Sarkisian/CW1st/mark2nd
By NOLA L. SARKISIAN
Staff Reporter
Van de Kamp’s Holland Dutch Bakery, the Glassell Park landmark with the distinctive Flemish gables and distinctive chimneys, may soon become home to two-by-fours and fast-food burgers rather than the bear claws and cinnamon rolls of days gone by.
Los Angeles-based Lucia Properties has agreed to purchase the seven-acre site from long-time owner William Zimmerman for $8 million, with plans to raze what was once dubbed the “Taj Mahal of bakeries” and then build a HomeBase and Burger King in its place.
The developer and landowner call the old bakery at Fletcher Drive and San Fernando Boulevard an eyesore, noting that the three-story structure is plastered with graffiti and many of its windows are broken.
“It does no one any good to have this property sit vacant and derelict,” said Zimmerman. “We can create jobs, taxes and create an appealing site. It’s in everybody’s best interest to move forward.”
But preservationists, including the Los Angeles Conservancy, see the shuttered bakery as an important part of the city’s history, one that shouldn’t be bulldozed to make way for yet another fast food joint or big-box retailer.
“There are very few, if any, buildings of architectural significance in the area, and it’s typical of L.A. to push aside these interests for big-box structures,” said Andrew Garsten, a spokesman for the Save the Van de Kamp’s Bakery Coalition, a group of Echo Park and Silverlake residents.
“Right now it’s less of an eyesore than HomeBase will be. We already have a Home Depot about a half-mile away. We need another use for the (Van de Kamp) building,” he said.
In its heyday, the Van de Kamp’s bakery employed more than 500 people and made 140 varieties of Danishes, meringue pies and the like. It was headquarters for the chain of 100 retail stores and coffee shops that shared the similar Dutch themes with their trademark windmill logos and saleswomen in blue-and-white uniforms and laced caps.
Preservationists have held out hope that the structure’s distinctive front wall, reminiscent of a 16th-century Dutch townhouse, could be saved and incorporated into a new use.
But the structure’s city landmark status, bestowed in 1992, has scared away other developers.
Ken Bernstein, director of preservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy, agreed it would be difficult to superimpose the new store around the Van de Kamp building, and he conceded that vandalism is a problem at the site.
But the conservancy maintains that parts of the building are worth saving.
“Unfortunately, good preservation solutions take time, and if we don’t err on the side of caution before allowing demolition to occur, those remarkable reuse opportunities are lost forever,” he said.
Preservationists received a big setback when the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission voted unanimously in 1997 not to block proposed demolition of the 1930 factory.
The project has been on hold as both sides wait for the environmental impact report, which is expected to be completed within the month.
Larry Cimmarusti, co-owner of Lucia Properties, objected to Garsten’s characterization of HomeBase as yet another Home Depot-type store.
“There’s no comparison with a Home Depot,” he said. “Home Depots are large, glorified hardware stores and HomeBase is geared to decorating and to the complete improvement to a home.”
Born and raised in the neighborhood, Cimmarusti said he has a personal stake in the development of the site. “My family members worked in the Van de Kamp bakery,” he said. “We’re not just people who rolled into town. That’s why we’re working with the city, the community and the conservancy to try to restore and memorialize what we can.”
Officials at Irvine-based HomeBase Inc. would not confirm or deny they are interested in the site. “We haven’t announced anything at this time,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Love.
Van de Kamp’s Holland Dutch Bakers was founded in 1915 by brothers-in-law Theodore J. Van de Kamp and Lawrence L. Frank, Milwaukee natives and uncles of former California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp. The company started out as a 10-foot-wide stand in downtown selling Saratoga chips and eventually moved to the building designed by J. Edwin Hopkins. The family sold its interest in the company more than 30 years ago.
“Helms and Van de Kamp’s were synonymous with quality baked goods,” said Gloria Lothrop, chair of the history department at California State University, Northridge. “As supermarkets got larger, they were able to process their own goods. And as women entered the workforce, fewer homemakers were at home waiting at the door for the traveling bakeryman.”
The site even served as a campaign stomping ground for John Van de Kamp during his run for governor in 1990. He had worked at the plant as packing clerk in the 1950s.
Van de Kamp said he thinks it’s “tragic” that the building has withered over the years, but he remains hopeful of its outcome. “The building still has relevance and I, personally, would prefer to see it rehabbed or rebuilt incorporating elements of its style,” he said.
