Sally Schoeffel, her son, Brennand Schoeffel  and business partner John Miller were given the vintage Mission Hills Craftsman house by CLB Partners. It will be moved to South Park and restored.

By Manny Cruz
A 1912 Craftsman house in Mission Hills has been saved from demolition and given free to a South Park group that has spent years renovating old homes for the pleasure of seeing vintage dwellings brought back to their original glory.  The side gable house at 4020 Falcon St. is in the way of El Paseo de Mission Hills, a multimillion-dollar mixed-use housing and retail development planned by
CLB Partners.

Mission Hills Heritage, a community organization, insisted that the house be saved and the development company agreed to give it away to anyone who had a vacant lot in the county where the house could be moved. CLB Partners also agreed to pay for the moving costs, which will amount to about $50,000. Enter Sally Schoeffel, her son, Brennand Schoeffel of Rancho Buena Vista Real Estate, and John Miller, a family friend and general contractor. They were selected by CLB Partners to take ownership of the house, which will be moved to a vacant lot they own at 1812 Edgemont St. in South Park. The Schoeffels and Miller were selected by CLB Partners because of their extensive experience in renovating old structures. “I just love old properties. They have so much charm and character,”says Sally Schoeffel. I am committed to doing everything I can to preserve these kinds of properties.” The Schoeffels and Miller restored the Rancho Buena Vista adobe in the city of Vista and sold it to the city. It is now being used as a museum. The partners also restored property at 1648 and 1650 31st St. in South Park that was finished about six months ago. (“It took three times as long at triple the original budget,” exclaims Sally Schoeffel.)

The lot where the 1912 Craftsman will be moved originally had a Craftsman home on it, but the partners determined that it could not be restored and had it demolished. “It was our intention to build a home that would reflect the spirit of historic homes in the community but we would be starting from scratch,” says Sally Schoeffel. The Schoeffels and Miller are now working with the city of San Diego to obtain permits for the move, which they expect will be done in the next 30 days. The roof must be removed before transport so the house can clear bridges. The Craftsman first will be taken to a temporary site either in Spring Valley or Lakeside so a foundation can be built at the South Park site.

Researching the history of the house, Mission Hills Heritage found that it had been rented by Roland Hoyt from 1928 to 1929 while he was installing landscaping at Presidio Park for George Marston. Ronald May, an archeologist and owner of Legacy 106, says the house may have been built by Harry Griswold, the owner of the block on which it currently sits, and his oldest son, Fred Griswold. The Griswolds also built the old Ace Drugs store at Goldfinch and Fort Stockton Drive in 1913. Nicole Anderson, director of customer service for CLB Partners, says the Schoeffels and Miller were selected to receive the house from a very long list of applicants. “We’re going to pay for all the preparation to get it ready to move and to move it,” she says. Anderson says CLB Partners will break ground this month on El Paseo de Mission Hills at 845 Fort Stockton Drive, between Goldfinch and Falcon streets. It will contain 48 condominiums, 13 townhomes plus 5,100 square feet of retail space. The dwellings will sell for between $600,000 and $1.3 million. The units are to be delivered in summer 2009.

Once the 1912 Craftsman is settled into its new home in South Park, says Sally Schoeffels, “our task will then be to restore the home to its former glory.”The three-bedroom house will require extensive renovation. It had been rented out as a mail call center, but had not been properly maintained. Yet the prospect of restoring it delights Schoeffel. “It’s really very exciting,” she says. “For all the people involved, it’s been a tremendous process. We’re going to make it all work.”