City Protects Historic Sites

Under a resolution passed unanimously Tuesday by the Gardena City Council, city officials will be notified before any of 110 structures identified as historically significant are altered or demolished.

The resolution, introduced by Councilwoman Gwen Duffy, provides that the buildings be designated on city records and zoning maps as historically or architecturally significant. Property owners will be advised of the structure’s status, and city officials would be notified if a property owner applied for a building permit to substantially alter the structure or for a permit to demolish it.

The city’s list of historic buildings, mostly homes and churches dating from the early part of the century, was compiled in a 1981 survey identifying structures that “embody a sense of time and place unique to the city.”

The survey also concluded that six structures, including the Samuel K. Woodward House at 15309 S. Normandie Ave. and the Hobbs House at 14703 S. Kingsley Dr., should be nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.

Efforts to nominate the structures were not completed and one home on the list has been destroyed. The Wills House, on Vermont at Magnolia Avenue, was razed in April, 1988, after several ambitious plans to move it--including one to turn it into a city museum--fell through.