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In Memoriam
Sarai Goebel Johnson (1970-2021)
By Alana Coons and Ann Jarmusch
September/October 2021
 Photo by Sandé Lollis |
The preservation and history communities have taken a blow with the enormous loss of historian Sarai Johnson, who died August 5, 2021 at age 50 of cancer. Sarai was an expert in genealogy and historical research and generously shared her knowledge. She wrote more than 100 in-depth city and county historic designation reports that raised the bar for other researchers, and proudly had a 100 percent success rate.
Sarai was the historian of the Marston House, the historic 1905 home and gardens she managed for SOHO for nine years. She was always the one to turn to for information about the Marston family, their accomplishments, and their home.
"Sarai was brilliant and intellectually curious," said Alana Coons, SOHO's education and communications director. "As I gathered my own memories of Sarai, gratitude was front of mind: gratitude for having known her, gratitude for over a decade of work and dedication to the Marston House Museum, and gratitude for the historical record of historic homes and landscapes she leaves us with, which will be used for years to come."
The late Kathy Flanigan, another of SOHO's leading lights and a researcher par excellence, introduced Sarai to historical architecture research, and she was off! Sarai and preservation architect Paul Johnson married in 2002 at the Presidio and soon founded Johnson & Johnson Architecture, where she excelled at designation reports, Historic Structures Reports, and Historic American Buildings Surveys.
Among her exciting discoveries was evidence that confirmed hearsay that San Diego's first woman architect, Hazel Wood Waterman, had a hand in designing the 1905 Alice Lee House, previously attributed only to her employer, Irving Gill. Equally important, she was able to identify the social history of Lee and her partner, Katherine Teats, and unearthed biographies of prominent early 20th-century members of San Diego's LGBTQ community.
"Ann [Garwood] and I are heartbroken over hearing this news. Sarai and Paul mean so much to us and The Meadows. Paul was our architect and Sarai wrote the historic designation. We shared many stories about preservation, Kate Sessions, and Maple Canyon," Nancy Moors said. "We've all lost a gem of a person. Her vast amount of knowledge and inquisitive nature, her smile, her cute little giggle will be missed."
"This is very sad news and a terrible loss. Few could match her love, knowledge, and passion for architecture and historic preservation," said SOHO president David Goldberg.
"Sarai was a one-of-a-kind preservationist and human being. Her knowledge of local history, historical sites, and building codes was pretty much without equal," Gary E. Mitrovich, co-president of the Lakeside Historical Society, said.
Dan Soderberg recalled his surprise at seeing Sarai and Paul outside his house one day. "A neighbor had hired them for advice on work being done on his potentially historic home. I assured my neighbor he had hired the very best."
In 2020, SOHO honored Sarai with the Preservation Leadership Award in the People In Preservation Awards program, citing her exceptional talents, from research to docent training and special events planning "all which have not only significantly shaped the historic preservation community, but the historic fabric of San Diego itself."
See Sarai's gracious acceptance of the PIP award HERE.
"All of the above are worthy accolades and achievements, but her real gift to us was her kindness, twinkle in her eye, and sharing of her gifted knowledge," said Paul Johnson.
There will be a memorial and celebration of life for Sarai in the Marston gardens, date to be announced.
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