Windows of Historic Mason Building Replaced, Owners in a Soup

In the 90 years of its existence, the Highland Park Masonic Building has undergone numerous changes, many of them irretrievable. Recently, a window closed on another of the building’s historic features—literally: The one-time Masonic lodge’s gorgeous stained-glass-type street-level windows were replaced by regular fixed-glass panes.

“The old windows were falling apart and were a hazard to the community,” said Hector Cruz, who has co-owned the three-story building on 5577 N. Figueroa St. along with his mother since the past five years. 

“They were very expensive to replace,” Cruz said, adding that he got a $12,000 estimate for the repairs and replacement of eight of the original windows that he ended up changing. “And that’s not even giving us a cushion of what’s to come,” he said. 

In installing much cheaper windows, Cruz said he took a leaf from the historic windows that were replaced with fixed-glass ones about a quarter-century ago at the former office of ex-Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. Also located in the Mason Building, which has 19,000 square feet of floor space, Goldberg’s one-time office now houses the Good Girl Dinette Vietnamese fusion food restaurant.

But for all that, said Cruz, he didn’t realize he had committed a blunder by getting rid of the old windows. Exactly a week after he put in the eight new panes on June 26, an inspector from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety served him a “stop work” order, Cruz said, adding that by then all the work on the windows had already been done. 

The inspector told Cruz that because the Highland Park Masonic Building is on the National Registry of Historic Places, he is required to get permission from the Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone before doing any work that changes the building’s architectural integrity. 

“The last thing I expected is for the community to send an inspector instead of coming and telling me what are the initial steps I should have taken to replace the windows,” Cruz said, adding: “I’ve had Autry Museum meetings, Neighborhood Council meetings at the building—I’ve supported everybody.”

According to Cruz, it was Highland Park historian and Highland Park Heritage Trust member Charlie Fisher who allegedly reported him to the Department of Building and Safety. A call by Patch to Highland Park Heritage Trust requesting an interview with Fisher went unreturned.

Cruz said it’s not that he isn’t concerned about conservation issues surrounding his building, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1984. “We try to balance safety and responsibility with our budget,” he said.

His response to critics who accuse him of negligence is that “if you’re so concerned about the windows, why don’t you get a grant or funding to replace them?” Cruz said, adding that property owners such as him can “hardly make it by in these hard [economic] times.”

The big question for Cruz, he said, was “do you keep the windows because they look nice or do you change them because they’re falling apart and are a safety hazard?”

The issue of the unapproved windows was taken up this past Tuesday by the Highland Park-Garvanza Historical Preservation Overlay Zone at its bimonthly board meeting in Ramona Hall, Cruz said, adding that he was notified about the meeting but didn’t attend.

The Mason Building may have lost its original windows, but there’s still a window of opportunity to get them back.

“We’ve saved all the little pieces of glass,” said Cruz. “So if anything serious would happen, I’d be most happy to replace them.”