For decades the City of Santa Barbara has been unable to decide the future of its Structure of Merit, the Franceschi House. The fate of the house was on the block in the 1970s when Pearl Chase, the person, campaigned against demolishing it. Little has been clarified since then while the unmaintained structure continues to deteriorate.
The original Franceschi version of the house is almost 120 years old and the Freeman version we have today approaches its century mark. The natural elements and ever-deferred maintenance have pushed it long past saving and the house will come down.
The city has struggled with its dilemma: too expensive to restore, too expensive to repair, and too expensive to demolish. Even without guaranteed funding, the city has pressed ahead with public discussions entitled, “Reimagining Franceschi House,” but the preordained outcome remains: there will be no actual house, only an imagined one.