Future of Historic House Appears Safe
Back-to-back votes by two government agencies appear to have saved the city’s historic Howe-Waffle House from the threat of demolition.
The County Board of Supervisors voted 5 to 0 Tuesday to sell to the city the land on which the house sits.
A day earlier, the City Council unanimously approved a proposal to offer $140,000 for the property.
“As you know, the city’s been very aggressive in trying to save the structure,” Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. told a group of preservationists at the council meeting.
In 1975, the city helped move the house to its current downtown location, and council members have expressed an interest in preserving it ever since the land went up for sale last year.
The city owns the house itself, which is headquarters for the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society.
The county owns the land. County officials announced earlier that they hoped to sell the property to raise revenue in the wake of the county’s bankruptcy.
The house was named for the county’s first female doctor, Willella Howe-Waffle.
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