lairds_landing
LAIRDS LANDING: The Point Reyes National Seashore is planning to remove windows installed by the late artist Clayton Lewis in a Miwok-built boathouse (above), among other additions and structures he built on the Tomales Bay beach. Mr. Lewis’s son is arguing that some additions were made within the time frame necessary to be eligible for historic preservation.    David Briggs

Peter Lewis, the son of the late artist and fisherman Clayton Lewis, will fight to save some of his father’s earliest architectural additions at Lairds Landing, he told the Light this week. “Not only because of the architectural significance of what he added, but because of his position as a significant California artist,” Mr. Lewis said. The Point Reyes National Seashore is in the process of removing all of Clayton’s buildings and improvements while preserving three cottages built by Coast Miwok laborers in the 19th century. Although Clayton’s major architectural efforts—like the foundry building and the tower atop one of the cottages—came later in his residency at Lairds, Clayton first made changes to the property when he moved to the beach in 1964. (The Light reported inaccurately in two previous articles that he moved there in 1972, which is the year he built the foundry and art studio.) In the first two years he lived at Lairds, he added or altered windows on the cottages; and, according to Peter, built a shower in one with a mosaic glass ceiling, “so when you took a shower you had beautiful rainbows all around you.” Per federal historic guidelines, buildings that are at least 50 years old are more likely to be considered historic than more recent structures (though they are not automatically historic); making the case for historic status for buildings constructed within the past 50 years is very difficult. The park’s determination of historic eligibility for Lairds Landing acknowledged that some of the additions were made in those first years, but still declined to link the site’s historic status to the artist. “Although Clayton Lewis is an artist of local importance,” it said, “the bulk of his artistic works produced at Lairds Landing was executed less than 50 years ago and therefore the property does not meet the criteria for eligibility for listing on the [National Register of Historic Places] for its association with Clayton Lewis.” The park did recently granted a request from friends of Clayton to save the colorful tower atop one of the cabins, for which Peter is grateful. (He is also pleased the seashore will save the cottages themselves.) But for him, Clayton’s legacy as a California artist makes his oldest additions worth saving, too.