https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITRmG-f8N9k
APPLE VALLEY — Three months after escrow closed on the Hilltop House, town officials toured the historic site that, today, serves the needs of taggers rather than dignitaries and celebrities.
The graffiti that riddled the property’s drained swimming pool and patio on Aug. 16 was new. That fact was observable in both the still-wet paint and in the topical nature of a vulgar, two-word stance on Donald Trump scrawled atop the pool’s steps.
“The graffiti here today is about three weeks old,” Apple Valley Code Enforcement Manager Jim Andersen said. “We have a contract and work on graffiti removal every two to three months.”
And while the crude sketches of Batman and a frowning Superman are eyesores, they point to which sections might already be deemed salvageable despite there being no official plan for the property.
Town spokeswoman Kathie Martin told the Daily Press on Friday that Apple Valley wants to retain the significance of the location, but in a way that is safe and accessible for citizens to enjoy; however, retaining Hilltop House’s significance and keeping it safe aren’t exactly goals that share common ground.
First constructed in the 1950s, the house once hovered over the town as a lavish nod to possibility for prospective developers and homeowners. In 1965, it was featured in John Myhers’ madcap comedy, “Saturday Night Bath in Apple Valley,” which — five decades later — feels more like a feature-length advertisement for the then-budding town than it does a Mel Brooks-style laugh riot.
In the opening credits of that largely forgotten film, Myhers gave special thanks to “Mr. Newt Bass of Apple Valley, California” for allowing the director to film inside the home that just two years later succumbed to fire.
“It burned down in 1967,” Andersen said. “It was winter, and there was ice on the road leading up to the house.”
That road is deceptively steep, and firefighters couldn’t get their trucks beyond the ice in order to save the house, according to Andersen.
After the fire, Hilltop House was rebuilt and utilized as a space for conferences and weddings while ownership changed hands through the years.
But now, unlike the pool and patio area situated on the property’s southern end, the house sits in ruin. A portion of the second floor has collapsed, the carport was almost entirely destroyed by another fire and there’s too much graffiti on what’s left of both the interior and exterior walls to bother with removal.
In 2012, when the house was owned by the Las Vegas-based 360 Apple West LLC, former Apple Valley Fire Protection District Chief Art Bishop — who was elected to the Town Council less than three months later — hinted at a possible future for the property.
Bishop told the Daily Press the area would be ideal for a park with picnic tables and a shaded structure. Even then, though, what’s left of Hilltop House itself wasn’t a factor.
"It's rather dangerous and it may have to be razed," Bishop said. "That would be a shame because it's a monument to Apple Valley's history."
During the recent tour with town officials, Martin said demolition of the house is one option the town will consider once an ad hoc committee is formed.
“We don’t expect that the structure will be rebuilt or retained,” Martin said. “We’re looking more at an observation-deck style destination at the end of a trail.”
It’s possible, then, that the patio and pool areas — from which graffiti is removed on a regular basis — might be salvaged for part of the observation deck.
Martin added that demolition was an option entertained by the Apple Valley Legacy Trail Foundation, the organization that initially worked toward acquiring the property and raised $580,350 toward that goal last August.
LTF committee members Steve Richard and Donald Tatera could not be reached for comment, but Martin said the town will seek input from “the people that kind of laid the foundation for this (purchase) to happen.”
Martin previously confirmed that at least one of the grants the LTF received — $160,000 awarded by the California Department of Parks Recreation Land and Water Conservation Fund — helped fund the town’s more than $300,000 purchase of the property.
As a result, the town must meet certain requirements laid out by the LWCF grant program, which includes the acquisition resulting in an “outdoor recreational opportunity for the public’s benefit” within three years of the completion of acquisition, according to a previous Daily Press report.
Meanwhile, Martin reiterated that nothing is set in stone at this point, adding that the town expects to work with community groups and the Apple Valley Parks & Recreation Commission on a plan for Hilltop House “in the very near future.”
“It will all be up for discussion,” she said.