Costa Mesa preservationists to consider a more active role
Costa Mesa’s Historical Preservation Committee may be moving in a direction more in keeping with its name.
Member Mary Ellen Goddard said at its Aug. 14 meeting that the committee, which works with the City Council and Costa Mesa Historical Society to foster knowledge about the history of Costa Mesa, could become more active in protecting historic structures.
The committee and historical society generally have been more informational. They haven’t necessarily acted as advocacy groups, said Art Goddard, Goddard’s husband and a lead volunteer with the historical society.
Her proposal could be reexamined by her eight colleagues at the group’s Sept. 11 meeting. The agenda for that session at City Hall has not been finalized.
Mary Ellen Goddard said she’s seeing an increased interest in the city’s past. In the past few months, residents have approached either the committee or the historical society with concerns about the loss of historic structures.
Recently, historians were notified that the Costa Mesa Community of Christ church, a 1928 Craftsman-style structure at 1950 Church St., was for sale. The church’s congregation had dwindled in recent years and services were no longer being held.
“People are starting to ask,” said Mary Ellen Goddard, who is also an archivist with the historical society. “It is the Historical Preservation Committee, so maybe we ought to do something to preserve buildings and so forth, or at least assist people who want to do it.”
Costa Mesa “needs some kind of historical preservation presence,” she added. “Something to show that we’re interested at least.”
The city has preservation laws, but they haven’t been heavily promoted or used, said Art Goddard.
In 1999, the City Council passed the Historic Preservation Ordinance, which designated 24 structures as eligible for a local historic register. A property’s inclusion on the register grants the owner various tax benefits.
Only one owner in the ordinance’s 15-year history has gone for the designation. The Huscroft House, formerly on Santa Ana Avenue, was saved and eventually moved to Bernard Street. In 2007, the council approved the Craftsman home, built in 1915 in Santa Ana, for inclusion on the register.
“You’ll find most historical societies aren’t everything to everybody,” Art Goddard said. “They mostly have their areas of expertise and focus. The [Costa Mesa] Historical Society could take on a stronger role in this, but so could the city’s Historical Preservation Committee.”
Mary Ellen Goddard noted that Orange and Tustin have “taken hold of this thing and saved a whole part of the town.”
“It seems to be in our town that they just mow it down,” she said.
The historical society was formed in 1966 to create a museum out of the Diego Sepúlveda Adobe in Estancia Park. Since then, the nonprofit’s dominant role has been archiving, maintaining its downtown museum and hosting various exhibits and lectures.
For the city’s 60th anniversary party, the committee created a children’s coloring book containing historical facts. Over the years, members have also placed around the city historical site markers that provide information about specific locations and Costa Mesa’s early days.
