Michael White Adobe Project Moving Forward

The San Marino Unified School District is moving forward with their plans to revitalize the Michael White Adobe on the property. At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Ann Gray, president of Friends of the Michael White Adobe, led a presentation on the project’s process.

During the 10-minute presentation, Gray noted that the Friends of the Michael White Adobe covered by grants received from the National Trust and the San Marino Historical Society.

“That included some structural investigation, exhibit studies, ADA evaluation and visualizations,” said Gray. “We are continuing to develop a scope of work for the rehabilitation and cost estimating and hope to be back to the Board this fall to get approval for the next steps.”

Board of Education President Chris Norgaard was pleased with the two new elements of the structure during the presentation.

“The only new aspects of what was presented was a glass display case for exhibits, which would be located in the center of the main room,” said Norgaard. “I think that’s an excellent idea because glass is less obtrusive and the exhibits can be rotated.”

Additionaly, Norgaard said the Friends of the Michael White Adobe now plans to have tables, chairs and plants on the structure’s outside patio.

Since the Friends of the Michael White Adobe did not spend the total grant amount, the foundation was granted permission by the National Trust and Historical Society to use the remaining funds on temporary repairs to the structure.

Currently, the foundation is bringing in professional engineers to examine the structure and determine the cost of repair.

“We are in the process of completing the scope and cost estimates,” said , president of the San Marino Historical Society and Vice Chairman of the Friends of the Michael White Adobe. “We need to define each task and its cost estimate so we can move forward and make it a high school hall of fame.”

According to Morris, the Friends of the Michael White Adobe has also applied for an additional grant from the National Trust and is in the process of completing an application for the National Registry of Historic Places.

While no official date has been set, the Friends of the Michael White Adobe will next present their progress to the board in the Fall and will seek approval for the next steps of the project.

“This presentation went very well,” said Morris. “I feel very comfortable with the interest shown by the school board in where we are and what we are doing.”

Norgaard echoed Morris’s sentiments: “I think this project is going to be greater for out schools and community than people have imagined so far.” 

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