5 Points Historic District

ANAHEIM - An 80-year-old building, held together by its bare wooden frames, moved Monday to its permanent spot at the
entryway of downtown Anaheim.

Two trucks hauled the two-story structure, known as the Five Points Building, about 100 feet on Lincoln Avenue.

The two-story Five Points Building was moved 100 feet
down Lincoln Avenue on Monday.

It was constructed in the early 1920s on Lincoln
Avenue and sits at the entryway to downtown Anaheim.
It was designed to fit the wedge-shaped parcel. Its
location, on Lincoln Avenue (then called County Road)
and West and Center streets, is at a five-point
intersection and gave the building its name.

The new site is about where the building sat for years
before the city moved it during a road expansion project.

The 1920s building will likely house loft apartments and
a restaurant once its restoration is complete in about 15
months, but plans for the building have not been
confirmed.

Clean City, an Anaheim developer known for its
restoration projects, is spearheading the Five Points
Building venture.

The city gave the building and the land where it now sits
to Clean City under the condition that it would
redevelop the building to historic-preservation
standards.

Clean City is spending about $1.2 million on the project,
maintaining the building's 1920s postwar appeal and
blending it in with the neighboring historic homes, said
P. Wayne Palmer, Clean City's director of operations.
Developers will work to salvage each piece of the aging
structure, he added.

5 Points Building prior to renovation project.

"It doesn't look like much now. It'll take a lot of work, but when it's done, it will be all worth it," Palmer said. "We're going to bring
it back to life."

Community members and local preservationists have worked with developers and the city to restore the Five Points Building, which
had been home to a variety shop, bakery, cleaners and hat store. Also, a pharmacy in the building once served as a hangout for high
school students who snacked on malts and sodas.

The Five Points Building now sits across the street from a row of 1920s and 1930s houses.

The structure pulls together the historic look and feel of the neighborhood, said Joyce Morris, vice president of the Anaheim
Historical Society.

"Every morsel of history we have, we value very highly," Morris said. "It's a great entrance sign to say you are here in Anaheim -
sort of letting people know this is home."

ANAHEIM - When developer Bill Taormina set out to preserve the
Five Points Building, one of the few remaining historic commercial
structures in the city, he floated around the idea for a roadhouse
diner.

Roller-skating waitresses serving chow to hungry drivers may not be
so far off.

Taormina said there are negotiations to open a Ruby's Diner in the
building's first floor at 1128 W. Lincoln Ave., with resident and office
lofts above it.

The move is part of a larger approach by city officials to turn the
Five Points district - viewed as a gateway to downtown Anaheim from
the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway - into a mix of office buildings,
refurbished historic homes and new eateries, including a Subway and
Starbucks.

General contractors Lee Howard, left, and Curt
Vanderwest, right, discuss future plans for the
historic Five Points commercial building at 1128
W. Lincoln Blvd. in Anaheim. Developers plan to
convert the structure into a 1950's theme diner.

Five Points Building

Built: Early 1920s by a German baker

Size: First floor, 4,000-square feet; second
floor, 3,500-square feet

Restoration cost: $2.2 million

History: The structure was originally a bakery,
and throughout the decades included a gym,
pager company, drug store, discount
electronics store and most recently, a wig shop
with upstairs apartments.

Until then, the Five Points Building had been home to a wig shop and second-floor apartments, Bob Morris of the Anaheim
Historical Society said.

The city in 2003 contracted Taormina to restore the structure, after his company had turned the historic downtown Kraemer
Building into apartments.

Morris, who lives near the Five Points project, said the preservation of the historic area with a jumble of new businesses shows just
how far it's progressed.

"It can never be bad to have a Starbucks in your neighborhood," he said.

He said the layout for the building, located on a pie-slice-shaped lot, is
being finalized, with the roof's framing going up in a couple of weeks. The
businesses could open in a year.

While the building is being preserved to its early-1920s look, only half of
its original wood is being salvaged, Taormina said.

The Anaheim Planning Commission this month approved the zoning for
the parking lot portion of the property.

A second project to refurbish residential homes next door to the Five
Points Building could begin in June.

Realtor Paul Kott has had his business in the neighborhood since 1993,
and purchased and revitalized seven properties over the last seven years.

"This area about 10 years ago, when (the California Department of
Transportation) was widening the I-5, was a ghost town," Kott said.

"The renaissance is finally taking place," said Taormina, CEO of Clean City Inc., which started work on the Five Points Building
project 18 months ago.

Photography by Rene Reyes

Showroom by Enrique Contreras

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