Vandals strike 'Ghirardelli' sign on old stable

It was only a few boards broken from the bright blue “Ghirardelli Cocoa” ad painted on the side, but for David Yearsley, vandalism at the old livery stable on McNear peninsula this past weekend is a sign of things to come.

That is, if the 100-year-old building isn’t fixed up and protected against future destruction, he said.

Restoring and protecting the barn-like structure is just one of the many reasons Yearsley is working toward establishing a “River Heritage Center” within its weathered walls.

A city parks commissioner and executive director of the Friends of the Petaluma River, Yearsley hopes the stable will house a place where Petalumans can learn about the environmental, economic and recreational benefits of the river.

But that can only happen if the building is still around, he said.

“This kind of vandalism is what endangers this historic structure,” Yearsley said Tuesday, examining boards from the Ghirardelli sign that the parks department had replaced after they were found torn from the building.

He got a call Sunday night from a woman who was walking at Steamer Landing Park on the peninsula and discovered the broken boards, Yearsley said. The unknown vandal or vandals had torn them off or kicked them in to gain access to the locked stable, he suspects.

There wasn’t much damage inside the structure this time, but officials have previously discovered people using the stable as a homeless camp and starting small fires inside, he said.

Since he and a group of volunteers started cleaning and repairing the stable in the past year, incidents of damage had become less frequent, Yearsley said.

“I was starting to feel pretty good,” he said.

But this weekend’s vandalism reinforces the need to protect the structure, he said. Fire-resistant walls, sprinklers and electricity for security measures are needed as part of the larger heritage center project, he said.

A city parks department report estimated it would cost $620,000 to restore and “somewhat rehabilitate” the interior of the stable, he said. That doesn’t include any of the heritage center amenities to host classes, tours and exhibits inside.

The building, built in 1907 at the northwest corner of D and First streets downtown, was moved to the peninsula in 2004 to make way for the Theatre District parking garage. The eye-catching Ghirardelli sign had been covered up but was rediscovered during the preparations for the move.

The stable was placed on a foundation and its roof reinforced at the new site, but the rest of the structure is fragile, Yearsley said.

Restoring it “is not a difficult task — it just takes some money and some effort,” he said.

(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)