R.E.D.(Real Estate Diversion) Alert. When you need to take a break from politics, give your mind a rest in Real Estate.
Do you remember this place? No, it’s not your typical fixer-upper foreclosure in Santa Ana going for a 70% discount. 😉
Hint: It is a valuable piece of Santa Ana history and it’s just rotting there in the elements on construction site, One Broadway Plaza.
Hint: It used to look like this: 
If you guessed it is the historic Twist-Basler House of Santa Ana, you’d be right.
Sometime in 2006, it was cut up into sections by developer Michael Harrah who wanted the land for a pie-in-the-sky dream of building the tallest tower in all of Santa Ana during the recent real estate boom-turned-bust. Not much has become of his dreams, but much more notable, is what has become of the Twist-Basler House on Mike’s filthy construction site. Remember, Michael Harrah had promised to take care of the building by moving it and hooking up all the utilities, so that restoration of the house could begin on another lot in the city. He promised.
Yet the Twist-Basler House has not yet been safely relocated. Here are some example pictures of this historic home today. You’ll get the idea. It’s a big old mess. Ben Dayhoe will especially love the creative graffiti that some tagger added to the home in the bottom picture.
Want to view more of Michael’s Mess? Click to see more photos.
Last summer, The Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society opined that the Twist-Basler home has been sitting like this (now, for over 18 months!) -exposed to the elements, vermin, decay and vandalism. In an update, titled Does the City Care At All? concerned citizens were encouraged to write to the Mayor and council members about the alarming conditions of a once beautiful piece of Santa Ana real estate and history. Those efforts fell on deaf ears. Michael Harrah’s accomplices in city chambers are still mum today.
I’d say Michael Harrah has welched on his promises. Does the City Care at All?
The city is actually hoping it rains and washes that building away. Seriously.
In response to your question. No, the city does not care. What the city cares about lately is implementing a world-class tennis program with the purpose of grooming future Wimbeldon titleholders. That’s why the Twist-Basler house is slated to be moved to Cabrillo Park.
It doesn’t matter that a good majority of SAUSD students do not graduate or have the minimal skills necessary to forge into the workplace. It doesn’t matter that a prime piece of real estate, along Broadway, is “allowed” to slip into blight because the council caved into Harrah’s pipe dream. It doesn’t matter that our street our streets, those south of 17th St., are riddled with potholes most children could get lost in.
And it doesn’t matter that Pulido and certain council members have conveniently carved the boundaries of the Renaissance Specific Plan to best financially suit their interests.
The entire council needs to be washed away and Pulido should be the first to go.
I am confident Pulido has a future as a tennis pro at some fancy south county country club or he can hit the streets and seek children-playing chess opponents. After all, Pulido claims children are the only opponents he can defeat.
Now there’s a confident individual. Where is his Carla Bruni?
Red.
Welcome to the USA where any building approaching fifty or 100 years in age simply no longer fit the desires of the local city council’s. Haven’t you been following the current movement to mixed use development?
If you wish to see (older) historic buildings in America the only remaining area is our Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Now if you fly across the Atlantic you can find hundreds, if not thousands, of old buildings with unique character such many of the tourist sites in London, Paris, and Rome just to name a few.
In fact I recall reading that even after the devastation of WWII, homes in Paris underwent reconstruction with a goal to retaining their old world charm and original facade if at all possible.
I am glad that the Santa Ana city council is not serving in Rome. If so the Roman Forum would have been bulldozed years ago for a housing project.
It reminds me of the:
Lyrics from Ani Difranco’s “Subdivision”
white people are so scared of black people
they bulldoze out to the country
and put up houses on little loop-dee-loop streets
and while america gets its heart cut right out of its chest
the berlin wall still runs down main street
separating east side from west
and nothing is stirring, not even a mouse
in the boarded-up stores and the broken-down houses
so they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps
just to prove they got no manners
no mercy and no sense
and i’m wondering what it will take
for my city to rise
first we admit our mistakes
then we open our eyes
the ghosts of old buildings are haunting parking lots
in the city of good neighbors that history forgot
i remember the first time i saw someone
lying on the cold street
i thought: i can’t just walk past here
this can’t just be true
but i learned by example
to just keep moving my feet
it’s amazing the things that we all learn to do
so we’re led by denial like lambs to the slaughter
serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water
and the old farm road’s a four-lane that leads to the mall
and our dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall
i’m wondering what it will take
for my country to rise
first we admit our mistakes
and then we open our eyes
or nature succumbs to one last dumb decision
and america the beautiful
is just one big subdivision
clicking my heels and wishing the city fathers would visit Pasadena.To me a nice mix of OLD and new.
30 years as a residential house, followed by 40 years as old folks storage, up to 20 years as a lawyers office, and the rest as a meeting hall for recovering addicts and drunks.
The only thing attention-grabbing about the Twist-Basler house is its outside appearance, and that will be preserved at the tennis courts in its pre-WWII glory.
Interesting comments from all. Good points.
And thanks for the history lesson cook. Where are the tennis courts located that have been referenced?
The thing I find disturbing about all this is that the building is literally rotting there. It looks like something that should be put to the side of the curb and picked up by one of Judy Ware’s trucks. Anyone doing business in the city can see the mess. Claudia Alvarez most likely passes by the site on her way to work.
Wilshire Square has one of the most active neighborhood associations and they have not been able to get forward action to make Michael Harrah live up to his promises The building in some ways represents what is really wrong with Santa Ana. The Mayor and council have all sorts of personal projects ( ie the new business bank) yet neglect duty of care projects for the good of the whole city. It’s like a pothole on steroids.
I see a lot of selfishness and arrogance in this situation.
Maybe no one in charge wants the building so it really will just sit there until it gets washed away. I cannot imagine how difficult this all is on the historic society in SA that wants to preserve history and distinct architectural styles that make up the city.
There’s a Santa Ana River, the Santa Ana Mountains, a freeway, the Santa Ana Winds, even the Toastmasters were started in Santa Ana… not every city has that going for it, that kind of history. To see what’s been done/being done makes me sad. As was mentioned, Pasadena is a great example of cherishing buildings of note while still being firmly rooted in the now. I’d add, the beach notwithstanding, folks don’t go to Santa Barbara to see the big shiny buildings. Maybe the current real estate situation will give us a chance to rethink how we handle our city’s future.