Simi, Royal high school students helping build Strathearn Historical Park project

Strathearn Historical Park has turned to woodworking students at Royal and Simi Valley high schools to restore a decorative rooftop feature of two houses in the park that date back to 1888.

Officials of the Simi Valley park say they had a problem finding a local vendor to recreate two, 30-inch-by-3.5-inch wooden finial ornaments, so they reached out to Royal High through a connection. 

Steve Foster, a member of the historical park's volunteer restoration team, lives next door to David Sorenson, Royal's woodshop teacher, and contacted him a few weeks ago to see if his students could tackle the project.

Sorenson, in turn, contacted Bob Rennie, the woodshop teacher at Simi High School, to see if his students would be interested.

"So they got together and they have some students who are capable enough to do a project like this," said Carolyn Valdez, the historical park's site director. "And they decided to take it on free of charge, which is fantastic because we could not find anyone locally or even quasi-locally who could do this for us." 

Sorenson said few local woodworkers have lathes, which the students at Royal and Simi are using to recreate the finials.

"Cabinet shops, woodworking shops, they're going to do cabinet furniture," Sorenson said. "Very few shops are going to have lathes."

'Really cool to get the kids involved'

Royal High School woodshop teacher David Sorenson, left, helps his student Steven Panferov, a sophomore, make a finial. Royal and Simi Valley high school woodshop students are helping to recreate the ornamental features on two historic homes.

One of the finials is being recreated at Royal High School, while the other is being recreated at Simi Valley High School.  

"It's really cool to get the kids involved in the historical aspects of Simi Valley," Sorenson said.

One day last week, Sorenson and a group of about 20 of his students, joined by Rennie and a few of his students, worked on the project at Royal.

They cut a redwood log on an outdoor lumber mill to create the material for one of the finials. They also worked on indoor lathes.

The log was provided by the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District from a dead tree the district had cut down.

The park district is overseeing the finial project and owns and maintains the historical park at 137 Strathearn Place. The park is managed by the Simi Valley Historical Society.

A part of Simi Valley history

One of the Royal students, Joshua Jackson, 16, said working on the lumber mill for the project "is pretty interesting. I didn't know how they cut logs into small pieces. I thought it would be a bigger machine."

Royal High freshman Sam Molina, from left, woodshop teacher David Sorenson, freshman Aiden Stoner and senior Heith Parker help align a redwood log before milling. The Royal High students along with counterparts from Simi Valley High are helping to recreate two wooden finials on two historic Simi Valley homes.

One of the Simi high students, Shane Ruedy, 17, said the project "is very cool. It's just a different experience.

"It's the part which a lot of people don't get to experience," he said. "You usually just go out and buy wood somewhere. But we're processing it kind of ourselves."

Sorenson said it was great to see the kids working on the project.

"The cool thing is they did all the work," he said. "I just made sure they were turning it on right and kept it safe.

"The other important aspect is that this project gives the student a real-world application of their academic and wood classes," he said. "They are engaging with a real-world project, real-world deadlines, real-world communications skills, real-world problem-solving, real-world quality control, real-world accuracy and math.

"The fact that it's a small part of history is just the icing on the cake," he added.

The park district's landscape designer, Douglas Duran, agreed.

"I can imagine a kid who is doing this, in 15-20 years, he's going to come back and say, 'Hey, look at that, I built that,'" Duran said.

Houses shipped from Chicago in 1888

One of two Colony houses in Strathearn Historical Park which is getting a new decorative finial on its roof being created by students at Royal and Simi Valley high schools.

The two houses getting the new finials were among 12 so-named Colony Houses that were shipped by rail and wagons from Chicago to the pre-Simi Valley area in 1888. Ten of the houses wound up in a neighborhood called Simiopolis, long before the city of Simi Valley was incorporated in 1969.

One of the houses getting a new finial – the Haigh-Talley house – had its original one removed, perhaps to make way for an antenna, before it was moved to the park in 1970, Valdez said. 

The other house getting a new finial, the Printz-Powell house, had its initial one removed due to heavy damage just before it was moved to the park in April 2018, she said.

Duran said the finial restoration project is expected to be completed this week.

The new finials should be installed on the two Colony Houses' roofs by the project's contractor, Thousand Oaks-based Ardalan Construction, he said.

The Haigh-Talley house is fully restored except for the new finial, Valdez said.

The exterior of the Printz-Powell house is currently being restored, she said. But restoring its interior is dependent on raising the necessary funds, which the park will try to do, she said.

Those wishing to donate now can do so through the park's website, simihistory.com, or by calling it at 805-526-6453. 

Mike Harris covers the East County cities of Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, as well as transportation countywide. You can contact him at mike.harris@vcstar.com or 805-437-0323.

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