One of San Diego’s most important early LGBTQ sites, the small saltbox house at the corner of Florida Street and El Cajon Boulevard has been demolished without warning.
HG Fenton, the developer of the property, demolished the house at 5 p.m. Friday May 29. Charles Kaminski of Lambda Archives of San Diego, who had organized a petition to save the historic building, was outraged at the news telling San Diego LGBT Weekly via email, “What happened is a tragedy. This building was due for consideration to the National Register of Historic Places by the State Historic Preservation Resources Board for their August 2015 meeting in Sacramento. How is it that once that consideration for designation was made public within a day or two this important LGBTQ site was demolished? Both Lambda Archives and SOHO were in discussions with Fenton. In fact Lambda and Fenton representatives had a conversation the morning of this event, yet no mention was made of demolition. How egregious and disingenuous.”
According to Kaminski, Kerry Santoro deputy director of the City of San Diego Development Services Department had assured him via email that, “… that since the historic determination on the original entitlement was over 5 years old, that the project will indeed be subject to another historic review when the applicant comes in to the Department for demolition and/or construction permits.”
Clearly, that does not appear to have happened and Kaminski has written to the mayor and San Diego City Council demanding an investigation.
A post on the ‘Save the Historic LGBTQ House on El Cajon Boulevard’ Facebook page states there is a University Heights Community Association meeting at 6:45 p.m. Thursday, June 4, at 4345 Campus Ave., Alice Birney Elementary School Auditorium where John La Raia from HG Fenton is scheduled to appear to discuss the project where the historic house stood.
This is tragic. Assimilation is the price of winning our civil rights. As we lose our culture, it is important that we preserve our history. Egregious indeed!
Where was Todd?
People are acting like this was the LGBT “Mr. Vernon” and that’s ridiculous. It was a piece of junk that a swift wind would have blown down. Calm down; this dump was not worthy of saving. Fenton can put a plaque in the new building’s corner, and that will be fine. Get over it.