Monday, December 17, 2007

The Two Westmorelands


Amongst those confusing things geographic in West Adams are the two Westmorelands. This isn't a case of street and place, parallel, and alongside. Rather they're exactly one mile apart, still close enough to confound.

Westmoreland Boulevard, two streets East of Western, runs only a block, between Venice and Washington Boulevards.

Just East of Vermont, Westmoreland Avenue (or South Westmoreland Avenue) assumes the course of Ellendale--at Venice Boulevard and continues North through the Byzantine-Latino Quarter into Wilshire Center and beyond.

It is believed that the Westmorelands are named for a place (possibly a former county in the Lake District in the Northwest of England, now part of Cumbria), not a person, and certainly not General William Westmoreland, born in 1914.

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Monday, November 19, 2007

Urban Jaunts (Part One)

My greatest source of recreation is walking, as detailed in the Is It Safe? series. When I first moved to Los Angeles I became familiar with some of its neighborhoods, El Sereno in particular, through Adah Bakalinsky's compelling guide, Stairway Walks in Los Angeles. I've always regarded staircases or footpaths (the flatlanders staircase), as joyously transportational, more than mere shortcut.

While my own walks are ever altering, deliberately and unapologetically urban, my greatest enjoyment is including pedestrian only features, paseos, parks, or other semi-public green spaces in my nightly constitutionals.

Here is the first of several jaunts. (The short version to follow.)

Starting at Adams and Arlington, travel East (on the Southside of Adams) to Cimarron. Turn South on Cimarron, plunging down the short hill and the corner empty lot.

At 30th St. head West past Arlington one half block to Prescott Court, a paved footpath which leads South past 31st St to Jefferson where it divides a park and branch library.

Sadly the wooden pickets which used to line Prescott Court, painted with the ubiquitous creeping vine, have been replaced almost in total by metal fencing.

Continue South crossing Jefferson (use the broad, striped crosswalk), onto 3rd Avenue. Head South on 3rd (two blocks) to Exposition, cross, and then walk East along the railroad track right-of-way slated for reuse by the Expoline.


Short version: At 7th Avenue, start North past the Streamline Moderne firestation (#34). A neighboring property sports a '37 Olds and another thirties chasis.

Seventh runs past the 6th Street elementary school, at Jefferson, up to Adams. (Other North/South streets are interrupted at Mont Clair.)

At Adams, turn East towards Arlington, along Church row, past the Guasti Villa (by architects Hudson and Munsell), now the Peace Realization Fellowship and best known as a residence for Busby Berkeley; and, architect Charles Whittlesey's amazing Vienna Secessionist Mansion built for Western Arts Tile Works owner Lycurgus Lindsay, now serving as and obscured by the Our Lady of Bright Mountain Polish Parish .


Part Two: the long version.

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Monday, July 09, 2007

West Adams Places


The 24th Street Theatre, now in its 10th year, is located at 1117 W. 24th Street, near the intersection of Hoover (and Union) in the North University Park neighborhood. (Nicely near the City Living Realty offices in the Victorian Village.)

The programming really does have something for everything, cabaret, spoken word, vaudeville, Spanish language productions, and an avant-garde children's series on Saturday mornings, free to area residents.

Currently running is a multi-disciplinary work, Monster of Happiness, by the Theater Movement Bazaar, described as a 21st century look at the Adam and Eve myth. I attended the Friday 8:30 p.m. show, and left impressed by the beautifully-realized mix of video projection and choreography.

For more information, please visit www.24tStreet.org

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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

West Adams Tunnel

It can be hard for would-be home buyers to reconcile the dramatic contrasts in the West Adams area, between stately residential streets, and commercial strips most resembling a flood control channel.

If I could just whisk clients into and out of the larger North South Central Lower Mid City--what in the blazes am I going on about--area, by means other than the main surface streets: Washington, Western, Vermont, Jefferson, Hoover, you name it--I'd sell three times the number of houses. I'd sell five to six times as many houses. I'd just stand out on the sidewalk taking orders. I could afford a flat screen plasma.

These two photos were taken a block apart: Craftsman extravaganza in Western Heights, and (insert your own dyspeptic smart-ass adjective here) auto parts business on Washington.

That's where the tunnel comes in. Like the levees around New Orleans, walls would get built up around the neighborhoods (oh that's already happening, anyway....), shielding them from the aesthetic pall, bande a part. The tunnel would emerge, I dunno, in the parking lot of the Clark Library, in some green-ified West Adams terrace alley, in LaFayette Square? Hmmmm, we need multiple portals.

I know, it's unworkable. Instead, I'll intercept clients on Larchmont Boulevard, and blindfold them..........

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Sunday, April 01, 2007

The Clark Library




When West Adams is touted as a community, much is usually made of the fine late 19th/early 20th century housing stock, centrality, and espirit de corps. The commercial corridors are generally assailed, the public schools bemoaned. Seldom are the cultural attributes exclaimed.

The William Andrews Clark Library (the Center for 17th & 18th Century Studies) is located at 2520 Cimarron St. (between Adams & 25th in Kinney Heights). The library, affiliated with UCLA, is a rare books and manuscripts collection with particular strengths in English literature, history, Oscar Wilde, and fine printing.

The collection was established and the opulent library built, between 1924-26, by West Adams resident, book collector and philanthropist William Andrews Clark Jr..

While the collection is non-circulating, it's available to "readers", free, daily from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday. (Though currently the library is closed due to building improvements.)





Tours of the library, built by architect Charles Whittlesby, and the lavish non-reading rooms, are also available, by appointment only, by calling 323-735-7605.

The library and grounds consume an entire city block.

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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Jefferson Park Hot Spots






Jefferson Park is bounded by Western (on the East), Crenshaw on the West, Exposition on the South, and Adams Avenue on the North.

While these largely commercial corridors (as well as the bi-secting Jefferson Blvd.) look at points ragged and forlorn, they nonetheless feature a few useful businesses and worthwhile destinations.

Hardware Stores: In addition to specialty plumbing (Hirsch) and electrical retailers, Jefferson Park boasts two good general purpose hardware stores: Tak's (with an emphasis on gardening supplies) at Jefferson and Norton, and a family run Ace on Crenshaw just South of Adams. A building materials yard (CBM) can be found on Exposition at 10th, and a flooring supplies store, called Old Masters is on 2nd Ave between Exposition and Rodeo.

Restaurants: Crenshaw Boulevard hosts two celebrated bar b-que joints, Phillips and Tasty-Q. The acclaimed Harold & Bell's, a high end Creole establishment (at 2920 Jefferson) has served up big portions since 1969. Aunt Rosa Lee's Mississippi Soul Food is located in a strip mall along Western Blvd, between 27th & 28th. Choice Cuts, a meat market at 333 Jefferson, also serves lunch. Joan and Sister Belizean restaurant is on Western near 36th. Johnnie's near Adams and Mont Clair is renowned for their Pastrami and is open late.

Libraries: Two unique institutions are located on either side of Grammercy, at Adams Avenue. The Clark Library, which also hosts a popular chamber music series, houses the special collection for the University of California, and can be visited by appointment. In the rear of the Britt Mansion, the Amateur Athletic Association keeps an all sports library open to the public. A local LA branch library, with a special emphasis on African-American authors, is on Jefferson, next to Shaw Park at 2nd Avenue.

Specialty stores: Antique Stove Restoration, at Western and Exposition, offers an amazing selection of vintage stoves. Port Royal, antiques and bric-a-brac, is at 3128 Jefferson. Bryant's nursery, small and accessible, is on Jefferson near Cimarron.

Barber shops and 99 cent stores are too numberous to list. Lou Marnie dry cleaners is located on Jefferson, near 2nd. Houses of worship abound, as do party supply stores. Crenshaw Boulevard features fast food, banks, and drug stores.

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Monday, June 19, 2006

A Short Primer on Jefferson Park








The Jefferson Park neighborhood straddles either side of Jefferson Blvd, from Western to Crenshaw, and from Adams (on its North) to Exposition (on its South).

The Eastern end of the neighborhood is dominated architecturally by single-story largely Craftsman-style bungalows. Approaching Crenshaw, the development pattern changes, transitioning into the ubiquitous Spanish/Mediterranean Revival Styles of the 1920s, with a small offering of Colonial Revivals.

Nearly all of Jefferson Park's Craftsman-style bungalows, for which the neighborhood is reknown, were built between 1905 and 1915. Frequently homeowners themselves built two or three, lived in one, and sold off the others. Despite these varied origins, 100 years of style changes and remodelling fads, an unusually intact, cohesive streetscape remains.

Even with their multitudinous details, the houses were built at an average cost of $2,000, usually from plans purchased in catalogues; and, frequently with mass produced elements (doors, windows, picture rail moldings, etc). Smaller in size than costlier homes of the era (most J-Park bungalows are 1300 - 1500 sq. ft.), these houses nonetheless featured most of the same materials, hardware, carpentry and decorative details as their up-market bretheren. Sadly in today's home building world, it is no longer the case that houses for the rank and file are imbued with the same quality finishes as those garnered by the elite. But such was the case in 1909.

Befitting the Arts & Crafts philosophy, social equality and cultural diversity has long been a hallmark in "The Bungalows". The neighborhood once boasted a substantial Jewish population (there are two former synagogues on Jefferson Blvd). Later, it became a mecca for Japanese residents, as evidenced by some landscaping features, former businesses, and long-time residents. A substantial African-American population, many with a Louisiana connection, have formed a key group. Hispanic immigrants have added to the mix, while Western Blvd. has become the spine of a Belizean community. Arts professionals, some with Architectural or planning related careers, also abound.

In concert with the West Adams Heritage Association, "J. Park" has staged well attended, bi-annual house tours. Interest in the centrally-located neighborhood is intensifying, perhaps related to the re-birth of "surface street close" downtown, galloping gas prices, and the upcoming Exposition light rail line. Home prices have climbed into the mid $600's, with interest high and inventory low.

Coming soon: Jefferson Park hot spots

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Saturday, April 29, 2006

The Story of West Adams Heights













Let's start in the 1860s. As you may dimly remember from your high school U.S. history class, the U.S. Congress exploited the absence of their Southern colleagues during the Civil War (aka the War Between the States or even the War of Northern Aggression, depending on your orientation and/or ideology) to push through a whole slate of land legislation designed to hasten western settlement. Chief among these laws was the 1863 Homestead Act which offered a free "1/4 section" (160 acres) to "pioneers" willing to farm and otherwise "improve" the land over a period of 5 years.

Summarily, the West Adams Heights tract (or "Adams Street Homestead Tract No. 2", as it was first known) was homesteaded in 1868 by one Mary Hall. Mary's brother, Charles Victor Hall, was a student who had worked on survey efforts in the area. Charles was a claim-layer as well, opportunistically snapping up a 1/4 section (160 acres) to the south. (I'll detail the C.V. Hall tract in another post.)

Located smack in the middle of the public lands nestled between the pueblo lands surrounding the Plaza and owned by the City of L.A. (which sold off its holdings after statehood in 1850) and the Avila family's Rancho Las Cienegas, Mary Hall's land had most recently been used for cattle grazing. The city though was slowly developing an appetite for residential land (population doubled after 1890, reaching 100,000 in 1900); and, by 1893, school-teacher Hall (now married to military veteran and surveyor William Moore), subdivided her land for "exclusive home sites."

An economic depression rivalling The Big One of the 1930s seized the nation in 1893 perhaps hampering development in West Adams Heights for its first few years as a residential enclave. But recovery arrived in Southern California Country (to borrow a Carey McWilliams phrase) and gigantic houses for rich and socially prominent folks started springing up in West Adams Heights by the turn of the century.

Geographically speaking, West Adams Heights commands a particularly nice spot, on the northern end of a flat mesa that dips south offering views across an undulating plain to the hills now named for Lucky Baldwin. Land baron and Malibu developer Fredrick Rindge built his own "town" house in the tract, just below the crest of the ridge, in 1905. (Sadly, he didn't live to spend much time there, shuffling off this mortal coil in 1906. The house itself, however, still stands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.) Hall and Moore built their own house in the southwest corner of the tract (it was plowed under to provide surface parking for the 1948 Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building--an architectural treasure in its own right albeit it of a different stripe--at the corner of Western and Adams).

Between its attractive topography and its architectural riches, it's not hard to see how the area acquired the nickname 'Sugar Hill' in the late 1940s and 1950s when the neighborhood housed numbers of prominent African Americans. (The aforementioned Golden State Mutual Life building is something of a symbol of the economic stature and prominence of Sugar Hill's mid-century denizens; it remains the country's largest African American insurance company.) But before Sugar Hill could be born, those same pioneering African Americans had a battle to win. Like many Los Angeles tracts, land deeds in the West Adams Heights tract came equipped with a slate of restrictions designed to ensure and perpetuate the "desireability" of the area. The most noxious of these restrictions were racial in nature. By the 1940s, the deed restrictions approached expiration. While some absentee landowners welcomed the opportunity to profiteer from an expanded market, others feared the prospect of living in a racially integrated neighborhood and lobbied for the convenants' extension. Eventually, several would-be property owners challenged the constitutionality of the racially-based deed restrictions. These cases were ultimately consolidated and heard at the U.S. Supreme Court. Its 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer decision parses the issue somewhat: declaring not so much that the restrictions themselves violate constitutional provisions but, rather, prohibiting courts from enforcing them. Regardless, in the absence of enforceability, the racially restrictive covenants were rendered impotent.

This triumph of equity, however, was short lived. In 1955, the U.S. government saw fit to target the neighborhood in its bid to connect downtown and the Westside with a freeway. Constructed between 1961-66, Interstate 10 (known locally as the Santa Monica freeway) now plows right through the heart of the West Adams Heights tract.
The freeway succeeded in fragmenting the neighborhood: the 2 halves are not even connected by an overpass. In the aftermath, the trend of absentee landholding continued with some owners concerned more with profits than neighborhood cohesion. Moreover, the area was "up-zoned," effectively incentivizing the demolition of historic single family residences.

Undeterred by the consequences of these setbacks, residents have remained committed to preserving their quality of life and preserving an unique collection of early 20th century housing styles. The northern part of the neighborhood boasts a particularly effective neighborhood association which meets regularly, actively engaging residents and cementing neighborly links among its ethnically diverse denizens. One of its most commendable beautification projects has been the restoration of the street markers that punctuate the corners of Washington & Oxford, Hobart, and Harvard. (Highway sound walls are apparently in the pipeline as well.)

Like all great cities, L.A. is an ever evolving story and West Adams Heights amply illustrates that. I strongly recommend a visit to this unique, beautiful and historically significant corner of Los Angeles. Heck, you've whizzed past it, and the Armenian Gethsemane Church with it's dome-topped tower, at least 1,000 times on the Santa Monica freeway. Why not get off and check it out? You might just discover your new home.

(West Adams Heights tract boundaries: Western to Normandie, Washington to Adams. West Adams Heights neighborhood boundaries: Western to Normandie, Washington to the 10 freeway.)

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