Gilroy
— A downtown building constructed by one of Gilroy’s first
mayors has been torn down as an earthquake hazard.
A gaping hole and mound of bricks have replaced the structure
that once stood between 7459 and 7463 Monterey Street, where H.R.
Chesbro constructed a two-story building in 1900.
Gilroy— A downtown building constructed by one of Gilroy’s first mayors has been torn down as an earthquake hazard.
A gaping hole and mound of bricks have replaced the structure that once stood between 7459 and 7463 Monterey Street, where H.R. Chesbro constructed a two-story building in 1900. Chesbro, a doctor who moved to Gilroy from Illinois in 1885, served three terms as city mayor between 1898 and 1904, according to a historian at the Gilroy Museum.
Over the last century, the building served as home to a photography shop, a children’s clothing store, and an optometry business, according to owner Michael Brownfield. Until it was torn down in recent weeks, it housed the owner’s vacuum shop, a hair salon and a law office.
Brownfield has operated his vacuum store at the site for 27 years. He said that he and the other tenants will move back by January 2006, when he expects to have completed a two-story, 9,600 square foot building. In the meantime, he has moved his vacuum shop a few doors north on Monterey Street.
Demolition was necessary, Brownfield said, to bring the building up to modern-day earthquake design codes.
“We’re tearing it down, getting rid of the old bricks,” he said, referring to the former structure’s unreinforced masonry. Brownfield is one of the first owners of an unreinforced masonry building in the downtown area to move forward with upgrades. City officials are working with more than a dozen others to conduct engineering studies as a first step to bring buildings up to code.
Brownfield said the new building will resemble the original structure and will include a small tiled roof protruding over the front and an awning.
He intends to open the new building before the city moves forward with major street and sidewalk renovations along Monterey between Sixth and Fourth streets.
The project will force a nine-month closure of that portion of Monterey beginning in early 2006.
“We’re shooting for the first of the year,” Brownfield said. “We’ll get it done before then, then we’ll have our back doors open again.”
The city is paying for engineering studies with $100,000 in federal grant money. To learn if funding is still available, contact the city’s engineering department at
846-0450.
