EDITORIAL

For the past months, Costa Mesa Mayor Libby Cowan and Councilwoman

Linda Dixon have been fighting to preserve the Huscroft House. Last week,

they lost their battle when the council decided to put the house up for

sale instead of restoring it and moving it from TeWinkle Park to Fairview

Park.

Throughout the debate, the argument circled around two issues: is the

house -- a 1912 Craftsman-style home that wasn’t brought to the city

until 1954 -- really a part of the city’s history and should taxpayer

money be used to restore it? The council, in its decision, essentially

said “no” to both.

Fortunately for those who believe otherwise, it appears that private

individuals are stepping in to save the building. Within the first three

days following the council’s decision, two potential buyers have

appeared, intent on keeping the Huscroft House from the wrecking ball.

It is good the house is being saved, and it is for the best that it is

being done with private dollars. The ideas being tossed around for its

future -- as a tea room or a bed and breakfast, for instance -- are also

heartening to hear because they would allow the public to still use and

enjoy the house, even if it’s as a commercial enterprise.

Certainly, that is better than the alternative: the house being

destroyed.

Regardless of how historic one thinks the building is, it would be a

shame for it to be lost. Once gone, the house cannot be replaced. The

city, in whatever way it can, should help to ensure one of the

prospective buyers can save it.

Historic or not, the Huscroft House should not become history.