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SOHO Succeeds in Removing Warner Ranch from Most Endangered List!
By Bruce D. Coons
Warner-Carrillo Ranch House. All photos this article courtesy Vista Irrigation District
When SOHO announced last year this National Historic Landmark Site as the "most important unprotected historical site in San Diego County", the San Diego Union's Roger Showley ran the story. 4SD Channel 4 produced a news spot on site with SOHO's Kathy Flanigan.
Due to SOHO's publicity an anonymous private donor has come forward with a $75,000.00 matching grant through The San Diego Foundation. The Vista Irrigation District which owns the property matched this donation with another $75,000.00 for a total of $150,000.00. This should be enough to stabilize the structure and prevent further deterioration. VID has also embarked on a campaign to raise an additional $200,000.00 to $300,000.00 to fully restore the site which includes the only known hand hewn timber frame barn in San Diego County.
Built in 1857 by Vincenta Carrillo, a prominent early Californio woman rancher, the adobe served as the Butterfield Stage Stop from 1858 until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. As California's first regular overland transcontinental stage connection with St. Louis, this pioneering stage route ran along the Missouri Trail. The trail was the most Southerly and only all-weather route to California. Built directly beside the emigrant trail, it figured prominently in the settler's diaries as their first glimpse of the promised land, the first well watered valley to be encountered after crossing the Great Southwestern Deserts. The historic setting has changed very little from the time of the great western migration and presents a rare opportunity to experience the past.
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The adobe maintains a high degree of integrity including a great deal of its historic fabric including the original fireplace mantle, much woodwork, vigas (ceiling beams) and remains of its muslin ceiling cloths.
VID will be looking for artifacts, historic photos and period furnishings for the adobe once it is restored. If you can help with the fundraising or other donations please contact SOHO, or Adrian Vargas at the San Diego Foundation (619) 235-2300, or C.J. Lucke at VID (760) 806-3162.
SOHO is pleased to have been able to remove this property from the Most Endangered List this time the right way.
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MORE FROM THIS ISSUE
SOHO Succeeds in Removing Warner Ranch from Most Endangered List!
President's Message
The La Jolla Saga Continues
SOHO's Preservation Revolving Fund
Update on the Whaley House
Whaley House Garden Restoration Project
Haunted Houses: Preservation Help or Horror?
Historic Façade Easement Program
Villa Montezuma Provides Lessons in Color
California Preservation Foundation 26th Annual Conference
History Alive! Chautauqua
The Binational Preservation Front
SOHO's 2001 People In Preservation Awards
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