Costa Mesa Realtor releases 4th historic homes calendar, pushes for preservation
With a fourth edition of an annual “Historic Homes of Costa Mesa” calendar hot off the presses, local Realtor Renee Pina — whose interest in the provenance of local domiciles comprises equal parts passion and profession — is at it again.
The full-color 2025 calendar features local homes built between 1933 and 1946 with notes on the structures, the eras they represent and residents past and present.
Selling for $10 apiece at a handful of local spots, including Costa Mesa’s Eastside Mini-Mart, the Kéan Coffee on Westcliff Drive in Newport Beach and the Costa Mesa Historical Society, the publication’s proceeds benefit the volunteer-run historical society.
Since the initial calendar was released in December 2021, Pina has worked her way chronologically through a spreadsheet of historical properties, beginning in the early 1900s and advancing through decades with each installment.
“You can see the progress of how buildings change, the architectural styles,” she said in an interview Monday. “[And] 1933 was a big year for Costa Mesa because a big earthquake [in Long Beach] damaged so many of our historic properties. It was a period of recuperation.”
One residence featured on this year’s cover — a California-style bungalow located at 1965 Santa Ana Ave. — was the former home of Harry and Claire Wright, owners of the erstwhile H.W. Wright Co. Hardware, one of Costa Mesa’s oldest businesses.
Built in 1933 on the corner of Newport Boulevard and Rochester Street, the Wright House was moved in 1950 and more recently renovated by its current owners, who purchased it in 1999.
“A lot of older homes were on farmland, and as owners were selling off the lots and downsizing, they basically had to move the homes,” Pina said of a mass migration of historic buildings to new addresses.
Growing up in a historic home in Long Beach and having worked in the real estate industry since 1988, first as a loan processor and title secretary, then as an agent, Pina is on a mission to preserve properties by highlighting the city’s storied structures while helping owners seek historic designations.
That’s been a bit of an uphill climb in Costa Mesa, where officials have identified potentially historic properties but have yet to implement a comprehensive preservation program.
A single early 20th-century craftsman-style residence — the Huscroft House — was approved by city leaders in 2008 for designation under California’s Mills Act, which offers owners of historic homes a tax break in exchange for their commitment to restoring and preserving properties.
Today, homeowners seeking a Mills Act determination must pay $10,000 for an appraisal of a home’s historical value, a bridge too far for most.
But Costa Mesa’s John Barnett, who purchased an English Revival-style home at 208 Magnolia St. in 2020 and painstakingly renovated the interior, earlier this year crossed that bridge, becoming the city’s second Mills Act owner.
The property was featured in the 2023 edition of Pina’s “Historic Homes of Costa Mesa.”
“It was a long freaking process, I’ll tell you,” Barnett said Tuesday, describing a three-year odyssey through the city’s planning department. “The people at the city were all nice, there was just no sense of urgency. Hopefully, now that this one has been done, it will be easier to get other ones through.”
The homeowner advises others like him to first discuss their properties with the Costa Mesa Historical Society, whose members were granted a role in considering designations after the city disbanded its Historical Preservation Committee.
“Go to the Historical Society, get on their list and say, yes, this is a house we want to protect,” Barnett advised. “They’re one of the gatekeepers, so I would do that first before spending any money.”
In addition to a steep Mills Act fee, Pina says skyrocketing land values in Orange County aren’t doing any favors to the cause of historical preservation, instead incentivizing owners to sell to developers or others seeking to create income properties.
“Costa Mesa homes are selling for $4 million now — we’re basically Newport Beach with a different ZIP code,” said Pina, who represents Costa Mesa on the Santa Ana nonprofit Preserve Orange County.
“I’d like to see more people who are passionate about this come together. That’s why I do this calendar.”
Calendars can be purchased at the Costa Mesa Historical Society, Kéan Coffee, Eastside Mini Mart or by visiting reneempina.com, emailing [email protected] or calling (949) 698-2003.
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