Craftsman building gets new life

A rare example of the work of famed Pasadena architects Greene & Greene has been moved, carefully restored and put up for sale at below-market rates to first-time home buyers.

Herkimer Arms is the only Pasadena apartment building designed by Charles and Henry Greene, designers of Gamble House and other Craftsman-style masterpieces in the area, according to Timothy Sales of Heritage Housing Partners.

Herkimer Arms originally was built as a commercial venture for a local landlord, Mrs. Parker A. Earle, on what was then Herkimer Street and is now Union Street, Sales said.

The building was slated for demolition when Heritage House and the city of Pasadena teamed up to make it part of an affordable ownership program.

Heritage House moved the structure several blocks from a site at Fuller Theological Seminary on Union Street to Raymond Avenue, undid the damage caused by years of wear and tear, made a new, non-toxic wood stain that closely matched the color of the more toxic original, and revamped the former eight-unit building into two homes, one four-bedroom and one 3.5-bedroom.

The larger unit will sell for $399,900 and the smaller for $379,900, but only to qualified limited-income owner-occupants who do not own another home and agree that it can only be sold to others under similar terms.

The apartments, Sales said in a statement, blend the Craftsman and Modern styles and “are really beautiful, with loads of historic details, high ceilings and big rooms. We turned back 100 years of neglect and inappropriate changes, returning many of the historic details that had been lost.”

At the same site, Heritage Housing restored another historic structure, the five-bedroom Hammond House, and built a one-bedroom carriage house at 407 N. Raymond Ave. The overall costs for the Herkimer Gardens project, Sales said, was $2.8 million.

All the homes are for sale under the city’s Affordable Ownership Program and will be part of an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 23.

For more information, visit herkimerapplication.org.