Aging Beauty Gets a Face Lift

With three months to go before its 100th anniversary in November, the Old County Courthouse in Santa Ana--the county’s historic jewel--is getting the finishing touches on its make-over, with a new roof, sidewalk repairs and cosmetic fixes.

For several weeks, roofers have been walking gingerly along catwalks high above Santa Ana Boulevard, pulling off 100-year-old roofing tiles that have survived Southern California’s intense heat, smog and rain.

“You wouldn’t believe this, but these tiles are galvanized metal, and although they were manufactured in the late 1800s, there’s no rust on them. It’s a testament to how they made things in the old days,” said Rob Selway, the county’s historical facilities chief.

The courthouse’s anniversary has been celebrated all year. But it will culminate with two events: On Oct. 4 the state Supreme Court will hold a rare hearing there, and on Nov. 14 the city of Santa Ana plans a major recognition of the courthouse.

In historical circles, renovations are not taken lightly. The roof project cost nearly $200,000, a renovation that Selway said was achieved after months of meetings on design and replacement and input from historical experts.

“When you have a historical building, preservation theorists tell you [that] you can’t replace anything with new materials,” Selway said.

For example, when the courthouse porches needed repair, Selway didn’t know what to do about the dozens of round, prismatic lenses that had turned a shade of lavender as they aged. Experts said he could replace them with new clear glass lenses, provided that the ratio of old lenses to new was not less than 70%/30%.

“They said, ‘Don’t worry. The new glass will change color over the years,’ ” he said.

Though the roof’s tiles were in good shape, the valleys and flat areas that had been renovated in earlier years were aging and cracked, keeping county crews busy dumping buckets and trash cans of water collected in the attic.

But how do you fix a leaking roof while keeping as much of the original materials as possible and costs down?

“To replace the entire roof would have cost way over $1 million,” said Marshall Duell, courthouse curator, who looked over records about contractor Chris McNeill in hopes of unearthing details about the original construction. McNeill once billed the courthouse as “the county’s tallest building.”

Instead of replacement, Torrance-based Best Roofing and Waterproofing painstakingly removed each 2-by-3-foot metal tile for reuse. Beneath the tiles were 2-by-4 redwood studs, laid horizontally, that were still in good condition.

“We believe the tiles were manufactured by hand, so we knew we’d better not break the tiles, because they’re difficult to replace,” said Gordon Crawght, Best’s director of marketing.

Dealing with the steep roof, which Crawght said varied from 30 degrees to as much as 45 degrees, was another matter. Workers have had to use a restraint system to prevent falls, and at times they rely on a buddy system as an extra precaution.

Another problem was what color paint to use for the roof tiles. Officially, there was no record. But a staff member searched the county archives, which are in the courthouse basement, and found the minutes to a Board of Supervisors meeting in the late 1890s.

“We learned that it’s Spanish tile red,” Selway said.