By Noel Smith
Florida-based Lennar Homes offered the city of Scotts Valley $1 million for the right to raze the historic but dilapidated building. The money would be used by the city for its parks and recreation department. If the offer is not taken, the developer would be forced to renovate the structure at its own cost. The city has 60 days to decide which option to take.
Lennar bought the 113-acre property from software company Borland in 1998 and presented several proposals for development during the past 15 years.
The famed architect William Wurster originally owned the property and built the Polo Barn. The barn’s design included an arch connecting the living quarters to spacious stalls for seven horses, a hay barn and tack shed
The property was then sold in May of 1930 to millionaire Marion Hollins, for whom the Hollins House at Pasatiempo Golf Club is named and who developed the famous golf venue. She had won the Women’s Amateur Golf Championship in 1921 and entertained notables such as Will Rogers, Clark Gable and Babe Didrikson at Pasatiempo.
Hollins bought the property in Scotts Valley for her polo stables, barn and groom’s house and lived there until her house at Pasatiempo was completed. However, her plans for the property never fully materialized as the great depression swept away her family’s fortune.
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.
Today the Polo Barn is not just decrepit, it’s falling apart and is supposedly protected by a chain link fence which has as many holes in it as Swiss cheese.
In 2008, the city approved the plan for Lennar Homes to build 40 upscale homes on the property if it would restore the Polo Barn and move it to a nearby location. However, with the downturn in the housing market the project was put on hold. During that time the barn has continued to fall into disrepair and is now considered too dangerous to renovate and move, city officials said.