Non-Historic Dinsmoor House

San Gabriel may have their Mission, but we have the Dinsmoor House. Rosemead's going to spend about $700,000 over the next few years to preserve this historic house. What's historic about it? Well, it's not the oldest house in the city. It was never occupied by anyone of political, commercial, or historical note. It's not of a notable, distinctive, rare, or otherwise significant architectural style. But it's. . . . It's. . . . Well, it's something that Maggie Clark's friends want, and Maggie Clark is always willing to spend city tax dollars to benefit her friends.

It's a money pit, but it's

It's a money pit, but it's THEIR money pit!

It was built in the late

It was built in the late 1920s, around the time the old folks were born.

Saw it in Google Street View. Nice lawn. The style seems to be "pre-McMansion".

If it clucks like a chicken, part 2

Yep, it reminds them of a time simpler time in Rosemead, by which they mean monochromatic.

It looks okay from the outside, and it would make an acceptable museum house, if it weren't for the repair costs. But if it were a car, the insurance people would write it off as a total loss. It's not worth $700,000 today. Better to sell it for a few hundred thousand to someone who could do the repair work themselves, then take the $200,000 -$300,000 or so from the property sale, and maybe some of the $700,000 you just saved in repair costs, and do a museum right.

The city DOES have someplace that would unquestionably qualify as historic--the oldest Protestant cemetary in the state. Maybe they could rescue an old bungalow from one of the many "knockdown and McMansionize" projects in the city on to the cemetary grounds, and use that as ground zero for our historic museum?

Otherwise, there are plenty of other, equally "historic" homes in the city that could be had for less than $700,000, plus what ever you could get for selling the non-Historic Dinsmoor House.