San Diego’s Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) Declares Willingness to Operate Historic Marston House Museum

In February 2009, the San Diego Historical Society, which for many years operated the 1905 Marston House as a house museum under a lease with the City of San Diego, announced that it would not renew its lease, citing among other reasons its mission and current economic conditions. This announcement stirred widespread fear in the historic-preservation community--not just in San Diego but throughout the country--that the house might be closed to the public, perhaps permanently. That fear, in turn, prompted urgent appeals for another preservation organization to step in and offer to work with the city to preserve and maintain the house as a historic museum open to the public.

On March 3, 2009, Bruce Coons, Executive Director of San Diego’s Save Our Heritage Organisation, issued the following announcement:

Save Our Heritage Organisation Board of Directors in a special meeting of the board on Monday, March 2, 2009 has voted to announce that we are willing to pursue operations of the historic Marston House for the City of San Diego. This decision was made in response to the tremendous number of requests from our membership and the general public.

SOHO has received the endorsement of the Friends of the Marston House, whose membership met on Saturday, February 28. We are pleased to receive their support and partnership in furthering our mutual goals for the preservation and operation of the Marston House.

The house, which was originally built for George Marston and his family in 1905 by architects William S. Hebbard and Irving J. Gill, became a house museum after the Marston family left it to the City of San Diego in 1987 for the enjoyment of the public. The San Diego Historical Society had operated it since that time. Last month the Society, citing among other reasons their mission and economic conditions, decided to allow their lease to expire.

SOHO has the proven and unique capacity to develop the Marston House into one of California's premiere house museums. Our philosophy is that historic sites have the unique ability of being able to inspire, and that through their authenticity and the stories of people who lived and worked in them, they stir the imagination and inspire people in a myriad of ways that will be key to the renaissance of this important landmark home.

American Bungalow’s Winter 2005 feature on the Marston House can be read here.

The Virtues of Simplicity

As a corporate executive based in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Charles Hosmer Morse helped build Fairbanks-Morse & Co. into one of the world’s leading manufacturers, supplying industrializing economies with everything from scales, pumps and windmills to engines that powered ships and locomotives. But despite his success as an industrialist, Hosmer longed for the simple life, spending each winter in his small Craftsman-style home in Winter Park, a small, charming town near Orlando in central Florida.

Osceola Lodge, the home Morse eventually retired to, was built in 1888 in Winter Park, the first centrally planned community in Florida. Remodeled and redecorated in the Arts and Crafts style after Morse bought it in 1905, the home is furnished with oak desks, tables and chairs purchased from Gustav Stickley and the Tobey Furniture Company, metalware and lamps from the Roycrofters, and furnishings from other inspired turn-of-the-century artisans. Some of these treasured furnishings will be on display in “The Virtues of Simplicity—American Arts and Crafts from the Morse Collection,” just a few blocks from Osceola Lodge, at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum beginning February 17 and running through the remainder of the year.

LASTING LEGACY

Morse’s legacy is visible throughout the Winter Park community. His concern that future development maintain the town’s charm and grace inspired him to ensure its preservation. He quietly donated land and buildings over the years, insisting that the character of the town was more important than the profit to be made there. Today, his Osceola Lodge, which houses the Rollins College study center for scholars-in-residence, remains a pristine tribute to the Arts and Crafts style. And Winter Park, with its brick streets, canopies of moss-draped trees and buildings more than a century old, maintains its historic charm and enjoys more park space per capita than any other city in Florida. The Morse Museum, located at 445 N. Park Ave., is open Tuesday through Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 4 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for students and free for children under 12. From November through April, Friday hours are extended from 4 to 8 p.m., with free admission for all.

WEB 2.0 COMES TO MAIN STREET

Main Street is going high tech. The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2009 National Main Streets Conference is all about technology and “Becoming Main Street 2.0.” This year’s annual educational and networking event, March 1–4 in Chicago, will focus on the tech tools that will help Main Street commercial-district-revitalization programs succeed in the 21st century.

“This conference will bring together motivated people from across the U.S. to share ideas, communicate successful strategies, and help promote technology as a tool to enhance historic downtown districts across the country,” said Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, conference host and chair of the Illinois Main Street Advisory Council.

Reflecting the evolution of new ideas, communication and interaction patterns, and participatory application building that has characterized the emergence of “Web 2.0” over the past decade, everything from office systems to MySpace will be on the agenda for the gathering of 2,000 planning and preservation professionals as they explore a wide range of technology solutions for running revitalization organizations.

Looking at vibrant commercial districts like those developed in the Chicago area as models, they’ll share ways to engage constituents, develop social networks, recruit volunteers, generate e-commerce and monitor financial records. One of 40 states participating in the National Main Street program, Illinois has 69 active Main Street communities. Since becoming involved in 1993, Illinois Main Street has reported net gains of more than 1,500 new downtown businesses, 3,200 new full-time jobs and 2,400 new part-time jobs. “From coast to coast, main streets matter to people,” says Doug Loescher, Director of the National Trust Main Street Center. “We expect record crowds at the conference this year.” To find out more about the program and the conference, visit conference.main street.org or call 202 588-6219.

VAST BODY OF WORK

Accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog, the exhibition is organized as an overview of Wright’s long career and presented through multiple media, including more than 200 original drawings, some on view for the first time. There are newly commissioned and historic models, photography, books, periodicals, correspondence, and video and digital renderings.
In addition to the iconic Guggenheim, the retrospective includes eight other community structures that reflect Wright’s view of architecture as an extension of daily life, ranging from the 1905 Unity Temple, in Oak Park, Ill., to the 1957 Plan for Greater Baghdad, Iraq.
Fifty years after its completion, the Guggenheim, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has undergone a major exterior renovation in preparation for the anniversary celebration. Information about other anniversary events and exhibitions slated for the year can be found at guggenheim.org or by calling 212 423-3500. The museum, located at 1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St., is open Saturday through Wednesday 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. and Friday 10 a.m. to 7:45 p.m.

GUGGENHEIM’S WRIGHT CELEBRATION IS GOLDEN

This year marks the 50th anniversaries of both the completion of Manhattan’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the death of its designer, Frank Lloyd Wright. To celebrate Wright’s accomplishments and the impact of his work around the world, the Guggenheim will present “Frank Lloyd Wright: Architecture and Life,” from May 15 through August 23.
A collaboration of the Guggenheim Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, this special retrospective is the most comprehensive to date. Including more than 50 of Wright’s projects, from privately commissioned homes to unrealized urban megastructures, the exhibition examines his 70 years of work toward an “architecture of democracy” that creates and encourages social interaction. The collection also looks at the spirituality and idealism of his design through its balance and integration with nature.

GAMBLE HOUSE LECTURES: FROM KITSCH TO CLASSIC

The Spring installments of the Friends of The Gamble House (FOGH) Lecture Series span decades and styles with lectures and tours spotlighting midcentury Southern California design and culture, prefab housing throughout the 20th century, and the Arts and Crafts–influenced gardens of  Hearst Castle at San Simeon and along Southern California’s Arroyo Seco.
Tickets for all events can be purchased in advance by calling 626 793-3334, ext. 52, or using the printable form available at gamblehouse.org/events/tickets.html.

CHARLES PHOENIX’S SOUTHERN CALIFORNIALAND!

On March 19 at 7:30 p.m., “histo-tainer” Charles Phoenix, who found his calling in a thrift-store box filled with Kodachrome slides, will show some of his massive collection of other people’s old slides as he shares his unique perspective on life in midcentury Los Angeles, Pasadena, Hollywood and more—the place he calls “Southern CaliforniaLand.”

The lecture will take place p.m. at the Neighborhood Church, 2 Westmoreland Place, with a reception following next door at The Gamble House. Tickets are $25 general admission, $20 for FOGH members and $15 for students.

On March 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you can ride one of Phoenix’s vintage school buses for the “San Dena/Dena/Rino Tour” exploring extraordinary attractions in San Gabriel, Pasadena, Altadena and San Marino.
Departing from The Gamble House, the bus stops at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, with its Kenny Scharf–spray-painted parking garage; the Pacific Asia Museum; a Craftsman-furniture-filled Castle Green pied-a-terre; and San Gabriel’s Monster Park, where kids can cavort on giant dragon and sea-creature sculptures.

The tour also includes a special luncheon at the California School of Culinary Arts and Fosselman’s famous ice cream at Funky Junk Farms, the vintage “bungalows-on-wheels” trailer park in Altadena. Tickets are $125 ($110 for FOGH members).

PREFAB HOUSING: FROM CRAFTSMAN TO CONTEMPORARY

On April 22 at 7:30 p.m., Leo Marmol, FAIA, managing principal of Marmol Radziner + Associates and Marmol Radziner Prefab, will present an overview of the history of prefab architecture from the Arts and Crafts period to his company’s ongoing quest to create modern, efficient, well-constructed homes within the constraints of a factory.
The presentation will take place in the Ahmanson Auditorium, Art Center College of Design, 1700 Lida St. A reception will follow at The Gamble House. Tickets are $25 general admission, $20 for FOGH members and $15 for students.

THE GARDENS OF HEARST CASTLE

On May 16, at 1 p.m. at Art Center’s Ahmanson Auditorium, Hearst Castle’s official historian, author Victoria Kastner, will offer an in-depth look at the site’s landscape, exploring the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement on the garden’s design and discussing Julia Morgan’s unrecognized work as William Randolph Hearst’s landscape architect.

Kastner will also touch on the connections between San Simeon and other
significant California landscape-related achievements of the time, including the versity of California’s campus design, restoration of the California missions, preservation of the state's redwoods, and the two 1915 California World’s Fairs. Tickets are $25 general admission, $20 for FOGH members and $15 for students.

FOGH garden lectures are typically followed by a tour of a local garden. After Kastner’s lecture, landscape architect Heather Lenkin will lead an “Italian Spring in a San Rafael Garden” tour of the restored grounds of the 1919 Reginald Johnson Mediterranean Revival estate in the San Rafael Hills overlooking Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco.
Lenkin will share her insights into the designs, details and plant materials of the estate’s walled orchard and its rose, spring, “inferno” and secret gardens. Tickets are $25 general admission and $20 for FOGH members.