Gladys was there

For the first time since they began its restoration nine years ago, on May 23 the San Dieguito Heritage Museum opened the doors to its almost-finished Teten House, perhaps Encinitas’ oldest original house remaining.

Fred Teten, one of Olivenhain’s German pioneers, purchased the house in 1893. The museum has no idea how old the house actually is, said project coordinator Dave Oakley. It was used by members of the Teten family up until the 1992 passing of Laura Ann Bumann Teten, Fred’s daughter-in-law, who married his son Johnny Teten. Ms. Teten was from the Bumann family, another one of Olivenhain's pioneers.

Since then, the house was vandalized, became a graffiti target, and had a wall destroyed by fire. A developer subsequently purchased the former farmland and wanted to save the house, but it had to be removed from the property.

Since moving the museum to Quail Gardens Drive in 2006, the organization has raised $134,000 for restoration, said Oakley at a celebration on May 23 that included the museum’s 27th annual barbecue. Oakley said 25 percent of the funds came from county supervisor Dave Roberts’s Community Enhancement program.

Guest of honor for the event was Gladys Teten Shull, daughter of Laura Ann. Gladys was born in the house in 1926. It was she who saved much of the home’s original furniture, including beds, oak dining table and chairs, and her mother’s china, storing it until it could be displayed with the restoration.

The home is being restored to the 1920s and ’30s era, with a wood-burning stove, washer (with attached clothes-wringer), and an electric refrigerator. The house also came with an outhouse. In its heyday, the Teten farm sold turkeys and eggs, cabbage, and olives.

Much of the ceiling and wall joints are rough. “It’s the way a farming family’s home would have looked back then,” said Oakley. He said the early 20th-century addition of an enclosed back porch and washroom, which came from the original Olivenhain schoolhouse.