Santa Monica –The City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Conservancy signed a 20-year renewable lease of the historic Shotgun House at City Hall, January 19th. This last remaining intact shotgun house will be rehabilitated by the Conservancy and transformed into a Preservation Resource Center.

“Since the time this house was saved from demolition and designated as a landmark in 1999, members of the Santa Monica Conservancy have worked tenaciously to become the steward of this special property,” notes Santa Monica Conservancy Board president, Carol Lemlein. “We’re ‘walking the talk’ by rehabilitating it and putting it back into service as our headquarters and a center for teaching about Ocean Park’s early history as well as historic preservation.”

The unassuming, wood-frame structure, previously located on private property at 2712 Second Street in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica, was typical of such cottages that inhabited the streets a few blocks west of the beachfront more than 100 years ago.

Most shotgun houses are one story high, one room wide and two or three rooms deep, one behind the other, and connected by doorways that line up. Hence the name “shotgun” – if you shot a gun through the front door, the bullet would come out the back door without touching a wall.

The Conservancy will eventually move the house out of storage to its permanent site at Second Street and Norman Place, not far from where it was originally built and close to a cluster of other historic buildings that reflect different eras of the city’s history.

“We commend City Council and city staff, especially Barbara Stinchfield and Karen Ginsburg, who have diligently worked with us to make our dream a reality,” said Sherrill Kushner, chair of the Conservancy’s Shotgun House Committee. “And we couldn’t have done it without the untold hours put in by Ken Kutcher of the law firm Harding Larmore Kutcher and Kozal to negotiate the lease.”

The Conservancy will be responsible for raising funds to rehabilitate and maintain the shotgun house, which will eventually be moved from storage to a permanent site at Second Street and Norman Place, not far from where it was originally built and close to a cluster of other historic buildings that reflect different eras of the city’s history.

Members of the community interested in assisting with the shotgun house rehabilitation should contact the Conservancy at 310-496-3146.