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For years, it was the dream of Conservancy leadership and many community members to save and rehabilitate Santa Monica’s Landmark Shotgun House as a Preservation Resource Center for our community. Now that dream is a reality! (Read about the Shotgun House in the Los Angeles Times!)

Early one morning in 2002, a small house was under siege. A bulldozer arrived its front door and workmen began to dismantle the structure by hand. But community members intervened, and strengthened by the authority of the City of Santa Monica, the house was moved and saved from demolition more than a century after it was built.

Over the next sixteen years, the house became the property of the City, and was relocated two more times before a permanent location was found in the parking lot across from Norman Place and the Ocean Park Library. Under the guardianship of the Santa Monica Conservancy, an adaptive reuse plan was developed, a lease was negotiated, and funds were raised to sensitively rehabilitate and transform the little shotgun house into a Preservation Resource Center.

Today we are proud to present a model for adaptive reuse that showcases an important piece of our city’s history. The Center will provide residents and visitors with practical, user-friendly information about historic resources in Santa Monica as well as the methods and benefits of preserving older buildings. An interpretive program has been developed, and docent volunteers will welcome and inform visitors.

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