When Janet Cosgrove looks out the picture window of the historic Morey Mansion, she views a scene that could have taken place 100 years ago.

The purple outline of mountains, a train passing on the railroad track, acres of orange groves, and the carriage house on the Redlands home's grounds are part of the scene that unfolds in front of her.

The setting and the history of the house are exactly why she and her husband, Rodger, bought the 100-year-old Victorian home.

"Rodger was saying we should probably buy those orange groves, too," she said, "before some housing development comes in."

She said it jokingly, but it was a message she and her husband clearly live by: To save something from development or destruction, the only guarantee is to buy it. They've bought and restored three other historic homes -- two in Colton, one in Newport Beach.

Throughout local history, other preservation activists have operated on the same theory. Redlands' Prospect Park would have become a housing tract if a group of residents hadn't pitched in to buy it in the '60s. The Santa Fe Depot in downtown Redlands could have been bulldozed if it weren't for a group purchase in the '80s. Redlands City Hall itself stepped in to purchase a former trolley car barn and save it from destruction.

As a development boom sweeps across San Bernardino County, threatening to replace old, unused buildings with malls and housing tracts, preservation has become a particularly hot topic.

In Redlands, a proposed transit station could replace a former citrus packinghouse; in Loma Linda, higher land values are fueling talk of demolishing an old drive-in movie theater.

In those cases and others, city officials and local preservation activists are debating the value of old vs. new. Cities are working to sharpen the laws meant to bolster historic resources and designating structures and entire neighborhoods as places that deserve to be preserved.

And increasingly, they're looking for new ways to use the old buildings -- rather than the expensive option of making them into museums or tour sites -- to justify keeping them around.

Cities and their laws Whatever the buildings' ultimate fates may be, cities provide historic sites the first line of defense against demolition.

Local officials have generally regarded Redlands as the leader in legislating longer lives for its buildings since it passed one of the area's first preservation ordinances 13 years ago.

Some say Redlands started out with more historic resources than most, with culture-conscious residents dating back more than 100 years. Others say today's citizens put more effort and money into preservation. Either way, it seems to be ahead of the rest of the county -- it has eight sites on the National Register of Historic Places, while the closest runner-up, Twentynine Palms, has four.

And now, the city may take its regulations a step farther. A proposed November ballot initiative would protect historic roadways such as Cajon Street, Highland Avenue and Sunset Drive from future expansion and would encourage preservation by waiving processing fees for improvements to historic buildings.

"If we consider it an important asset, it should be encouraged," said Redlands Mayor Bill Cunningham, who proposed the ballot measure. "As far as we are concerned, that's what makes our city a quality city."

Colton, on the other hand, has tried the positive-reinforcement approach, emphasizing incentives for residents who own and maintain historic homes rather than limitations on development. The city has named about 50 sites as significant, handing out special plaques to their owners and pushing for more recognition with possible brochures and home tours.

In neighboring Loma Linda, officials recently have started concentrating on preservation as malls, houses and other projects have begun springing up with increasing frequency. The Historical Commission currently is wrestling with several issues, including whether to allow the owners of the Tri-City Drive-In, circa 1947, to demolish it and how to recognize the Mission Road area that has been home to American Indian villages, missionary camps, early citrus farms and Mormon settlements.

"You cannot save every item," said Loma Linda City Councilman Bob Ziprick, a local history buff. "The thing that makes something unique and historic is scarcity. I think preserving everything built before 1950 is too much, but having historic buildings adds something to the community."

Preservation problems

But preservation efforts do present problems as well.

In Redlands' Santa Fe Depot National Register Historic District, a former citrus packinghouse could make way for a proposed transit center meant to further plans for an entertainment district. Making the Citrus Avenue trolley car barn in Redlands into a car repair business and keeping the changes consistent with the building's historical architecture will cost the new owner about $70,000. A south Colton Victorian house has caused an eight-month delay in the neighboring Apostolic Church's plans to build a playground.

Redlands builder Johnny Moore also has struggled with preservation's potential to drain finances. He has bought and restored several buildings in the city, including those that now house the Joe Greensleeves and Rama Garden restaurants. But he hasn't been able to make the former Rettig Machine Shop on Stuart Street work as a business. He has a demolition permit and said he plans to tear the structure down -- despite some activists' protests -- unless a willing buyer appears.

He has tried to find a use for the building for nine years, but always ran into the lack of parking as a problem.

"It's nice to do (save buildings), but a lot of times you're money ahead not to," said Moore, who has been fixing up buildings since 1977. "There's no reason to tear something down if there's a functional use for it. But sometimes you just reach that point of obsolescence."

Willing preservationists

Because of the financial constraints, the future of old buildings comes to depend mostly on people willing to devote time and money to their protection.

Some buildings get a reprieve from the wrecking ball thanks to individual activists like Redlands architect Leon Armantrout, who keeps an eye on city actions for impending demolitions. Armantrout often disagrees even with the generally pro-preservation Historic and Scenic Preservation commissioners, saying Redlands doesn't go far enough to keep its history alive.

"I think we need to wake up," he said. "Everybody assumes that nobody will think about tearing down historic buildings here. We've lost things like the old Elks building, the La Posada Hotel. I think that's shameful in a town that's supposed to be sophisticated and architecturally aware."

Sometimes it takes more than one person to stand up for a building. That's where groups come in, such as the 300-member Redlands Conservancy or the Redlands residents who banded together to buy Prospect Park and the Santa Fe Depot.

The proposed destruction of the Bloomington Garage in an unincorporated county area spurred the Bloomington Preservation Foundation to action. The organization managed to get the building moved out of the site of a Caltrans park-and-ride lot to an empty spot across the street. Now the group is planning a museum there.

"If the old garage was destroyed, then the whole community would be destroyed," foundation member Virginia Geil said. "And saving the garage has helped our community. They realized, `Gee, we can do something.' "

The Cosgroves of Redlands have found a foolproof way to keep historic buildings around -- they buy them. Besides the Morey Mansion, they also own two landmark Victorians in Colton and an 80-year-old home in Newport Beach. They're concentrating on fixing up the Morey Mansion so they can live there after selling the Colton house that serves as their current residence.

They bought the Redlands mansion, their most recent purchase, in December for $675,000. They're expecting to spend about as much on restoration -- adding window seats and kitchen cabinets, re-shingling the tower, repainting the onion dome and painting the plaster rosettes on the ceilings, among other things.

"That movie `The Money Pit' is definitely this house," Janet Cosgrove said, sitting on the plastic-draped wooden staircase in the foyer. "We're probably not going to get our money back.

"But if you don't buy these things and restore them, they'll be gone. We're restoring yesterday's treasures today for tomorrow."

Jennifer Armstrong can be reached by e-mail at jarmstrong@pe.com or by phone at (909) 890-4449.

Published 8/15/1999