Sutter preservationists move
for architectural protections

YUBA CITY (3/4/03) -- Reacting to the midnight razing of the landmark Onstott House, preservationists Tuesday asked county officials to pass laws to protect worthy buildings from the wrecker's ball.

Delegates from the Sutter County Historical Society petitioned the board of supervisors to adopt an ordinance mandating demolition permits, and establish a countywide historical preservation ordinance to shelter buildings cited as historical resources.

The emergency request comes on the heels of the sudden leveling of the Onstott House on Highway 20 last week. It vanished in the night to make way for a commercial development.

Built in 1880s, the Onstott House was considered the crown jewel in Sutter County's small inventory of historical and cultural assets.

It was the home of the pioneering family that propagated the Thompson seedless grape on which the raisin is based.

"What happened to it?" asked Ed Echols, who stopped to learn why only a cardboard tombstone and plastic picnic cups spelling "MANY CARED" on a link fence marked where the house he had driven by for years stood.

After hearing it had fallen in the path of progress, Echols tisked, "Really? Then the developer who did this should lose his license."

The Yuba City developer who reportedly ordered the leveling of the Onstott, Roy Lanza, declined to comment, flatly.

Echols was not alone in his chagrin. The Sutter County Memorial Museum was inundated with spontaneous calls from citizens upset at the news of the Italianate Victorian's demise.

"It was the most significant historical house that's been demolished. That may be why so many people are so distraught," said museum Curator Julie Stark.

Stark declined to otherwise comment on the county's official policies regarding historical preservation.

Ruth Mikkelson, who volunteered to present the historical society's requests for action to the board of supervisors, knew what the county's policy's ought to be in that regard.

"We all know what happened to Marysville. It was once a vibrant city with many beautiful old historic buildings. But they tore them all down. Now it's just vacant lots and -- and a Mervyns. We don't want that happening here," Mikkelson said.

Sutter County has two registered state landmarks -- Sutter Hock Farm off Highway 99 and a stone monument beside Highway 20 marking the field where the Thompson seedless grapes were promulgated. Much of that historic field is now an agricultural equipment sales lot.

The county general plan also lists 77 "historical sites" -- from the E.G. Van Arsdale House built in 1880 at 774 B Street to the George Harter House built in 1872 on Harter Road just west of the city and across the street from where the Onstott House was.

"I believe all the houses that section are threatened by new developments," said Bob Mackensen, a preservation architect active in saving old buildings.

But it was the Harter House -- early home of a pioneer farming and canning family -- was deemed the most immediately threatened historical artifact at an emergency meeting of the historical society Tuesday, an attendee reported.

Also threatened with demolition is the Live Oak train depot, according to Laurie Adams, a preservation activist from Live Oak.

"It's the last of the state's original California-Oregon Railroad train depots," Adams said. Tentative plans to demolish it "soon" surfaced over the weekend, Adams said. Bee Online