Honoring Our Past; Preparing For Tomorrow

We continue to navigate through the process of preservation and restoration of the St. Regis. The paperwork the Historical Architect needed has been completed; this allows him to start the process with the City on our behalf. We are hoping to get checked off on all the Second Place Entrance 'Certificates of Appropriateness', and also hoping for help with a possible clearance to re-open our beautiful Solarium (at least for filming so that we can generate income for the restoration of it).

 In addition to the Grant providing the award for help with the entrance and the architect, we also were appointed a Site Liaison with the Long Beach Historical Society. We are so fortunate to have such a warm and informed liaison in Karen Clements. Karen made a site visit this past Monday and she was quite familiar with our building and its history. She told me she had been here many times and had served on an Advocacy Committee defending eight area historical buildings during a difficult 'seismic retrofitting' project in 1985. She stated that often a major decision by the City concerning historical buildings can hang on the interpretation of the wording of any city law. Several buildings that she and her group helped to save with retrofitting included the Villa Riviera, The Blackstone, The Sovereign, The Artaban, The Lafayette, and The St. Regis.

Karen will be giving a short Presentation about the history and benefits of the LB Historical Society at our Board meeting on May 17th. Karen explained that she and the Society are all very encouraged by the progress of the St. Regis. We hope to continue to work with Karen and the Society on future projects.

LB Historical Society News

You can visit the Society’s website at   http://hslb.org.  The St. Regis survived intact this 1933 shaker:

Check out this Halloween tour in Long Beach:

 

 

Joseph H. Roberts – The St. Regis’Architect (from http://www.brownscourtapartments.com/index.php/historic-people)

Joseph Halstead Roberts, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1898. In 1903, he moved to Long Beach with his father. He attended Long Beach Poly and graduated in 1916. Mr. Roberts studied architecture and engineering before working as a superintendent, engineer and draftsman.

Mr. Roberts originally opened his architectural offices downtown at the Marine Bank Building. In 1930 he opened his studio at 501 Termino Avenue where he lived with his wife and child. In 1932 Mr. Roberts died, he was only 32 years old. During his short life he designed many beautiful buildings in Long Beach. These include the St. Regis at 1030 E. Ocean and The Californian at 325 W. Third Street.

Re-Opening the Game Room

Progress also continues with the Re-Opening of the Game Room. Eli and I continue to meet with Theresa to work out the specifics of the care and use of the Room. This is a big boon to the residents, and they are so thrilled about it, that many residents have volunteered to help us clean and paint the room. We have some of the nicest people living here and they all help to make it a really warm home and community. Making full use of the amenities we do have, helps us retain our good neighbors and good, long-term neighbors helps to protect our beautiful building and the people who make the St. Regis home.

Gary, a 'long-timer' here, thinks we should paint one wall white (for projecting movies). He has really good ideas and Eli and I are always asking him to help with something; he helped us fix up the older bench that was on the upper patio. He creatively put bottle corks in the structural holes, and it now works like new; check it out on the lower patio.

The Game Room could also be used for meetings, if need be. Eli and I hope to clean it up, paint it up, and I got several prints of older movies. We hope to have it up and running very soon. We have to give a shout out to our Board; we couldn't do any of these beneficial projects without our Board. The Board has worked very hard to be supportive, and we do appreciate all the positive changes, especially in the last year.