The long boarded up, rose-colored adobe at the southeast corner of Stone Avenue and Franklin Street, 283 N. Stone Ave., is being revived.
The Center for Desert Archaeology and artist Seth Schindler bought the 16,000 square foot complex in September, and the archeologists moved in January 27.
The plan, however, is not just for offices, but also for community space. The gates are finally to be flung open, and the place is bigger and grander than one might think.
The labyrinthine, 1880s mansion was formerly home to Casablanca Bar and Grill and, before that, the exclusive Mountain Oyster Club, galleries and artist studios. Earlier, it belonged to rancher and accountant Charles Bates, who remodeled in the 1950s, adding mirror-studded murals by Salvador Corona, an outside bedroom with a separate feline entrance and a second-floor swimming pool.
The next phase in construction includes outfitting attorney offices in the rooms facing Stone Avenue, looking east at the empty lot which is slated to (eventually) hold a new county courthouse.
The courtyard will be redone in brick and landscaped to hold events, and a gallery and restaurant are expected to open perhaps two years from now, said artist Susan French, who is managing the details of the remodel.
Both partners in the restoration saw the project as a matter of community.
Working in an old, preserved building seemed appropriate to the archeologists, and the artists saw an opportunity for a restorative project to build community downtown.
"There's so much potential here," French said, pointing out the established and planned galleries and studios near the Stone Avenue underpass. "We can't wait to get the community in here. For so long, this place has been so mysterious."
