By Noel Smith
The Scotts Valley Historical Society lost its efforts to preserve the Polo Barn built 84 years ago by sportswoman and golfer Marion Hollins. However with the help of many volunteers, including Scotts Valley Vice Mayor Dene Bustichi, they were successful in salvaging much of its lumber for the future Scotts Valley History Museum. The final demolition took place on June 27.
Florida-based Lennar Homes will now go ahead with its plans to build 40 upscale homes on the site next to the Borland Campus and the former Santa’s Village. The Polo Barn was built in 1930 for famed golfer Marion Hollins to keep her thoroughbred horses. It included a hay barn, a tack shed, and a large arch that connected the employee’s quarters to stalls that housed up to seven horses.
Hollins also developed the Pasatiempo Golf Course designed by the famed Dr. Alister MacKenzie. Besides housing horses, the Polo Barn was home to Santa’s Reindeer during the halcyon days of the famous Santa’s Village for 20 years from 1957 to 1977.
The property was purchased in the late 1990’s by Lennar Homes that said it would move the Polo Barn to a nearby location and have it restored. But the developer failed to start construction right away and then came the recession in 2008. By 2013 the Polo Barn was unsalvageable due to vandalism and decay.
On January15, 2014 the Scotts Valley City Council voted to allow the developer Lennar Homes to demolish the seriously dilapidated Polo Barn in exchange for a $1 million payment to the city. The original intent was for Lennar to use this money to preserve the barn but its condition was so terrible that it would have taken much more than $1 million to restore the historic structure.
The million dollars paid to the city is to be used by the city on youth recreation, to include new playground equipment, improving park grounds and constructing a public park on the property along with the 40 homes.
Many of the Polo Barn’s planks and boards of valuable seasoned wood and other structural elements were removed from the building prior to its demolition. During the deconstruction of the Polo Barn much more material was salvaged. These materials are to be recycled as part of the reconstruction of the Scotts Valley Octagon to house the Scotts Valley Historical Society Museum.
The Octagon Building was originally built on the 4500 block of Scotts Valley Drive in 1929 as an exotic bird aviary on the grounds of Beverly Gardens, a 1930s tourist attraction. The building was then moved in 1947 to 5032 Scotts Valley Drive and became a hardware store. It also was the first post office in Scotts Valley as a substation for post office boxes. In November of 2009 the Octagon building was finally torn down to build a Hotel, which has not happened as yet due to the recession.
The roof of the historic Octagon Building was removed at that time and has been stored until the Scotts Valley Historical Society can reconstruct the 41-foot structure as a history museum.
The Scotts Valley City Council is scheduled to discuss the museum project this August and, according Bustichi, if approved the project may take several years to complete. As a builder, Bustichi has been very involved and provided equipment help to remove much of the wood from the barn.