text: Posted in Advocacy, Alhambra Preservation Group, Uncategorized, tagged Alhambra, Alhambra Preservation Group, APG, architecture, Arts and Crafts, Bungalow Court, Curtis, Marguerita, Preservation on June 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »	
  We need your help to save one of Alhambra’s few remaining Bungalow Courts and a Craftsman home.
  On July 16, Alhambra’s Planning Commission will hear a proposed development to raze a 1923 bungalow court at 234 South Marguerita Avenue and an adjacent 1908 Arts and Crafts home at 237 South Curtis Avenue, which sits directly east of the bungalow court. The owner/developer proposes combining these two parcels. The development will destroy affordable housing units to build at-market valued condominiums.
  “Alhambra Preservation Group strongly opposes this proposed development. We urge residents to join us in stopping the destruction of historic buildings and affordable housing units in Alhambra,” stated Oscar Amaro, Founder and President of Alhambra Preservation Group. “In other cities, a bungalow court and Craftsman home like this would be preserved and protected. Instead, in Alhambra, it is developers and a ‘pay-to-play’ system that is preserved and protected. This system sends a signal to outside developers and business interests that Alhambra is easy to pillage, plunder and profit from destroying our city’s character and neighborhoods,” continued Amaro.
  Please join Alhambra Preservation Group in opposing this project. Here’s how you can help:
  Sign this petition opposing the development on South Marguerita and South Curtis.
  Share the petition on social media and encourage your neighbors to sign it.
  Write a letter opposing this development and e-mail it to Paul Lam at plam@cityofalhambra.org by 4:30 p.m. on July 16. Letters received by 4:30 p.m. will be read into the record at the Planning Commission meeting.
  Participate in the virtual Planning Commission meeting at 7 p.m. on July 16, 2020 and speak out against this project. Here is the Planning Commission Agenda. For those interested in speaking out, please e-mail Paul Lam at plam@cityofalhambra.org by 5:00 p.m. on July 16, specifying that you’d like to speak on Item #5. Include the phone number you will use when calling or the name you will use when logging into the meeting virtually.
  Until the City of Alhambra adopts a historic preservation ordinance, which will put into place the appropriate review process to determine the historical, architectural and cultural significance of Alhambra’s homes and buildings, our city’s historic homes will continue to be destroyed.
  At the July 13 City Council meeting, the City of Alhambra took historic first steps towards developing a historic preservation program, which will include an ordinance. Because Alhambra has begun the process of developing a comprehensive historic preservation program, Alhambra Preservation Group is advocating for a moratorium on all development that proposes the razing of homes and buildings.
  Help us stop this development! It’s time the City of Alhambra prioritized people and preservation over profits!
  Photos courtesy of Meehar Tom.
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  A Restoration of Love – And Surprises
  Posted in Alhambra Preservation Group, tagged Alhambra, Alhambra Preservation Group, architecture, Arts and Crafts, Craftsman, Preservation, Ramona Park, restoration on July 31, 2018| 1 Comment »	
  “We wanted to bring the ‘Wow!’ factor back,” explained Regina Cipriani, a lifelong Alhambra resident, explained. “Now, when you open the door, you see all the wood detailing that make Craftsman homes so stunning.
  Alhambra Preservation Group is honored to share the news of the completion of the beautiful, carefully and lovingly orchestrated restoration of the Cipriani Family home in Alhambra’s Ramona Park by APG member Regina Cipriani and her three siblings.
  The Swiss Chalet-style Craftsman house was built in 1911. Regina’s late parents bought it in 1958, spent six months remodeling it, and then moved in with their four children. The home has been in the family ever since. The Cipriani’s are only the third owners.
  Regina Cipriani
  “It’s the only home I’ve ever known,” Regina explained, other than the lovely Alhambra English Cottage she currently occupies with her husband and three sons. “All four of us siblings have such a love for this home. We wanted to bring it back to life to showcase the unbelievable craftsmanship and wood work that define historic Craftsman homes.”
  So the task began. Decades of paint was stripped off woodwork throughout the home exposing gorgeous Douglas Fir coffered ceiling beams in the living room, plate rails and wainscoting in the dining room and a built-in desk and bookcase in the library. They repainted the three bedrooms, the kitchen, the breakfast room, and the three bathrooms. Even the service porch received a facelift because that’s how these beautiful homes were built – artistic craftsmanship in every room. The family ripped out carpeting to reveal white oak hardwood floors and stripped off a century’s worth of wall paper to reveal baby-skin-soft plaster that had never been painted.
  The home also revealed surprises. A now mostly illegible message written in pencil on the plaster in the rear bedroom dated August 1912 with the name “Schmidt” and “good night,” was found hidden under wallpaper.
  Much of the wood decor was missing, so the family team commissioned custom wood work and custom moldings to match the original throughout the house. They remade two rows of custom molding in the dining room. And replaced molding in the breakfast nook, custom designing it to match the original molding in the library. “There was evidence that the bookcases in the library originally had doors, so we commissioned bookcase doors designed to match the windows.” The built-in buffet in the dining room still had the original lead glass. “Bringing back the natural wood of the buffet made the lead glass sparkle and shine more than it ever did when the wood was painted,” Regina said.
  The siblings discovered 10 original windows in the basement. Another surprise. They had them reinstalled and commissioned three additional windows to match. They discovered a window had once been in the door to the breakfast nook. So they put it back, custom designing the new one to match the existing window in the kitchen door. In one of the bathrooms, they discovered the original octagon-shaped tile floor, safely preserved under layers of added flooring.
  An original Craftsman-style light fixture pendant was discovered in the basement. Probably one of the 10 fixtures that originally hung from the living room beams, and a match to the existing fixture in the library. It was rewired and now hangs in the breakfast room. “You think you know a house. But with these beautiful old Craftsman homes, there is still a lot to discover.”
  The full restoration took six months – November, 2017 through May, 2018. The siblings were surprised to note that this was exactly the time it took their parents to remodel the home 60 years ago. And that the restoration was completed on their late mother’s birthday.
  “All four of us have such a love for this home and the work our parents put into it. We think our parents would like knowing that we have brought it back to its glory.”
  Today, Cipriani family members and their children are continuing to live happily ever after in their beautifully restored Alhambra home.
  Photos courtesy of Regina Cipriani and Alhambra Preservation Group.
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  Sensational Centennial
  Posted in Alhambra History, tagged Alhambra, Alhambra Preservation Group, Artists Alley, Arts and Crafts, Champion Place, historic preservation on October 2, 2017| 1 Comment »	
  A century ago, Alhambra (and America) was a vastly different place. The United States had just entered World War I and the women’s suffrage movement was gaining ground. In 1917, it cost just two cents to mail a letter and a mere seven cents to see a movie. A Sears kit home cost between $191 and $2,632! Because of the uncertainty caused by the war, America experienced a pause in home construction in 1917 and this housing lull affected Alhambra as well. However, Alhambra does have at least one 1917 home that is still standing here in our city.
  This home was constructed in the Arts and Crafts style with a slight nod to the Colonial Revival. Located on Champion Place within the original Alhambra Tract, this home was constructed by the property’s original owners, the Champion family, and has ties to the colony of prominent Western artists – which came be known as Artist’s Alley – who lived and worked in this small neighborhood.
  When first built in 1917, this home was assessed at $1,730. Allan and Estella Bard purchased the home from the Champion family in 1919 and were its first documented residents. The Bards came to California from the Midwest, having raised three children in Cleveland and Chicago. Allen Bard got his start in the jewelry business at age 21 in 1875 and continued in the sale of precious stones after moving to Alhambra. Between 1919 and present day, 10 different families have called this house “home.” Those residents ranged from an up and coming West Coast artist to a Borax accountant, from a microbiologist to a Los Angeles Community College professor.
  This year, this grand home joins many other Alhambra homes that have reached the 100-year mark. Join us in celebrating this home’s truly sensational centennial!