The Smiley Smile Message Board

Would there have been any way, back in the time before it was demolished, for the Wilsons' childhood home in Hawthorne to have been saved? I'm just curious if at the time, a well-organized preservation effort could have possibly helped convince the city to not route the freeway right through that neighborhood, and to re-route it elsewhere.

I realize that getting the bureaucratic forces to make a change of plans of that magnitude would have been a Herculean task. And would the demolishing have happened today though, in the age of the internet? I feel like there would have been a groundswell of support (via social media) to help prevent the home's destruction, if the demolishing was going to happen now as opposed to the '80s.

Speaking of, how much of a landmark was the home during the time the home existed after the Wilsons moved out, and before it was destroyed? How well-kept a secret was it? (I know the home address was listed on old business cards and such, but this was pre-internet era after all).

Just out of curiosity, would it have been possible to move the house to another location?

There was a video on youtube a few years ago taken just before the demolition I think.  I've searched but can't find it. Maybe someone here knows where it is.

Short of being the Beatles childhood homes I don't think they would have saved it. Shame  :(

The first two houses I lived in have also been demolished. I know how Brian must feel!  ;D

It really just seems that this is one more example of the shoddy treatment The Boys get compared to The Beatles.

Yet I also think that it only really could have happened in the era that it did happen, during the 1980s, where The BBs were certainly legends, but the legend and historical perspective was probably nowhere near where it is today, thus allowing for an important historic property like this to sadly fall through the cracks.

While lots of historic properties are still outrageously torn down in LA these days, I still think that it would have been really, really much harder for this demolition to have happened in today's day and age of the internet.

To change the alignment of a freeway like the 105 is a major undertaking.  There would have to be a very good reason for the change.  The only possibliilty at the time would have been for the home to have been moved to another lot.   

Perhaps that's true. But would the same hold true for The Beatles? Not so sure.

I'm a civil engineer and can say with almost near certainty that shifting the alignment of a freeway to avoid one house would never happen unless it were the  childhood home of an ex-President...OR if some environmental or archeological discovery of great significance were present. 

However, the home itself could have been moved off site, relocated to another location, and turned into a museum.  But, when the freeway was constructed in the 1980s, the appreciation and understanding of the historical significance of the Beach Boys was not the same as it is today. 

It really is a shame that the home of arguably the greatest American composer of the last 50 years is gone forever. 

That's interesting to hear. Coming from a civil engineer, I trust that's probably as true an answer as I'll get to my query.

If the house itself had been moved, I wonder how that would have played out. I assume the city would have had to pay for that? It is indeed a real shame that this didn't happen.

Someone wiser than I am expressed the lack of desire to visit a place where the Wilson brothers got the crap beaten out of them regularly.

I was thinking the same, however it would have been cool if the music room could have been shifted. Has there ever been a recreation set up anywhere? The Grammy museum would seem ideal.

How unfortunate for this "wiser" person that this is all they could get out of it.  Let's just forget about all the positive things that happened there....

The freeway (Interstate 105, officially the Glenn Anderson Freeway, often referred to as the Century Freeway) was in the planning stages for a long time.  This Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_105_(California) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_105_(California)) is as good a place to start as any.

Apparently the right-of-way was on highway plans as early as 1947.  The proposed freeway was named the Century Freeway in 1956 (numbered Route 42).  In 1965 the Century Freeway was added to the state highway system "along an alignment very near to the current right-of-way."  The current route was added to the Interstate highway system in 1968, and the route was designed from 1968 to 1972.  The Wikipedia page notes community opposition, including a federal lawsuit, which slowed the process.  There's even a "Notable demolished buildings" section which lists the Wilson and Marks houses, plus the house in Downey, California, where Richard and Karen Carpenter grew up.

So it looks like most of the time the Wilson and Marks houses existed, they were in danger of being demolished for a freeway someday.  Incidentally, Glenn  Anderson was a Congressman from San Pedro, California, who tirelessly advocated for the freeway's construction; it was named after him after his death in 1994.

It's basically the freeway to the airport on one end.  A  federal judge took over the project and controlled almost everything, which is why it took far too long to get built.

Shoulda been

Allman brothers museum in Macon anyone...