The San Jose Planning Commission has unanimously backed a plan to save part of the Almaden Feed & Fuel building from demolition, a move that preservationists call a victory in their efforts to ensure the building’s history is recognized.
After a three-hour hearing Wednesday evening to rezone the 1.24-acre property from agriculture, the commission voted to allow single-family homes to be built with the conditions that the building be rehabilitated and
Planning staff recommended that the most historical part of the structure, which was once a gas station, should be saved, but not parts added in the 1970s – the back dining room, the patio and the bathrooms.
The San Jose City Council will make the final decision Feb. 27. The council could agree with the planning commission and the preservationists or decide the structure can be torn down, said city senior planner Ron Eddow.
“We saved it,” said Arthur Boudreault, a retired engineer and docent at the New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum who has researched the building’s history.
“I think it’s a win-win for everyone,” said Lee Wilcox, Almaden area Councilwoman Nancy Pyle’s chief of staff. “Especially if the area could be turned into a community gathering spot.”
Feed & Fuel owner Jon Carson, who bought he building in 1999 with the intention of replacing it with homes, said Thursday “it remains a difficult project to incorporate a gas station portico into an Italian theme residential development.”
But he believes the “process has been incredibly thorough” and is happy the planning commission also voted Wednesday that an environmental impact report on the property would not be required. Such a report would further delay the project.
The building, believed to have been a roadhouse as early as 1865, also served as a gas station in the 1930s, a general store and restaurant. It became the Almaden Feed & Fuel in 1985, a colorful watering hole for local residents. It closed as a bar and restaurant in May.
In September, the Historic Landmarks Commission gave it a “structure of merit” designation, which means it doesn’t meet landmark standards but contributes to a neighborhood and the city and is eligible for San Jose’s History Resources Inventory. The landmarks commission recommended it be rehabilitated and re-used.
A historical evaluation by Robert Cartier of Archaeological Resource Management concluded that none of the 1880s material remained and that even materials from the 1930s to 1950s, when it was a gas station, do not reflect the design of that period because the structure was significantly altered in the 1970s and 1980s.
Boudreault said his research found historical aspects that Cartier ignored, including that it was at the end of the line for the Union Pacific Railroad, where travelers ate at the restaurant before taking a stagecoach to the mines.
While the history is still in dispute, Boudreault said Thursday two qualified historians believe it could have been a boarding house and saloon as early as 1892.
In any event, Carson said, “at the end of the day I think we’ll have a very nice project with the building or without it, and it looks like it will be with it. I can live with that.”
Contact Janice Rombeck at jrombeck@mercurynews.com or (408) 275-0917.
