One of Gardena’s Oldest : Golf Operator Hopes to Rescue House

One of Gardena’s oldest homes will be demolished to make way for a mini-mall unless 11th-hour efforts to move it to a county golf range in Carson succeed.

The 80-year-old Wills House, a one-story, wood-frame structure at Vermont and Magnolia avenues, was scheduled to be torn down this week, but the demolition has been delayed indefinitely, according to Mona Quezeda of Kirt Land Clearing, the company hired to do the demolition.

Jim Duffin, whose company has a long-term contract to manage the county-owned Victoria Golf Course in Carson, said he has been trying for a month to have the house removed from its foundation and trucked to the golf course, which is near the intersection of the San Diego Freeway and Main Street in Carson.

But cost estimates from two companies for moving the house ranged from $24,000 to $30,000, much higher than the $10,000 he originally estimated, Duffin said. In addition, as much as $10,000 more would be needed for a new foundation, permits and other expenses, bringing the total cost to as much as $40,000, he said.

Although the house is only 4 miles from the golf course, the trip could be as long as 12 miles because the movers would have to stay on surface streets, avoiding the San Diego and Artesia freeways, Duffin said.

“I really wanted it because the name of the golf course is the Victoria Golf Course, and this is a Victorian-style house,” Duffin said. “I’d been looking for a historical kind of house to put on it. But I just cannot afford to put $40,000 into it. I figured about $15,000 tops was the most I could afford.”

However, Duffin said he is still exploring ways to raise money to save the house, which is in good condition despite being unoccupied for the last six months. He recently boarded up its windows to deter vandals.

According to city records, the owner of the mini-mall site is Hajime Shigeyo Inoue of Torrance. A spokesman for Inoue, Hiroshi Tsukahara, said ownership of the house has been passed to the demolition company but that the company and Inoue are willing to delay the razing.

“I didn’t know people were interested in conserving it,” Tsukahara said.

The Wills House, built in 1908 by Gardena pioneers William and Karen Wills, was recommended for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places after Gardena conducted a survey of historical sites in 1981, according to Tom Parks, a local historian and executive vice president of the Gardena Valley Chamber of Commerce. But the nomination, which might have given preservation efforts some legal and moral clout, was “never followed through,” Parks said.