Relocation of Nobel Prize Winner’s Home in Limbo

You have probably seen the childhood home of Glenn T. Seaborg, 1951 Nobel Prize winning chemist, lots of times. The small white house, which use to be located in San Antonio Avenue for years, has been sitting on stilts right behind the South Gate Civic Center for almost 6 years. The city has found it difficult to find a permanent home for the historical structure that it inherited from the Seaborg family, and that it named culturally significant over ten years ago.

“Unfortunately finding a location to put it in has been a real challenge,” said , Director of Parks and Recreation for South Gate, who is helping lead this effort.  The city does not have the $250, 000 necessary that Adams estimates it would need to both renovate, and allocate the building to a permanent spot. “If we had the money it would get a priority, but we do not, so we have to work on finding it.”

The single-family residence was uprooted from 9737 San Antonio Avenue because South Gate was not given the structure along with its land. Therefore, in August of 2006 it removed the house from its foundations, and placed it where it currently stands, along with a fence to surround it for security.

South Gate officials have wanted to turn the house into a museum that celebrates the scientific work of Seaborg or into another type of public space for education.

The educational use of the building was  among the main reasons behind the donation of the house.

"The city has wanted to turn it an educational venue, or some sort of a combination between the historical and cultural, for some time,” said Steve Lefever, Community Development Director for the city of South Gate. “It's just a matter of finding the right funds.”

City officials admit that that finding funds has been quite the struggle.

The city lost a lot of the earmarked funding during the Albert Robles scandal of the early 2000’s.  Municipal officials also said that their later attempts to fundraise, in conjunction with private residents and organizations, would also fail because of the recession.

“We are constantly having to reconfigure and start over,” said Lefever. 

However, the condition of the house, and the lack of funds for its care are starting to weigh on city officials involved with this project.

Adams believes that the city must address this issue soon.

“It is starting to get to the place where it needs to be painted, among other things, so it does not get damaged,” said Adams, who said that this maintenance work is tough, if not impossible to do, while the house stands on the stilts. “That is why I have been working on this more.”

Some of the public spaces that are being considered by the city as potentially good areas for a museum or educational space, if the money does in fact comethrough, are in , confirmed Adams.

When asked about the house, Mayor Bill De Witt emphasized the importance and the historical significance that this house could have on South Gate residents, but particularly on children.

Seaborg was raised in South Gate and attended elementary school at what is now called Victoria Elementary School.  In 1951 he would go on to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discoveries in trans-uranium elements.

De Witt insists that this fact should allow young residents to see that they too also accomplish great scientific achievements.

“If kids from our community have done this in the past, they can certainly do it in the future,” concluded De Witt. 

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