Cutler Group celebrates old and new building [Redlands Daily Facts, Calif.]

May 20--REDLANDS -- Tom Cutler stood in the reception foyer of his church insurance business Tuesday and enjoyed the finished product.

"It's a wonderful place to work," said Cutler, who started the Cutler Group in 1967. He bought the old YWCA/Y Alliance building four years ago and held an open house Tuesday night.

YMCA employees Karen Watson and Heather Stevning stopped to compliment Cutler on the building. Watson said she remembered working there.

The building was restored and renovated for about two and a half years, and the company moved in about two years ago, Cutler said. He moved the business from Lake Arrowhead to Redlands in 2001, first to a house on Cajon Street and then the MacKenzie building on West State Street.

Cutler said he likes old buildings.

"Now Redlands has another old building," he said.

The building was constructed in 1904 for the Rohrer Cortner Mortuary, and Cutler displayed old photographs and blueprints at the open house. It served as a motel for women in YWCA days, and in the 1970s an addition was built for auditorium space. Cutler tore down the auditorium for parking and built an addition to blend with the original building.

"We had to do a demolition because there was no parking," said Tom's wife, Julie Cutler.

Tom Cutler said his company hired great workers and architects.

La Ca ada-based architect Michael Burch attended the open house.

"We approached it as trying

to restore a beautiful building to its original grandeur and doing a very sensitive addition," he said.

Julie Cutler said the project was done in stages. The original building was done first, then the addition, then landscaping.

The building is 8,400 square feet; it was 15,000 with the auditorium, Tom Cutler said. He kept part of the auditorium's wood floor.

"Just to remember it," he said.

Cutler insures more than 2,000 churches in California, Nevada and Arizona, so most clients do not come to the office, Tom Cutler said.

"It's just a place we live and work," he said.

There are 26 employees working on two floors. There are eight rooms upstairs.

During construction, eight layers of paint were peeled away and plaster was put up over stucco walls. All the trim was hand-stained and mirrors shaped like church windows hung on the walls. Near the side Olive Avenue side entrance, a church pew sits in the hallway.

In 2008, the Cutler Group hosted a reunion of Foremothers, a group of women affiliated with the former YWCA, giving them tea and tours. The Foremothers -- some of whom helped fund the 1970s addition -- seemed pleased with the company's regard for the old building,

Cutler Group manager Megret Olewiler told the Daily Facts at the time.

Four years after buying the building, the Cutlers can relax.

"I'm happy," Tom Cutler said, between greeting people in the foyer.

The Cutler Group is at 201 Cajon St., Redlands. Information: www.cutlerinsurance.com

Daily Facts archives contributed to this report.

E-mail Staff Writer Joy Juedes at [email protected]

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