Builder’s Free House Given a New Home

The old often must make way for the new, but Pasadena builder Bill Bucher found a way to preserve the past.

When it came to building part of his 35-unit West Colonial Woods town house project on a Pasadena site occupied by a bungalow more than 50 years old, Bucher advertised the house as “free for the taking” to anyone who would move it.

“Response was tremendous,” he said, “and in a sense, this made our job more difficult because we wanted to find someone who would not only cart the bungalow away but restore it to its natural beauty. And there were many people to consider.”

Working with the Pasadena Cultural Heritage Commission, Bucher and his administrative assistant, Amy Kauzlaric, accomplished their objective. The bungalow now stands in Altadena.

And on the bungalow’s old site at 158 N. Meridith Ave., Bucher’s Colonial Construction Co. is completing the first phase of the town-house project, where prices start at $99,000.

“My family has been building homes in Southern California for three generations,” Bucher reflected, “and I guess this tradition has taught me respect for the past.”