{"id":250213,"date":"2016-05-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/chasse-ing-your-dreams\/"},"modified":"2016-05-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T07:00:00","slug":"chasse-ing-your-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/chasse-ing-your-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Chass\u00e9-ing your dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dancer honors her mother \u2014 and the past \u2014 by restoring a piece of architectural history<\/strong><\/p>\n

por Michael Bueno<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s new homeowners tend to rush into things. And you can hardly blame them.<\/p>\n

First, they rush into making an offer on a house \u2014 because they\u2019ve learned from experience that in this overheated market those who wait get outbid. Then they rush into closing, because the sellers and the real estate agents and the lenders want a quick escrow. And then, once they actually own their dream home, they rush into remodeling, because their former house has been sold and their furniture is in storage and the kids are about to start school, and they can\u2019t afford to rent another house, and, well, at this point hurrying has become a habit.<\/p>\n

But Anna Wilcoxson took her sweet time when it came to restoring her vintage house on Sunset Boulevard in Mission Hills. In fact, she thought about it for about 50 years before hiring an architect and contractor.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The owner of this Mission Hills house has been recognized by SOHO with a People in Preservation Award. (Photo by Michael Good)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy mother bought the house in 1956, when I was 1 year old,\u201d she said. Some of her earliest memories are of looking around and thinking about what she would change \u2014 if she ever got the chance.<\/p>\n

There was a lot to daydream about. Two items were particularly irksome: the brick cladding in the front of the house, and the small upstairs room \u2014 also at the front of the house \u2014 that had once been an open balcony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew it had been changed, and I always knew it should be changed back,\u201d she said. \u201cI dreamed of it. But my mom liked the extra room.\u201d<\/p>\n

The house had been put through a number of changes over the years, by a number of people who perhaps should have thought a little longer before taking up the hammer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a housing shortage before and after the war, and they filled in the upper balcony and added a room in the back, with a master bedroom and a closet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

At some point, the house had been divided into two dwellings. It was put back before Anna\u2019s family bought it in the 1950s. \u201cBut there was a gas outlet in the bedroom closet, where the kitchen stove had been,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, Anna\u2019s mother added a room on the back. \u201cShe took out the porch and just added a box on the back, with aluminum windows. I took over the room and made it my ballet room. I danced in there \u2014 she didn\u2019t mind. She said, \u2018Oh, knock yourself out.\u2019 That\u2019s how the Rec Room became the Ballet Room,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Anna eventually put the experience to good use: She established a ballet school in the neighborhood, Center City Ballet, just a few blocks away on Fort Stockton. And as the years went by, she continued to daydream about the house on Sunset, and what she would do if she had her way.<\/p>\n

In 2014, nearly 60 years after buying the house, Anna\u2019s mother passed away, and Anna inherited the place. At last, she was free to put things right again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t touch it until she was gone,\u201d she said, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. \u201cI probably shouldn\u2019t say this,\u201d she pauses, and then of course she says it. \u201cShe told me, \u2018You better not take that brick off or I\u2019ll come back to haunt you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In Anna\u2019s mother\u2019s defense, wrapping the front of the house in brick wasn\u2019t a completely wacky idea. Prairie-style houses are sometimes half brick, half stucco, and often have some sort of banding that adds to the horizontal nature of the house \u2014 although usually it\u2019s higher up on the wall. And usually the house is in the Midwest. San Diego\u2019s version of the style, which was started by architects like Irving Gill, who had lived or worked in the Midwest and were familiar with the style, tended to be a little more minimalist. And, in truth, putting a course of brick on the bottom third of a ranch house was kind of a 1950s thing. Looking at the \u201cbefore\u201d picture of the house, you can see why Anna couldn\u2019t wait to tear it off. Except, of course, she did wait.<\/p>\n

The house on Sunset was built in 1912 by the Pacific Building Company. The firm was innovative for a number of reasons \u2014 it offered financing for homebuyers and had its own design staff. Oscar W. Cotton founded it in 1908, and remained in charge until 1928.<\/p>\n

Anna believes that Irving Gill was the chief architect of the firm. I couldn\u2019t confirm that, but many of Gill\u2019s former prot\u00e9g\u00e9s were on staff. Frank Mead (Gill\u2019s former partner) and Richard Requa (Gill\u2019s former foreman) designed at least one house for Pacific Building Company, the 1911 George and Anna Barney residence, on Seventh Avenue. Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s son, John Lloyd Wright, was chief designer for Pacific Building Company. And John\u2019s brother, Lloyd Wright, worked in Gill\u2019s office and illustrated many of Gill\u2019s buildings. The two Wright brothers, Gill and Gill\u2019s nephew Louis, were friendly.<\/p>\n

According to Gill\u2019s biographer Thomas Hines, the brothers lived in one of Gill\u2019s experimental \u201cworkers cottages\u201d and the four played music together, sometimes for four or five hours at a time. (John on violin, Lloyd on cello and Louis on piano.) So Gill was something of a mentor to the house\u2019s likely designer, John Lloyd Wright \u2014 but he was a mentor to many young architects and draftsman of the era. His influence can be found on many Mission Hills Prairie-style houses, including Anna\u2019s house on Sunset, which has transom windows similar to those Gill used on the Hawley house on Panorama Drive. The house on Sunset looks like something Gill might have done. Or John Lloyd Wright might have done while trying to draw an Irving Gill house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think Irving Gill is great,\u201d Anna said. \u201cI just love what he did. He was just wonderful. The Ellen Browning Scripps house in La Jolla is one of his great buildings. And the Bishop\u2019s School.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Anna finally got her chance to restore her mother\u2019s former house, she proceeded with considerable caution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a house like this, you need to do things in a way that\u2019s beautiful and cohesive,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just what you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna hired contractor Jim Stafford to do the windows. He in turn brought in contractor Rhett Lessler for what turned into a major project, with restoration of the stucco exterior, the missing porch, the \u201ceyebrow\u201d that runs around the top of the roofline and a new addition. Architect Kim Grant designed the project. The Ballet Room was converted into a modern kitchen and family room. The ballet bar got moved to a little guest cottage with a wooden floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all-encompassing,\u201d Anna said. \u201cAll the molding was duplicated to create this seamless look. You really can\u2019t tell what is new and what is old. It just turned out beautiful. My mom would be so proud, even if the brick is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

She must be proud \u2014 because she hasn\u2019t come back to haunt the place. Or has she? Anna laughed. \u201cThere was this rose bush she planted and during the construction, we had to pull it up. It was dormant for two years, and then we replanted it, and now it\u2019s alive again. She was an amazing lady. She was a completely fantastic person. She picked the house. She lived to be 99 and a half. She died two months short of 100. I think people should just feel blessed when something works out as well as this did, and we should just appreciate these old homes. They\u2019re just so precious.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 18, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) recognized Anna\u2019s efforts to restore her mother\u2019s house during its People in Preservation Awards. The ceremony was held in the garden of the Irving Gill-designed Marston House, which Anna\u2019s mother would no doubt have appreciated. Other homeowners were recognized, including Devin and DeLayne Harmon of Kensington, who were profiled in this column last fall. Also recognized were homeowners Genevieve Leg\u00e9r and Chris Woods, Kyle and Tim Malone of Kensington and Kevin and Laurie Kravets of Inspiration Heights.<\/p>\n

\u2014Comun\u00edquese con Michael Good en housecallssdun@gmail.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A dancer honors her mother \u2014 and the past \u2014 by restoring a piece of architectural history By Michael Good Today\u2019s new homeowners tend to rush into things. And you can hardly blame them. First, they rush into making an offer on a house \u2014 because they\u2019ve learned from experience that in this overheated market […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":250214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Chass\u00e9-ing your dreams","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}