The Long Goodbye

I think I've mentioned elsewhere that La Jolla is a different place. I wouldn't be surprised while walking through the village to find a panhandler who will accept no bill less than a twenty. I once went to the IHOP there and immediately felt underdressed. It's that type of place.

La Jolla, like most of San Diego, is experiencing a sharp (over)inflation of the housing market. Even the tiniest of properties can be a gold mine for the owner. That's why it comes as no surprise to read that the Raymond Chandler home, the place he spent his last years, is in danger of a major makeover:

In early September, the Chandler house is scheduled to be remodeled — on a grand scale. A Chicago concern, Glen Eagle Partners Ltd., owns the place and created plans to add a contemporary second story, a room on the ground floor, new windows, new siding — to "make it bigger and make it fancier and then sell it for a lot of money," Barry Katz, chief financial officer of Glen Eagle, told a reporter a couple of weeks ago. The owners, who apparently knew nothing of the Chandler connection, had no plans to preserve any part of the house as a cultural landmark.

With that much money at stake, it's not surprising that any cultural significance would be trumped by the prospect of profit. Still:

...The Chandler house could still be designated a historic site in San Diego. At the very least, it could get a brass plaque. Better yet, the city's historic resources board, or even Glen Eagle, could see to it that the study is preserved, along with the heavy wooden front door, the patio between the two horseshoe-shaped wings, the period rafter tails, the details that conjure up Chandler's world.

Best of all it might receive full preservation treatment, like Steinbeck's house in Salinas or Hemingway's in Key West. But that would no doubt require a non-slumming angel, or flock of angels — Glen Eagle reportedly paid $2.7 million for it last year.

"Shouldn't any remodel respect Chandler's years here, years filled with success and despair?" [Barry Katz, chief financial officer of Glen Eagle] was asked.

The CFO deferred to his boss: "Seeing as how he's not a fan of film noir nor literature noir, I kind of doubt it," said Katz. "That's not the kind of thing that would go to his soul."