A Personal Note from Eric Andrist, Founder & Executive Director
I want to be upfront with you about something, because I think you deserve that honesty — and honestly, I’d expect the same.
The Henry Levy House is my home. I live here. I own it. And yes, part of what I’m asking for is help restoring it. I understand how that might sound, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. So let me tell you what this house really means — and why I believe your support reaches far beyond my own situation.
My partner and I didn’t come to Oxnard looking for a house. This house found us. A 111-year-old Craftsman landmark — one of the finest historic homes in all of Ventura County — with original Batchelder tile fireplaces and woodwork that hasn’t been touched in over a century. We walked through the door and that was it. We were done.
Not long after we moved in, something remarkable happened: a dozen or more paintings by Juliette Levy — Henry’s sister-in-law and a pioneering figure in Oxnard’s early art scene — were donated back to the house by the family that had purchased it from the Levys in the 1970s. Even the art wanted to come home.
Two years after we bought it, my partner of 39 years passed away. He never got to see the full vision come to life. I’m here now, carrying it forward on my own — on a fixed income, with advancing arthritis that makes the physical work harder every year — and a 5,000-square-foot, 2½-story house on a triple-wide lot that simply demands more than any one person can give it.
But here’s what I really want you to understand: I don’t think of myself as the owner of this house in any lasting sense. I’m its steward. This house has stood for more than 100 years, and if we do the work now, it will stand for another 100 years after I’m gone. I have no heirs. When my time comes, this house will pass to someone else — or to the nonprofit itself. Every dollar I’ve put in, every hour, every decision — it’s all been an investment in that future, not in any family legacy of mine.
The repairs this house needs are serious. We’re talking 54 to 70 windows that need replacing, an exterior paint job that runs over $40,000, and a century-old foundation that’s starting to crumble. I’ve already put more than $500,000 of my own retirement savings into this property. I’m running low on resources, and I need help — through public donations and grants — to restore it for the generations ahead.
The Henry Levy House Arts & Heritage Center exists precisely so that the future of this landmark is never again dependent on the bank account of a single homeowner. That’s too much to ask of anyone who isn’t a billionaire. I’m building a path forward — through grants, through community support, through events and programming — so this house gets the care it deserves.
I’m not asking for your support because I want something for myself. I’m asking because, in the deepest sense, this house doesn’t belong to me — and it doesn’t belong to the City of Oxnard, either. It belongs to the people of Oxnard. It belongs to history. It belongs to the families who walked these streets a hundred years ago and to the families walking them today. I’m just the person who’s here right now, doing my best to bring it back to life — and to make sure it’s still standing long after I’m not. And moving forward, my goal is for the Arts and Heritage Center to raise enough money to help other historic homeowners here as well. I hope that happens in my lifetime with your help. We have a diamond in the rough here that is quickly disintegrating.
Eric Andrist, Homeowner
Founder & Executive Director Henry Levy House Arts & Heritage Center