Letter to Historic Preservation Commission: Save the 100 year-old Electric Garage building

From the Woodland Record:

The following is a letter sent September 17 to the City of Woodland Historic Preservation Commission who will be discussing the demolition of the historic 100 year-old Electric Garage building as part of the Paul Petrovich and Cinema West multiplex at 801 Main Street. The commissioners are Robert Orlins, Cheryl Brookshear, BJ Ford and Mark Aulman. There is one vacancy.

Historic Preservation Commission:

Please consider this communication as part of the public record for your September 21, 2011, meeting.

Thank you for your proactive approach to avoid another disaster in the historic downtown. As Cheryl pointed out during the July 20 meeting, the city would have likely left the HPC out of the loop until it is was too late to mitigate the Petrovich/Corkill CinemaWest multiplex project at 801 Main Street.

Thank you also for briefly discussing (during that meeting) the letter I sent about mitigation to save the original historic Electric Garage building. I noticed this specific topic/solution was left out of the staff report for Wednesday's meeting.

Regarding the report for the Wednesday, September 21, meeting:

• The original Electric Garage building at 801 Main Street was built in 1911, not 1912 as stated. Also, the Mead & Hunt evaluation also incorrectly identifies the date as 1912 as does the city's "Explore Historic Woodland" tour book. Based on three different sources (Dotty Huber, great-granddaughter of founder William Dahler, old Daily Democrat articles and ads, and 1913 "History of Yolo County") the August 2, 2010, edition of the Woodland Record clearly identifies that in 1911 the Electric Garage was built at 801 Main. The original Electric Garage is 100 years old this year. It's a pity the city has not recognized that fact.

Read more at WoodlandRecord.com.