One of the more amazing sights of August 2001 was the old Morgan
Hill Elementary School moving slowly, cut into 13 pieces, up
Monterey Road to a new home at Llagas and Hale avenues. The effort
that saved the school from the wrecking ball and renovated it into
a crisp new life as Carden Academy was lengthy and monumental. And
it just won the Governor
’s Historic Preservation Award for 2003.
One of the more amazing sights of August 2001 was the old Morgan Hill Elementary School moving slowly, cut into 13 pieces, up Monterey Road to a new home at Llagas and Hale avenues. The effort that saved the school from the wrecking ball and renovated it into a crisp new life as Carden Academy was lengthy and monumental. And it just won the Governor’s Historic Preservation Award for 2003.
Also nominated for the preservation award was the city’s restoration of an old church into the Community Playhouse, now part of the Community and Cultural Center. The Playhouse is located on the corner of Monterey Road and East Fifth Street; the project was led by Joyce Maskell, manager in the Business Assistance and Housing Services Department; Glenn Ritter from Public Works was the project manager.
The Carden/MH School award actually goes to Llagas Valley Investors, led by Gary Walton of Custom One, plus Walton’s partners Jerry DiSalvo and Gene Woerner.
LVI put up the money to renovate the structure – though the city added $600,000 for moving and renovation expenses. Walton was the contractor on the project. But behind the three men are three women who started the ball rolling.
Linda Ullah, former Morgan Hill School Board member and Gloria Pariseau, past president of the Morgan Hill Historical Society practically chained themselves to the school when, after buying it from the school district, the city planned to demolish the building to make way for its community center.
Beth Wyman, a former mayor and staunch supporter of Morgan Hill historical buildings, not only helped with the project but nominated the school and LVI for the award.
Plans to renovate the building on site and turn it into, first a senior center, and then part of the community center, fell on deaf ears, Pariseau said. The structure was allowed to deteriorate beyond the point that it would make sense to reuse it, she said, and it was scheduled for demolition.
Two factors actually made the school, built in 1922 – and closed in 1987 – worth saving, Pariseau said. First many Morgan Hill residents either attended or taught at the school and, secondly, it is the only building in Morgan Hill designed by architect William Weeks, a prominent designer responsible for many more buildings in Gilroy, South Valley and the Watsonville area.
“Linda and I fostered this thing from when they first closed the school building in 1987,” Pariseau said. “When things would get crazy down here I would drag Linda and Beth back to help. (City Councilman) Greg Sellers or I would call Linda – she was always so good with letters to the editor and Beth was so knowledgeable on the issues as they relate to Morgan Hill,” she said.
The group worked hard, she said, to keep the school’s salvation from falling between the cracks.
Besides Pariseau and Ullah besieging the City Council to save the building, rafts of former students attended council meetings and wrote letters demanding the building be saved an put to good use. Enter Llagas Valley Investors. Pariseau, it must be said, works for Gary Walton at Custom One. The pair had renovated other buildings but, Pariseau said, nothing as large or involved as the school.
The award was announced at a Historic Preservation Council meeting in Vallejo on Aug. 8 and will be officially presented in Sacramento on a date yet to be announced.
“This prestigious award is the only official preservation award presented by the State of California to worthy recipients in recognition of outstanding achievements in the field of historic preservation,” said Knox Mellon, state historic preservation officer in the announcement letter dated July 21.
Pariseau said LVI will get a framed certificate to honor the preservation award.
“But everybody gets a pat on the back,” she said.
