The Riverside Press-Enterprise
2022 Heritage Awards go to five houses and a Mission-style church building
A Craftsman-style stone house from the 1930s, a 1901 Victorian farmhouse now housing a business and a 1941 California Mission-style church building are among the six winners of the Redlands Area Historical Society’s Heritage Awards for 2022.
The Historical Society presented the awards at its 47th annual Heritage Awards ceremony and annual meeting held in June at the Contemporary Club.
The Heritage Awards, celebrating preservation and history, are given for houses and other buildings that are at least 75 years old and are in good repair, according to a news release.
This year’s awards went to the C.C. and Lena Mccarty house at 1101 Orange St., built in 1901 and now housing L. Ray Ashworth’s accounting business; the 1905 Homer and Bertha Pinnell house at 736 Walnut Ave., owned by Jerry and Susan Keith; the 1905 Fredrick T. Harris house at 121 E. Fern Ave., owned by Stephen Plante and Alexis Peralta; the 1911 Ferguson house at 361 Franklin Ave., owned by David and Evelyn Gusseck; the Paul and Florence Parker house at 315 W. Lugonia Ave., built in the 1930s and owned by Vanessa Bravo; and the former St. Mary’s Catholic Church at 1205 Columbia St., built in 1941 and now part of Redlands’ Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Community.
Since 1975 the Historical Society has presented more than 350 Heritage Awards.
Historical Society members research the buildings and provide information for the awards. Researching this year’s Heritage Award winners were Tom Atchley, Ron Running, Jill Huntsinger, Kathleen Beall, John Paul Beall, Susan Keith and Marjorie Lewis.
At the meeting, the Historical Society also elected its new board of directors. Board members are Tom Atchley, Ron Running, Jennifer Schaefer, Susan Rettig, Steve Spiller, Erin Benson, Marie Reynolds, John Paul Beall, Kathleen Beall and Thomas Jackson.
The society also thanked two retiring board members, Jill Huntsinger and Marjorie Lewis, for their years of service.
About the Heritage Award winners:
C.C. and Lena Mccarty house (1101 Orange St.), 1901
Ray and Jeani Ashworth have owned this two-story shiplap Victorian farmhouse since 2005. The building, which had been vacant for a number of years before that, now houses Ray Ashworth’s accounting business.
It was built for $2,000 for C.C. Mccarty and his wife, Lena, who lived there for only a few years. Other owners included William Kincher, a potter, who bought the house in 1919, and Francis Donald Hunt, who owned the house from 1923 until he died in 1981 and who had a tire repair business there in the early years.
Homer and Bertha Pinnell house (736 Walnut Ave.), 1905
Homer Pinnell and his wife, Bertha, were the first occupants of this house.
After Bertha died in 1907, Homer sold the house to Dr. Anna Hayward Johnson, who lived at the house with her mother, Henrietta Johnson, and other family members from 1908 to 1922.
Robert Lowry, president of Lowry and Wheaton, a Packard automobile dealership in Redlands, lived in the house with his wife, Laura, from 1926 to 1952. The Lowrys bought another house in 1952, but still owned the house on Walnut, and after Robert’s death in 1961 Laura moved back to that house and lived there until 1970.
William and Susan Keith bought the house in 1977, began restoration work in 2007 and finished in 2017.
Fredrick T. Harris house (121 E. Fern Ave.), 1905
Fredrick T. Harris was the architect and first owner of this Craftsman bungalow that is in the East Fern Avenue Historic and Scenic District. Others who have lived in the house include Charles E. Hubach, dean of fine arts at the University of Redlands, who lived there with his wife, Amelia, from 1915 to 1917; C.P. and Grace Earley, 1921-1930; and Lelia Mcdonald, who continued living in the house for about a decade after her husband died in the early 1930s.
In 1948, owners Henry W. and Dorothy Schlag were granted a permit to convert the house to apartments, and the Schlags operated the three-unit apartment building for about 40 years.
Neil Rhodes and Leeanne Milburn, who bought the house in 2016, are credited with a Mills Act application for reduction in property taxes in exchange for preservation of the property. Stephen Plante and Alexis Peralta, who bought the house in 2021, have plans to continue improvements.
Ferguson house (361 Franklin Ave.), 1911
Albert Ferguson Jr. had this Georgian-style house built for his mother, Frances C. Hunter Ferguson, and it was designed to remind her of her family homes in Reading, Pa. His father, Albert Ferguson Sr., was an heir of an iron and banking fortune, and he died when Albert Jr. was 2.
One of the features of the house, unusual for Redlands, is an outdoor brick hearth kitchen and bread oven, with original cast-iron oven doors. Another is the original 1911 garage, with a mechanic’s pit for maintenance of the family’s early automobiles.
Albert Ferguson Jr. and his mother lived in the house, sometimes with other family members, until they died a few months apart in 1940.
Ed Hales, who was a member of the Redlands Planning Commission, lived in the house from 1954 until he sold the property in 1964, when the estate was subdivided. The current owners, David and Evelyn Gusseck, have lived in the house since 1974.
Paul and Florence Parker house (315 W. Lugonia Ave.), 1930s
This stone house was built in the early 1930s, apparently as a rental property. The Craftsman-style stone construction emphasizes elaborate use of native stone, and there are three other stone houses in the same block.
The first tenants listed in the city directories are J. Max and Georgia Kohler. Their son Max Jr., who graduated from Redlands High School in 1938, later was director of admissions at Pierce College in Los Angeles.
Several other families are listed at the property through the 1930s. By 1947, Paul and Florence Parker were living in the house. Their two daughters, who graduated from Redlands High School in 1957 and 1961, owned the property after Florence Parker died in 1978. After they sold it in 1986, it changed hands a number of times until Vanessa Bravo bought the house in 2021.
St. Mary's Catholic Church (1205 Columbia St.), 1941
St. Mary’s Catholic Church was founded in 1937 as a mission of Redlands’ Sacred Heart Parish, at 1005 Columbia St. The California Mission-style church building, designed by San Diego architect Frank Hone Jr., was built in 1941 for $20,000. The contract went to Redlands builder Louis P. Scherer, who used men of the congregation for plastering, painting and carpenter work.
In 1985 the church building was cut in two and moved to 1205 Columbia St. The church was renovated, with restrooms, office, sacristy, choir loft and a 4,435-square-foot sanctuary added, while keeping the Mission-style architectural features.
In 2006 St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart merged into a new parish, Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Community. The parish is using the former St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart buildings until a new church is built at Lugonia Avenue and Dearborn Street.
To see the complete citations for the 2022 Heritage Award winners, go to rahs.org.