Coronado MainStreet has been hosting garden parties in landmark Coronado homes for the past 24 years. The event has become a popular end of summer tradition and the organization’s biggest fundraiser.
This year the party at the Hansen House was different. For the first time ever the Garden Party was a sellout. 400 people bought tickets; 15% higher than past years, according to Rita Sarich, Executive-Director of Coronado MainStreet.
Most were from Coronado, but there were people who came from as far away as Santa Barbara. Sarich suspects that an ad she placed in the Save Our Heritage Organization [SOHO] newsletter might account for the increase, which she believes included many historic preservationists who were simply interested in touring the house. Three of the ground floor rooms, as well as the garden, were open to guests.
The original house was built in 1889 by Irving Gill and remodeled by Richard Requa. Marshall O. Terry, former New York Surgeon General, bought the house in 1915 and set about a series of remodels using different architects. In the late 1920s Terry hired San Francisco architect Edward G. Bolles, who built a new house from the ground up. No one knows what happened to the original house, said Chis Ackerman, an architect and architectural historian.
Using architectural drawings by Requa, Bolles, and the other architects who worked on the house, Ackerman was able to recreate what had been stored in vaults in the house. The drawings were all stored in a vault in the house, said Ackerman. Leo Hansen bought the house at auction in 1950 and the family has owned it ever since. Its been a treasure for us, said his son David.
A sentiment shared by many in the community. Beside record crowds, the party drew a host of dignitaries including State Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Mayor Casey Tanaka, City Manger Blair King, and Councilwoman Carrie Downey, Councilman Bill Sandke, and School Board President Dawn Ovrom.
In her welcoming comments Atkins praised MainStreet for all the good work it does in Coronado. The organization was established by the city council in 1988 in an effort to revive the city’s deteriorating business district, which at the time had a 35% vacancy rate. Most people know MainStreet for the gardens in the Orange Avenue median, but the organization does much more.
It boosts the local economy by selling $20 gift certificates called Coronado Currency that are accepted by most businesses and organizations. The list of participants include the Coronado Playhouse, Vons and the Brigantine. ”I even have local dentists on the list,” Sarich said. She estimates that Coronado Currency generates some $2,500 a month in local sales.
MainStreet also partners with the City of Coronado “to keep the city’s business district clean, safe and vibrant,” said Sarich. To that end she contacts businesses that are violating city ordinance. If a business ignores Sarich, she files a code enforcement complaint with the city, which doesn’t have the staff or resources to police violators.
The annual Garden Party draws support from across the business community. Chefs from the Hotel del Coronado, Loews, Bluewater Boathouse, Brigantine, Little Piggys BBQ and Miguels prepared signature entrees for the event. The Del’s John Shelton prepared a bay scallop in a chorizo ragout, for example.
Brigantine, Little Piggys BBQ, Boneys Bayside Market, Tartine, Peohes, Vigiluccis, Bistro d’Asia, Café 1134, Crown Bistro, Swaddee Thai also served food and dishes. Close to 100 local businesses contributed items to a silent auction and a raffle.
Coronado Brewing Company donated the beer. La Crema, Laird Tobin James provided wine at a deep discount. As they have for nearly a decade, employees from Chase Bank’s Coronado branch worked the drinks bar, poured wine, mixed cocktails and handed out bottles of beer.
For most, the house was the star attraction. Generations of Hansens were married in the house, held graduation parties and yearbook signing parties. Marilyn Reese remembers her class’ party at the house in 1957. We had so much fun. It went on for six hours and there was no alcohol, she said. Looking around the ground floor sitting room with its fireplace, hand-rubbed painted walls, high ornamental plaster ceilings, rich oak floors and Persian rugs she observed that nothing had changed. It’s exactly as it was.
Sandke remembers the house for the Easter egg hunt and what great fun they were for his kids. From 1995 to 2006 Jamie Hansen, Allen’s wife – a teacher at Christ Episcopal School – held an Easter egg hunt at the house.
“I served on the MainStreet board and it’s a wonderful organization that does so much for the community. Having the garden party here is icing on the cake,” Sandke said. ”It can’t be underestimated how important this house is to Coronado,” he said.
The future of the house is not all that certain. It’s on the market. We hope a family like ours buys it and keeps it exactly like it is, said Allen Hansen.
To learn more about Coronado MainStreet, visit their website.
