Historic 1918 Yorba Linda Craftsman Aeroplane-style home to get long-awaited refurbishment

Although much smaller in scope than the Town Center, library and arts center undertakings, Yorba Linda has initiated action on another long-awaited project, the rehabilitation of one of the city's most historic structures, the Craftsman-style Trueblood home built in 1918.

Cost to refurbish the city-owned structure at 4801 Park Ave., some two-tenths of a mile from the Nixon library and birthplace, is estimated at a bit more than $1 million, with a projected time frame of six to nine months for preparations and another nine months for construction.

The city will foot about $545,000 of the cost from a developer impact fee account, with the developer funding the remainder, under an agreement with the non-profit Orange Housing Development Corporation and the Tustin-based C and C Development Company.

The city's now-defunct Redevelopment Agency acquired the home in 2010 from the last private owner, Sylvia Chavez, for $385,000. She bought the home in 2004, with plans to raze the structure and build a new residence.

The city's Planning Commission certified an environmental impact report and approved a conditional use permit and a design review for the project in 2008, but the latter two items were overturned by the City Council in 2009.

The 1,200-square-foot structure on the 7,362-square-foot property has been boarded up since the purchase by the agency. The city assumed ownership, placing the property on a Long-Range Property Management Plan after the agency's 2012 demise.

The property is now identified as a “governmental use site,” as approved by the state Department of Finance under the red tape involved in the years-long Redevelopment Agency shutdown process.

The home, near the southwest side of the Imperial Highway and Lemon Drive intersection on Park Avenue behind Polly's Restaurant, is listed on the City Historic Resource Element under a status indicating potential eligibility for a National Register of Historic Homes listing.

However, a report earlier this month to the council from Pam Stoker, the city's economic development manager, stated the site “is not intended” to be listed as a state or national historic home, “but will remain on the city's local register and will be recognized as having local significance....”

Stoker noted a long-term lease on the property could generate $25,000 annually for the city.

First owner was H. E. Trueblood, who, according to historic references, was the first to ride the Pacific Electric from Pillsbury (north of Brea) to Yorba Linda (for 10 cents). Wife Ada was a charter Women's Club member. Later occupants were the Luther Janeways, owners of a Main Street grocery store.

Among the structure's Craftsman Aeroplane bungalow-style features: second-story slightly set back from facade, exterior wall cladding of horizontal wood boards, low-pitched gabled roof with wide overhanging eaves, exposed rafter tails and wood window casings.