HITTING A BRICK WALL FIERCE DEBATE CENTERS ON ADOBE LANDMARK.

Byline: PATRICK ST. MICHEL Special to the Daily News

LANCASTER -- A bit of Antelope Valley history in the form of an unassuming adobe house in downtown Lancaster is at the center of a debate between city officials and local historical preservationists.

Built by hand in the 1930s and 1940s by the sons of a longtime Lancaster teacher and her principal husband, the single-story house made of sunbaked mud bricks is on property earmarked for a city park.

City officials say they haven't decided what to do with the building, which, they say, because of its construction and condition, can't be occupied as a public building.

But the home's supporters say the old house must be preserved to give Lancaster residents a sense of the city's past.

``If you don't know history, you're like a leaf that doesn't know it's part of a tree,'' said former Mayor Barbara Little, who said she fears the city will try to bulldoze the house. ``We've got to honor our past.''

The adobe residence fueling this controversy was the dream house of Agnes Rowell, a longtime teacher at Antelope Valley Joint Union High School -- the former name of what is now Antelope Valley High School.

Over the course of four years, Rowell's three sons - Richard, Homer and Robert - painstakingly handcrafted thousands of adobe bricks, finishing in 1942. That same year, Richard was declared missing in action during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Lancaster Parks, Recreation and Arts Director Lyle Norton said the city purchased the plot of land containing the house two years ago. City officials are still weighing options in regards to the adobe house, hoping to have a decision in six months, he said.

Structural damage makes preserving the house problematic, he said.

``The building cannot be inhabited,'' Norton said. ``It would just sit around.''

Officials' decision awaits getting more information, he said.

``I'm going to wait until we have our final data,'' he said. ``We are going to do whatever is most cost-effective.''

Little isn't willing to part with history so easily, however. Little, along with local genealogical and historical researcher Dayle DeBry, is trying to preserve the adobe house as a historical landmark.

She said the 64-year-old building would make a ``great part of a downtown walking tour.''

``I don't want to wake up one morning and have the house bulldozed,'' she said. ``I want that adobe house saved.''

DeBry, who also fears the house will be torn down, said it should be saved in order to honor its former occupants.

Besides Agnes Rowell, the house was home to her husband, Maurice, the respected principal of Antelope Valley Joint Union High School. Son Richard became the namesake of a Navy destroyer.

``The history of the family needs to be preserved,'' DeBry said. ``They were respected citizens of the Antelope Valley.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Above, Barbara Little, left, and Dayle DeBry at the Rowell Family Adobe house in Lancaster. Below, Agnes Rowell and her husband, Maurice.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

(3) Sons Robert, Homer and Richard Rowell pitch in to help build their parents' adobe home in the '30s and '40s.