Rose Garden Resident
News
Photograph by Vicki Thompson
Home Help: Developers plan to move and restore the eclectic Colonial Revival at 744 Morse St., which Realtors listed as being in disrepair when it went on the market in 2005.
Deteriorating Colonial Revival house the subject of neighborhood meeting
By Mary Gottschalk
Rose Garden residents will have an opportunity to hear the proposed future for one of San Jose's earliest eclectic Colonial Revival estates during a Nov. 16 neighborhood meeting with developers.
David LeBaron Jr., in partnership with his brother, Clyde, and Mark De Mattei, purchased the 2,850-square-foot, two-story house at 744 Morse St., between Naglee Avenue and Emory Street, in September 2005, for $1,225,000. They plan to move the home, restore it and develop a portion of the property.
"This is an exciting project for us," LeBaron says, adding that he, his brother and De Mattei all live within a half-mile of the house.
"We want to restore that home," he says. "We used to live on the 600 block of Morse, so I started looking at this house in 1987. It's been continuously going downhill for 20 years."
LeBaron says when the 86-year-old home was first listed in August 2005, "it was listed as being in disrepair and should probably be torn down. We went through it and came to the same conclusion; it was beyond salvaging.
"After meeting with the city and learning it was identified as a possibly historic structure, we decided it would be in our best interests to try and save it, even at an exorbitant cost."
To make it financially feasible, LeBaron says they have entered into an agreement with the Central YMCA to trade a parcel of land next to 744 Morse for the back part of their lot. The trade would give the YMCA 29 new onsite parking places and LeBaron and his partners additional land to build two new houses on.
The existing house, which neighbors call the Wright Mansion in deference to Whitney Wright, who lived there from 1949 until his death in 2005, would be moved forward, closer to Morse, and to the side, closer to the adjacent house at 730 Morse St. It would sit on an 8,000-square-foot lot.
The two new houses, each approximately 3,000 square feet, would sit on 7,000- and 7,500-square-foot lots, both facing Morse, as well. All three would have driveways to garages at the back of each lot. All three houses would then be put up for sale.
While LeBaron says he's been getting positive feedback, not all the neighbors are happy.
Warren Hansen, a retired firefighter who has lived across the street from the house since 1968, says he is organizing neighbors to oppose the project.
"They want to move this mansion so they can have the legal room to shoehorn in two big monster homes," Hansen says.
Prior to deciding to keep the Wright home, the developers hired Bonnie Bamburg, historic preservation consultant, to research it.
Her report describes the house itself as "a distinctive example of one of the earliest eclectic Colonial Revival residential estates" in San Jose.
Bamburg's research shows it was built for William Wilson, an early real estate developer in San Jose.
Its longest association is with Wright, who was the vice president of Murison Label and Box Company, once one of the most successful businesses in San Jose. The company, which was on Stockton Avenue, designed and printed the labels and provided the boxes for processed food companies in Santa Clara Valley.
Before LeBaron and his partners can proceed, they must obtain approval to rezone the property from R-1-8 Single Family Residence to Planned Development zoning.
The neighborhood meeting will take place from 6:30-8:30 p.m., Nov.16 at the offices of De Mattei Construction, 1794 The Alameda.
