Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Bob Morris, who died in November 2018, is the designer of many of Old Town Temecula's rustic charm, including the arches at the north and south ends of Old Town Front Street, the medallions at the corners of Main and Front streets, the former Butterfield Square and more.
The Tank Building on Main Street in Temecula is the work of Bob Morris.
Butterfield Square, which was torn down in 2018 to make way for a proposed hotel, is the design of Bob Morris, who used found materials of historic importance to build it.
In the 1970s, Old Town Temecula was a rundown, has-been of a town bypassed by Interstate 15. It had started as "the new town of Temecula" in 1882 when the California Southern brought railroad tracks this way. It replaced the Temecula of old at today's Vail Headquarters.
The fledgling town grew as businesses developed and homes were built along Pujol and Mercedes streets. By 1885, the Temecula post office that had formerly been in the Wolf Store had a new location on Main Street.
With the advent of motorized vehicles, the north to south thoroughfare called Front Street was paved in 1918 and became part of California state Highway 395. A motorist traveling between San Bernardino and San Diego could find restaurants, gasoline and lodging options along the stretch of highway through Temecula.
As automobiles and trucks became the backbones for transportation, railroads became relics of the past. The Temecula Depot was closed in 1935, the rails were dismantled and the train no longer came to Temecula.
After I-15 bypassed Old Town, the area fell into disrepair and only folks who had a reason to stop came into Temecula. John Bianchi, who created the Frontier Museum on Jefferson Avenue, called Temecula "the town that time forgot." The area, an island of land that was not owned by the Vail Cattle Company from 1905 until the company sold in 1964, was the only place available for homes or businesses.
A man named Bob Morris came to town on horseback while on a De Anza Trail ride in 1969 and fell in love with the place that he saw was wide-open with possibilities. He bought land and met up with Tommy Hotchkiss who owned the Swing Inn restaurant. The two of them came up with a plan to breathe new life into the area. They decided to campaign for others in Old Town to adapt an 1890s look to make Temecula a destination for visitors. Building facades were changed, starting with the Swing Inn and a new charm filled the area. It started looking more like the cowboy town it once was.
Temecula benefited from Morris's compulsion to salvage discarded architectural pieces and to design new and usable structures from their interesting parts. This habit is apparent in his De Luz home which is now for sale and in the structures he built in Old Town. Morris savored not just the beauty of the rustic pieces, but also the stories the pieces told of places demolished and barely remembered.
When he described the various components put into his signature piece, Butterfield Square, they were so numerous I could barely record them. He made roof embellishments from the wood crates that carried the Palomar telescope lenses up the mountain. Embossed metal ceilings were from the Alberhill post office. Wood was repurposed from the Hemet Stock Farm and an old Vail barn. Windows came from old buildings from the Murrieta Hot Springs.
Butterfield Square, once a 1890s-style shopping center, is just a memory now. It sat at the southeast corner of Old Town Front and Third streets where for the last several years a construction barrier has obscured the view where the shopping center and the last two remaining motel buildings of the Swing Inn. In 2018, Morris' Butterfield Square was dismantled to make room for a proposed multi-story luxury hotel.
Old Town Temecula became his palette, and Bob Morris' art is seen everywhere. He is best remembered for designing the arches at the north and south boundaries of the historic Old Town Temecula district. The four medallions embedded in the sidewalk corners of Main and Old Town Front streets celebrate different eras in Temecula history. He designed the clock tower building just west of The Bank Plates and Pours on Main Street and the water tank building north of The Bank on Front Street.
On Nov. 19, 2018, Morris died at the age of 85. As I drive under the arches in Old Town Temecula, I glance up and smile, thanking the artist for the historic beauty he had created for everyone to enjoy.
Rebecca Marshall Farnbach is a member of the Temecula Valley Historical Society and is an author and co-author of several history books about the Temecula area. The books are available for purchase at the Little Temecula History Center or online from booksellers and at http://www.temeculahistoricalsociety.org. Visit her Amazon author page at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01JQZVO5E.
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