The Seaborg Home was the family home of
Nobel Prize–winning chemist and nuclear pioneer,
Glenn T. Seaborg
Glenn Theodore Seaborg (; April 19, 1912February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work in ...
from 1922 to 1934. Herman Theodore (Ted) and Selma Olivia (Erickson) Seaborg moved at Selma's urging from
Ishpeming, Michigan in 1922 with their children Glenn Theodore Seaborg and Jeanette (Seaborg) Bonniksen to Home Gardens, California. The family purchased a home on 9237 San Antonio Avenue in an area of Home Gardens, later annexed to the city of
South Gate, California. H. Theodore and Selma Seaborg lived in the home until their deaths in 1957 and 1968 respectively.
While living in the home, Glenn Seaborg attended Home Gardens Grammar School (now Victoria Avenue Elementary School), David Starr Jordan High School, and the
University of California, Los Angeles. At the age of 14, Seaborg began keeping a daily journal. These journals have since been published in several volumes and contain considerable detail about Seaborg's early life in the home. Seaborg helped work his way through school with jobs as a stevedore and fruit packer. He also gained employment on the graveyard shift as a laboratory assistant at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in South Gate.
After Seaborg moved to northern California to attend the
University of California, Berkeley, he and his wife,
Helen L. Seaborg
Helen L. Seaborg (née Griggs; March 2, 1917 – August 29, 2006) was an American child welfare advocate and the wife of Nobel Prize chemist Glenn T. Seaborg.
Born March 2, 1917, in a Florence Crittenton home for unwed mothers in Sioux City, Iow ...
, continued to make numerous visits to see his parents throughout their lifetimes, all of which are noted in his journals.
The Seaborg Home is a typical small single family residence of the period, notable primarily for its famous resident. In January 2000, the City of South Gate designated the Seaborg family home on San Antonio Avenue as a "culturally significant landmark" and named a street in the Civic Center "Dr. Glenn Seaborg Way." Community Redevelopment Agency staff recommendations to move the home to the civic center and open it as an historical museum have not yet come to fruition.
[http://www.cityofsouthgate.org/cra/2000cra/03-14-00cra.htm Community Redevelopment Agency Agenda, March 14, 2000, accessed July 8, 2006.]
References
{{coord, 33.95020, -118.20577, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-CA, display=title
South Gate, California
Glenn T. Seaborg
Houses in Los Angeles County, California