Historic Buildings

Fire broke out Monday in a two-story building that has stood since 1905 in the central business district of Glendora, causing minor injuries to two firefighters and more than $1 million in damage to apartments and businesses, authorities said. The flames burned the attic portion and collapsed the roof of the masonry building in the 100 block of North Glendora Avenue for nearly two hours after the fire was reported at 7:52 a.m., County Fire Inspector John Lenihan said.

Planning for the critical widening of the Santa Ana Freeway has been delayed 10 months by the required study of two historic buildings, one of them a 1917 power company substation believed to be designed by the same architect who did Los Angeles City Hall and Memorial Coliseum.

Six winners of the Los Angeles Conservancy's Preservation Awards for 1985 have been announced. The winners were selected for having demonstrated exceptional achievement in the preservation of historically significant buildings or sites or for a tangible and important contribution to historic preservation. Awards recognized the Garfield Building, 403 West 8th St.; Elizabeth Bard Professional Center, 121 N. Fir St., Ventura; Gartz Court Relocation Project, 745 N. Pasadena Ave.

As a wrecking ball punched into the historic Cominos Hotel again and again last Friday, Betty Brusa sadly clicked away with her camera, recording for posterity the death of one of the Salinas Valley's most regal landmarks. "It was heartbreaking," said Brusa, president of the Monterey County Historical Society, who with a stunned group of local preservationists and history buffs watched the destruction of the old luxury hotel in downtown Salinas--a favorite haunt of author John Steinbeck.

More than 25 years of hard work by the Garden Grove Historical Society are being threatened by years of rainfall and the blistering sun. Elderly volunteers who have saved many of Garden Grove's oldest homes from demolition say they do not have the expertise or numbers to protect the old wooden buildings from the elements.

City officials are looking for ways to ease restrictions on changes to designated historic buildings in the wake of complaints from some owners that they are unfairly handicapped in adapting their property to new uses. Thirty-four properties are protected under the city's Historic Preservation Ordinance. The law was enacted in 1985 to help preserve remaining examples of the city's early history and architecture.

Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., where in 1957 federal troops were ordered to help nine black students integrate the student body, has been recognized as one of the nation's 12 most endangered historic sites by a leading preservationist group. The dramatic newsreel footage of Elizabeth Eckford, a solitary black girl arriving for her first day of class only to be surrounded by jeering white classmates, has stood the test of time.

Old Calabasas is a town with a bad reputation, and proud of it. In the late 1800s, when Los Angeles was already growing fast, Calabasas was a stagecoach stop on the route to Santa Barbara and points north. Calabasas was the domain of Miguel Leonis, a Basque immigrant turned land magnate who ruled by gun, muscle and guile. The settlement had saloons, dance halls and a history of local justice dispensed by a hanging tree.

In a major defeat for preservationists and environmentalists, the U.S. Navy on Tuesday recommended a plan for its abandoned Long Beach Naval Station that would demolish the historic buildings that housed the Pacific Fleet's headquarters before World War II. The Navy's decision, which was laid out in a 33-page report, effectively clears the way for the Long Beach Harbor Commission to proceed with its controversial plan to build cargo terminals and a ship repair facility on the 500-acre base.

On a recent Tuesday night at Salvage Bar & Lounge in downtown Los Angeles, Bertha Suarez Blankenship, a former member of the National Ballet of Cuba, rose up on her pointe shoes and commandeered the venue's small platform stage. She proceeded to dance a technically precise excerpt from "Swan Lake" and as cheers erupted, Shana Blake Hill, a tall, dark-haired opera singer, strode onstage in a bustier and fishnets and belted out an aria from "Carmen. " For about two hours, members of the newly formed Blankenship Cabaret Theatre entertained some 50 people with an eclectic array of punchy song and dance numbers.