Developers Eye Zane Grey House on Catalina Island
By Margaret Foster | From Preservation | May 3, 2007
It was the views that attracted prolific Western novelist Zane Grey to build a hilltop house on California's Catalina Island, and it's the views that might lead to the 1926 structure's demise.
The house, which has been the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel for the past 30 years, has been for sale for a month. Two developers have expressed interest in the half-acre site, according to Jessie Mitchell, real-estate agent at MSRE Brokerage.
Owner Karen Baker has priced the house at $16,950,000, but "she is willing to look at all other offers," Mitchell says. (Baker could not be reached for comment.)
"If she would be reasonable in what she was asking, there would be plenty of opportunity to sell it to someone who would preserve it," says Joe Wheeler, co-founder and executive director of the 24-year-old Zane Grey West Society, whose 500 members can't afford to buy the hotel. "It's a place that all of us would hate to see lost to a development."
Michael Shehabi, general manager of the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel and the broker handling the sale, says he'll do his best to find the right buyer.
"I personally love the building," Shehabi says. "It's kind of emotional to sell. I'm trying to find someone who has the intention of preserving the building. But as we all know they want to make a nickel on it."
Shehabi says there's room for both the house and new construction. "Somebody comes in, preserves the building, and then on the backside builds some condos in the same architectural style. It should be a smart design," Shehabi says. "A few years from now, I want to look back and see that I had something to do with preserving the building."
One of the richest authors of his time, Grey (1872-1939) wrote more than 100 books, including 57 novels and 10 nonfiction books about the West. Hollywood churned out 130 movies based on his books, including two John Wayne films. Grey built the house in Avalon, Catalina Island, 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, as a fishing getaway.
"I used to climb the mountain trail that overlooked the Pacific and here a thousand times I shut my eyes and gave myself over to sensorial perceptions," Grey wrote of his Avalon estate. "It is an environment that means enchantment to me. Sea and mountain! Breeze and roar of surf! Music of birds! Solitude and tranquility! A place for rest, dream, peace, sleep. I could write here and be at peace."
No easements prevent a developer from demolishing the Hopi-style structure. If his former home is demolished, however, Grey's mark will remain. The island's bison, shipped in for a Zane Grey movie in 1924, still roam its interior—a nature preserve that covers 88 percent of the island.
"It's not done '‘til it's done," says Todd Newport, president of the Zane Grey West Society. "We still have hope that somebody with a real love of history will step in and buy that building."
For more information, contact Michael Shehabi at (310) 991-9398.
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