Response to the Department of Recreation and Parks RFP for the Operation and Maintenance of the Lummis Home

OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

June 10, 2014

Response to the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks RFP for the Operation and Maintenance of the Lummis Home

OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

June 10, 2014

INTRODUCTION

El Alisal, the Charles , is a historic treasure. But it is currently in need of a substantial amount of repair and restoration. Despite this deterioration, the historic structure retains the potential to become more than what it was even in its heyday. Beyond serving as a reminder of a rich history and an architectural amenity for the neighborhood, it could become a catalyst for local residents of to reclaim their history and heritage and, in the process, hone their own abilities to project their voices and visions for the future of our metropolis. The Lummis House could become a vital new civic institution for Los Angeles, dedicated to helping residents of Northeast Los Angeles, and throughout the city and the region, recover their own shared past.

It is with this vision in mind that Occidental College respectfully offers here a deliberately unconventional response to the Department’s Dec. 3, 2013 Request for Proposals. We believe that an unconventional approach is appropriate to both the opportunity, and the challenges, raised by this nationally significant Historic-Cultural Monument. Careful study has led us to conclude that the terms of the RFP as currently drafted aren’t sufficient to bring about the kind of transformation that the Department clearly has in mind and which we wholeheartedly support. The proposed lease term of five years with a single option for another five is too short for any potential donor to support, nor any potential operating organization to take on, the significant expense and long-term challenges of weaving the Lummis House back into the fabric of the community, resurrecting its role as one of the city’s major public intellectual and cultural

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 2 institutions, and realizing its capacity to celebrate the diversity and complexity of the history of Northeast Los Angeles and the city as a whole. We propose to provide here what we believe is a compelling long-term vision for the future of the Lummis House, building on the college’s long history of intrinsic student participation in research and in community-based engagement, particularly with local schools and cultural institutions. It is our hope that the Department will consider this submission an invitation to a further conversation about the possible terms that would create the essential conditions for lasting success.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Occidental proposes to create at the Lummis House a Institute for the History of Los Angeles, a center for study of Los Angeles history and culture with special emphasis on the diverse communities of Northeast Los Angeles and the larger city. This civic use flows naturally not only out of Charles Lummis’ exemplary enthusiasm for the region’s fascinating past and bright future as a great metropolis, but equally from his pioneering advocacy of the region’s existing distinctive character and culture, reflected in his profound respect for the region’s Latino and Native American inhabitants — the basis of what we today might term a “multicultural” understanding of Southern society. We believe that, with proper restoration, the Lummis House could thereby serve the following civic functions:

Public History Venue • Share local historical knowledge through the proposed Los Angeles Urban Studies Institute, incorporating Oxy students, staff, and faculty in community-based research and presentations. • Cultivate Occidental’s own students’ educational efforts and interactions with their larger society by prioritizing excellence, equity, community, and service — the four cornerstones of the college’s academic mission. • Build partnerships with city schools and local, regional, state and national organizations for volunteers, scholarship and curriculum development, advocacy and marketing, student internships, and other forms of support. • Partner in a network of historically and culturally significant properties along the Arroyo Seco and throughout Northeast Los Angeles.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 3 Cultural Resource • Offer regular public access to the house, with tours and access to exhibits, programs and performances. • Transform the Lummis House’s Museo into a rotating exhibit/gallery space. • Host lectures, film series, artistic performances, and other community-based events. • Provide workshops for the local community on local history, ecology, and similar topics appropriate to the house and its neighborhood. • Situate an artist/scholar in residence program, with an associated schedule of exhibitions/presentations.

Public Gardens • Incorporate, if feasible, a community garden or other shared space into the property’s grounds. • Develop a drought-tolerant demonstration garden to assist local residents to re-imagine their own landscaping possibilities. • Explore reviving the annual garden open house event as a further environmental connection between the Lummis House’s open spaces and the community. • Play an active role in efforts to restore the Arroyo Seco watershed, drawing upon the college’s multidisciplinary experience over the past fifteen years in investigating, analyzing, and supporting the revitalization of the Los Angeles River.

Taken together, these functions aim to restore the integral civic function of the Lummis House to the larger community, rehabilitating not merely the physical shell of the historic residence, but its larger cultural mission as well. In the process, the neighborhood, and the city as a whole, stands to gain a vital new institution in the Institute for the History of Los Angeles, which would promote a living, intercultural understanding of the ways our shared history can help inspire future visions of Los Angeles.

1 · FINANCIAL PLAN: RESTORATION AND OPERATING STRATEGIES

The Lummis House is a magnificent work of architecture and a historical treasure, but even a perfunctory visual inspection of the premises shows that the extent and scope of the work needed to restore the house is extensive and costly [see section 5: Preservation and Restoration Plan].

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 4 Until the building envelope has been evaluated by qualified experts, it is not possible to accurately determine the full amount of investment required to renovate, restore and properly maintain the Lummis House, but it is clear that it would be substantial. For example, a few of the more obvious major areas of potentially significant expense include investigating the cause of, and developing a remediation plan for, the deep cracks in the south wall of the Comedor [dining room]; an assessment of the need for a significant seismic retrofit; an evaluation of the safety/useful lifespan of current utilities (electrical, gas, water, sewer) and of site drainage. We would greatly appreciate the technical cooperation of the Department in carrying out these detailed evaluations, which would then enable us to work with potential donors to fund this extensive work of physical rehabilitation. More crucially, Occidental would require an extended lease period in order to carry out these repairs and to reorient the property toward its proposed new civic function as a center for community-based historical engagement. Without a more practical long-term lease, any organization, no matter how civic minded or well respected, will find it as impossible as the Historical Society did to obtain firm commitments from foundations and other donors to invest in the long-term future of the facility. This fact has been reaffirmed in our own conversations with potential donors.

Indeed, once these fundamental restoration and preservation tasks have been completed, Occidental proposes to operate the premises on a continuing, long-term basis as a site of scholarly-community interaction under the aegis of our proposed Institute for the History of Los Angeles. We would expect to fund this effort through a combination of donor recruitment, grant writing, and programs at the house that would generate an annual revenue stream, including weddings, photo shoots and other events. With an endowment approaching $400 million, the college has a proven track record of working with donors to craft lasting practical programs that can perpetuate our shared cultural legacy. Given the security of a longer lease, we will be able to pursue specific and ongoing financial support of the sort that can secure the operation of the Institute for the History of Los Angeles at the Lummis House as a vital cultural resource and community institution for future generations of Angelenos.

Toward that end, Occidental has already engaged in preliminary discussions with community stakeholders such as the Historical Society of (HSSC), the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Arroyo Seco Foundation, the Los Angeles Conservancy, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation about the Lummis House’s potential for the region. The response has been very encouraging thus far, indicating community support for a revitalization of the institution. Indeed, almost 100 local residents have already pledged to support a “Friends of the Lummis House” organization that would help guide our interactive planning process. Occidental is fundamentally committed to extending this interactive process to establish an open and permanent dialogue with the community about utilization of the facilities at the Lummis House. Indeed, one of our first acts if we were to secure a lease would be to organize a series of community workshops to learn how residents of the region imagine the facility and its functions. We would build upon that open interchange in developing and refining our plans for rehabilitating and subsequently operating the site.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 5 To assist in supporting these ongoing operational expenses, we would like to discuss with the Department the possibility of a separate board policy/waiver to provide more flexibility regarding the approval process for events at the House, both for fundraising and non-fundraising purposes, including the serving of alcohol at events.

2 · BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE: MORE THAN 125 YEARS OF EXPERTISE AND STEWARDSHIP

Occidental College is a non-profit, private, highly selective coeducational college of liberal arts and sciences. Enrollment for the 2013-14 academic year is 2,128 students from 44 states and 24 countries, taught by 178 full-time faculty. The College is governed by a self-perpetuating board of trustees of up to 45 members. Occidental has an annual operating budget of $97.8 million, with an endowment (of as June 30, 2013) of $356.8 million. The College raised $21.5 million in gifts and pledges during 2012-13 and has extensive experience both of prudent financial management and the sophisticated coordination of substantial projects in the non-profit sector. Founded in 1887 (just three years after Lummis himself first arrived in Los Angeles), the College was originally located in Boyle Heights. After a fire precipitated a move for a time to Highland Park, in 1914 Occidental relocated to its current campus in Eagle Rock, where it has the distinction of being one of only a few premier liberal arts colleges in the nation to be located in a major urban center. With deep roots in Northeast Los Angeles, Occidental reflects its commitment to its unique community in its scholarly and institutional emphasis on civic participation, multicultural diversity, community engagement, and environmental and historical consciousness.

Occidental’s mission is to provide its diverse student body with a total educational experience of the highest quality — one that prepares them for engagement with an increasingly complex, interdependent and pluralistic world. The distinctive interdisciplinary and multicultural focus of the College’s academic program seeks to foster both the fulfillment of individual aspirations and a deeply rooted commitment to the public good. Excellence and equity are central to Occidental’s mission. It is one of the country's top producers of Fulbright Scholars, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, and has produced more Rhodes Scholars than USC. Occidental has a highly regarded, multidisciplinary undergraduate research program, and is one of the leading producers of students who go on to earn doctoral degrees. At the same time, Occidental is one of the country’s most diverse liberal arts colleges. Some 75 percent of students receive some form of financial aid; 21 percent of students are Pell Grant recipients, with a six-year graduation rate of 93 percent – one of the country’s best.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 6 Occidental’s long history of community outreach took on new focus a half a century ago, when the College opened its Community Literacy Center and one of the country’s original Upward Bound programs. Today, both programs continue to serve the community; half of Occidental’s students participate in some kind of community project through the College’s Center for Community Based Learning and the Center for Community Engagement. These efforts include active partnerships with elementary, middle, and high schools in Northeast Los Angeles. Occidental was named to the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction in recognition of its exemplary community service, and was one of the first liberal arts colleges designated as a community engagement institution by the Carnegie Foundation. It is this commitment to community-based education and interaction that provides the foundation for our proposals for the Lummis House. Building on our long history of student participation in research and in community-based engagement, particularly with local schools and cultural institutions, we envision the Institute for the History of Los Angeles as a catalyst for local residents of Northeast Los Angeles to reclaim their history and heritage and, in the process, hone their own abilities to project their voices and visions for the future of our metropolis. Consequently, the Institute is the antithesis of a remote academic “ivory tower” — it is fundamentally committed to helping community members recover their own shared past, particularly in close collaboration with our bright, diverse, and energetic students. Through this fabric of mutual interaction, focused by Occidental’s unsurpassed experience in the Northeast Los Angeles community and practical organizational expertise, the Lummis House can not just be restored to its status as a treasured landmark of the past, but reinvented as a living institution that can serve a vital public function for people in its neighborhood and throughout urban Southern California.

Occidental College’s own heritage in Northeast Los Angeles gives it perspective on the history of the region and practical experience as a steward of that legacy. The college has itself witnessed 127 years in Los Angeles and a full century in our current Eagle Rock campus. During that time, Occidental’s administration and staff have developed a unique set of skills and resources appropriate to maintaining and improving its rich array of historically significant buildings (the campus itself was laid out by Myron Hunt, who also designed half of the College’s major buildings; several later structures were designed by other noted architects, such as William Pereira).

Occidental has a deep respect for the city’s and its own architectural heritage. Over the years, the college has developed a core expertise in historic preservation and operation of culturally significant structures. The college’s Facilities Management Department has established a proven track record of caring for, and extending the useful life of, historic buildings. Responsible for 1.2 million square feet of building space, the department spends $4 million each year on maintenance, repair and replacement work on campus. Its 100 employees (80 percent of whom are represented by Teamsters Local 911) include plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters,

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 7 HVAC and boiler specialists, grounds and irrigation personnel, custodians, and a locksmith. Anchored by this institutional expertise, the college’s guiding policy is to renovate and reuse its historic buildings as a sustainable and cost-effective practice.

When undertaking more significant renovations, the college works extensively with distinguished architectural firms (including Historic Resources Group of Pasadena) and an array of skilled local contractors to respectfully give new life to treasured historic structures. For example, we recently completed the significant restoration and reconfiguration of two of Myron Hunt’s original structures on our main quad: the Swan faculty office building and the Johnson classroom facility. In the process, these two aging structures were transformed internally into technologically advanced and modern facilities — yet while preserving as much as possible of the buildings’ original fabric, both inside and out. Johnson Hall, in particular, retains its historic exterior, yet now houses the innovative new McKinnon Center for Global Affairs, highlighted by its 50’ x 30’ two-story, cutting-edge Global Crossroads interactive multimedia display, constructed of sculpted glass with embedded HD displays and reactive LED lighting. Occidental’s experience contracting these historically sensitive and environmentally conscious architectural restoration projects is directly relevant to the Lummis House and its own unique challenges.

Indeed, the college’s commitment to sound environmental practices has resulted in a series of landmark achievements in sustainable urban landscape design and community-based programmatic development. For instance, the college now generates a 12 percent of its electrical needs through a one-megawatt ground-mounted solar array (uniquely designed to be an aesthetic object as well as a power generator). As is typical of our community-based approach, Occidental has partnered with panel manufacturer SunPower to sponsor a cooperative program of discounted home solar installations to neighbors in the surrounding communities of Eagle Rock, Highland Park, and Mt. Washington. Similarly, the college’s Urban & Environmental Policy Institute helped pioneer the farm-to- school movement almost 20 years ago. Since then, Occidental has been at the forefront of the food-justice movement, receiving national recognition for its efforts to improve the health and vitality of communities by expanding access to high-quality, locally grown produce. New projects have expanded the effort (which also supports small- and medium-scale local farms) to preschools and WIC recipients. These environmental quality of life efforts inform not only our commitment to the communities of our city and our qualifications as potential caretakers of the Lummis House’s green spaces, but they also testify to the larger ecological consciousness that shapes all our institutional initiatives. Indeed, the college’s Eagle Rock location was influenced in 1914 by the patterns of local streetcar lines and, although the Red and Yellow Cars no longer connect the campus to the larger region, Occidental remains committed to transit accessibility and sustainable transportation alternatives. Our campus Bike Share Program, for instance, actively encourages students to forego their cars for healthier and more environmentally conscious options. We envision working with Metro and the City Department of Transportation to highlight the Lummis House’s

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 8 proximity to the Southwest Museum Gold Line station as well as the 83, 84, 81, and 252 busses (the first of these directly connects Occidental’s Eagle Rock campus to within blocks of the house), ideally raising the Lummis House’s profile within the city’s consciousness, facilitating its use by people throughout the region, and mitigating potential adverse impacts of its use upon the neighborhood. Through these projects and many others on our campus and throughout the neighborhood, we have developed valuable expertise in the ecology of this region, as well as direct experience in sustainable greenscapes — all of which are directly relevant to the gardens and outdoor spaces of the Lummis property. In addition, the college as a whole carries out an active recycling and composting program in the dorms and in the dining hall, and restored Swan Hall to LEED silver standard, testifying both to our deep environmental commitment as well as our capability as conscientious stewards of historically sensitive architecture. For a century, Occidental has served as expert caretaker, planner, and custodian of its historic 120-acre campus. Over the years, the college’s purview has expanded to encompass more than 40 additional largely residential structures in the immediate neighborhood. Occidental has an established track record of working with the City of Los Angeles and our neighbors to provide proper, environmentally- and culturally-sensitive stewardship of this property within the contexts of a vibrant residential neighborhood. Uniquely amongst Northeast Los Angeles institutions, Occidental is fully able to leverage that experience and those deep community ties to establish the Lummis House as a vital civic cultural institution in its own second century.

3 · OPERATING PLAN

3.1 Overview

Occidental proposes to operate a new Institute for the History of Los Angeles at the Lummis House, restoring the landmark site to its original historical role as a cultural and intellectual center for the surrounding community. We would rehabilitate the premises to host a four-part community and educational function:

! THE OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE LOS ANGELES URBAN STUDIES INSTITUTE Central to our proposal is the creation of a center for the study of Los Angeles’s urban history and culture, with special emphasis on the diverse communities of Northeast Los Angeles and the Arroyo Seco area. This institute would build on Occidental’s long-standing scholarly engagement with local history, community-based learning and pedagogy, urban sociology, and cultural/artistic expressions of place and heritage. Occidental has long been committed to

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 9 working with partner institutions to make archival materials about Los Angeles’s history widely accessible. This proposed Institute for the History of Los Angeles demonstrates Occidental’s intention to become the preeminent academic archive of Northeast Los Angeles’s diverse communities and rich history.

" PUBLIC HISTORY VENUE The Institute for the History of Los Angeles would activate the Lummis House as a site for the sharing of historical knowledge about Northeast Los Angeles and the larger region, incorporating Occidental students in community-based historical investigations and public presentations (particularly those that would have the potential to support or help develop programs at neighboring cultural institutions and public schools which could promote the understanding and awareness of Los Angeles’s diverse communities and their interconnected histories). Key to these presentations would be regular public access and tours of the Lummis House itself, particularly focused on weekend community activities. These programs would draw upon a series of partnerships with such groups as the Southern California Historical Society, local historical societies, the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Community Foundation, the Southwest Museum/Autry, and, perhaps most importantly, area public schools, such as the nearby Arroyo Seco Museum Science Magnet School.

# ARTIST/SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM In concert with the Institute for the History of Los Angeles, we propose to locate at the Lummis House a studio/study site for a potential artist or scholar in residence — ideally someone whose work reflects the diversity and cultural heritage of the area, and who would be well positioned to present to and engage with the surrounding community in public exhibitions and/or interactive programs. Here, we would follow the model we have established to support visiting visual artists, musicians, performers, and writers (through partnerships with the Kathryn Caine Wanlass Charitable Foundation, the G. William Hume Trust, and the Edgerton Foundation, as well as drawing upon our own Remsen Bird Fund).

$ EL ALISAL PUBLIC GARDENS We would also envision working to preserve the gardens and grounds of the Lummis House as a public asset, including potentially designating a section of the grounds for use as a community garden or other shared space useful to neighbors. Giving the gardens a direct use for the community would emphasize Lummis’ own legacy as a promoter of native agricultural practices in the Southwest. (Occidental’s Urban & Environmental Policy Institute has extensive experience and a successful track record of promoting and facilitating community-based local and sustainable foods programs for Los Angeles families, and particularly those with limited access to fresh and healthy locally sourced food options.) Using expertise from our Facilities Management Department and faculty from the Biology Department, we would also propose continuing the HSSC’s drought-tolerant demonstration garden, one of the Historical Society’s major contributions to the site.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 10

3.2 Historical Background: A Vital Institution of a Multicultural L.A.

Charles Fletcher Lummis arrived in California, famously traveling by foot from the Midwest, in 1884. From that moment, he redefined how Southern Californians understood and appreciated their diverse cultural heritages. Lummis arrived in the midst of one of several of Los Angeles’s periodic real estate booms, when the settled culture of the small, century-old city was being swept away by migration and rapid urban growth. Although many new arrivals treated the Spanish, Mexican, and native cultures of this region as little more than antiquated impediments to modernity, Lummis was a very different sort of “booster.” In more than 20 books, as a newspaper and magazine editor, and author of countless articles, Lummis enthusiastically promoted Southern California — not as an unmarked “free land” ripe for exploitation, but as a storied terrain rich in history and cultural heritage.

In particular, he relentlessly championed the Latino character of the region, past and contemporary, communicating to newcomers the cultural distinctiveness and traditions of the old Californio families who had settled in the Los Angeles area during an era when the eastern seaboard of North America remained but a British colonial frontier. An advocate of Native American rights and cultural autonomy, Lummis was equally outspoken on behalf of those native Angelenos who had suffered from colonial incursions. Lummis strongly resisted efforts to expunge this deeply rooted legacy of Native, Spanish and Mexican culture in the Southwest from historiography and contemporary awareness. He emphasized the achievements of the early missionaries and the subsequent generations of settlers, white and black, Native and mestizo, rich and poor, who had found a place in Alta California. Lummis emerged as one of the most powerful advocates of what we today might term a “multicultural” understanding of Southern California’s society, past and present. His own home reflected that multicultural view as well. As noted California historian Kevin Starr has observed, El Alisal, begun in 1898, represents a heady amalgam of Southwestern, Spanish, Native American, and personally idiosyncratic elements — features that combine as one of the most impressive examples of native Angeleno architecture surviving today. Designed in accordance with a Latinesque schema, with four wings arrayed around a central patio, El Alisal dramatized Lummis’ feeling for the rugged romance of Southern California as a frontier — not of an American Wild West, but of a far more elegant and civilized New Spain. From 1898 until Lummis’s death in 1928, intellectuals, artists, writers, and actors flocked to El Alisal. Lummis’ famous Saturday night gatherings, or “noises” as he termed them, drew many of the most important cultural figures of the region. For more than a quarter century, El Alisal hosted a twentieth century salon comparable in many respects, yet superior intellectually, to that which William Randolph Hearst gathered up the coast at his palatial mansion in San Simeon. Far from being a reclusive retreat, however, the “noises” of El Alisal drew from the artistic and cultural milieu of the city that surrounded it, in the process helping define the good life in Southern California. For the first three decades of the twentieth century,

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 11 Charles Lummis’ house reigned as the cultural nexus of Los Angeles as it evolved from frontier outpost to world metropolis. Architecturally distinctive, historically unique, the grand old house needs significant care and work. It has outlasted so much that defined Los Angeles in Lummis’ own day, yet it remains a vital and tangible link between the contemporary, multicultural metropolis and our shared past. It would be an immeasurable architectural and historical loss for the city, the state, and the entire southwest were it to fall into decay or ruin through neglect. Charles Lummis himself demonstrated, in words and deeds, an enlightened way to inhabit and honor our shared multicultural heritage. We now propose to a plan intended to preserve that legacy by securing El Alisal itself for future generations and restoring its vital intellectual and cultural function for the city as well as the neighboring Arroyo community.

3.3 The Occidental College Los Angeles Urban Studies Institute The multicultural historical legacy of Charles Fletcher Lummis is central to the mission and core program goals of the proposed Institute for the History of Los Angeles proposed to be located at the Lummis House.

MISSION

To collect, analyze, and share the local history and culture of this region, with a particular emphasis on the multicultural heritage of Northeast Los Angeles, by building upon Occidental students’ energy and enthusiasm, faculty and staff expertise, coordinated archival programs, and integral partnerships with neighborhood, local, regional, state and national organizations.

CORE GOALS

% Orchestrate and publicize an active public dialogue on the region’s heritage and cultures. Drawing on Occidental faculty, student, and archival expertise and energy, integrate those resources with the expertise, insights, perspectives, and voices of members of the local community and beyond. Foster an ongoing series of events focusing on Los Angeles’s history and culture that connects members of the Occidental community with the larger community.

& Provide institutional and technical support for student-centered research and public history efforts, particularly in concert with community-based educational and cultural institutions such as public schools, museums, and cultural/historical organizations. Enhance students’ and community members’ awareness and appreciation of our region’s rich and diverse history.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 12 ' Connect college faculty and students with residents and organizations in the region that share our interest and enthusiasm for the multicultural local histories of Los Angeles’s inhabitants, in order to preserve vital historical and cultural materials, buttress local historical/cultural organizations, and increase the diversity of voices and sources represented in scholarly research.

( Build on Occidental’s own archival collection, preservation efforts, and partnerships in local community history to establish the preeminent archive of Northeast Los Angeles and to make that accumulated knowledge widely and freely available to the residents of the community.

3.4 Potential Public Programs

In the spirit of Charles Lummis’ own famous “Noises,” or cultural celebrations and gatherings, the Occidental College Institute for the History of Los Angeles would seek to engage the larger community in a host of intellectual, artistic, and historical events located at, or in close proximity to, the Lummis House. These programs would be structured to draw upon the knowledge, enthusiasm, and cultural traditions of the diverse communities of Northeast Los Angeles. Ideally, these envisioned potential programs could include:

• Workshops with nearby public schools to draw upon the expertise and energy of Occidental students to work with school children on oral history projects, public explorations of the region’s culture and heritage, and public historical presentations. • Seminars and conferences bringing together Occidental faculty, students, and archival experts with members of local historical societies, cultural organizations, outside scholars, and members of the public at large to collaboratively investigate, preserve, and share the rich and largely unheralded stories of this distinctive region of the Los Angeles. Building on community partnerships with, for instance, the Highland Park Heritage Trust and the Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society in establishing the Northeast LA Community Newspapers Project (http://www.oxy.edu/library/special-collections-college-archives/northeast-la-regional- history/community-newspapers), a pilot project funded by The John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation, we would seek to provide archival expertise, resources, and facilities to help local communities preserve their own vital historical materials and present narratives of the past articulated by a diverse range of voices — particularly of people who do not often enough enter into the scholarly discourse of academic historiography. • Lecture series, artistic exhibits, musical performances, and public programs at the Lummis House showcasing the rich cultural life of Northeast Los Angeles. Potentially partnering with such groups as the Arroyo Arts Collective and other community organizations, the Lummis House would host exhibitions of local arts, both contemporary and historical.

• Academic conferences on aspects of the history of Northeast Los Angeles and on the region as a whole, bringing together noted scholars from Occidental and other academic institutions to present scholarly research on historical topics geared to interest a wide audience.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 13 • Historical, cultural, and architectural tours of the Arroyo area and of potential nearby partner intuitions, such as the and the Southwest Museum/Casa de Adobe. We would hope to enlist the assistance of local community organizations as well as the Southern California Historical Society to work with our faculty and students to develop public history materials that might help visitors and neighbors engage with the rich heritage of the Arroyo region. • Tours of El Alisal itself, revolving around its unique architecture and distinctive multicultural history, similarly presented by community members working in collaboration with Occidental historians, archivists, and students. We could envision an active program of public access and education, focused especially on weekends and during the summer, when community (and tourist) interest would likely be highest. • A scholar- or artist-in-residence program that would ensconce a locally relevant intellectual figure within the Lummis House as a College and community resource. Rotating regularly through promising and established luminaries in the arts, Los Angeles historiography, urban planning, and/or the diverse cultures of the region, this resident cultural ambassador would work with the Institute to present workshops, clinics, public presentations, interactive performances, or other exhibitions of interest to the public. • Revitalize the 1987 master plan for the Lummis House gardens and renew its role as a public amenity, tying in with the existing parkway system along the Arroyo Seco watershed. Potentially, as part of that revitalization project, a section of the property might be dedicated as a community garden for residents of the surrounding community. Working in partnership with Occidental’s own Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, we would seek to solicit input from community partners about ways to turn these gardens into exemplars of a more balanced, sustainable, and healthy urban ecosystem for Northeast Los Angeles. • Conservation and urban environmental surveys and remediation work on the built environment surrounding the Lummis House and the Arroyo Seco. Ideally, once again drawing on the expertise of Occidental’s renowned Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, community organizations such as the Arroyo Seco Foundation (originally founded by Charles Lummis himself), and local neighborhood councils and other stakeholders, the Urban Studies Institute would seek to help support and inform efforts to study and recuperate the diverse urban and natural environments of the Arroyo Seco and its neighboring communities.

Through such potential public programs and exhibitions, together with others we could develop through an open process of community consultation, we aim to restore the Lummis House to its historic role as bridge between past and present, art and scholarship, academe and public, and in the process restore a vital cultural and intellectual amenity for Northeast Los Angeles.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 14 3.5 El Alisal: A Vital Link in a Northeast LA Historical-Cultural Corridor In the largest sense, Occidental proposes to restore the public function and intellectual role of Charles Lummis’ house to serve the larger community as well as our own faculty, students, staff and alumni. In the process, we see the potential to help construct a sense of geographical coherence for Northeast Los Angeles, one of the oldest and most culturally and ethnically diverse regions of the larger metropolis.

We envision the Lummis House, anchored by Occidental’s proposed new Institute for the History of Los Angeles, as a keystone in a nascent historic corridor or heritage trail, stretching along the Arroyo Seco between (indeed, the Los Angeles [Cornfields] State Historic Park, zanja madre, and Plaza/Olvera Street complex might mark one potential endpoint) and Northeast Los Angeles. In addition to El Alisal, along this cultural byway can be found such vital landmarks as Heritage Square, the Southwest Museum, the Casa de Adobe, the Judson Studios, and, in the greater Pasadena area, the Gamble House, Huntington Library and Gardens, and the Asia-Pacific and other Pasadena museums. Indeed, in this region of Northeast Los Angeles alone, there are over one hundred officially designated Historic-Cultural Monuments in close proximity.

Restored as a public institution for historical consciousness and scholarship of this region, the Lummis House and the proposed Institute for the History of Los Angeles will draw on this rich shared heritage of linked historic institutions, through its array of public and scholarly programs, to offer a profound cultural grounding and clear topographical focus for the diverse communities of Northeast Los Angeles. In addition to cultivating a deeper appreciation of the community’s own cultural identity and diverse history, this envisioned Historical-Cultural Corridor has the potential to promote appreciation of the city’s heritage amongst a wider audience, resulting in increased tourism and public awareness of the entire Northeast Los Angeles area.

3.6 Community Outreach

Potential programs outlined here represent the vision of Occidental in consultation with some of its community partners. These include the Historical Society of Southern California, Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Arroyo Seco Foundation, the Los Angeles Conservancy, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Should the Department of Recreation and Parks express an interest in pursuing the idea of an Institute for the History of Los Angeles at the Lummis House, Occidental would hold a series of community meetings, workshops, and consultations with local community groups, including the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, to ask for their input on what programs they would like to see at El Alisal and how the Institute could best serve local residents and, at the same time, mitigate the potential effects of more intensive use of the House. A project of this kind can only be successful if it enjoys the active support of the community.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 15 4 · MAINTENANCE PLAN

In addition to the very significant preservation and restoration work necessary to preserve the house, Occidental would incorporate the house and grounds into our existing, established systems of continuing maintenance and repair. Consistent with its current practice of maintenance for the more than 40 off-campus properties it already owns in the Eagle Rock neighborhood, the College would supplement our in-house expertise with that of external contractors and specialists. As discussed in section 2 [Background and Experience], these efforts will be supervised by Occidental’s Facilities Management Department, which has developed extraordinary expertise as a steward of historic structures through more than a century of continuous operation and maintenance of Occidental’s 120-acre campus and its 1.2 million square feet of building space, including historically significant Myron Hunt-designed buildings. A primary goal of our preservation and restoration efforts (see next section) will be to stabilize and secure the building envelope and basic systems of the Lummis House. Thus, the maintenance and routine repair of the premises will largely depend upon the successful and careful restoration of the physical structure to enable continued operation without the need for extraordinary interventions thereafter. We are confident that, with reasonable flexibility from the Department in terms of lease terms and oversight, we can bring the Lummis House to a state where a routine program of regular maintenance can be carried out without significant complications.

5 · PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION PLAN

Charles Lummis proudly said that El Alisal “is fit to be lived in for a thousand years.” It is nevertheless clear that the property will require significant work merely to take it into its second century. “No matter who controls [Lummis House] the first concern must be a comprehensive preservation plan followed by a major fundraising campaign to fulfill the plan,” HSSC Executive Director Patricia Adler-Ingram said recently. “The house is fragile and precarious.”

Given the security of a long-term lease, Occidental is prepared to rehabilitate the premises and to carry out significant updates to enable the Lummis House to fulfill a proper civic function once again. Barring a full structural evaluation, the following areas of primary concern remain necessarily tentative, but we are confident that the property can be restored properly, and we look forward to

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 16 establishing a working relationship with the Department as we address the premises’ manifest defects as well as any others uncovered in the rehabilitation process:

BUILDING ENVELOPE AND STRUCTURE

• No measured drawings of any kind exist for the house. The federal Historic American Buildings Survey has photos and data pages, but no drawings. Fortunately, Lummis’ diary, along with his photographs and his correspondence, is in the Braun Library at the Southwest Museum and provides a useful source for understanding how the house was built.

• Lummis’ own photos make clear the house is built of unreinforced concrete, rubble and brick, faced with Arroyo stone. (The walls of the tower and kitchen are reportedly reinforced with barbed wire.) Deep cracks in the walls have emerged on both sides of the chimney in the Comedor [dining room]. In 2010, HSSC hired United Environment Architecture (UEA), which prepared a laser-scanned floor plan of the house and installed monitoring pins to measure movement in the cracks. The cracks have since worsened. The basement underneath the kitchen has concrete walls composed of aggregate the size of baseballs and significant amounts of concrete spalling.

• It’s unclear how broad and deep wall footings are. A competent structural engineer would need to do a complete assessment.

• While the house has dodged a century of major earthquakes, its current ability to withstand temblors is unknown. Nothing is bolted or braced. One of the two guest houses lost its second floor tower after the 1971 Sylmar quake.

• There is no vapor barrier under the poured-in-place concrete floor – water comes up through the floor in heavy rains to create a puddle in what is now used as the curator’s office.

• The roof was reportedly replaced by the city fairly recently (the structure was originally built with asbestos tiles on the roof, which have presumably been replaced). Proper waterproofing and flashing is a continual problem, because of irregular profile of the Arroyo stone wall facings — hence a constant threat of leaks. Water damage is obvious on western wall of Museo; the source of this must be traced and fixed.

• Interior paint is lead-based: rough texture of the plastering makes removal extremely difficult.

• Rodents are a regular problem in the attic and in the two guest houses (currently used for storage).

• Windows and doors of the House were designed and built by Lummis — they are all one- of-a-kind designs, integral to the house. HSSC has begun the process of making needed

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 17 repairs. UEA estimated window renovations cost from $1,000 to $3,000 each; doors cost an estimated $5,000 to $15,000 each.

• Disability access is a major concern throughout the house because of the narrow doors on the first floor. A single very steep, ladder-like staircase makes the second floor completely inaccessible to the public.

CRITICAL FUNCTIONAL SYSTEMS

• The Lummis House is currently protected from abuse and vandalism by a chain link fence surrounding the property. A modern security system should be explored to protect the premises and to prevent the historic grounds. Systems must be put into place to safeguard the entire property and to enable the Lummis House to remain a cherished and trusted community asset.

• The Lummis House has no heating or air conditioning. The house is uncomfortably hot during peak summer months and very cold in the winter.

• Six fireplaces cannot be used for safety reasons, with masonry crumbling inside flues. The estimated cost for repair has been estimated at $25,000 for each.

• Many of the electrical, plumbing and gas lines were reportedly added after much of the house was built. Recreation and Parks did significant work to the house in 1961 to make it “fit for habitation.” Electrical and water systems would likely need a complete review and possible upgrading, as they have not been touched since the HSSC took over the house in 1965.

• The copper gutters on east end of house were added sometime after the house was completed, but downspouts currently deliver water right next to the foundation, possibly contributing to structural problems. These gutters are the only ones on the house.

CONCLUSION

El Alisal, the Lummis House, represents a prime opportunity for the people of Los Angeles. In its heyday, the home was a cultural institution and a public gathering space as well as a vital living reminder of the multicultural, shared history and character of our diverse metropolis. Yet, for all its architectural ingenuity and historical significance, the current condition of the property clearly prevents it from living up to its rich legacy nor achieving its current potential.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 18 If given the commitment of a long-term lease and cooperative flexibility from the Department and the City in designing a workable and historically sensitive rehabilitation and operational plan, Occidental is prepared to not only restore the premises’ physical structure but also its vital role within the larger community. Working closely with our neighbors, the college proposes to bring the Lummis House back to active life through the new Institute for the History of Los Angeles, in the process reforging the links between the House itself and both its neighborhood and the city as a whole. Serving a core educational function of enriching Angelenos’ understanding of our shared heritages, the Lummis House would be restored to reclaim its position not just as one of the city’s treasured landmarks, but enabled to establish a new legacy amongst 21st century Los Angeles’s preeminent cultural institutions.

Occidental College Proposal for the Lummis House · 19