When Manuel Lima was a teen-ager in the 1960s and worked at a motel on Beach Hill in Santa Cruz, he admired an old Italianate Victorian house next door so much that he sketched it — white ink on black paper. So when he came to work one day and found the Victorian had been demolished, he was devastated. That powerful emotion led to a lifelong passion when he bought his own Italianate Victorian home in 1973 in downtown San Jose. And as he worked to restore his own Victorian, he saved the rest of his neighborhood as well. “A house doesn’t make it without a neighborhood,” he said. “I wasn’t going to move the house, so I had to make the neighborhood better.”

Along with Lenore Porcella and a core group of other neighbors, Lima helped establish the Hensley Historic District. So instead of a sea of high-density housing that would have razed 200 historic homes, much of the neighborhood is still old Victorians being restored one-by-one.

“The neighborhood still has an edge to it,” Lima said,”but it’s coming along.”

When he first bought the house, though, “everyone I knew said, ‘what are you doing?’”

The house was situated between a rescue mission, the Salvation Army and railroad tracks. Broken bottles and trash littered the streets and railroad tracks. The 1879 house was old and dirty, but had maintained most of its character. And so Lima set out on a never-ending quest to bring the Victorian back to its former glory — and he’s essentially done it all himself, including putting on a new roof.

“I wanted something that I could not finish,” said Lima, 63. “I painted the outside of this four times myself. I’ve done most of the rooms at least twice.”

He knew it was wonderful when he bought it, “but I didn’t know how wonderful” until he worked on it and uncovered some of its secrets, including the tongue and groove walls in the kitchen hidden behind a 1950s remodel.

“No one did anything that wasn’t reversible,” he said. He was able to restore an old gas lamp in the kitchen.

One of the most dramatic features of the home is the wallpaper _ from Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers’ famed studio in Benicia. The company reproduces historic wallpaper designs from Victorians through Arts and Crafts, Deco and Modern. And owner Bruce Bradbury, anxious to have a show-house in the south bay, gave it to Lima at cost, Lima said. And, of course, Lima installed it himself.

“I would wallpaper from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. when no one could distract me,” said Lima, a landscaper by trade. “I needed to be left alone so I could do it as correctly as possible.”

It’s one of the first features you notice when you enter the home, from the entry hall and the “Turkish corner” with a lantern and fainting couch under the stairway, to the formal parlour and dining room. Delicate fields of color and pattern are interrupted by giant medallion flowers. Lima’s crocheted white window panels handmade by his mother and grandmother are graceful counterpoints to the paper.

This year marks the 36th anniversary of his ownership of the house, and there’s still more work to do.

“People marry other people,” Lima said. “This house is my wife.”

Related stories:
Manderley Revisted:La Selva Victorian
Los Gatos Victorian in All Its Elegance
Before and After Italianate Victorian

Here’s the complete slideshow:

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 10:20 am and is filed under Architecture, Decorating, Dining Room, Historic, Home and Garden, Inside Stories, Inside Story, Interior Design, Julia, Kitchen, San Jose, Victorian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.