Time running out for 140-year-old Ventura farmhouse
The James Day house, built in the 1870s, will be demolished in mid-August unless someone steps forward at the last minute and agrees to pay to move the historic farmhouse away from its east Ventura property.
The property owner, a subsidiary of Ventura-based real estate company Smith-Hobson LLC, has been looking for 18 months for a buyer — or a taker.
The company will give the house away for free, but whoever takes it would have to spend $20,000 to $30,000 to move it nearby, to well over $100,000 if it leaves Ventura.
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The 140-year-old house has been vacant for about 30 years and would have to be completely renovated if it were to become a modern, functional home. Renovations would cost at least $500,000 and perhaps much more, said Stephen Schafer, a board member with the San Buenaventura Conservancy who has been helping Smith-Hobson try to find a buyer.
David Armstrong, Smith-Hobson’s CEO, said the company is looking at a mid-August demolition date “unless we can find a last-minute hero.”
James Day, a pioneering farmer and real estate developer in Ventura, bought the 80-acre property in 1874 and built his house on it shortly afterward. He sold the property in 1883 and moved with his family to another home on Poli Street in downtown Ventura, according to a report on the property prepared by the San Buenaventura Conservancy.
“It is one of the oldest remaining farmhouses in Ventura, and it’s still virtually unaltered,” Schafer said.
It has had only three owners since Day sold it, and it has been owned by Smith-Hobson since 1948. The company leases the land to a strawberry grower, Terry Farms.
But neither Terry Farms nor Smith-Hobson have any use for an abandoned farmhouse on what could be prime strawberry land.
“Hopefully with the house being free, someone would come to the table, but unless that happens in the next couple of weeks, it’s going to be too late,” Schafer said. “The current owners have a desire to make it not a liability for them, but it’s still a great house made of redwood that would be a great candidate for preservation.”
While the house does have historical significance, it is not designated as a landmark. And even if it were, under state law, the Ventura County government can only stop the demolition of a historic structure if the property owner is tearing it down as part of a new development. Smith-Hobson has no plans to develop the property, and using the space where the house now sits for more strawberry farming is not considered a “development.”
Smith-Hobson and the San Buenaventura Conservancy have tried for about 18 months to find a taker for the house. Plenty of people were interested — until they got estimates of what it would cost to move the house. Time is running out because the county approvals to demolish the home will expire soon.
“There has been an outpouring of people who were interested,” Schafer said. “The problem isn’t lack of interest; it’s lack of funding.”
Armstrong said he looked into giving the house to Ventura Friends of the Library so it could be moved across Telephone Road to the community park on Kimball Road and be repurposed as a public library. But the trouble and expense of moving and renovating the house dissuaded the library group, Armstrong said.
The unfortunate thing, Schafer said, is that for a buyer who already has vacant land available, moving and renovating the home could be much cheaper than buying an already-renovated farmhouse. The problem is that it requires cash, while buying an existing home can be financed over 30 years.
“It’s a bargain for somebody who wants to spend a lot of money,” Schafer said.