Even when the little house was falling apart, cars would stop on the street and people would get out and snap pictures of themselves in the front yard.
Many would be wearing Boston Red Sox jerseys. They’d turn around to show the number 9 on the back.
“People would come up to the workers and pass down stories from their father and grandfathers,” Jarrett Pugh said recently. “Just volunteer their memories.”
Pugh and Brian Rucker bought baseball legend Ted Williams’ 103-year-old childhood home in 2022. Two years later, the home has been given an update with a nod to the site’s place in both San Diego and baseball history.
Williams was born in 1918. In 1921, Williams and his parents, Samuel and Mary, moved into the home at 4121 Utah Street between El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue in Normal Heights. Mary Williams lived there until 1961.
Pugh and Rucker, real estate developers at Waypoint Partners, are only the sixth owners of the property. They found the home in disrepair.
“When we first acquired it, the idea was to renovate the house as a historical monument,” Rucker said. “But there was really nothing to restore. There was a hole in the middle of the kitchen where the floor had rotted away and collapsed. The walls were giving way.”
At that point, Pugh and Rucker could have demolished the structure and turned the site into apartments (other developers approached them hoping to purchase the property and do just that).
“But this is where the greatest native San Diegan baseball player grew up,” Pugh said. “That meant a lot to us. At the time we were acquiring the Williams home, we were working on another project across the street. We saw the cars stop in front of the Williams home.”
Said Rucker: “We decided we had to do something to protect the history of the site. Ted Williams played in the backyard here. He played at nearby playgrounds. Somewhere in this area, he hit his first baseball. He might have signed his first contract here. We don’t know.”
And they probably never will.
Truth is, Pugh, Rucker and their workers found almost no sign of the Williams family’s time in the home.
“We told everyone working on the project to keep an eye out for anything,” Pugh said. “We found a couple pictures in the house of Williams, but they seemed to be from the owners after the Williamses. We looked everywhere for anything. Nothing.”
But that didn’t stop Pugh and Rucker from keeping the site’s history at the forefront. Ted Williams lived on Utah Street from 1921 until around 1938. It’s possible the home is where Williams and his parents made the decision to attend Hoover High School rather than powerhouse San Diego High School.
As the demolition of the original house and garage began, visitors to the site were allowed to take pieces of the siding and some of the hardware as souvenirs.
“I still remember the look of a fan from Boston who asked if he could take a doorknob and we said yes,” recalled Rucker. “He wrapped it in a towel. Then I told him to take an old faucet …
“This place is a connection for a lot of people.”
Pugh says it’s been “a very fun project.”
“When we started, I didn’t know all the details. People would stop by and give us pieces of history and stories,” he said. “We did our best to memorialize the house and Ted Williams. But there was no repairing what was existing.”
There are now two housing units on the footprint of the original Williams house. There are four more one-bedroom units in what was once the backyard. The property includes parking.
Pugh and Rucker believe the front looks close to what Ted Williams used to see as a boy. They will mount a plaque memorializing the historic value of the site on a boulder in the front yard.
“People, many who lived in the area, will stop by and fill in some historic blanks,” Rucker said. “There remains a strong connection to this spot.”
In 1936, Ted Williams signed with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League just as he was graduating from Hoover. The St. Louis Cardinals wanted to sign Williams out of high school, but his mother believed he was too young to leave home. After playing two years with the Padres, Williams’ contract was sold to the Boston Red Sox.
While demolishing the original house and garage, Pugh and Rucker saved a number of doors and framing material which have been turned into commemorative “Ted Williams model” bats. They plan to eventually sell those bats, with proceeds benefitting San Diego youth baseball programs.
Pugh and Rucker will host an open house on July 25 from noon to 4 p.m. They’ll be serving hot dogs and Moxie Cola, the drink Williams famously endorsed.
“Hall of Fame baseball player, native San Diegan, military hero, patriot,” Pugh said. “Ted Williams is part of a much bigger story.”
