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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHistoric Survey Update Presented by Andrea Galvin - Study Set t B - i 9- Item 1. - I 1 x gs WISH w H i Ell a ti c n out!yam, 3�q1 �� s .� '� � ss66pay p � WON Item I. - 12 '��� / / \ rdS I S o ; a �... k7 £ Map wGy Survey Area (shown as red hatched areas previousf _ƒ 'Ila JA \ \ 'treet and k da -V 110,', Ninffi �,blla '�trcct area, Map P� 199"', Di%trict Dom , 1 lei for wel, :rl (41) Contributing (14) Non-Contrit 2012 MAIN STREET -CREST AVENUL HISTORIC DISTRICT (former ark) N -Aft (6) Contributing Non-Contribut Map H: 2012 Proposed District Boundaries for Revised 9"' Street Historic District, Mary Adams Urashima Mary.Adams.Urashima@gmail.com www.HistoricWintersburg.bloEspot.com City Council May 5, 2013 City of Huntington Beach 2000 Main Street Huntington Beach, CA 92648 RE: Historic Context and Survey report Mayor Boardman and City Council Members: The Historic Context and Survey report acknowledges the historic significance of the "Historic Wintersburg" (Warner -Nichols) property. I applaud and support the recommended designation of "3S" for four of the structures on the property, as eligible for National Register listing. I also recommend including the Furuta farm's heritage barn. I would also point out that I received a copy of the Historic Context and Survey report on March 6, 2013, and that this report was not previously provided for review to the Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force (City Council ad hoc committee dedicated to the preservation of the Historic Wintersburg property), currently under CEQA review for historical / cultural resources. This property includes at least four structures noted as eligible for the National Register. My comments focus primarily on the sections of the Survey relating to this property. REPORT: ... ............ 111-372-06 .......... 7622 Warner Ave __ Spanish Colonial Revival Japanese Presb Brian 1910 None 3 t5 a1 111-372-66 7622 Warner Ave Residential? Vernacular i 1919 None ? 3 ,5 1 1 111-372-06 2622Warner Ave Chu rchRuil€iin 1934 None 3 /5S1 111-372-07 7642 Warner Ave _._..__ Front Gable Roof Cottage- W... 1914 _.......... None _. 3S/5S1 Furuta House COMMENT: Please note these errors: the 1910 Mission is not Spanish Colonial Revival (the 1934 Depression -era Church building is Spanish Colonial Revival). The Mission is a classic, rectangular white clapboard American mission -style structure. The date noted for the Furuta house is wrong and should be dated 1912, as documented by a 1982 oral history with Yukiko Furuta (conducted by Professor Emeritus Arthur Hansen for California State University Fullerton). The "residential vernacular" structure is the Manse, or clergy home built in 1910. Some of these same errors are repeated in Appendix B and D. also would recommend adding the Furuta farm's heritage barn to this list. It is the original property owner's barn, likely constructed prior to the house per farmers' usual practice, and reflects the progression of uses on the Charles M. and Yukiko Furuta farm over a century, including gold fish and flower farming. The original construction and any adaptations to the barn were made by the original and sole owner, prior to the property's purchase by Rainbow Environmental Services, which does not diminish its historical value. It appears to be the last pioneer heritage barn left in the City. We have information regarding a barn that is identical to the Furuta farm barn in the Pasadena area, with indication this was an itinerant builder who also worked in Orange County. This is an important 1 Item 1. - 26 xB -34- Mary Adams Urashima Mary.Adams.UrashimaPgmaii.com www.HistoricVVinters��.com REPORT: As Wintersburg prospered with the expansion of nearby agriculture, demand for social institutions, such as churches and schools, also followed suit. On April 29, 1906, the Los Angeles Times noted that "Marsh & Russell have prepared plans for a new wood frame Methodist church building to be erected at Wintersburg, Cal." COMMENT: A community meeting was held in 1904 at the Armory building in Wintersburg (intersection of present-day Warner and Gothard avenues), regarding the need for churches. As a result, the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission was founded in 1904. The document below —a "prospectus" or "reasons to build a church" —was drafted shortly after this by the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission and used as a fundraising tool throughout Orange County to commence the Mission building construction in 1909. Clergy for this mission effort were in Wintersburg as early as 1902: "God has truly blessed our church throughout its history, beginning in 1902, when visionaries of the Westminster Presbyterian and Methodist Evangelical Churches responded obediently to God's calling to minister to young bachelors from Japan who labored in the celeryfields of what is now Huntington Beach" (source: Wintersburg Presbyterian Church). A translation of the document provided by a scholar with the Japanese American National Museum can be found at htt historicwintersbur .bla s ot.com 2012 05 ros ectus-for-establishin-church.html. *', R zA*� ;K T M b �, Ftsc4tXb'` �;i' n .r U'. A'F7 Lt § A i aIL H 3 Item 1. - 28 1­113 -36- Mary Adams Urashima Mary.Adams.Urashima@gmail.com www.HistoricWintersbur .blo spotcom Reverend Hisakichi Terasawa and family, founder of the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission effort, first organized meetings for Mission congregants in a barn in Wintersburg. REPORT: Many "Issei", naturalized Japanese immigrants, and "Nikkei", nonnaturalized Japanese residents, were attracted to the area by the good works of Reverend Terasawa who often ministered in Orange County. COMMENT: Issei (first generation from Japan) were not allowed to become naturalized citizens, as they were prohibited a path to citizenship. The writer has incorrectly used the term Nikkei, which refers to the entirety of the Japanese community, Japanese immigrants and their descendants who have created communities throughout the world (source: Japanese American National Museum publication, Discover Nikkei). There is no definition found for "non naturalized." However in the historical context of the founding of the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission, none of the Issei congregants were naturalized citizens as that was prohibited. The children of Issei who were born in the United States, referred to as Nisei, were citizens at birth. REPORT: In 1910 he (Charles Furuta) purchased land in Wintersburg that would become his home, located along Huntington Beach Boulevard (present-day Beach Boulevard) near its intersection with Warner Avenue) and later donated a portion of his property to help establish the Japanese Presbyterian Church there. COMMENT: Charles Furuta, with the help of his mentor, Reverend Terasawa, would have bought the property prior to 1910—between 1904 and 1909—as they began construction of the Mission on a portion of the Furuta farm in 1909. REPORT: He (Charles Furuta) returned to Hiroshima to marry and brought his wife Yukiko (a daughter of samurai lineage) back to Wintersburg in 1913. Item 1. - 32 HB -40- Mary Adams Urashima ary.Adams.Urashima@mail.com www.HistoricWinters�ospot.com It should be noted, however, that this did not prevent their forced evacuation and incarceration during World War II. The photograph is of Wintersburg's Japanese community with Huntington Beach leaders at the Huntington Inn, circa May 1912. The gentleman in the front row, fourth from right, is Reverend Hisakichi Terasawa, the Cambridge -educated Episcopalian minister who helped found the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission. The gentleman in the second row, far right, is Huntington Beach's first mayor, Ed Manning. REPORT: A community center had been constructed at Talbert for the children of the first Japanese families to settle in Huntington Beach. COMMENT: The Talbert facility was a Japanese language school and community center affiliated with the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church. It was sited on land obtained by congregant Hisamatsu Tamura, the father of Justice Stephen Tamura, the first Japanese American attorney in Orange County and California's first Japanese American appellate court judge and Supreme Court justice. The Tamura family were congregants of the Mission, Stephen Tamura attending Sunday school as a child. In his 1982 oral history, Clarence Nishizu explains, "Hisamatsu Tamura --along with fellow farmer Isojiro Oka and other issei--purchased "an old Standard Oil Company wooden building" to serve as the school and an old house to serve as the teacher's residence, moving both buildings to the school site. They are honored today with the Isojiro Oka Elementary School in Huntington Beach and the Hisamatsu Tamura Elementary School in Fountain Valley. There also was a similar language school affiliated with the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission in Costa Mesa and administered by Shuji Kanno. Kanno was an elder in the Wintersburg �9 Item 1. - 34 HB -42- Mary Adams Urashima Mary.Adams.Urashima@gmail.com www.HistoricWintersburF.bloRsi2ot.com Japanese Presbyterian Church and also the father of Fountain Valley's first mayor, James Kanno, the first Japanese American mayor in the continental United States. Another language school associated with the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission was at Crystal Cove on Irvine Company Land. This building remains today as Cottage #34, the cultural center in the Crystal Cove State Park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Below is an excerpt from a 1930 history for the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission written by Reverend Kenji Kikuchi, who was the clergy at that time. The Japanese language schools affiliated with the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church are an important historical note, as the actual reach of the Mission was much broader than Wintersburg with centers and activities throughout the County. Also of note, the leaders and teachers associated with the Mission's Japanese schools and community centers were among the first taken by the FBI after Pearl Harbor. The Gold Fish Farm of Charles Mitsuji Furuta, circa 1920s. Note the barn —still standing on the property today — was then used to house the automobile, some animals, and farm supplies. REPORT: Furuta and friend Kiyomi Henry Akiyama had also developed a thriving goldfish business; one of the largest in the nation. 10 HB -43- Item 1. - 35 Mary Adams Urashima MarV.Adams.Urashima@gmail.com www.HistoricWintersburg.blogspot.com REPORT: The Religious Building, Church section (page 116) includes this statement: "Several Euro- American families were drawn to the region for agricultural purposes." COMMENT: There should be mention in this section of immigrants other than "Euro American," e.g. Chinese and Japanese. REPORT: The Japanese Influences section including Religious building (Mission) on page 117. COMMENT: This section describes the 1910 Mission structure while showing a photograph of the 1934 Depression - era Church, which will confuse those utilizing this report now and in the future. The description also mixes the 1910 Mission and the 1934 Church. It would be better to show photographs of and separate descriptions of both structures, and the Mission complex in its entirety. This site is unique in that there are multiple structures representing different and significant time periods. The description completely mixes the description of the structures, instead of defining them as distinct structures. There is no mention this site is the sole remaining property of two known Japanese -owned properties prior to California's Alien Land Law of 1913, and the sole remaining Japanese -owned property of that time period (the Tsurumatsu Asari property has long since been developed). The report describes the location as "near Talbert; a community that was later incorporated into Huntington Beach". Talbert was incorporated as Fountain Valley, not Huntington Beach. The 1910 Mission and Manse. The 1934 Spanish Revival Style Church 16 HB -49- Item 1. - 41