Chapman purchases historic property for academic programs

The Lydia D. Killefer property was put up for bid in 2014. Since then the property was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places. Chapman, who placed the lowest bid acquired the property for $3.7 million and will restore the historic schoolhouse. CLARISSE GUEVERRA Staff Photographer

The school that led desegregation efforts in Orange County between Latino and white students was acquired by Chapman University at a Jan. 16 meeting. The Orange Unified Board of Education approved the sale of the 1.7 acre Lydia D. Killefer elementary school for $3.7 million.

“It is hard to find any property larger than one acre near the campus. When the Orange Unified School District (OUSD) announced a public auction of the historic school property in 2014, given its proximity to Chapman, we wanted to participate,” wrote Harold Hewitt, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, in a Feb. 4 email to The Panther.

The Killefer school is remembered for its voluntary desegregation of Latino and white students in 1944, three years before a group of Latino families fought segregation in the Mendez v. Westminster decision, which ended segregation in Orange County schools. The building, which has a Spanish Colonial Revival Architectural style, was built in 1931.

In 2014, Chapman and four other bidders participated in a public auction, with Chapman bidding the lowest amount. The bidders all had housing developments in the original plans, but the Killefer school is part of the National Registry of Historic Places. This prevents the school from being demolished, which halted the other bidders from moving forward with their original plans.

The purchase is being funded by the Building and Real Estate Fund, Hewitt said.

“I am delighted. I thank and congratulate Chapman for (the purchase),” said Sandy Quinn, the president of the Old Towne Preservation Association. Quinn said he is not worried about the purchase adding to Chapman’s expansion.

“The alternatives were to leave it alone and let an apartment developer come in and tear down the building and make the historic segregation value of it disappear and never to be appreciated, but now the property will be a valuable lesson,” Quinn said. “We would object if it was going to be a large student housing facility.”

Chapman will restore the property and use it to house academic programs.

The programs chosen will be based on space compatibility and will be more likely to be research-oriented, President Daniele Struppa said.

“I’d like to see it made available to the public in some way because it is an interesting building and it’s a community resource,” Quinn said.

Chapman is planning on having a space on the property open to the community, according to Struppa.

“We will reserve some space for probably a museum to celebrate the historic element to society,” Struppa told The Panther.