Most people collect something
– stamps, coins, Beanie Babies, duck decoys. Tim Lantz collects
old houses.
First, though, he restores them.
Most people collect something – stamps, coins, Beanie Babies, duck decoys. Tim Lantz collects old houses.
First, though, he restores them.
“I can’t part with them,” he said. “I’m a collector – I like them all.” Lantz is a preservationist at heart.
Though he does work on other people’s houses, he more frequently buys an old house, fixes it up, keeps it and then rents it out. How many of these houses does he own?
“A few,” he said.
The award-winning Lantz, now in his 50s, has been interested in old houses since he collected his first architectural antique artifact – a Victorian letter slot – at age 10 choosing a contracting career in historic preservation was a natural outcome.
“It’s all I’ve done for at least 20 years,” he said. And he still has the letter slot.
This lifelong hobby turned into a business.
Preserving an old house, Lantz said, “is a very creative endeavor. I’m forever having to come up with a new method or procedure to deal with a situation.”
“It’s not like every one’s the same,” he said. “Each job is different so my previous experience helps. I love it because it’s fun,” he said.
On any given day he can be found either at his office – Tim Lantz, general contractor – at 853 San Benito St. planning to fix up a house, or on the job giving an often shabby and neglected dwelling a new lease on life. Or he’ll be found next door at his “antique shop for buildings,” Circa Architectural Antiques. The 853 San Benito St. building is the oldest commercial structure in Hollister.
The Circa shop contains bits and pieces of old houses and antique odds and ends.
“The stuff in the shop is the cool stuff,” he said. Collector Lantz opened the shop to sell off the extras when his warehouse becomes too crowded. Since it is only a part-time endeavor, staffed by himself, Lantz recommends that people call to make an appointment or to see when the shop will be open.
The contracting side of the business has one full-time employee plus a part-time office manager and a string of subcontractors, some of whom have worked with Lantz for 15 to 20 years.
“We have the same mindset,” he said. “We understand each other.”
Instead of just supervising his restorations, Lantz does much of the work himself, though he does have a “right-hand man and a series of subcontractors” with whom he has worked for 16 or 17 years, he said.
There is often some confusion between restoration and renovation when improving old houses.
“The difference is a matter of interpretation,” he said, “and there is a fine line.” It is extremely rare that a house is restored exactly the way it was built, Lantz said.
“A house built in 1860 did not have electricity or indoor plumbing,” he said. It would have had a woodburning stove and may have had gas lights with a gas-making plant on the property.
“We take the building as close as we can to the original intent,” he said. “We hide the electrical outlets” and the kitchen and bathrooms don’t have to have ultramodern fixtures. There are new appliances offered that are designed in the old style and some people choose to keep using the old ones.
“I have a 1920 Spark stove that works perfectly,” he said.
Lantz said the building does not have to be restored to its original state – an 1880s house, he explained, could be restored to 1926 and still be considered a period house.
The costs, of course, vary widely.
“My projects have cost between $50,000 and $3 million,” he said.
“Renovation,” he said, “is taking an old building and reusing it.”
A fine example of Lantz’s work in Morgan Hill is the old Voltaw House on the northeast corner of West Main and Peak avenues, across from the library. In 1989, he restored the house and designed and built the addition on the back. He also restored the house on the corner of El Toro and Del Monte avenues.
Lantz recently acquired an old house in Gilroy, located at Seventh and Church streets near the library, and, in February, moved it to Rosanna Street.
“It’s difficult to say how old it is,” he said. “My investigation showed the newest addition in 1880; there are six portions prior to that.”
To make room for the new house he moved a small 800-square-foot cottage to the back of the property.
Besides the Gilroy house, Lantz is currently working on a house for another owner near Willow Glen at Bird and Brooks avenues – a 1909 Prairie-style. And he just finished the exterior paint on a house at 534 Fifth St. in Hollister.
“It’s a very pretty, little Queen Anne cottage,” Lantz said.
Lantz achieved the most fame for an 1887 Queen Anne at 55 Hernandez Ave. in Los Gatos. It had been severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.
“That house dropped more than seven feet into the basement,” Lantz said.
With the help of original photographs, Lantz restored the 5,000-square-foot house’s exterior. In 1998, the house was designated a historical landmark and, in 2001, was put to work fund raising as the San Jose Symphony Showcase House.
Lantz, who also does stained glass work, has received many awards for his preservation and restoration work, including the 1993 grand prize in the Great American Home Awards program, sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation; the Restoration Award from the California Preservation Foundation; and the Beauty in Progress Award from the City of Morgan Hill.
There have been times, however, when being so dedicated to pristine restoration has caused him problems. During the early 1990s when the Morgan Hill Historical Society first claimed ownership of the derelict and earthquake-damaged Villa Mira Monte (the old Hiram Morgan Hill House) at 17680 Monterey Road, Lantz was determined to return the old place to its former state with a complete restoration.
He had performed the historical investigation for architectural historian Gilbert Sanchez, AIA, of Monterey. An historical investigator discovers the original owner and intention of a house, where the doors were, what the paint and wallpaper was and what kind of plumbing, heating and lighting it had. If these things are not known, the investigator makes an educated guess of what was likely there.
Having this document in hand, Lantz wanted to see the house returned as close as was possible to the way the Hills built it in 1886.
But other members of the Historical Society board, bowing to the realities of funding and future fund raising, had their own vision of what should be restored. According to Gloria Pariseau, a former Society president and construction manager herself, the problem was money.
“The difference was between $500,000 and $1 million,” Pariseau said. “We just couldn’t raise that much money.”
The “discussion” over the two directions caused considerable dissension and ultimately caused Lantz to abandon the project to others. The renovation of the Queen Anne house was completed in the fall of 1998 after five years of fund raising and work.
“I’ll never be Bill Gates, but I get to eat and have a roof over my head,” Lantz said. He said he rarely takes vacations but may disappear for a few months every two to three years.
“The last time I went to Spain to look at old buildings.” He said that Americans have a lot to learn from Europeans who rebuild, restore and recycle their old buildings.
How long will he continue restoring houses?
“Until I can do it no more,” he said. “It’s my hobby, it’s my vocation, it’s pretty much my life and I’ve got no reason to quit.”
Surprisingly, Lantz does not live in one of his restored beauties.
“I’ve got an old tract house out in the hills,” he said. “I’m not totally familiar with the term ‘retirement;’ but if I ever get old and infirm, there are plenty of nice places I can move into in town.”
And they’re in good shape since he’s already restored them.
Contact Tim Lantz at Circa Architectural Antiques, 853 San Benito St., Hollister, (831) 637-8987 or www.circaarchitectural.com
