6 College Avenue, Santa Rosa

The owners of the industrial site hired Alice to assess the potential historic character of the property in anticipation of demolishing the building and redeveloping the parcel.

In 1927 the wood-frame warehouse replaced three Victorian houses on the site. Montgomery Ward rented the warehouse from 1949-1969. Two significant earthquakes on 2 October 1969 compromised the structure and resulted in the warehouse being deemed a threat to public safety and being “red tagged.” The demolition order was repealed on condition that the new tenants limit use to the first floor warehouse area, vacate the second floor, board up the windows and make structural modifications. By the turn of the 21^st century the building stood vacant and deteriorating.

Alice determined that the warehouse did not satisfy any of the four criterion for historically significant and that the building, therefore,  was not an “historic resource” under CEQA.