Mansion Moves Out Ahead of Wrecker's Ball

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It became official Thursday afternoon. Los Angeles Historic Landmark No. 167 was saved from the wrecker's ball. After nearly 11 months of frantic efforts, the once-stately Edward Strong mansion, a reminder of downtown Los Angeles' Victorian past, was towed away from its site of 102 years on West 15th Street, where it stood in the way of a $390-million expansion of the Convention Center.The slow move to the mansion's new site, near MacArthur Park, was to be completed by this morning. "I feel great!" said preservationist Jay Rounds as the blue-and-white three-story structure creaked past him. "Now it's time to go back to work and save another building."Last year, Kaiser and other officials of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency could find no takers for the residence, which was declared a landmark in 1976 because of its unique Queen Anne architecture in the Caribbean style. It was one of two major Victorian structures remaining in the downtown area.