GILROY—It has been called iconic, a landmark and the heart of town—and more recently a curb-hugging eyesore across from stately Old City Hall on Gilroy’s most important, historic downtown corner.
Long before big-box stores, outlet malls, Google, PayPal and online shopping, it was known for decades to the clothes buying public as Hall’s, the place to buy all you’d ever need to get fancied up for the big hoedown or gymkhana competition or school dance and lots more.
Now, the long, narrow, two-story building that seems for years to have been frozen in mid-rescue mode is finally back on track for a complete rehabilitation and reopening by next summer, according to owner Jose Montes, 55.
“My family was born and raised in Gilroy and I am really looking to do my best to improve the downtown,” said investor-developer Montes after receiving final permits to finish the project.
“I am not going anywhere [and] eventually it will be the kids [of Gilroy] who are going to enjoy it,” he said.
And one thing both kids and adults might like the most is the return of Casey Tibbs, the real-life rodeo cowboy whose likeness for decades rode atop his bucking horse War Paint in a landmark Gilroy statue that adorned the store’s marquee. Before the advent of highway 101, it’s safe to say the store and every traveler and celebrity that passed through Gilroy saw Tibbs and War Paint.
Former owner George Hall took down the Tibbs statue when he sold to Montes and it has been stored ever since in a secure venue.
Montes says he believes Hall will allow Tibbs’ return, and if so Montes is all for it. He said, however, that rather than remount the famous statue atop the outdoor marquee where it would be subject to the elements, he hopes to keep the famous object indoors, perhaps right inside a window to delight patrons and passersby.
“I am open to suggestions, but I sure would like to have Casey back and give him a nice home. He would be our mascot,” Montes said.
And his first-floor patrons won’t be wrangling through a labyrinth of aisles bulging with fancy cowboy shirts and racks of dungarees and boots and wide-brimmed Stetson hats, among other small-town, Western fashion statements.
Montes has others plans. He wants to turn the 2,400 square-foot first floor into a fine restaurant, where diners can relax with American cuisine prepared in a state-of-the-art kitchen and enjoyed in an open-space floor plan and an ambience that harks back to an earlier time in Gilroy.
In addition to the restaurant envisioned by Montes, the building’s second floor will be turned into three residential units of about 800 square feet each and equipped with modern kitchens and bathrooms.
Although once categorized as an unreinforced masonry building, Montes said the seismic safety upgrades done during construction have seen the building dropped from that category and completely up to the city’s earthquake safety codes.
Another design aspect that has Montes’ close attention is what he calls the “Sixth Street Corridor.” The south wall of the Hall’s building runs along Sixth Street between Monterey Road and Eigleberry Street and across Sixth Street from the historic Milas Restaurant.
Historically, the wall was brick, so Montes wants to return that look but using brick veneer not real bricks, as much for aesthetic as for safety reasons.
At the core of his vision as the project unfolds is a photo that Montes found. It dates back to the 1930s or ’40s or even earlier, he said, and depicts quite a different building than what contemporary Gilroyans are used to seeing.
“I am trying to bring those details back,” Montes said. “I am going to try to restore as much as I can, and if it can’t be restored, I am going to put something back that will mimic what it used to be.”
