1920S COTTAGES TO BE DEMOLISHED.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer

GLENDALE - In the early 1920s, a widow from Missouri with $50,000 in oil profits began building houses in Glendale for Christian missionaries who needed a place to rest after overseas work in Asia and Africa.

A chapel for the former nondenominational missionary colony was demolished years ago, but 17 homes still stand today. Now, they face the wrecking ball.

The homes are slated for demolition in the next few weeks to make room for an office building and to expand a skilled nursing facility.

A consultant for the company planning the project, Glendale-based Healthcare Management Services LLC, has found the homes have little historic significance. The stripped-down houses are not architecturally rare, and none of the former residents shows up on historical Who's Who listings.

But preservationists contend the houses in the 300 block of Mission Road, which were built by a widow named Jennie Suppes, are worth saving.

``This is Mission Road for a reason,'' said Glendale preservationist Alan Leib. ``It's not Mission Road because it was named after (the) tortilla company or something.''

Earlier this month, a city design-review board voted 4-1 to allow demolition to proceed. Healthcare Management Services officials were asked to take pictures of the homes for the city library's historical archive.

``All of those buildings could have been Glendale's first historic district,'' said John LoCascio, an architect and board member with the Glendale Historical Society. ``But it's just one of those things where everything fell through the cracks in the system.''

Rodney Khan, a consultant for Healthcare Management Services, stood by the historical analysis done for the project by Glendale-based EP Associates.

``They're just older houses that I guess some folks may consider to be important to them,'' Khan said. ``But from a historic-preservation point of view, it never was raised to the level of significance that (the houses) needed to be maintained.''

The company will demolish some of the homes to expand Leisure Glen Care Center, which already has 94 beds, by adding 33 beds.

``Things don't last forever,'' City Councilman Bob Yousefian said about the houses. ``And there are times that you preserve things, and there are times that you take pictures and appreciate it and then move on. ... You can't preserve everything, and these (houses) were not even in good shape.''

The homes, which were built in craftsman-bungalow, Spanish colonial and Tudor styles, are boarded up and fenced off. Several were built with clapboard or stucco exteriors. The city is dotted with homes built in similar styles.

Even Leib, a writer who has mounted a campaign to save the homes since he found out last July they were threatened, admitted they do not stand out architecturally. But he argued they are an important part of history, comparing them to the Americana at Brand project.

They are building ``a fake Americana, and they tear down a real Americana,'' Leib said. ``The fake Americana is a retail environment, and the real Americana is an entire neighborhood built in the 1920s.''

EP Associates did not find evidence of any similar missionary colonies still in existence. Preservationists say that points to the homes' significance.

``A lot of different religious sects, different religious beliefs, found Southern California to be a really receptive place as opposed to other parts of the country,'' said Jay Platt, preservation advocate for the Los Angeles Conservancy. ``So it ties into our regional history as well as the history of Glendale.''

Alex Dobuzinskis, [phone]

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Glendale preservationist Alan Leib laments the planned demolition of 17 houses left from a 1920s missionary colony.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer