Dear Mayor Cecilia Taylor and council members,
I am a Palo Alto native with ties to Sunset as Dave Clark the long term editor lived in the Los Arboles Eichler tract and was our neighbor. I am still in contact with his son Tom Clark.
My late father was friends with the Lanes. I know Dan Gregory who wrote the biography of May the architect for the Sunset building. Dan also worked at Sunset for years.
The cultural impact of Sunset magazine and books including Sunset Western Garden Book, the comprehensive western plant encyclopedia, is renowned. The Lanes influenced the country with their publications and this site in Menlo Park is where it all began.
The Sunset property borders Palo Alto as you well know. Having the proposed towers built will impact Menlo Park and Palo Alto. This project is not compatible with neighborhoods in Menlo Park and Palo Alto. CEQA will be triggered as both cities border the San Francisquito Creek. A tower higher than the Statue of Liberty on this property is unconscionable.
I am writing to urge Menlo Park’s city council require an application be submitted for this important structure to be designated on the historic register.
The article below exemplifies how the council’s instruction spearheaded the campaign to get the Lott house on the historic register.
I am urging the Menlo Park city council to do the same if this has not already been acted on. There is no time to lose. Having the Sunset property designated will help put the brakes on this unsuitable project that will harm both our communities.
Respectfully yours,
Ann Lafargue Balin
(650) 274-3307
Begin forwarded message:
From: Ann Balin
>
Subject: Lott Home designated as historical site – Chico Enterprise-Record
Date: February 28, 2024 at 11:12:33 AM PST
To: Ann Lafargue Balin >
The city council urged that this historical home be put on the historic register.
https://www.chicoer.com/2024/02/28/lott-home-designated-as-historical-site/?utm_email=6431C4BC0471640654C1C562CC&lctg=6431C4BC0471640654C1C562CC&active=yesD&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.chicoer.com%2f2024%2f02%2f28%2flott-home-designated-as-historical-site%2f&utm_campaign=norcal-chico-morning-report&utm_content=automated
Lott Home designated as historical site
Kyra GottesmanFebruary 28, 2024 at 4:05 a.m.
[The hybrid rose garden in Sank Park at the Lott Home in full bloom May 4, 2021 in Oroville, California. (Kyra Gottesman/Mercury-Register)]
The hybrid rose garden in Sank Park at the Lott Home in full bloom May 4, 2021 in Oroville, California. (Kyra Gottesman/Mercury-Register)
OROVILLE – The C.F. Lott Home has been honored with a designation as a historic site by the National Society of Colonial Dames XVII.
Oroville-resident Vicki Paxton is a member of the Sacramento-based Pricilla Alden Chapter of the society and was responsible for nominating the historic home and museum for the designation.
“One of the goals of the organization is to identify and mark historical sites, especially those from the colonial period,” said Paxton. “In California we don’t have any, except maybe some Spanish sites down south, because the period ended in 1783, but we do mark sites if we can justify their historical significance.”
The National Society of Colonial Dames XVII Century is a nonprofit organization founded in 1915. Its members are women who are lineal descendants of ancestors who lived and served in one of the original Colonies prior to 1701. The society is based in Washington D.C., and is currently comprised of 48 state societies, which are further divided into chapters.
The Victorian revival style home was built in 1856 by Charles Fayette Lott, a gold-rush pioneer who helped form California’s government and started the first Citrus Exchange in California. The home is one of five city museums and boasts a collection of original furnishings as well as paintings, rugs, textiles, clothes, silver and glassware from the period of 1849 to 1910.
Paxton said she believed the “lovely old home and the Lott family” were historically consequential to the city so began the designation process in 2022 but really got to work in March 2023 after receiving permission from the Oroville City Council to nominate the site.
“The home really epitomizes the life style of well-to-do settlers of the late 1800s. They had fine furnishings, crystal, China and gave dinner parties,” Paxton said. “Judge Lott had property, cattle, the house, a successful law practice and was involved in ranching and agriculture. His wife Susan and his daughter, Cornelia, were also both active in community and in women’s organizations.”
With assistance from Lott Home docents and Heather McCafferty, Oroville cultural facilities curator, Paxton researched and photographed the home for the application packet. She presented the application to the Pricilla Alden Chapter president who approved it and sent it to the state chapter for review. Once the state chapter approved it the application was forwarded to the national chapter in Washington D.C. for the final seal of approval which was granted in June 2023.
“Being recognized by an organization that has a vigorous process of vetting and analyzing the importance of a historical building is an honor,” said McCafferty. “It recognizes the Lott home and family as contributing to the wider story of America. Receiving this marker is significant because it reinforces what we already know about Lott home – that it’s important in terms of understanding our own local history.”
Suzanne Fichter, national chair of marking and preservation for NSCD XVII, said she processes about 20 historical designation applications a year. While the organization does focus on colonial sites, Fichter said that if a site “has significance and is important to the people who live in the area” that is taken into consideration.
“As of 2019 we had 750 historical sites designated throughout the states. We have well over 850 now,” said Fichter. “And, as of 2019 there were just 10 sites in California.”
With its designation as a historical site, the Lott Home joins other notable NSCD XVII California historical locations including the Hotel Coronado in San Diego, the Donaldina Cameron House in San Francisco and General George S. Patton’s headquarters in Chiriaco among others.
In the recent past, the Pricilla Alden Chapter has also garnered historical designation for a museum in Roseville and a church in Lincoln, said Paxton.
A bronze-cast plaque commemorating the Lott Home’s selection as a NSCD XVII historical site has been made and will be unveiled after installation during a special public ceremony at 11 a.m. March 22 at 1067 Montgomery St.
“Getting the historical designation seemed like it was worth doing,” said Paxton, who will be speaking at the ceremony. “I really love that old home.”