Letter: Wallace Stegner Studio Headed to Oblivion

Editor's note: Last May, demolition of the home of famous writer Wallace Stegner was halted when the National Trust for Historic Preservation sent a letter about the significance of Stegner's study, triggering a California Environmental Quality Act review. Donors sent in money that was to be used to move the Stegner's studio and make into a small museum, but cannot be used without a site. Efforts over the past year to gain permission to use town-owned land have been unsuccessful. 

Dear Editor:

At the Town of Los Altos Hills Planning Commission public hearing this evening (May 3) the Commission voted unanimously to approve the CEQA review recommending that Wallace Stegner's former Study be moved into the oak forest downhill on the same property, where it will be invisible.

There were just four speakers, each given three minutes. I spoke against the proposal, pointing out that our group had requested last August that the Town provide a destination site for the Study to be preserved as a museum honoring Stegner's work and exhibiting other historical artifacts but, instead of considering our request the Town government stalled, which was consistent with their past refusal to do anything about preserving historically significant structures despite elaborate claims in their General Plan that they are devoted to doing so and even more elaborate procedures in their Municipal Code for doing it. Three people spoke on the other side and two happened to be friends of mine, sadly.

I can understand why the owners have proposed moving the Study on-site, even though they had agreed earlier to let us take it, because they have been blocked from constructing their new residence for about a year by the threat of a CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) lawsuit by the . In the meantime, we have not been able to get the Town to agree to a destination site on Town lands. Thus the way things are headed we are unlikely to have a site honoring our town's most famous author. Salinas has a couple of places honoring John Steinbeck and Oakland honors Jack London but our snooty town doesn't want to provide a place that might attract outsiders.

This matter will now go to the Council for a final decision on June 21 at 7:00pm and I expect it will go the same way there, which would allow the owners to proceed with their long-delayed construction. Another possibility is that someone will file a law suit pointing out the inconsistency between what is being planned and what is required for actual historical preservation but we don't plan to do that.

It is possible that upon approval of their demolition and construction plans the owners would still agree to have the Study taken elsewhere, as they did earlier. I doubt that they really want it, but the way things have gone so far the destination would have to be elsewhere, such as places where Stegner lived in Saskatchewan or Utah. Of course both those places already have historical sites honoring him, so they may have less incentive to provide a new one. In any case, the Town of Los Altos Hills should be ashamed of their lack of respect and the political machinations that are going on but they show no signs of embarrassment so far.

- Les Earnest

Los Altos Hills