Siding With Gentrification in Old Towne
The home on South Shaffer Street in Old Towne Orange doesn’t exactly fit the tidy historic neighborhood aesthetic. Its white paint is stained with soot. The clapboard siding has been scarred by nails and insects. The exterior is so beaten that the wood crumbles when touched.
So why isn’t owner Lemar Lundquist thrilled that the city is about to invest up to $30,000 to restore the redwood covering his 1902 bungalow to its original appearance?
Because he’d rather coat the place with Superside, a glossy, embossed Masonite product described by its manufacturer as “having the look of natural wood.” Preservationists say it has a look, all right: tacky.
Nobody told Lundquist that Superside would violate local preservation laws when he received a city renovation permit three years ago. City officials admit they goofed, and they reversed themselves after the Old Towne Preservation Assn. complained.
The city ordered Lundquist to halt his Superside project in 1999. He fought back and, though he lost the right to install the Superside, would seem to have won a victory nonetheless: The city recently agreed to pay to restore the original redwood on his home. Work will begin soon.
All Lundquist has to kick in is the amount he was already going to pay to finish the Superside job: $5,000. The city is even hiring a contractor and overseeing the work.
Yet Lundquist remains bitter.
“It’ll look decent when they get through with it,” he said. “But I buy this property, I work my tail off to get it presentable, and then you have a bunch of zealots telling you what you have to do with your property that you bought and paid for with your own sweat and blood.”
A lot has changed in the neighborhood since the 71-year-old bought his narrow “shotgun” bungalow more than 30 years ago. His block and those around it were a blighted mess. His lot was full of weeds, and small trees had sprouted all over the property, their roots threatening the foundation.
Now buyers seek out the gentrified historic neighborhood, with its vintage late-1800s commercial buildings and restored Victorian and Craftsman homes.
Old Towne, with 1,200 historically significant homes in a square mile, is one of the largest districts in Southern California with a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. Demand for the homes far outstrips the supply. According to one real estate agent, for every house that goes on the market, there are at least two waiting buyers.
“Most homeowners buy here by choice, so they know what they are up against coming in, and they put up the money to do renovations the way they are required in a historic district,” said Anne Siebert, a past president of the Old Towne Preservation Assn.
And what would Superside do to a historic bungalow?
“It ruins the whole integrity of the house,” Siebert said. “[Lundquist] was changing the historic nature of his home. I don’t think he realized what he was doing. It got a little nasty.”
City officials say they hope that the city’s insurance will cover the cost of the bungalow’s renovations, so taxpayers don’t have to. Despite all the holes in the original redwood siding--many of them made when the Superside panels were applied--and its crumbly nature, the city thinks about 90% of it can be restored.
“The [redwood] siding that’s on there is a very innovative product,” said city planner John Godlewski. “It was the Masonite of its day.”
Lundquist says he takes little comfort in knowing that the city-funded renovations will probably boost the value of his house quite a bit more than the Superside would have.
“I didn’t beat City Hall,” he said. “They beat me down. I’m nearly 72 years old and I’ve lost 2 1/2 years of my life fighting this.”
