JUDY WHITTALL

By Dr. Dalene Osterkamp 

Judy Whittall, who lives in the village of Glennville (Kern County), is responsible, through her own energies and monies, of saving, by preservation and restoration, the two oldest homes in Kern County.  The buildings were originally gold-miners homesteads built in 1860.

Through research at the Beale Library and the lore of the original family heirs and findings in the walls and floors of the buildings, she has pieced together the history.  One of the buildings on Highway #155 was a branch library of Kern County from 1920-1950.

Judy wants to offer more to Kern County history than the important donations to the Pioneer Village.  She believes that “period buildings” are an example of our cultural heritage and if we lose them we lose part of our past.  She also believes that restoring buildings is recycling.  It has been difficult for her over the years to watch several of Kern County’s oldest buildings and trees be taken to the landfill.

She is a member of the National Trust for Historical Preservation and realizes that working on an old house bucks the marketing mantra of our new age that “the newest thing is always the best”.

Judy has recently purchased a circa 1920’s Art and Crafts cottage for preservation and restoration.  Her three buildings sit between the oldest church in Kern County and the oldest building, the “adobe trading post

Highway #155 was the original toll road, on the way to the county seat of Havillah, when the Bakersfield area was still dotted with swampland.

As Peter Koehler of New York Times wrote, “Restoring and preserving historic neighborhoods is a powerful way of rebuilding community”. After the 60 Minutes television investigative report shown a few months ago on the devastation of Glennville by petroleum contamination of the ground water, Judy offers the community a hope of revival.