Saved buildings
save our heritage organisation

Melville Klauber House

In 1979 SOHO's hardest fought preservation battle ended with the demolition of the 1907 Melville Klauber House, designed by Irving Gill and Frank Mead. Despite lawsuits, countersuits, State Supreme Court hearings, proposals from a youth hostel, plans to move it to Heritage Park or into Balboa Park, and even the airplane crash death of the developer, nothing could stop the loss of this high-profile icon, universally considered to be Gill's best remaining work, after the loss of LA's Dodge House.

Photo courtesy Coons collection


As has become all too common, more energy was put into the demolition scheme than in getting secure financing for its replacement. Those who remembered were taunted by a vacant lot at 6th and Redwood for more than a decade until this condo tower emerged. The lot across Redwood, site of another Gill house wrecked that year, remains the unsightly graveyard of another failed project.

Photo by Bruce Coons


LOST SAN DIEGO

Ammex Motion Picture Company


Bankers Hill Residences


California Southern (Santa Fe Depot)


Levi Chase House


Julia Dent Residence, Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library

F Street Downtown San Diego


Florence Hotel


Gay Mansion


Alonzo Horton's Home


Hotel San Diego


Melville Klauber House


Normal School


Middletown Schoolhouse


Mission Olive Works


Mission San Luis Rey


Overbaugh House


Pierce-Morse Block


Point Loma Country Club


Point Loma Universal Brotherhood & Theosophical Society Homestead

Sunset Cliffs Park

Mailing - PO Box 80788 · San Diego CA 92138 | Offices - 3525 Seventh Avenue · San Diego CA 92103
Offices, Museums & Shops (619) 297-9327
Home | Contact