At Loggerheads Over a Cabin

The fight over Larry Butler’s log cabin is a true made-for-the-movies drama.

Butler wants to tear down and replace the rough-hewn Pacific Palisades house--built from logs as a set for the 1923 silent film “The Courtship of Miles Standish.”

But neighborhood preservationists in Rustic Canyon are trying to block the demolition by getting the place named a Los Angeles historic-cultural landmark.

The city’s Cultural Heritage Commission endorsed landmark status for the cabin in October. Today, the City Council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee is scheduled to consider the issue--although officials say the matter may be postponed. The committee’s recommendation will go to the City Council.

The rugged-looking cabin is a perfect setting for a rough-and-tumble fight.

It was one of three log cabins built at Lake Arrowhead for the Miles Standish movie.

Based on the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the nine-reel movie was an artistic success but a financial failure.

When filming ended, Los Angeles banker Marco Hellman foreclosed on the production company and wound up owning the three cabins. Workmen numbered the logs, disassembled the cabins and rebuilt them on lots owned by Hellman in Rustic Canyon.

Hellman’s property was on the grounds of an unusual weekend getaway being developed at the time by wealthy Los Angeles businessmen.

Dubbed the Uplifters Club, the 121-acre compound was an outdoorsy, bohemian-style retreat that was started by pipe company owner Harry Haldeman--whose grandson, H.R. Haldeman, was convicted of taking part in the Watergate scandal cover-up and spent 18 months in prison after serving as President Richard Nixon’s White House chief of staff.

Hellman, a widower, hired famed Pasadena Craftsman house architect Arthur Heineman to convert the biggest cabin into a residence for himself and his two children.

Outfitted with handcrafted lighting fixtures and furniture, the log house at 38 Haldeman Road became a centerpiece of the Uplifters Club.

In the 1940s it was used for years as the summer home of Earl Warren, the Republican California governor who later would become chief justice of the United States.

Before Butler purchased the cabin 1 1/2 years ago, actress Daryl Hannah owned it. Although Hannah removed stuffed bison and deer heads from the cabin’s walls, the two-story house retained its rustic log interior topped with an open-beam ceiling supported by tree trunks and an imposing fireplace built of river rock.

Butler is chairman of Alpha Technologies, a company that manufactures thermal cooling devices for electronic equipment. He said he initially intended to preserve the old cabin.

He conferred with Rustic Canyon historians Betty Lou Young and her son, Randy Young. After that, he set out to track down and purchase the original cabin furnishings that had been taken by the five previous owners.

Butler hired Santa Monica architect Carl Day to oversee renovation and expansion of the cabin.

But things changed when Day and several construction consultants took a close look at the cabin, Butler said.

They discovered that the cabin was sinking into a pair of old, unapproved cesspools dug behind it. Its 75-year-old electrical wiring was dangerously substandard. The plumbing leaked.

Even worse was the termite and dry-rot damage to the logs. A cracked and unreinforced foundation needed seismic upgrading. The big stone fireplace was deemed earthquake-damaged and unusable.

One expert suggested that Butler start over and build a new log cabin from scratch. Butler agreed.

“I believe Rustic Canyon is a special place. I want to build something that fits in with the area--a log cabin that has plumbing and electric that works and meets the code,” Butler said.

Some neighbors on private Haldeman Road endorse Butler’s rebuilding plan. Over the years, modern homes have been built that mimic the style of the original Uplifters Club houses.

Cabin Is Called ‘Cultural History’

But those opposed to the demolition include John Walsh, former director of the Getty Museum. For more than 17 years, Walsh has lived 75 feet from Butler’s cabin in another former Uplifters Club log house the Miles Standish movie.

Walsh describes the cluster of cabins as “the best surviving reminder of the fantasy life of a group of well-to-do Angelenos” who three-quarters of a century ago built “quirky cottages in a canyon paradise of their own making.”

In a letter to city officials, Walsh has labeled Butler’s cabin as “both a work of art and precious evidence--for the Westside all too rare--of the cultural history of Los Angeles in the ‘20s.”

The cabin, Walsh concluded, “needs to be lived in and cherished, not to be demolished or greatly altered.”

Betty Lou and Randy Young agree. They wrote a 1975 book about the history of Rustic Canyon that details the curious origins of Butler’s cabin.

The Youngs have applied to have landmark status conferred on the cabin. Such a designation would block demolition for as much as a year. It would also require environmental reviews of future construction at the site and mandate a Cultural Heritage Commission review before alterations could take place either inside or out.

In exchange, Butler would be eligible for a property tax break.

Randy Young, who works as a publisher, said all of the structural problems of the cabin are fixable.

“Mr. Butler bought the property knowing full well it was historic. The property is large and he can easily build an addition to it,” Young said.

Young said the year’s moratorium on demolition would give Butler time to reflect on ways to permanently protect the cabin. It would also give time, if necessary, to find a new home for the structure if its logs were once again to be numbered and it was disassembled.

Butler wishes the pair would bow out.

“Randy and I are in total agreement that it’s a cool place with an interesting history. But it’s falling apart. In a certain way I’m indignant. It is none of his business; it’s my property,” Butler said.

But Butler said he doesn’t think the cabin is a landmark--even by Hollywood standards.

“It’s not a Frank Lloyd Wright house. It was built by a bunch of guys on a movie set,” he said.

“If President Lincoln built this cabin and lived in it, I’d agree on the cultural significance.”