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HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/25/2023 Item 4a, Papp James Papp < To:Advisory Bodies Subject:Comment on CHC Item 4a, 25 Sep 2023 meeting, attached Attachments:Marshalls Jewelers Contributing Delisting comment.pdf This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. I have already sent this, this morning, to Brian Leveille and Walter Oetzell but just wanted to make sure it gets in, as I got an out-of-office response from Walter. James 1 1 Sauer-Adams Adobe - 964 Chorro Street - San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 22 September 2023 City of San Luis Obispo Cultural Heritage Committee Dear Committee Members: Chattel, Inc. has done a meticulous report on Marshalls Jewelers–Magnuson’s at 749–751 Higuera, one of many buildings in the Downtown Historic District whose altered appearance preceded CHC and City Council historic designation. Chattel’s apparently dispositive conclusion: 1975 Spanish Colonial Revival Marshalls no longer communicates the significance of 1959 Mid-Century Modern Lacterman’s in design, materials, or workmanship. But to San Luis Obispans, this is neither new nor, under our Historic Preservation Ordinance, relevant information. Just as the city’s HPO departs from National Register criteria by defining Master Listing as “a designation which may be applied to the most unique and important historic properties,” it departs from the National Register’s view of integrity by defining Contributing Listing as “a designation that may be applied to buildings or other resources at least 50 years old that maintain their original or attained historic and architectural character.” A circular arch thrust above a horizontal line isn’t found in Hannaford’s Spanish Colonial or Adobe Architecture of California, Bossom’s Old Mexico: An Architectural Pilgrimage, or Geerlings’ Wrought Iron in Architecture, but it is a Postmodern trope, e.g., Charles Moore’s Piazza d’Italia (New Orleans, 1978) and Philip Johnson’s 500 Boyston (Boston, 1989) In 1975—1979, John Ross’s Mid-Century Modern Lacterman’s was redesigned to embody the new Postmodern architecture for pioneering gay businessman and arts philanthropist Clifford Chapman, whose landmark Shell Beach Chapman Estate demonstrates his revivalist taste; history of local theater performance and design, his sense of drama. The transparent glass curtain wall was replaced by transitional, wrought iron–encompassed courtyards flanking a thrusting wing. Marshalls’ “wrought iron, tile, and stained glass are blended together to give a most pleasant invitation to the meticulous new store” (“Spanish Motif,” Times-Press-Recorder, 20 Feb. 1976, p. 9). According to Chapman, he hired “Cal Poly architecture graduates to design a 2 storefront” in what presumably was an effort to achieve the cutting edge (“Marshalls Jewelers,” 30 Jan. 2016, p. 16BB). San Luis Obispo’s master blacksmith Gary Cully created the façade’s extensive ironwork (interview with son Brian Cully at Madonna Inn, 16 August 2023). The 1987 Contributing Listing confirmed this attained architectural character a mere 8–12 years after the changes—highly unusual, but “in some cases, buildings or other resources that are less than 50 years old, but are nonetheless significant based on architecture, craftsmanship or other criteria as described herein may be designated as a Contributing List resource” (Historic Preservation Ordinance 14.01.020.12). The resource meets two HPO architectural standards for the Contributing List: “relative purity of a traditional style” (14.01.070.A.1.a) and “notable attractiveness with aesthetic appeal because of its artistic merit, details, and craftsmanship” (14.01.070.A.2.a). For its attained period of significance of 1975–1979, the resource’s integrity of design, materials, craftsmanship, location, setting, feeling, and association is superb. Marshalls-Magnuson’s embodies Spanish Colonial Revival in Postmodern form in its use of space (courtyards surrounded by stucco-clad walls and wings), light (replacement of glass curtain walls with small, tapered “fauxdobe” windows), and decorative features (window canopies in stucco and wrought iron; wrought iron gates, fences, and grilles; curving cornice and window molding integrated into the stucco; a Spanish tile stringcourse). Postmodernism emphasizes façade, simple historic forms like arches, and fragmentation of the rectangular block. At Poly grad Cully’s nearby smithy at 286 Higuera, he had demonstrated his range as an architectural blacksmith, from the Heimatstil wrought iron features defining the restaurant building of Madonna Inn (1961) to the Modernist steel structure of five radiate, wave-form catenary arches topping the viewing platform of architect Stewart Kerr’s Santa Maria Public Airport (1971). At Marshalls-Magnuson’s he meticulously executed a Postmodern vision. His wrought iron would even define Marshalls’ marketing (Chattel, image 7, and “Spanish Motif,” above). It is one San Luis’s finest and certainly the most public project by this master craftsman. Marshalls inclusion on the Contributing List 28 years from original construction and 8–12 years from its period of attained significance was obviously intentional. There could be no illusions of scraping off stucco to restore Mid-Century Modern glass. The landmarking is testament to purity of traditional style and the aesthetic appeal of artistic merit, details, and craftsmanship. The CHC recently added the first Modernist resources to the Master List and is due to add Postmodernism. Marshalls is the city’s only listed Postmodern work, the only definitively Postmodern resource in the Downtown Historic District. It embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type and period of construction, represents the work of a master in Gary Cully, and possesses high artistic values (14.01.070.A). It is associated with our under- landmarked LGBTQ history as the creation of San Luis’s first out gay businessman, who was, with partner Gene Shidler, a leading philanthropist of the local arts, particularly in use of his Shell Beach estate (14.01.070.B.1.b). It would be bizarre to remove Marshalls from the Contributing List 36 years after landmarking because it isn’t Lacterman’s. Yours sincerely, James Papp, PhD Architectural Historian 3 Timeline: Gary Dean Cully The 1971 opening of the Santa Maria Public Airport terminal, topped by the Observation Platform’s radiate parabolic wave roof, whose steel structure was engineered by Fred Schott and fashioned by Gary Cully 1931 Apr 18 Gary Dean Cully is born in Texas to David L. and Lucille M. Cully, who soon after move to California 1940 The US Census records the Cully family on West Avenue 43 in the Mount Washington area of Los Angeles and as having lived in Los Angeles at least since 1935. David Cully works as a bookkeeper for a wholesale grocer. 1950 According to the US Census, David Cully, a wholesale dairy products salesman, is living with his wife and three younger sons in Atascadero. Various newspaper reports and advertisements show him ranching in Santa Margarita, Atascadero, and Adelaida in the 1940s and 1950s Aug. Gary Cully wins third in registered palomino mares, four years and older division, at the district fair (“Fine Horses Shown at Fair, Telegram-Tribune, 29 Aug 1950, p. 7) 1958 Gary Cully, having served in the US Navy and attended Cal Poly, advertises hot and cold horseshoeing, his first documented step in becoming a leading art and architectural blacksmith in San Luis Obispo (“Farmer’s Column,” Telegram-Tribune, 18 Oct 1958, p. 10) 1959 Cully opens his blacksmith shop at 286 Higuera, which he will occupy till the building is condemned by the city in 1985. At the corner of Bianchi Lane and confluence of High and Pismo Streets, his nighttime work on the forge becomes a spectacle for generations of Obispans stopped at the traffic light. 1961 Cully creates the wrought iron for Madonna Inn’s new restaurant and office building, including horseshoe andirons for the lobby, a fire screen for the Copper Café, fleur-de-lis door hardware, acanthine hammered brackets echoing the carved column corbels for the Gay 90s space, an arched trellis for the Venetian Room, and a monumental weathervane. He also forges new tools for the woodcarver. 4 Gary Cully ironwork, Madonna Inn, clockwise from top left: Gay 90s beam bracket, Copper Café beam bracket, Copper Café fire screen, weathervane (now in storage), and Cully’s son Brian and granddaughter next to door bar 1964 Gary Cully is living at 207 Broad (“Arrest Made in Car Theft,” Telegram- Tribune, 10 Apr 1964, p. 2). Wife Barbara Cully will be an Atascadero Junior High School teacher for thirty-one years (Candice Reed, “Los Angeles Native Finds Home for Her Horses, Dogs in Santa Margarita,” Tribune, 13 Aug. 2016, LH 49). The Cully family raise a second generation of artists, including aerial photographer Dean, art potter Brian, and art teacher Kristin. 1965 Gary Cully is manufacturing “beautiful and artistic hand wrought ornamental iron” in porch columns, grilles, balconies, stairs, hand rails, fire escapes,” etc. (“Cully Manufacturing Company,” Grover City Press, 5 Feb 1965, p 5). 1966 Cully patents a barbeque (“Show Features Tips for Homes,” Arroyo Grande Valley Herald Recorder, 26 May 1966, p. 1) Cully, of Art In Iron, collaborates with John R. Ross, AIA on the San Luis Obispo National Bank (now Wells Fargo) at 665 Marsh, described as “Early 5 California Cash Box” (Emmons Blake, “Printer’s Ink,” Telegram-Tribune, 19 Nov 1966, p. 2) 1969 Cully produces the ironwork for the new Spanish-Mediterranean-style Holiday Inn at Santa Maria (“Many Hands Worked on Facility,” Santa Maria Times, 30 May 1969, p. 8) 1971 Gary Cully becomes the sole bidder to attempt the steel framework for the wave-pattern and trapezoidal roof of the Santa Maria Public Airport terminal’s second-floor observation platform, designed by structural engineer Fred Schott (Brian Cully, interview, 16 Aug 2023) June Gary Cully is doing business as Cully Manufacturing Company at 286 Higuera, with his home address 207 Broad Street ( “Legal Notice,” Telegram-Tribune, 18 June 1971, p. 5) July 20 A truckload of 80’-long radiate segmental arch beam assemblages fabricated by Cully for the Santa Maria Public Airport terminal’s Observation Platform roof makes front-page news in San Luis Obispo after it bumps a power pole outside Cully’s Higuera workshop and gets temporarily stuck (“Traffic Stopper,” Telegram-Tribune, 21 July 1971, p. 1; photo by Bruce Judson). We know how the five diminishing catenary arch structures looked, because when, on 20 July 1971, they were trucked out of Gary Cully’s Higuera Street blacksmith shop, the truck got stuck, and photographer Bruce Judson recorded the occasion for the Telegram-Tribune the next day 6 1972 Cully wins contract for 11-foot steel hairpin standards for San Luis Obispo’s downtown directional signs (“Downtown to Get New Style Signs,” Telegram- Tribune, 20 Apr 1972, p. 3) 1975 Creates the elaborate wrought iron gates, fences, grilles, and canopies for John Ross’s transformation of the Mid-Century Modern Magnuson’s to Spanish Colonial Revival Marshalls Jewelers. 1985 Cully collaborates on ironwork for Price Street Plaza, a new four-story commercial and office complex at Price Street and Price Canyon Road in Pismo Beach (“Price Street Plaza: A Slice of Ghirardelli Square,” Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder, 3 May 1985, pp. 9–10, advertisement p. 10) The city’s condemnation of Cully’s smithy, and the reluctance of the county to let him reopen on Tank Farm Road near San Luis Obispo, becomes a cause célèbre (Telegram-Tribune: Dan Stephens, “Blacksmith Says Craft Being Banished to the Countryside,” pp. 1A–4A; “Find the ‘Smithy’ a Home,”, 31 Dec 1985, p. 10A; Robert C. Jones, MD, “Open-Minded Approach Needed for Blacksmith,” 23 Jan. 1986, p. 6B). Eventually, the county relents. 1989 Cully remains at his blacksmith shop in the 600 block of Tank Farm Road (“Police/Fire,” Telegram-Tribune, 8 Aug 1989, p. 5). Afterward, he pursues a second career as a structural inspector and consultant. 1998 Feb 8 Cully’s sons, photographer Dean and potter Brian Cully, exhibit at the Ridiculous Dreams Art and Fashion Show at the Forum on Marsh Street, their first show noticed in the press (Michael Ray, “Fashion, Art Show Brings Dreams to Life,” 6 Feb 1998, p. B5) 2022 Gary Cully dies age 91 7 Gary Cully in his 286 Higuera blacksmith shop in 1985. Photograph by Tony Hertz, Telegram-Tribune.