Hermosa Beach Police are currently on the hunt for several individuals responsible for badly vandalizing a house located in the 2300 block of The Strand that was built in the early 1900s. According to police, the house’s three male tenants threw what is known as a “tear-down” party after learning the house was scheduled for demolition, a move the owner has since changed her mind about.

According to Police Chief Mike Lavin, the owner of 2340 The Strand recently informed her tenants, ranging in age from 32 to 36, about the demolition, requiring them to move out of the house.

“The owner of the property had informed the tenants that they had to move out because it was going to be demolished and it looks as though they had a large party with a reported 30 to 40 partygoers,” said Police Chief Mike Lavin. “One of the roommates had gone to bed early, if that was possible. A little bit later, he woke up to the smell of paint, and basically walked to the other parts of the house and noticed the damage. They called it a ‘tear-down party.'”

According to the report, the owner no longer has plans to demolish the house. However, it is not clear as to whether she changed her mind before or after discovering the house in its current state.

According to Lavin, the owner called police about the incident at 10:30 p.m. April 4 and an officer took the report April 5 for a crime that occurred April 3.

According to the report, the vandals smashed the house’s windows, spray-painted several walls and windows, and knocked down a wall.

“The damage to the house is severe,” wrote the reporting officer. “One entire wall had been knocked down, several walls were partially kicked in, several windows were smashed, and all of the walls in the living room and upstairs area were spray-painted with miscellaneous words. Painted several times inside and outside of the house were the names ‘Tim’ and ‘Jenna.'”

The owner estimated the damage at $10,000. One of the tenants, Harold Mulderink, who claims he was not involved in the vandalism, told police he retired to bed, and turned up his air conditioning system and his stereo to drown out the noise. He also taped his door shut. He then woke up to the smell of paint and had to jump out of his window because of his taped door. He then walked to the front of the house where he noticed the damage. The crime is considered a felony based on the estimated damage in a dollar amount.

The Strand house once housed four tenants, some of whom have lived there for the past decade. Louis Lee Arms – a retired editor, sports columnist and publicist – and his wife, the internationally famous movie star Mae Marsh, once occupied the house.

The house was featured in The Beach Reporter’s series entitled “Houses with a Past.” Many of the home’s original amenities are still intact including its glass doorknobs to each room, the claw-foot bathtub, brass fixtures, and the walls and floor made of redwood.

New York native John Meisell had lived in the house for the past three years when The Beach Reporter ran the story and was interviewed for the piece. He lived there through the time of the incident, but police do not suspect him as one of the vandals. Lavin said police are not releasing the name(s) of those whom they believe are involved in the crime since it still speculative at this point.

“We love this house, apart from looking a bit tattered on the outside. It’s such a great feeling living in a place with some history to it,” said Meisell last May. “We hope to live here as long as possible.”

According to Patricia Gazin, author of “Castles on the Sand,” Marsh, who starred in D.W. Griffith’s landmark film “Birth of a Nation,” bid farewell to her career in acting for life at the beach to raise her children. She lived in the house until her death in 1968. Arms died in 1989 at the age of 100.

According to legend, well-known lumber entrepreneur Henry Spender Smith built the house in Pasadena and later relocated it to the beach. Smith wanted to protect his family from a rampant flu epidemic in 1918 plaguing cities in what is considered to be Los Angeles County, and moved the house and his family to Hermosa Beach. Another conflicting legend incorporates the same details with a different character, Freeman Ford, a wealthy Pasadena Realtor.