Preservation awards to be presented
May is National Preservation Month. Since 1995, the Eureka Heritage Society has taken the opportunity to recognize preservation efforts in Eureka by giving (almost) annual awards to deserving individuals and buildings.
This year’s celebration will take place at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka on Saturday, May 21, at 1 p.m. All are welcome to attend this free event to honor the recipients. Those attending will be adhering to the museum’s current COVID-19 protocols.
Awards are based on more than just painting and a new roof, although those are both important, a press release from the Eureka Heritage Society notes. Throughout the year, society members watch and listen for projects of restoration. Some are obvious, like restoring a Queen Anne home after a fire, and some aren’t, such as the restoration of interior woodwork. Several award recipients have been found through home tours, via members or other preservation program contacts. The criteria for an award is also not limited to Victorians or turnof-the century structures. Midcentury architecture is now of an age to be historic and considered for an award. Both last year and this year, mid-century buildings received awards.
This year’s award recipients are Derek Glavich and Rachel Zizza for their home at 2306 E St.; Shirley Davis and family for her home at 1604 Henderson St.; Barbara Olsson and Jim Lahman for their home at 2405 E St.; and George Haas for his home at 1940 E St.
2306 E St.
This home, originally constructed in 1895 with a 1903 addition, is now undergoing restoration, this time with a nod toward energy conservation and reuse of salvaged materials, both important to the current homeowners and the Eureka Heritage Society.
Glavich has been collecting salvaged materials wherever possible to use in the house renovation, as well as in the new garage with an upstairs apartment. He constructed the garage and two-bedroom, one-bath apartment where a small outbuilding once stood in the 1960s.
Salvaged materials make up much of the new structure: all redwood windows, two carriage doors and 75% of the building’s siding.
Glavich installed a unique feature in the new structure: a rain screen system, using lathe removed from the house. The system is an exterior cladding infrastructure that sits away from the outside wall and creates an air cavity directly behind the cladding, protecting the building’s weather-resistant barrier. A wood fiberboard thermal insulation product was used instead of fiberglass. He has also been installing both products in their house, one room at a time.
Soon, the family will be moving into the garage apartment so the remainder of the house can be finished.
Originally owned by C.M.L. Howard, this home was on the Eureka Heritage Society’s 2018 home tour. At that time, Glavich and Zizza were undoing several previous modifications to ensure the house was sound. The kitchen and downstairs bath had been sensitively remodeled, and since the
tour, the laundry room has been finished and a bedroom added. A new redwood energy-efficient door and windows, measuring 14 feet across, are being constructed and will create an abundance of light and heat for the south-facing dining room. The dormer on the north side of the house will be extended to make room for a cozy sitting area.
1604 Henderson St.
Early on, the Davises dubbed this home “the Redwood House.” They first saw it as house hunters in the early 1980s. The stunning, L-shaped dwelling framed by towering redwoods just kept drawing them back.
Shirley Davis was impressed by the tranquil, private back yard where ferns and deep purple flowers grew among the tall trees. Jim Davis, a woodworking enthusiast, admired the interior redwood and knotty pine woodwork. Soon, the house was theirs.
Completed by 1950 on a double corner lot, this stellar Mid-Century
Modern dwelling is a magical example of the style: clean, simple lines, ample windows, open floor plans and a spectacular view of the backyard.
The first owners of the Redwood House were Cecil and Helen Sullivan, and they sold it to Davises in immaculate condition. The new owners did decide to make some changes, all of which have remained true to the original spirit of the house.
First came the small, dark kitchen with its congestion entryway. It and an adjacent utility room were transformed into one spacious family room. A new kitchen was then added onto it, with picture windows facing the backyard. Jim Davis designed this room and did most of the work himself with some help from a carpenter.
During the Sullivans’ era, the garage had been turned into a family room and a carport was added. The Davises turned that family room into a master bedroom, and a solarium was added
in back. The carport was then turned into a combination workshop/garage.
2405 E St.
This 1932 Period Revival house has been the home of Olsson and Lahman for 23 years, and it was featured on the Eureka Heritage Society’s 2019 home tour.
Energy efficiency and material reuse are as important to the current homeowners as maintaining the historical and architectural integrity of their home. It took them more than 20 years to determine and complete the appropriate and sensitive renovations. They found creative ways to incorporate old materials with new, while keeping the original integrity of the house.
Fortunately, the original light fixtures, French doors with beveled glass, oak floors and tray ceilings remained when the couple purchased the house. The main floor bathroom, including fixtures, was untouched. Found stored in the home were removed original doors, which were rehung. Lahman repaired wall cracks throughout the living and dining rooms, and Olsson restored an original music room mural. The living room fireplace surround was restored using reproduction tiles from the company who made the originals. The new front porch stair rail was manufactured using a small remaining original piece as a template. Olsson and Lahman kept what remained of the original windows and had new wood windows made to match. To help with energy efficiency, exterior Plexiglass storm windows with air holes for ventilation were installed.
The roof is a 100-year-old recycled plastic that resembles slate tiles, and it allows for clean water runoff to water food-source plants. The kitchen was remodeled and the sunroom was added, both in keeping with the historical style of the house. The sunroom windows were given new life after being discarded by Eureka’s First Presbyterian Church during its remodel several years ago. Those windows help to heat and light the sunroom, while providing an inviting place to relax and view the garden.
1940 E St.
This Colonial Revival house was built in 1905 for Mr. and Mrs. Hugh W. McClellan by a Mr. Shepard. The McClellans held many social functions in the third-floor ballroom that was serviced by a dumbwaiter that runs from the basement to the attic. There is even a speaking tube intercom system from that era that still partially exists. The McClellan family owned the home until the late 1940s when it was sold to the Johnsons and soon after to the Harold Hilfiker family, who occupied the house until the late 1990s.
Haas purchased the home in 2000 when he moved to Eureka from Placerville. He has put a great deal of work into his home during the past 22 years. He repaired or replaced damaged plaster walls. He installed new maple, oak and jatoba hardwood floors in the front parlors and main hall to match the existing oak and maple fireplace mantels. The original oak dining room floor was carefully refinished. All the period-correct gas/ electric light fixtures were added along with a custom-made gas/ electric octopus ceiling fixture in the back hall.
The original kitchen and service areas were remodeled by the Hilfikers, and Haas installed a new custom kitchen and replicated the original moldings in the old kitchen that had been removed. He joined the master bedroom to Mrs. Hilfiker’s old dressing room to make a large bedroom/bathroom suite on the second floor and remodeled the second-floor bathroom. He also custom-made two diamond pane windows in the third-floor ballroom area to replace the longlost original windows. He removed, powder coated, reinstalled and fixed all the leaky radiators to the original steam heating system using new old stock thermostats throughout the house.
The original carriage house still exists at the rear of the property, and it now has new custommade, Craftsman-style garage doors and a reinforced second floor with a new, wider staircase.