San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
NONPROFIT SEEKS FUNDS TO FIX UP RAMONA TOWN HALL
$2 million makeover would open the building to social activities
A lot of work has been done over the decades to spruce up the 127-yearold Ramona Town Hall. The latest effort is a $2 million project to restore the historic building so it can once again be the center of community events.
The work includes stabilizing the adobe walls so they are earthquake safe and making the building accessible for those with disabilities, said Woody Kirkman, president of the Ramona Town Hall Board of Trustees, a volunteer group dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the building.
From the 1890s to 1940s, Town Hall was home to a movie theater, and at one time had one of the best dance floors in the region, Kirkman said.
The building, at 729 Main St., also was a house of worship for three churches in the early 1890s before they had their own buildings. It was
the birthplace of the Ramona Chamber of Commerce, the Ramona Fire Department, the Kiwanis of Ramona and other service groups. Other uses were as the town’s first public library, first high school and first bank.
“It’s an integral part of the community,” said Kirkman, who has been with the Board of Trustees for 34 years. “The Town Hall was deeded to everyone in Ramona.”
Philanthropists Martha and Augustus Barnett gifted the Town Hall property and building to the community of Ramona on Feb. 22, 1894. The Town Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in conjunction with its 100-year anniversary in 1994 and has since been added to the county and state’s registers of historic places.
The latest project is focused on restoring the main hall so it can be used again for
dances, wine tastings, theater performances, lectures, catered dinners or future fundraisers to keep the refurbishing momentum going.
Ramona Town Hall Secretary/treasurer Sandee Salvatore said the nonprofit mailed out 325 letters to prospective donors near the end of last year, and donations are still coming in in response.
Mark Lyon of La Jolla is the architect of record who has been designing the Town Hall restorations off and on for 34 years. Since the Town Hall’s adobe has failed structurally, he said the building will need new masonry walls. As part of the project, the original brick facade will be attached to the masonry walls and the existing roof structure will also be preserved, Lyon said.
“It was one of the tallest adobe buildings in the county for a long time,” Lyon said of the 23-foot-tall interior of the main hall.
In addition, the building needs to be upgraded to meet
Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards. So, along with rebuilding the walls, plans call for adding Ada-compliant ramps off the main hall and a hydraulic lift to make the stage and dressing room handicapped accessible.
Because Town Hall was originally built without steel supports, Kirkman said steel posts were added every 8 feet around its perimeter and anchor posts were added to the adobe structure’s East and West Wings and office in 1993. Construction methods used at the time encroached into the building, so the rooms shrank in size by about 6 inches all around.
An arson fire in 1995 ruined some of the work done just two years before, Kirkman said, but the restored East Wing finally opened in 2008 and the West Wing in 2012.
The main hall was tested for a retrofit that would have entailed supporting the walls with rebar, but its poundsper-square-inch capacity fell
short of guidelines and consequently the adobe walls need to be replaced in the main hall, Kirkman said.
“We’ll salvage the exterior as much as possible,” he said. “This will be a major job. It will make it so the main hall will survive at least another 125 years.”
Lyon said he’s been working with county officials for the last several months to get the design plans approved, and expects it will take another few months. On Feb. 25, the Ramona Design Review Board approved the project’s stairs and ramps and tentatively approved a wood structure fence around a propane tank behind the Town Hall.
As for the fundraising, the association has more than $125,000 left in its bank account designated for restoration work, according to Salvatore. That’s after spending $100,000 in Neighborhood Reinvestment funds announced by former Supervisor Dianne Jacob at the Town Hall’s 125th anniversary celebration two years ago. The $100,000 helped pay for the recent architectural and permitting expenses associated with the upgrades,
she said.
“Our goal right now is to get the walls stabilized,” Salvatore said. “Then the building will be safe and we can start using it for fundraisers. Once we get people in and people realize what a jewel it is, it will be easy to garner support for restoring a building that’s 127 years old.”
A sizable $25,000 donation has been made toward the project by “The Hilltop Group,” a corporation owned by the de Jong family, who founded Hollandia Dairy in San Marcos. Although Arie de Jong is an Escondido resident, he delivered dairy products in Ramona for years.
But trustees say they would like to have another $500,000 on hand to start the repairs, and ideally $1 million to perform the bulk of the work.
Kirkman said he is looking forward to re-creating one of the Ramona Town Hall Association’s successful fundraisers that involved pairing wines from a half-dozen area wineries with meals served by local restaurants. Before the pandemic, the Town Hall also supported field trips for elementary
school students.
Both activities were held in the front of the building, but they could be expanded once the main hall opens, he said.
“We could do the project in one year’s time,” Kirkman said. “It all depends on how fast we can raise that kind of money. All the design work has been done and, hopefully, we’ll get a sign-off from the county. Then we’ll be good to proceed once we get the money.”
Salvatore, a Ramona resident for 47 years, urged residents and others to donate, even if it’s a small amount.
“We would be great stewards of the money. We are very conscientious of how the money would be spent, because if we squandered it, the building wouldn’t get finished,” she said.
For more information, visit ramonatownhall.com or email the Ramona Town Hall Association at ramonatownhall@aol.com. To make a tax deductible donation to the nonprofit, mail a check to P.O. Box 1954, Ramona, CA 92065. news outlets,” Breen said by email Friday.
“I could have gladly missed out on the experience, but SLAPP suits are a sad manifestation of broader issues in our country,” he said. “It needs to be discussed every time it occurs.”
The judge scheduled a hearing April 9 for motions expected from Bona and Breen seeking attorneys’ fees.
Schumacher was first elected to an at-large council seat in 2016 and ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2018. In a special March 2020 election, voters chose her to fill the District 1 seat left open by the resignation of former Councilwoman Barbara Hamilton, a term that expires in 2022.