Community Uncovers a Piece of Fullerton’s History

The excitement about the mural restoration at Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton isn’t just about its splendid colors, or the vivid scenes of old California in the 63-year-old fresco.

What makes it so special is watching a community movement to restore beauty grow from just a tiny acorn of an idea. Once planted, it sprouted into an enormous oak of a project.

The result is the spectacular return of 1,204 square feet of history on the auditorium’s outer west side that others had voted to cover 58 years ago.

The mural--”Pastoral California”--will be rededicated Saturday afternoon in a festive public ceremony at Plummer Auditorium and the surrounding grounds.

But let me take you back to the beginning, that acorn:

First, there is Cheri Hansen, counselor at Fullerton High School, at Chapman Avenue and Lemon Street. Plummer Auditorium is at the edge of its campus.

Hansen will try to steer you in other directions; she will talk about all the other marvelous people who helped. But everyone agrees: Restoring this mural starts with Cheri Hansen.

Don Oseid certainly knows.

Oseid, a retired Fullerton High English teacher, had never seen the mural. But other teachers he knew had talked over the years about a beautiful mural that once graced 80 feet of wall at Plummer Auditorium.

When he returned to campus a few years ago for a week of substitute teaching, Oseid had just returned from Europe. In Salamanca, Spain, he had seen the famous library building that the old library at Fullerton High, since torn down, was modeled after.

Oseid casually mentioned to Hansen what a shame it was that we were losing touch with the past--losing things like the old library--and the Plummer Auditorium mural.

What mural? The seed was planted.

Hansen had worked at Fullerton High for six years and only knew that Plummer Auditorium had beige-painted outer walls.

“She seemed interested,” Oseid told me this week. “But I had no idea she was going to take it and run with it.”

Here’s what Hansen and others would not discover until later:

The mural, a rare fresco (water colors on wet plaster) had been commissioned as a federal public works project in 1934. Noted artist Charles Kassler Jr. was hired to create it. He drew a montage of scenes of California in the years before statehood. They included a ranch setting with pioneer Antonio Yorba, working Latino people and Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, listening to a concert hall singer.

But in 1939 the high school board decided to have the huge artwork painted over. No one can say with certainty why. Some speculate it was too gaudy for the trustees, the colors too vivid.

All Hansen knew after talking with Oseid was that a piece of Fullerton’s history had been covered over. She went to work researching the mural. She found Kassler’s sketches of it through the Library of Congress. But over the next couple of years she couldn’t get anyone else at the school very interested.

Except the campus’ Interact Club, which is sponsored by the local Rotary Club. Hansen was its advisor. The students loved the idea of trying to discover if 60 years of paint had eliminated any chance at restoring the mural.

In 1995, Hansen and her students found an enthusiastic supporter in Cynthia Ranii, the school’s new principal. She got the school board interested with help from Assistant Supt. George West, a former history teacher who has a great interest in local history.

After a $500 feasibility study funded by the Rotarians and West’s persuasive arguments, the board agreed to Hansen’s request to pursue restoration.

ConservArt Associates of Culver City, which specializes in restorations, was hired to uncover two small sections of the wall just to see what was there. The first color found was blue, depicting water in a wash basin. Workers also uncovered part of a woman’s shoulder.

That’s when Hansen and the others learned for the first time that the mural was a rare fresco.

“When we saw that first patch of blue, we started jumping up and down we were so excited,” Hansen said.

Things really got rolling in 1996. A committee of volunteers was formed, more details about the mural’s history came to light, and the school board approved a restoration. There was one catch: The supporters would have to come up with funds to do it. But that went pretty smoothly.

The city’s Redevelopment Agency kicked in $15,000, the state Historic Commission provided a $25,000 grant, and the students and volunteers raised another $10,000.

With financing in order, ConservArt began training students and volunteers this past spring to take off paint without damaging the fresco, and later to help ConservArt re-create portions that were missing, based on the artist’s sketches and other available pictures.

Workers have been at it for more than eight weeks with scrub brushes and toothbrushes to bring “Pastoral California” back to life. They expect to finish just before the rededication.

There isn’t room to list all the people who pitched in. But to mention a few:

Fullerton resident Jane Reifer has done much of the research on the mural. She managed to track down Julian Williams, Kassler’s assistant on the project. Williams is now 85, and he remembered the fresco well. He told Reifer that he and Kassler lived right on the grounds for several months until it was completed.

Reifer also learned that a year after the mural was finished, Kassler married singer Luisa Espinel, who was likely the model for the mural’s concert singer. Espinel, by the way, is an aunt to popular singer Linda Ronstadt.

Reifer has worked hard to solve the mystery of why the school board wanted the mural covered over.

“The minutes from the board meeting in 1939 only say that it voted to paint it over, period,” Reifer said. “I don’t think we will ever learn the true answer.”

Molly McClanahan is another important contributor. As mayor of Fullerton in the 1970s, she had actually exchanged letters with federal officials about the mural. That’s where today’s restoration committee first learned of the artist. McClanahan did not follow up because she and her family moved away from the city for a time. But she’s back now, and has been one of the volunteers helping out.

Another key person was Amy Jones, Hansen said. She was president of the Interact Club. Now a college student, she has returned to campus to work on the project.

If you haven’t been by the campus, the colors from the mural are bright and magnificent. The artist’s detail is so brilliant it makes you wonder how anyone had the nerve to ever cover it up. Just why will likely be much discussed at the rededication.

Some members of Kassler’s family have accepted invitations to attend Saturday’s dedication. Descendants of the Yorba pioneers are expected too. You can bet Oseid will be there. The keynote speaker will be Assistant Supt. West, who became an active participant on the restoration committee.

“This kind of community involvement, this is something you see once in a lifetime,” he said.

Wrap-Up: Cheri Hansen is putting together quotes for a brochure on the mural to be handed out at the dedication. Her favorite was written by Valarie Nahhas, who had worked on the restoration alongside her daughter Alexis. Nahhas wrote:

“Congratulations to Fullerton Union High School and ConservArt for reminding us that the purpose of art is not only to inspire, stimulate and please us, but also to connect us.”

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823, by fax at (714) 966-7711 or by e-mail at jerry.hicks@latimes.com.