Footloose Home Seeks New Lover. Object: A Fresh Start

In Southern California, it’s not easy to find a house built as early as 1914.

So even after living in New England for years, Los Angeles native Bob Hitchcock and his wife, Marva, jumped at the chance to buy a World War I-era Craftsman-style house in Orange six years ago.

“We don’t have a lot of old things in California,” said the 59-year-old semiretired salesman, whose bookshelves include titles about bungalows, wallpaper, Orange history and the Arts and Crafts style of architecture.

“It’s important to preserve these old houses. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

Orange is looking for someone with the Hitchcocks’ passion for historic homes to purchase another Craftsman home, the Edwards House at 431 E. Chapman Ave.

The home, next to the Orange Public Library, must be moved to make room for parking as part of the library’s expansion project.

Interested parties may bid on the house for as little as $1, but getting the Craftsman is the easy part.

The hard part is what comes next: The new owner must buy a vacant parcel within the city’s Old Towne Historic District, move the house there and reassemble it according to historical guidelines within seven months of purchase.

“It’s like a love affair,” said Nora Jacob, library services director.

“This house is for someone who loves the experience of history so much that they will live and thrive in a beautiful home that was designed at a time when people’s use of home space was somewhat different.”

The Edwards House, named after initial owners Samuel and Lillian Edwards, was built in 1921.

The house was purchased by the city and annexed to the Orange Public Library in the early 1980s.

Currently, it is the headquarters for the Friends of the Orange Public Library.

The house is one of 1,200 homes and businesses in the square-mile historic district.

To say the least, the Edwards House is a fixer-upper.

The fireplace and porch brickwork will have to be reconstructed, and it’s unclear what exactly lurks beneath the living room carpet.

But the 1,900-square foot house, with four bedrooms and two stories, still has many of its original charms intact, including its light fixtures, stained-glass windows and an ornamental brick chimney.

“The Edwards House has good bones,” said Hitchcock, a former president of the Old Towne Preservation Assn.

It is exemplary of the Craftsman style as practiced in Southern California during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, demonstrating a love of materials and use of beautiful wood.

“Whoever gets this house will become part of tradition,” said George Siekkinen, senior architect with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“Somebody sweated putting that house together.”

The result, he said, is a relaxed feel that flows from room to room, and a house that looks more nestled in -- instead of built upon -- the land it occupies.

The cost of moving a house can vary according its height and width and how far it’s moving, officials said.

Experts estimate the Edwards House move at between $70,000 and $100,000.

City officials estimate at least half a dozen lots -- which average between 7,000 and 8,000 square feet -- are wide and deep enough to accommodate the home.

The land would probably cost $18 to $22 per square foot, officials said.

Bids are due to the Orange city clerk by May 30 at noon.

The successful bidder will be notified June 13.

He or she will have until July 14 to come up with a $2,000 deposit, proof of ownership -- or impending ownership -- of a lot in the Old Towne Historic District and evidence that they can afford to preserve the Edwards House.

Copies of the bid package are available at the Orange Civic Center, 300 E. Chapman Ave., in the public works department for $1.

For additional information or a tour of the Edwards House, call the library at (714) 288-2471.

Hitchcock said he hopes someone out there is eager to live amid the Victorians, Spanish Colonial Revivals and Craftsmans he now has as neighbors -- despite the cost and the challenges of the project.

“They’re built to live in,” Hitchcock said.

“Things are where they’re supposed to be.”