Casa Romantica

The public is invited to attend a public workshop Saturday to review the preliminary plans for transforming Casa Romantica into a cultural, arts and education center. The 1:30 p.m. workshop will be coordinated by the city and the Casa Romantica Cultural Center board of directors. Small group tours of Casa Romantica, the historic home of city founder Ole Hanson, will follow the scheduled presentations.

When they set out to restore Casa Romantica, the picturesque but decaying estate of San Clemente founder Ole Hanson, the goal was to bring back the seaside villa's splendor and elegance and make it a cultural center for the community. Easier said than done. Not long after the restoration began in July 2002, a 20-foot-deep sinkhole was discovered beneath Hanson's study, an octagon-shaped room with large windows on five sides overlooking the ocean and the San Clemente Pier.

A free open house is scheduled today at Casa Romantica, the former home of city founder Ole Hanson and a source of controversy over what its future should include. Several City Council candidates who are in favor of using the city-owned mansion as a center for cultural, art and wedding events are expected at the open house, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Casa Romantica, the historic bluff-top home of San Clemente founder Ole Hanson, will soon be transformed into a cultural and educational center, to the cheers of preservationists who have fought to keep the property intact. The California Coastal Commission's recent approval of the city's restoration plans was the final regulatory hurdle for the $6.8-million project.

Two Spanish-style canvas murals commissioned by the city's founder in 1928--and later rescued from a dumpster in the 1980s--were returned to their home Friday at Casa Romantica after a five-month restoration project. "I saved all these tiny pieces of canvas and tucked them behind [the paintings] for the day someone would take care of them," said Maureen Gates, who has operated a wedding business at the bluff-top mansion for 15 years.

Friends of Casa Romantica, a group of residents and business owners, will urge the City Council today to drop plans to commercialize the historic mansion. The Redevelopment Agency bought the $2.5-million mansion in 1989. Under a contract with developer Grand Pacific Resorts, the city plans to restore Casa Romantica, convert it to a restaurant and build a bluff-top park and cultural center.

In a surprise shift in its position on the future of historic Casa Romantica, the Redevelopment Agency voted Wednesday to give a wedding business another chance to stay in the landmark building. City Council members who serve on the agency board had been expected to terminate a business agreement with Maureen Capielo Gates, who hosts 150 weddings at Casa Romantica each year through her company, Events by Design. City Atty.

The landmark Casa Romantica will get a face-lift and structural repairs with help from a $110,425 state grant. The money will be used to repair terra cotta roof tiles, improve the building's electrical system and restore two historic murals painted by one of California's foremost muralists of the 1920s, Norman Kennedy. The grant from the State Office of Historic Preservation's California Heritage Fund was a pleasant surprise, associate city planner Jim Pechous said. "It was great news," he said.

With an understaffed Planning Department struggling to keep up with its workload, the City Council will allow plans to renovate historic Casa Romantica mansion to be delayed about six months. Recent resignations of key personnel in City Hall forced the delay, City Manager Michael T. Parness told the council last week. In addition, the project has been stalled by the April 30 decision by the developer, the Ratkovich Co., to pull out of the renovation plans because of community opposition.

The Heritage Foundation of San Clemente & Visitor Center is presenting a photography exhibit beginning today to draw support for efforts to preserve the former home of city founder Ole Hansen. "Casa Romantica, the Past, Present and Future" is a collection of photographs of the 20-room Spanish villa. A citizen's group, Friends of the Casa Romantica, is urging the city to drop its plans to develop the historic home into a restaurant.

Casa Romantica, the historic bluff-top home of San Clemente founder Ole Hanson, will soon be transformed into a cultural and educational center, to the cheers of preservationists who have fought to keep the property intact. The California Coastal Commission's recent approval of the city's restoration plans was the final regulatory hurdle for the $6.8-million project.

The public is invited to attend a public workshop Saturday to review the preliminary plans for transforming Casa Romantica into a cultural, arts and education center. The 1:30 p.m. workshop will be coordinated by the city and the Casa Romantica Cultural Center board of directors. Small group tours of Casa Romantica, the historic home of city founder Ole Hanson, will follow the scheduled presentations.

The City Council has approved two architectural firms to handle the design phases of the upcoming renovation of Casa Romantica, the former home of city founder Ole Hanson. The council named Anthony Stark Architect to design the building interior and infrastructure, and Isabelle Greene & Associates to design the landscape and parking lot. The ocean-view mansion near the pier is being turned into a cultural arts and education center. The design will cost $260,000 and be funded via a $1.

Historical Society president Charles Ashbaugh is eager to begin unpacking the dozens of battered cardboard boxes that are filled with historic pictures, documents and other precious memorabilia stored in rooms at Casa Romantica, the palatial residence built by Ole Hansen, a former Seattle mayor who founded San Clemente 66 years ago.