Fullerton Ca Landmarks

When it comes to old movie theater organs, Bob Trousdale's passion for music, technology and nostalgia combine like notes in a resounding chord. So it's not surprising that when Trousdale finished a yearlong contract in 1993 to electronically upgrade the powerful Wurlitzer at historic Plummer Auditorium, he decided to work for free on other aspects of the pipe organ's restoration. This volunteer effort is in its 16th month.

The City Council this week approved an agreement to help find a new owner for the historic Fox Theater downtown. The city will spend $25,000 to print marketing material to help sell the Harbor Boulevard theater, which has been boarded up since 1987. The city has six months to find a buyer but has no obligation to purchase the property if there is no interest. The selling price is $1.8 million. Restoring the theater, built in 1925, may require millions more.

What happened to Helen Lundeberg's mural 30 years ago was a crime, and it took place right there in the police station. Commissioned by the Works Progress Administration in 1938 to chronicle the history of Southern California, Lundeberg told the epic tale of Spanish conquistadors, American Indians, Gold Rush prospectors and filmmakers over three walls of the City Council chamber.

Two neighborhoods and 27 buildings, including homes, churches, businesses and a school, will be added to the city's listing of potential landmarks. The neighborhoods are along Buena Vista and Rose drives and in the 100 blocks of Ash, Elm and Rosslyn avenues. City Council members agreed to give the neighborhoods and properties landmark eligibility status. Doing so means that owners of the designated properties can ask the city to impose preservation rules.

The City Council this week approved an agreement to help find a new owner for the historic Fox Theater downtown. The city will spend $25,000 to print marketing material to help sell the Harbor Boulevard theater, which has been boarded up since 1987. The city has six months to find a buyer but has no obligation to purchase the property if there is no interest. The selling price is $1.8 million. Restoring the theater, built in 1925, may require millions more.

Bulldozers began razing a half-burned historic home Friday, clearing the way for an affordable-housing project that is at the center of a redevelopment controversy. Developers were to have completed the project--a hotel for low-income single people--by early 1995, but the work has yet to begin. City officials said Urban Communities-San Gabriel Partners of Costa Mesa could not secure funding for the project and sold its interest to another developer. The new developer, ADI Inc.

The planned renovation of historic Plummer Auditorium is one step closer to reality now that the City Council and Fullerton Union High School District have agreed on a future use for the building. After several months of negotiations, an agreement was hammered out Tuesday that will enable the city to save 50% on the rent on days there are no performances scheduled. The auditorium is expected to host performances of the Fullerton Civic Light Opera company.

Rows of dusty theater seats face a blank screen. Chips of white plaster, fallen from the rotting ceiling, speckle the worn magenta carpet in the aisles. Spider webs sway from the ceiling. "You're really seeing this place at a low ebb," Paul Richardson said during a recent tour of the Fox Fullerton Theatre on Harbor Boulevard. Although closed for three years and turning 65 in May, the Fox isn't ready for retirement. Richardson, vice president of Landmark Theatre Corp.

Preservationists are mounting an effort to save a turn-of-the-century Victorian home, one of the last remaining structures of its kind left in the city. The owner of the historic home, at 315 E. Amerige Ave., will ask the city's Planning Commission for a permit to demolish the structure at a meeting Wednesday. The owner says that to sell the house, she figures that she will need a demolition permit to add to its value.

Two more city neighborhoods could be designated as historic landmark districts under a proposal to be considered tonight by the City Council. If approved, the neighborhoods would become eligible to become historical preservation zones, which would require homeowners to preserve their properties. Fullerton Heritage members are seeking the designation for the Buena Vista and Rose drives neighborhood and for homes off the 100 blocks of Ash, Elm and Rosslynn avenues.

Calling it the best deal the city could get, council members this week sold the historic downtown Bank of Italy building for just over $1 million. The city's Redevelopment Agency bought the historic two-story building in 1981 to preserve it after the former owners went into foreclosure. The city spent more than $1.3 million to buy and improve the property over the years. "In hindsight, it was a mistake" to buy the property, Councilman Chris Norby said, citing the financial loss.

Here's a movie script in the making. The first scene: a glimpse of the old Fox Fullerton Theatre as it stands today, boarded up, decaying and condemned. Next scene: a local preservation group meeting to devise a plan to "Save the Fox!" The plot thickens as they launch a signature-gathering campaign, rallying public support for their cause, which includes trying to persuade city officials to take over the building by fiat. But this is no make-believe tale, and the outcome is the cliffhanger.

Bulldozers began razing a half-burned historic home Friday, clearing the way for an affordable-housing project that is at the center of a redevelopment controversy. Developers were to have completed the project--a hotel for low-income single people--by early 1995, but the work has yet to begin. City officials said Urban Communities-San Gabriel Partners of Costa Mesa could not secure funding for the project and sold its interest to another developer. The new developer, ADI Inc.

Home Improvement New rules guide renovation of historic areas.

Seated on a curved, hand-carved pew beside a one-of-a-kind stained glass window Wednesday, Phylicia Bernstein recounted the history of the city's oldest church. "It all started in 1888, when a reverend came from Iowa to settle here and found no churches in Fullerton," said Bernstein, a history buff who founded the church's historical society. "In 1909, the Methodists built this church at a cost of $18,000."

After months of negotiations, an agreement to restore and reopen the Fox Fullerton Theatre will come before the City Council on Tuesday. The agreement calls for the city to build a 200-space parking structure behind the Fox in exchange for the owner's spending up to $1.55 million to restore the 65-year-old theater. It has been considered a city landmark, and its reopening is part of the city's goal of attracting more people downtown in the evenings.

Plummer Auditorium, the North County's most widely used concert hall, is tentatively scheduled to close for renovation from July, 1991, through May, 1992, according to officials involved with the remodeling project. The closure will force numerous community and civic groups that use the hall for performing-arts presentations to find temporary new homes for their events.

A venerable 73-year-old landmark was made more resistant to earthquakes Tuesday. The Villa del Sol--once known as the California Hotel--underwent a 1 1/2-hour procedure in which seven-ton steel frames were inserted into the three-story building's walls, bringing it up to state seismic standards. The rest of the structure's rehabilitation will be completed a year ahead of schedule, owners said.

Capping more than 12 years of planning and $18 million worth of improvements, the city this week celebrates the completion of renovation of its two historic train depots and the opening of a pedestrian bridge linking them. The Fullerton station, which serves more than 900 Amtrak and Metrolink passengers a day, has long been a transportation hub, city officials said. And both depots recently were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. "We're a junction here," said Terry M.