Conservancy News

Image: The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Source: State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO)

This Friday, August 2nd, the State Historical Resources Commission will vote on the Conservancy’s nomination to add the Civic Auditorium to the National Register of Historic Places! We urge you to support this vital initiative by sending the Commission an email or giving public comment during the meeting itself which begins at 9 a.m. PST.

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The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is an iconic mid-century building built in 1959 by master architect Welton Becket. It has played a pivotal role in Santa Monica’s cultural life, hosting events ranging from the Academy Awards to speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and is notable as an “urban renewal” project of its era, with its construction following displacement of an African American neighborhood called Belmar.

Read more about significance

The Civic Auditorium by Julius Shulman in 1958. © J. Paul Getty Trust.
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)

The Civic Auditorium was designated a City of Santa Monica landmark in 2001, meeting all six of the city’s criteria. No other city landmark has achieved this feat. 

With an innovative mixed-use program, combining a concert hall, theater, trade show, and convention center, the Civic was designed to serve a broad segment of the community. 

And it still can! 

Closed since 2013, just last week City Council voted to enter into an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with a capable and motivated team proposing to revitalize the landmark as an exciting live entertainment venue that preserves our cultural heritage.

A National Register listing could be instrumental in attracting the resources needed for its restoration as a vital community space! This honorific designation carries immense value in preserving our cultural heritage: 

• Preservation Without Restriction: Listing in the Register is primarily honorific and does not affect property rights or add regulatory requirements beyond existing city zoning and Landmark status.
• Financial Incentives: National Register listing opens doors to federal and state tax incentives, grants, and the use of the State Historic Building Code. These benefits can be crucial in attracting private investment and determining project feasibility. See fact sheet here.
• Revitalization Potential: While the building retains a high degree of historic authenticity, it has been closed since 2013 due to seismic deficiencies and outdated systems. National Register listing could be instrumental in attracting the resources needed for its restoration.

A National Register listing could be instrumental in attracting the resources needed for the Civic’s restoration as a vital community space!

We urge you to support this nomination by sending an email of support to the State Historical Resources Commission or sharing a public testimony during the nomination hearing this Friday. Together, we can ensure that the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium remains a landmark for generations to come.

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And, as always, please support the Conservancy in our ongoing efforts to preserve our shared heritage. BECOME A MEMBER TODAY!

We developed an email below that you can use to draft your support for the nomination. We suggest adding a personalized sentence within the body of the email to ensure the message is not flagged as spam—please CC info@smconservancy.org in your email.. You may also use the draft message as a guide for public comment at the hearing on Friday via Zoom.

EMAIL:

To the State Historical Resources Commission,

I am writing in support of the nomination of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to the National Register of Historic Places!

The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, completed in 1959, is a prime example of Mid-century Modern and International Style architecture. Designed by master architect Welton Becket, this building holds immense historical and cultural significance for our community and the nation at large.

Key reasons to support this nomination include:

1. Architectural Significance: The auditorium exemplifies Modernist design principles and represents an important work by renowned architect Welton Becket.
2. Cultural Impact: As a civic performance space, it has played a crucial role in the history of performing arts. The venue has hosted notable events such as the Academy Awards, the premiere of the iconic surfing documentary “Endless Summer,” and speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
3. Urban Redevelopment History: Its construction followed the displacement of the African American neighborhood known as Belmar, making it an important site for understanding and reflecting on our community’s complex history of development and social change.

By adding the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to the National Register of Historic Places, we can ensure the preservation of this architectural gem and acknowledge its multifaceted role in our cultural heritage.

I kindly request that you support this nomination and help protect this invaluable piece of our shared history for future generations.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

A host of new programs and outreach efforts celebrate the Conservancy’s headquarters at the Shotgun House just off Main Street in Ocean Park as a center for neighborhood history and authentic experience of place.

SANTA MONICA, Calif.– July 2, 2024 — The Santa Monica Conservancy announced today a new initiative to engage the community in a program of events, neighborhood walks, garden tours, open houses events and community meetings, based at its headquarters at the Shotgun House. These programs spotlight local culture and history for neighbors and visitors to Ocean Park and beyond.

This summer the Conservancy launched its first new signature tour in seven years. Offered the second Saturday of every month from 10:30 am to noon, the new Main Street Walk is designed to reveal the vibrant assemblage of personalities, dreams, real estate transactions, politics, urban planning, transportation, construction materials that make up the neighborhood. A new Third Street Historic District Walk will also make its debut on Sundays July 14th and July 28th at 10am.

In addition to expanding existing free weekend walk-in visitor tours of the Shotgun House itself over the summer, the Conservancy is opening the little house to a series of community gatherings. These include bi-monthly roundtable discussions to share stories about the city’s neighborhoods and histories, starting on Saturday, July 20 from 11 – 1 pm.

Educational programs also include a series of Shotgun House Native Plant Garden tours, led by volunteer and poet Hilda Weiss.

Further, the Shotgun House, is a meeting point and focus for Preservation Next, the Conservancy’s affinity group for emerging and mid-career professionals interested in cultural and historic heritage to engage in interdisciplinary discussion and networking events. Interested parties should contact the Conservancy directly to be put on the Preservation Next mailing list.

There is an ongoing effort to recruit volunteer storytellers to support these developing programs.

“We hope to create a cultural commons,” says Kaitlin Drisko, Executive Director, Santa Monica Conservancy. “We are excited to focus our work locally to promote understanding of the role that heritage conservation can play in creating a sense of belonging here in your own back yard, and beyond.”

About The Shotgun House

The Conservancy and other community groups saved the Shotgun House from demolition in 2002. After two moves and much effort, the Shotgun House found a new home at 2520 Second Street. It was lovingly restored by the Conservancy and partners, thanks to many generous contributions, and opened to the public as a Preservation Resource Center in 2016. Built in 1897, the little house is the last remaining dwelling of its type in Santa Monica and is a designated City Landmark. Today it stands as an authentic piece of Ocean Park’s history, a LEED Gold example of adaptive reuse, a Preservation Resource Center and the hub of the Conservancy’s operations. The little house is a starting point for tours, a repository of information about heritage conservation in Santa Monica and a community center for the Ocean Park area.

Historian, author and West LA native Ronald Drabkin reveals some of Douglas Aircraft and the historic Associated Telephone Building’s WWII era secrets in the following article, adapted from a chapter in his new work of spy nonfiction, Beverly Hills Spy: The Double-Agent Flying Ace Who Infiltrated Hollywood and Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbor.

The first Douglas Aircraft Company plant on Wilshire and 25th in 1920, where the foreign spies first came to observe the advanced planes being made. Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives.

The citizens of Santa Monica in the mid 1920’s were used to the strange sight of big airplanes being wheeled across Wilshire Boulevard, on their way to Clover Field. Douglas Aircraft was still producing planes at its original location at 25th and Wilshire Boulevard, the current Douglas Park, and needed to get the planes to a location with a larger runway.

A Douglas World Cruiser on world flight in 1924 with a ship traveling the ocean below the airplane. Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives.

In the 1930s, the three countries that were most interested in obtaining this US technology were Germany, the Soviet Union and Japan. The Soviet Union had perhaps the easiest time recruiting agents. Los Angeles had a large number of Americans who were believers in communism, and with Douglas becoming Santa Monica’s largest employer, finding a local person to get a job at a plant and steal secrets was a reasonably achievable proposition.

Germany’s local organization, the Bund, also had a large number of adherents, many of which had immigrated to California in the 1920s to escape the depression and inflation of their home country post World War I. Plant security chiefs such as John Hanson at Lockheed often had extra screening for German nationals, but agents could slip through the cracks in the process.

Japan had the hardest time infiltrating the plants; although there was a substantial Japanese population in the area, the color lines of the time made them stand out. Furthermore, throughout the 1930s and 40s, the Japanese government gave direction to their agents to not work with Japanese Americans, since they tended to be loyal to the United States.

A young Frederick Rutland in his military uniform, on board a seaplane carrier. He was the poor son of a migrant laborer who dropped out of school and joined the Royal Navy at age 14. In 1916, he flew his plane from an aircraft carrier over the German fleet during the Battle of Jutland, being the first person to fly a plane from an aircraft carrier in battle. Image in the public domain.

The Japanese government had hired a British war hero named Frederick Rutland, sending him to Los Angeles to be their spy who would be able to find the necessary secrets from the US aircraft manufacturers. It was, in theory, perfect. Rutland, an ace flier and engineer for the Royal Navy in World War I, knew as much about warplane design as anyone. Quickly buying a house on the Bird Streets in Hollywood, he established himself in the westside aerospace community, opening an office across from the runway on Clover Field and drinking with Douglas employees at locations such as the Townhouse Bar in Venice, which at the time was a members club known as the Del Monte.

Associated Telephone Building, date unknown.

Rutland hid in plain sight; his status as a British war hero meant he was maybe the last person who anyone would suspect to be a Japanese spy. By 1940, though, the FBI had gotten wind of Rutland’s activities and began to tail him to see what exactly he was up to. One of the easiest ways to track someone’s actions is by their phone records, which they did at the then new Associated Telephone Building on 1314 7th St in Santa Monica. All long distance calls were logged in those days, and at the time, a call from Hollywood to Santa Monica was long distance. The FBI agents discovered many of Rutland’s associates via these call logs; in particular, he was closely associated with Lloyd Strickland, branch manager for the Santa Monica Commercial Savings Bank.

Sample phone records from the Associated Telephone Company. Cyril Chappellet was an early executive at Lockheed.

Other FBI agents were able to ascertain what kind of aircraft information Rutland was obtaining from somewhere in Santa Monica, as can be seen in the declassified memo below.

A sample FBI file showing Rutland’s activities in Santa Monica.

The complete details of what Rutland was able to obtain from Douglas, Lockheed and others aren’t known. However, we do know what the Japanese Navy asked Rutland to obtain. It included information on the new dive bomber, which was being assembled at the Douglas plant in El Segundo, and the A20 Havoc bomber, which was being assembled in Santa Monica. This information was used to inform Japanese manufacturers on how best to improve their own planes, which would soon be in combat with US planes at Pearl Harbor and across the Pacific.

The Santa Monica Conservancy strongly supports the School District’s plans to modernize Santa Monica High School’s (Samohi) 100 year-old English Building for school uses. In historic preservation terms, the modernization plans are considered an “adaptive reuse” of the historic building and show a vibrant and engaging transformation to support a 21st century learning environment that gives the building another 100 years of use for future generations of Santa Monica’s students.

The modernization project for the English Building, presented by architect Jim Favaro of the architectural firm Johnson Favaro, is a remarkable example of an adaptive reuse project that transforms the historic building. Johnson Favaro’s proposed uses and related rehabilitation are sympathetic to the original building’s characteristics, including adapting the original library spaces for contemporary student learning. Click here to explore Johnson Favaro’s presentation.

But there is still uncertainty about whether the District will pursue the path of adaptive reuse or choose the same fate as befell the campus’ historic History Building in 2021; demolition and replacement. The District requests community input for decision-making about modernization or replacement. In the coming weeks the Conservancy will reach out to school representatives and the wider community regarding the benefits of preservation.

The English Building is a unique historical resource on the Samohi campus, as the only survuving building from the first construction period of 1924. It still retains character-defining Beaux Arts features from the original design of eminent architects Allison and Allison. Among the extensive new construction following the Long Beach earthquake in 1933 by architects Marsh, Smith and Powell reflecting the New Deal period, this building alone was repaired and restored. As a historic resource the building is irreplaceable, and its historic value must part of any equation which determines its future.

Learning environments with a historical context help students internalize an understanding of place and history, creating a strong connection to their community. Preservation of historic buildings provides a tangible way to understand the past and points the curious in the direction of further research and historic inquiry. Many educational benefits come from integrating historic learning environments into the student experience.

The loss of the History Building generated a community controversy that left distrust and suspicion of the School District in its wake, and bitterness is still felt among some community leaders in Santa Monica. The modernization of the historic English Building will go a long way towards repairing and restoring our community support for the District’s planning.

The Conservancy supports preserving and revitalizing the Samohi English Building.

Let’s make history part of our future!

Image credits from top to bottom: (1) The English Building at Santa Monica High School. 7th Street Elevation composite: Nina Fresco. (2) Interior of the Santa Monica High School Library, Padilla Studios, 192-. Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives, Santa Monica Unified School District Collection. (3) Samohi’s former History Building in a still from Rebel Without a Cause where it served as the location for “Dawson High School” in 1955.