Foreword

This book marks both and end and a beginning for those involved in its creation. It is the end of an effort that has involved virtually the whole community since its inception in 1973. Viewed in retrospect, the quantity of time, effort, and money devoted to this project has been staggering. We have produced what we set out to create; Eureka: An Architectural View accurately chronicles the riches of Eureka's historic architecture. The larger job is now beginning. Current and future generations have the responsibility of determining how to preserve and enhance our city's heritage.
        The volume reports the findings of a comprehensive architectural survey of the city of Eureka, conducted by the Eureka Heritage Society. The Society was established out of the feeling that Eureka's architecture was something special, something worth preserving. The idea of a survey was present from the beginning; to save the best you have to know what is there. The survey was designed to be an objective measurement of the community's historic architectural resources, a solid foundation on which future planning decisions could be based.
        Apart from its impact on Eureka, the Society's survey has already achieved a niche in the annals of historic preservation. At the time it was begun, it was the most comprehensive survey conceived for a city of our size. Other efforts considered only buildings built before an arbitrary date or in a limited geographic area. In the case of Eureka, each of the nearly 10,000 structures in the city was separately photographed and evaluated by skilled preservation professionals. The histories of over 1,500 individual structures were researched. Finally, their significance was reevaluated, summarized in writing, and filed.
        Through the survey, some important facts have emerged: Eureka contains an unusually high proportion of architecturally significant structures, approximately 16 percent of the total, and it shelters a number of particularly fine neighborhoods, each presenting a unique ensemble of period architecture. David Gebhard, a professor of architectural history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has said that Eureka has the potential of becoming the West Coast Williamsburg. Williamsburg preserves an authentic colonial environment; Eureka preserves intact Victorian and early twentieth century architecture.
        Has the Society's efforts ended with the completion of the survey, our original objective would not have been achieved. From the beginning it was understood that the survey would be published in book form. Our ultimate goal was to mobilize the community to protect Eureka's architectural wealth. In this respect, this book is our guide. Through it, we hope, others will learn to view present-day Eureka from a historical perspective. The preservation of our architectural environment begins with the shared knowledge of our community's unique resources.
        Eureka: An Architectural View presents the facts of Eureka's social, economic, and architectural development. A brief overview of the city's history, from settlement in 1850 to the present is presented in six chapters, each summarizing a distinct period in Eureka's development. Each chapter begins with an overview of the social and economic forces affecting Eureka's growth, along with a brief review of new trends in architecture. The latter are illustrated wit historical and contemporary photographs of the types of buildings mentioned. Then, descriptions of representative buildings and neighborhoods and additional photos are presented. A map is included to identify the location of buildings cited in the text. This is your key to immersing yourself in the built environment of a given area by directly experiencing the richness of Eureka's architecture. The second half of the book comprises the inventory, a composite listing by street address of all the buildings identified as significant in the Society's survey of Eureka.
        You may have a natural tendency to grant more importance to the buildings pictured in the chapters than to those simply listed in the inventory. Resist it. The photographs in each chapter illustrate the range of architectural styles in that period. Only a few photographs are necessary to accomplish this purpose. Given the wide range of historic structures surviving from most eras, there is simply not enough room to illustrate them all. In a very real sense, the inventory is the most valuable part of the book. It will serve as a primary reference for city planners and homeowners interested in researching the history of their properties.
An outsider reading this book will easily grasp what locals sometimes miss: that Eureka is a city where the past is amazingly present. Most of our buildings are old, and virtually all of them are the first to be constructed on their sites. You can wander around town and easily imagine yourself in any decade from 1870 to the present. This gives our community a rootedness, a sense of historical identity, entirely foreign to many western cities.
        We value Eureka's uniqueness and want to preserve it. Historic preservation often tends to be equated with a bias against change and growth; and in some places that is exactly what historic preservation does mean. Here in Eureka, however, that definition will not work. Too many structures are significant, and the city is too vibrant to be placed in a stylistic deep freeze that limits development to the architectural styles and building densities of the nineteenth century. Historic preservation in Eureka has to be flexible enough to allow us to add to what we now have. It shouldn't mean prohibiting change; it should mean the kind of growth where each change is for the better, reinforcing areas of architectural significance and, where appropriate, adding new buildings of good design.
The challenges facing those of us who wish to preserve Eureka's architectural heritage are numerous. Individual property owners can and will adopt historic structures to modern needs; the difficulty lies in doing so without damaging their historical integrity. In addition to the necessary care of individual buildings, attention must be paid to what is added to existing historical neighborhoods. No one would think of siting a small factory in a residential neighborhood, but the wrong kind of new building in a cohesive neighborhood can have an equally devastating effect on its historic character. The municipal planning process is designed to control development in the city to promote the wise use of its resources. Historic architecture is on of Eureka's strongest undeveloped resources, and there is no reason why the planning process can't be extended to encompass architectural concerns as well as other city priorities.
        The ultimate threat to historic preservation is demolition. Those who remember the Sumner Carson House or the gilt interiors of the Ingomar Theater have little difficulty in discerning whether our community was enhanced by the commercial and industrial facilities that have taken their place. It is vain to argue against all demolition in a city that is alive and growing. Nonetheless, the indiscriminate use of the wrecking ball could make Eureka a much poorer place than it is today. What restrictions can or should we place on individuals who wish to tear down historic buildings? The question is difficult, but the inventory in this book presents objective criteria for evaluating proposals for growth and change.
        The obvious fact that emerges from even a cursory reading of Eureka: An Architectural View is that our city is an architectural treasure house. A long period of research and study has ended. Now comes the beginning of a period of decision. We know the richness of our built environment; it is well documented for us and for future generations. Armed with an appreciation of the value and fragility of Eureka's unique architectural heritage, I expect that we the people of Eureka will harness the forces of change to the betterment of our community, that our future and our children's future will be richer, not poorer, in historic resources.

Ted Loring, Jr.
President
Eureka Heritage Society
1987