Hoisting a Beach City’s History

There was no tornado, no swirling winds. The waves off Huntington Beach were within sight, a long way from the Yellow Brick Road.

But in a scene Tuesday that seemed straight out of “The Wizard of Oz,� a 99-year-old house that once belonged to the city’s first mayor flew safely to its new perch atop a garage, saved from the developer’s bulldozers.

“We’re not in Kansas anymore!� proclaimed homeowner Joseph Santiago, 40, a ponytailed surfer turned historic preservationist and star of this production.

It’s been a 2 1/2 -year labor of love that made him wade through the city’s permit process and overcome unwelcoming neighbors before he could move the old home to the top of an equally old garage. The old house now sits next to another historic home he already owns.

“I’m elated. I’m giddy like a schoolgirl,� Santiago said.

About 100 people crowded on street corners to watch as a crane operator hoisted the old house into place, many of them videotaping the event and snapping photos. Some have been charting the house’s past and its path, from its original site, where it was slated for destruction, to the oil yard where it sat for nearly two years until early Tuesday morning.

The 1,000-square-foot home, built in 1906 for Huntington Beach’s first mayor, Ed Manning, would have been destroyed had Santiago not discovered it.

The developer agreed to give Santiago the house if he paid for the move. Santiago estimates the move cost him $50,000 to $80,000; the rehab will cost another $30,000. But it was an offer Santiago couldn’t refuse.

“I’ve got a thing for old houses,� he said.

His mom, Gloria Krogh, in town from Kernville to witness the spectacle, said Santiago’s grandmother restored a pre-1920s home in Costa Mesa. And Santiago bought and refurbished an old home in Indianapolis several years ago.

When he moved back to Orange County, he bought the Warner House, built in 1907 and home to a former Huntington Beach councilman.

Santiago will continue living in the Warner home but plans to rent out space above the garage.

It’s fitting then, Santiago said, that the Warner House and Manning House be united on the same lot, since the homes once belonged to city founders.

“It was just serendipity,� Santiago said, calling one home the “little sister� of the other.

Santiago’s college pal, contractor Mitchell Wade, helped figure out how to pull it off. They built a steel base around the garage to support the home. They will add a recessed porch and colonnades to blend the two structures.

Crane operator Rob Ciedeburg lifted the 48,000-pound home more than 50 feet into the air, carefully navigating between sycamore and eucalyptus trees. He lowered it onto the steel base, which was perfectly sized to fit the house.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for all the years he’s been trying to get it done,� said his new neighbor Dodie Morrison, 72. “This neighborhood just ain’t what it used to be. I’ve seen so much torn down around here.�

But in an oceanfront community where turn-of-the-century Craftsman homes and bungalows have given way to skinny, three-story homes that sell for millions, not everyone agrees.

Some neighbors complained that stacking the house on top of the garage would block the view from the alley. Others said it would degrade the neighborhood, even if the old house did belong to the town’s first mayor.

“This is a disgrace,� said Joe Bar, a parishioner at St. Mary’s by the Sea Catholic Church across the street. “I can’t believe the Planning Commission approved something like this, a couple trashy houses downtown. Houses are going for $1.5 million and they drop something like this in here.�

Mike Hoskinson, 40, who lives across the alley from Santiago, is one of those neighbors building and selling pricey homes. He razed his home, which had been built in 1916, and replaced it with two three-story town homes, one that he is selling for $1.65 million.

“I call him a slumlord and I’m an evil developer,� joked Hoskinson. “But I’ve been supporting him from the get-go. This town has a history, and I appreciate a guy like Joe who comes in and goes to the mat.�

When it was all over and the moving crews were packing up, Santiago did feel a bit like Dorothy vanquishing the Wicked Witch of the East.

Wade even had stockings in his trunk, ready to be stuffed and stuck under the edge of the house -- to tweak the naysayers in the neighborhood.

But with the house hanging precariously and dozens of onlookers, Wade decided “we had more important things to do.�