One-Year Anniversary of the Preservation Resource Center

Join the Conservancy on Saturday, January 28, from 11 am – 2 pm as we celebrate the one-year anniversary of our award-winning Shotgun House, the site of our Preservation Resource Center located at 2520 2nd Street in Santa Monica. Enjoy live music, refreshments, kids’ activities, and docent tours of the new exhibits in the Shotgun House as well as the must-see interior of the Merle Norman House. Guests can also view the Center’s drought-resistant garden featuring native plants like California fuschia, yellow yarrow, red buckwheat and coyote mint. Historian Alison Rose Jefferson, PhD., will also be on hand to discuss African-American history in Santa Monica at the event. The event is free and all ages are welcome. RSVP here.

History of the Shotgun House

Early one morning in 2002, this small shotgun house was under siege. A bulldozer arrived at 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 16 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 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 an award-winning model for adaptive reuse that showcases an important piece of Santa Monica’s history. The Center, which welcomed and educated over 1,600 in 2016, provides 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.