.” But in 1930, Kennedy moved to the East Coast to pursue a successful career as a magazine illustrator, and with him went the memory of his work.

“Kennedy is one of the better muralists,” Kelly said, adding that the artist is just now being rediscovered. “If he becomes published, more widely known, his paintings could become quite valuable.”

Holloway said restoration of the house, which could cost up to $800,000, will include repair of the murals. Once that is done, the city hopes to turn the house into a restaurant.

What’s holding up the restoration is lack of absolute certainty over what the mansion should become--and the litigation. The suit involves the city and a restaurant in the Pier Bowl shopping area adjacent to the mansion whose operator contends that a mansion-restaurant would draw customers away.

“If you want to preserve our history and culture, you’ve got to find an economic use that’s viable to generate the kind of income that will help pay for itself. A well-run restaurant could do that,” Holloway said.

Dorothy Fuller, who has been supporting the idea of turning the house into a full-fledged museum, believes the discovery of Kennedy’s works will help the cause of saving the Casa Romantica.

“If we can create enough attention, then I’m sure we can get more support for the house, too,” Fuller said.