CITY OF CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA
City Council Agenda
Regular Meeting
October 3, 2006
VIII. Public Hearings
A. Consideration of an appeal of the Historic Resources Board determining that the former Palo Alto Savings and Loan building is historically significant and listing the property on the Carmel Inventory of Historic Resources. The appellant is John Mandurrago representing the Pacific Grove Land Company. The property is identified as Block 91 Lots 2, 4, 6 & 8.
Selected excerpts from the city's public record, as follows:
CITY OF CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA
STAFF REPORT ADDENDUM
TO: MAYOR McCLOUD AND COUNCIL MEMBERS
FROM: BRIAN ROSETH, PRINCIPAL PLANNER
DATE: 12 SEPTEMBER 2006
SUBJECT: CONSIDERATION OF AN APPEAL OF A DECISION OF THE
HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD DETERMINING THE FORMER PALO ALTO SAVINGS AND LOAN BUILDING IS HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT AND LISTING THE PROPERTY ON THE CARMEL INVENTORY OF HISTORIC RESOURCES.
I. INTRODUCTION
On 1 August 2006, the City Council continued the Plaza del Mar appeal with a request that staff evaluate new evidence in the record that linked Walter Burde's Palo Alto Savings and Loan building with Barnet Segal - a potentially important person in Carmel's history.
II. BACKGROUND ON HISTORIC FIGURES AND PRESERVATION
There are four categories used in classifying historic resources. These are:
(1) The resource is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States; or
(2) The resource is associated with the lives of persons important to local, California or national history; or
(3) The resource embodies distinctive architectural characteristics of a type, period, region, or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values; or
(4) The resource has yielded, or has the potential to yield, information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California or the nation.
Criteria-2 properties are considered historic if they are closely associated with the lives of people that are important to the physical or cultural development of a city, region, state or nation.
For a property to qualify under Criteria-2, it must be very closely associated with the important person that it is supposed to represent. Weak associations are less effective in the public education/interpretation goal of historic preservation. If there is more than one property that might represent an important figure, preserving the one with the strongest associations is the usual practice.
Criteria-2 resources should be related to the period of time when the important person was doing whatever made him/her important. If an important author lived in several different homes, it is most appropriate to preserve the home where the author produced their most important works.
Evaluating Properties Less Than Fifty Years Old
Eligibility for Exceptional Importance
The phrase "exceptional importance" does not require that the property be of national significance. It is a measure of a property's importance within the appropriate historic context, whether the scale of that context is local, State, or national.
Comparison with Related Properties
In justifying exceptional importance, it is necessary to identify other properties within the geographical area that reflect the same significance or historic associations and to determine which properties best represent the historic context in question.
III. DOES THE EVIDENCE SUPPORT A CRITERIA-2 DESIGNATION?
Was Barnet Segal an Important Person?
Barnet Segal was a man of great accomplishments. His legacy continues even after his death because of the charitable trust he created. He established Carmel's first bank. This is an important milestone in the development of any young city. It is one mark of a city's growing substance, maturity and permanence. Known by locals as "Barney's Bank," it provided loans for construction of many of the homes and commercial buildings that make up the character of Carmel. The respect that he earned, and his value to the community were so widely recognized that he was often called "Mr. Carmel." He helped establish the Carmel Art Association, an institution important for Carmel's burgeoning art community and a continuing presence today. All of these contribute to a determination that Barnet Segal was an important person in Carmel's history.
Designating a building as historic on the basis of an important person requires a finding that the person was of exceptional importance.
Is the Property or Bank Building Closely Associated with Barnet Segal
Barnet Segal and the Bank of Carmel occupied the Dolores/Seventh site from 1958 through 1983- a span of twenty-five years. He died in 1985. The first fourteen years of this occupancy was in a building that pre-dated construction of the Walter Burde-designed building.
Just prior to construction of the Walter Burde building, there was a flurry of mergers and bank reorganizations. Apparently, the Palo Alto Savings and Loan merged with the Salinas Savings and Loan. This combined entity then merged with the Bank of Carmel. During this merger activity Barnet Segal sold some his shares in the Bank of Carmel. While he was still part owner of the bank as a significant shareholder, he no longer held a majority interest and no longer controlled the bank. A year after these changes, the old bank building was demolished and the new Walter Burde design was built. Barnet Segal maintained an office in the new bank building where he ran an insurance company until shortly before his death.
Note: Corrections to above 2 paragraphs: "Bank of Carmel" should read "Carmel Savings and Loan Association."
Are There Other Properties that Might Represent Barnet Segal?
Barnet Segal is associated with a second location. He originally established the Bank of Carmel in the building that still stands on the northeast corner of Dolores Street and Ocean Avenue, currently occupied by Carmel Forecast. This building was built in 1938 expressly for Barnet Segal and the Bank of Carmel. The bank occupied this site from 1939 until 1957, nineteen years. It was listed on the Carmel Inventory of Historic Resources on the basis of its architecture.
The current owner of this building, Paul Laub, has filed an appeal to remove his property from the City's Inventory of Historic Resources. That appeal is still pending. Absent a resolution of that appeal, the Council should not attempt to compare these two buildings. Each building should be evaluated independently, each in their own appeal hearings.
Is the Bank Relevant to the Interpretation of Barnet Segal's life?
Barnet Segal was productive at this site as the owner of a bank (1958-1972) and as the owner of an insurance company (1973-1983). This entire 25-year period was part of Segal's productive years. However, his occupancy of the Walter Burde building is just ten years and this, not as a banker.
Conclusion
If the Council determines that some historic resource should be identified to represent Barnet Segal, this building would qualify. The Dolores/Seventh building is less than 50 years old. Identifying this building as historic requires a finding that Barnet Segal was a person of exceptional importance. If the Council finds that he meets this test, and the appeal is denied, the building's architectural merit further enhances its value to the City.
COMMENTS:
1. Corrections to Brain Roseth's STAFF REPORT ADDENDUM include a substitution of "Carmel Savings and Loan Association" for "Bank of Carmel;" while both were established by Barnet Segal, the Bank of Carmel was founded in 1923, while the Carmel Savings and Loan Association was founded in 1940. And the Bank of Carmel occupied the Ocean Avenue & Dolores St. N.E. Corner site, while the Carmel Savings and Loan Association occupied the Dolores St. & 7th Avenue site.
2. At the 8 August 2006 City Council meeting, the adoption of findings granting an appeal of a decision of the Historic Resources Board, determining the former Palo Alto Savings and Loan building to be historically significant and listing the property on the Carmel Inventory of Historic Resources, while prepared and on the Consent Calendar, was delayed due to new information. The appeal was then continued to the 12 September 2006 City Council meeting and then to the 3 October 2006 City Council meeting.
3. The City Council had concluded that the bank building is not of exceptional importance using the National Register Bulletin important architect/important works criterion, is not of exceptional importance under the National Register's "best example" criterion and is not of exceptional importance using the National Register's "one of a kind" criterion. Therefore, in the prepared City Council Findings, the Council Action was as follows: "The Historic Resources Board decision is reversed. The Palo Alto Savings and Loan Building (Bank Building) shall not be listed on the Carmel Inventory of Historic Resources."
4. Criterion (3) or architecture was evaluated in the context of National Register Bulletins #15 and #22 for evaluating resources less than 50 years old. "These bulletins suggest that properties younger than fifty years old should meet a higher standard than older properties to qualify as historic."
4. In Brian Roseth's STAFF REPORT ADDENDUM, he writes "For a property to qualify under Criteria-2, it must be very closely associated with the important person that it is supposed to represent. Weak associations are less effective in the public education/interpretation goal of historic preservation. If there is more than one property that might represent an important figure, preserving the one with the strongest associations is the usual practice." And he includes "Evaluating Properties Less Than Fifty Years Old, Comparison with Related Properties In justifying exceptional importance, it is necessary to identify other properties within the geographical area that reflect the same significance or historic associations and to determine which properties best represent the historic context in question."
Yet Principal Planner Roseth also writes "the Council should not attempt to compare these two buildings;" namely the Bank of Carmel at the N.E. Corner of Ocean Avenue & Dolores St. and the now commonly known Palo Alto Savings and Loan building.
CONCLUSION:
"If there is more than one property that might represent an important figure, preserving the one with the strongest associations is the usual practice."
Based on Criterion (2), important person, is the "strongest association" the Bank of Carmel or the Palo Alto Savings and Loan building? The Bank of Carmel building, already on the City's Inventory of Historic Resources due to its architecture, represents the first chartered bank in Carmel-by-the-Sea established by Barnet Segal in 1923, while Barnet Segal operated his Carmel Insurance Agency from an office in the Palo Alto Savings and Loan building.
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