Thursday, August 14, 2008

Basler-Twist House update, Santa Ana

The photo above shows Santa Ana's historic Basler-Twist House after its very recent move to Cabrillo Park. You may remember that the house was cut into numerous large chunks by developer Mike Harrah at the start of 2007, and has been largely exposed to the elements ever since. (He was supposed to preserve the building if he wanted to use the land.)
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The photo above comes from Guy Ball, who writes, "They moved the final two pieces [of the house, which are now] laying next to the bottom floor. ...They had to do a lot of reframing and other work due to rot and damage to the original house... and there's still a few more things to do before they can lift the last two [pieces] on top."
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The photo below shows the original site of the Basler house (the proposed site of Harrah's 37-story tower) as it appeared this afternoon. It's mostly empty, but rings of detritus mark the spots where large pieces of the house once sat.

4 comments:

William Malecki said...

Hello !

I'm interested in the house as a valuable part of Santa Ana history, but also becuase my great grandfather lived the last few months of his life and, in fact, passed away in the house, in 1958, while it was being used as a rest home.

Coincidentally, my office is within sight of Cabrillo Park. I'd like to know what I can do to help the preservation effort and encourage others to do so as well.

I'll check this website for posts

Thank you!

Bill Malecki

Chris Jepsen said...

Bill - Sounds like you might want to talk with the folks at the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society (SAHPS). Their website is at www.santaanahistory.com. They do a lot of good work and have been following the Basler-Twist issue as closely as anyone.

Prospector said...

I'm trying to find out about Clark
House in Santa Ana posible gost

Morgan M said...

My great grandparents are herman and Virginia Basler :) Very cool to see some more history on this!