By Hector Gonzalez
Special to The Lookout

January 19, 2016 -- Whoever lived in the historic Shotgun House when it was just a small wooden shack on Second Street in Ocean Park back in the 1890s would marvel at the hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours that went into saving it and moving it just up the street.

In contrast to its original $100 price tag and its no-frills construction, the Shotgun House's expensive and complicated saga finally ends this weekend when it officially becomes the new Preservation Resource Center for the Santa Monica Conservancy at 2520 Second Street.

After an 18-year effort to preserve the small, worn wooden structure that began in 1998 when the property owner applied for a demolition permit, a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new docent center takes place Saturday, January 23,from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Conservancy President Carol Lemlein said.

The opening will include music, refreshments, tours of the house and nearby landmarks and activities for children.

“This event marks the culmination of many years of effort to save an important part of Santa Monica history and give it a purpose that meets contemporary needs,” said Lemlein.

Moved repeatedly, kept in storage for years and finally transported by tractor-trailer to its current site last year by the Conservancy, the Shotgun House will take on a whole new life as an interactive visitors' center.

Visitors will get a close-up of the the type of houses Santa Monica's early tourists and settlers lived in more than 125 years ago, she said.

The center also will provide information about other historic places in Santa Monica.

Docents will offer tours and assistance in using the Conservancy's library of resources. The center will also serve as a venue for workshops for home and business owners considering doing a preservation project, she said.

It took a collective effort by Conservancy members, volunteers from the former Ocean Park Community Organization, the Church in Ocean Park and City officials to save the shotgun house from demolition, said Lemlein.

The wrecking ball was set to come down on the little shack in 2000, when the City Council granted the property owner's appeal overturning the Landmark's Commission's denial of the demolition permit.

Local presevationists rallied to save the little building.

Before it fell apart in 2005, the Ocean Park Community Organization initially stepped in and took on the task of saving the house, but the group failed to raise enough support for its plan to move the little shed to the Main Street Community Gardens.

Dozens of gardeners who opposed the move also helped defeat OPCO's proposal.

Instead, the shack was relocated to the Santa Monica Airport. But in 2005, it was relocated again, to City owned land at 1401 Olympic Boulevard to make way for airport construction.

In 2007, the Conservancy won a City contract to move the house to its site at 2520 Second Street.

“The Conservancy developed an adaptive reuse plan, raised funds for its rehabilitation and oversaw its transformation,” said Lemlein.

Under preservation terms approved by the City Council in 2010, the City agreed to spend $84,000 to improve and prepare the site on Second Street for the permanent relocation of the house. The City also agreed to maintain the adjacent public parking lot.

As part of the deal the Conservancy was obligated to raise funds from $260,000 to $278,000 to relocate and rehabilitate the house.

Officials for the organization also agreed to raise an estimated $10,000 per year “to properly operate the facility for public use and maintain custodial, landscaping and security tasks,” said a City report from 2010.

The Conservancy will pay the City $1 a year in rent on the shotgun house, Santa Monica’s last intact shotgun house.

One room wide, one story tall, and several rooms deep, the shotgun house may have been constructed originally as a beach cottage, or it may have housed workers from the nearby rail or oil industries, according to a City architectural survey.

Usually made of whatever materials were on hand, shotgun style houses were originally common in African American communities in the Southeast. They were cheap and easy to build, so the style spread around the nation, according to the Conservancy.

After the grand opening this weekend, the Preservation Resource Center will be open Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and also by appointment.

For more information about the center and other Conservancy programs, visit the Conservancy.