Visitors to Dunsmuir’s ‘Artist Row’ on Sacramento Avenue will now be treated to the stunning sight of the refurbished 1903 ‘I R Wells Building,’ one of a number of recent improvements to the town’s Historic District.
The brick and wood building with a two story façade just south of the Brown Trout Café was in a years’ long state of neglect and disrepair when it was purchased by Peter Arth, a prominent California lawyer, who was looking for “a home on the river” to pursue his twin passions of stained glass making and trout fishing.
Arth, who was recently appointed to the Dunsmuir City Council, was later joined on the project by his wife Debra Day, a globe-trotting former fashion model.
Arth has a long history in Dunsmuir, having worked with, as he termed it in an interview last week, “a very young” former city attorney Chris Stromsness over 30 years ago to address water quality issues at the Shasta Retreat Water Company. Sitting in the council chambers for “two very hot summer days,” Arth, then in the employ of the Public Utilities Commission, and Stromsness listened as Shasta Retreat residents complained about the water being delivered to their homes, some of them even holding up bottles of the water. When they turned the bottles over, Arth explained, the silt fell down through the water like snow. Because of his and Stromsness’ work, the Shasta Retreat Water Company was forced to address the issue, installing new piping and intake screens.
Some years ago, with retirement approaching, Arth and his fishing-buddy of 30 years, David Hicks of Emeryville, decided that their friendship was such that they wanted to grow old together. They took a map of California and drew a circle from a compass point on the Bay Bridge. The circle included south Siskiyou County, and in 2003 the pair purchased adjoining lots on the site of Dunsmuir’s old middle school, now the parking lot north of the children’s park on Dunsmuir Avenue. Their plan was to build homes for themselves within walking distance to some of the best trout fishing in the world. For various reasons, the plan fell through. Arth then bought the Wells building.
“The Wells Building predates the 1903 fire, and was part of that great fire,” Arth explained over a cup of coffee in his home on the building’s second floor as a passing train sounded its horn. “The brick front survived and is from the original building. Wells was one of the first, in reaction to the fire, to put up non-wooden walls. The walls are cement and river rock.
“I was contemplating being by myself,” Arth, a tall and friendly man with an easy laugh, continued. “I’m an antique collector and stained glass crafter. I was looking for a place to enjoy fishing, working with stained glass. Now I am embarking on the first business of my life.”
Aside from restoring the Wells Building, Arth and Day have just opened the Dunsmuir Mercantile in the high-ceilinged space below their living quarters. The Mercantile will showcase more than 100 1880’s-1940’s stained glass windows Arth has collected, as well as offer “Americana, antiques, and curios” for sale.
“When I first saw the building, I was immediately struck by two things,” Arth said of his new home, “It was a building in the Historic District, and, at least from the exterior, it was a beautiful structure.”
But the beauty of the building’s exterior belied an interior that was in such a state of decay that Arth termed his first steps inside the building as ones of “shock and awe.” Much of the flooring was rotten, the electrical system was substandard, the walls were 17 inches out of plumb. When an inspector sat on a toilet, it fell through the floor. In discussions with two different engineers, it was suggested that the walls should be torn down.
But Arth loved the building, and against the engineers’ advice, decided to restore the building “as it was.” He received support from the City of Dunsmuir in the form of Historic District grants and low interest loans, and began work immediately to make his diamond in the rough shine in a historically appropriate manner. His son and five of his son’s college friends stripped the building of rotten beams, old sheet rock, failed plumbing, and three layers of flooring. Arth hired area residents Kris Akins as his architect and the project’s general manager, and Brian Stewart as his principal contractor. A diligent archeological dig uncovered fused glass from the 1903 fire, a revolver and some bullets, and a glass marble. Then the sub-basement was filled with pea gravel, and a new concrete slab was poured with footings to support the beam structure. In discussions with Akins and Stewart, it was decided that the work would take four years, from 2004 to 2008.
The finished work, toured last week, is fit for profile in glossy ‘home and garden’ magazines. Featuring polished wood, glass, and brick, the building would be a showcase home anywhere in the world. In a nod to history, old redwood wine barrels were shaped into doorway arches; in a nod to modernity, the kitchen is state of the art. The tall upstairs windows offer long views of the trees of the Upper Sacramento canyon.
“We tried to recycle as much as we could,” Arth explained. “All the floor joists were recycled into trim components. The bead boards were recycled into the walls of the gallery, the staircase, the wainscoting. I have a great love of wood. The upstairs floors are sustainably harvested Brazilian mahogany.”
The signature flourish of the refurbished building is a new cupola that some in the town call a “thingy,” “whatsit” or “a machine gun turret.” The cupola is lined with windows which allow light to pour into the upstairs living room. Arth sketched the whimsical cupola on a cocktail napkin.
For Arth, relocating to Dunsmuir from a high-powered life in San Francisco is the “completing of a circle.” His father and grandfather were citrus farmers in Redlands, and in Dunsmuir Arth has found a small town environment and friendliness that he finds comfortably familiar. His wife Debra, who “stopped counting” the countries her modeling career took her to at 20, shares her husband’s love for handmade art; she sews and works with “found objects.”
“I’m very adaptable,” Day described of her move to Dunsmuir. “I love the peace and serenity here. It’s brought out my nesting instincts. I really like the people. I love, love the trains. They are very evocative to me, each one has its own voice. Dunsmuir is a romantic place.”
Arth and Day’s Dunsmuir Mercantile Company has been open for seven weekends, and the pair says they are pleased so far with the result. The Mercantile’s website is www.dunsmuirmercantile.com
Dunsmuir, Calif. —
