Flashback Fridays: Chavez Ravine (Part 2)

Photo by Don Normark

During the 1940’s, Chavez Ravine came to the city’s attention as an area ripe for re-development. At the time, it was the home of a well-established, predominantly Mexican-American community. It was poor but pastoral and self-sufficient. Many of its inhabitants grew their own food and raised their own animals. This small, hidden valley was home to several hundred families many of whom had trouble finding other places to live due to housing discrimination.

During the post-World War II housing shortage, the city of L.A. looked to Chavez Ravine as the perfect place to build public housing (rooms that were meant to be rented-out by low-income families). In preparation for the building of this complex (to be known as “Elysian Park Heights”), most of the inhabitants of Chavez Ravine were evicted from their homes. But before construction even began, the political climate in L.A. changed drastically. It was the height of the Red Scare and this plan for public housing were a bit too socialist for L.A.’s public officials including the newly-elected mayor. The planner of this project, Frank Wilkinson, was then called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. His was fired due to his refusal to confirm or deny Communist Party membership.

The project died, and in the meantime, Chavez Ravine was still occupied by a small number of its original inhabitants that refused to leave. In 1958, the city of Los Angeles (wanting to pull in the revenue that would come from having a major baseball franchise) sold the 352 acres of land to the Brooklyn Dodgers. The remaining residents were forced out through the use of condemnation or eminent domain. A handful of residents avoided this and held out until the very end when, in May of 1959, the sheriffs department came in with bulldozers and armed men and physically forced them out.

The story of Chavez Ravine is a complex and interesting one, and I highly recommend that those who are interested in it read more about it. One of the best books on the subject is Don Normark’s Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story. As a young photographer in 1949 he photographed the residents of Chavez Ravine. Years later he found many of the people that he photographed and their memories make up the majority of the book’s text.

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Flashback Fridays: Chavez Ravine (Part 1)

Photo of Chavez Ravine by Don Normark.

Ever heard of Chavez Ravine? A lot of people haven’t (even those who live right next to it) as it doesn’t really exist anymore. It was the neighborhood that the city of L.A. bulldozed in order to build Dodger’s Stadium. But that’s a whole other ball of wax, and a piece of history that will definitely be addressed in my next post. But I figured (what with baseball season beginning this week) it would be timely to write a Chavez Ravine-related post.

Julian Chavez was the man after which Chavez Ravine was named and the original “owner” of the land on which Dodger’s Stadium now sits. Chavez came to California from New Mexico in the 1830s. At the time, California was part of Mexico and was transitioning from being dominated by Spanish-owned missions to being divided into ranchos. During this period, one had only to petition the ayuntamiento (city council) and ask for a piece of land. In this way, Chavez acquired the 83 acres of land near downtown in 1844 that became known as Chavez Canyon.

His land was used by the county as the site of a pest farm/isolation hospital (I can only imagine that this would be a place that they sent people to die) during the 1850s and 1880s when there were local smallpox outbreaks. It was primarily used to house Chinese and Mexicans who suffered from the disease. A smallpox hospice was on the site of Dodger’s Stadium. Isn’t this interesting?!?!

In 1846, California passed from Mexican to American hands. Six years later, in 1852, Chavez was elected to the first L.A. County Board of Supervisors. He continued to serve the city in various roles until his death in 1879.

Stay tuned for next week’s installment of Flashback Fridays: Chavez Ravine!

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History of Echo Park Street Names

These videos were recently posted on YouTube by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, but we found them via LA Eastside. There are five videos and they each discuss the history and the individuals behind Los Angeles’ street names. Most of the videos discuss the streets that made up the the city of Los Angeles in her earliest incarnation. These include the streets surrounding El Pueblo de Los Angeles, Chinatown and Downtown. Videos number four and six talk a bit about the history of some Echo Park street names. Check ’em out!

Go here if you want to view NHMLA’s other videos.

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Saturday: Elysian Park Walking Tour

via Echo Park Historical Society Facebook page

Join the Echo Park Historical Society on Saturday, March 27 at 10:00 am for the Elysian Park Walking Tour. The tour focuses on the lesser known but historically rich eastern edge of the park.

This tour takes about two hours to complete and includes walking up and down hills and upon unpaved trails. Reservations are required and can be made to ephs@HistoricEchoPark.org.

The tour is free to EPHS memers and $5 for all others. The tour begins at the Fremont Monument (pictured at left) near North Broadway and Elysian Park Drive. Please visit the Walking Tour section of
www.HistoricEchoPark.org for information about other tours.
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Echo Park Film Center Presents “Hooray for Edendale!”

For those of you who are interested in learning a little bit about Echo Park’s history, the Echo Park Film Center will be presenting Hooray for Edendale! this Saturday, March 20 at 8:00 pm. The film is a documentary that tells the story of Echo Park at the beginning of the 20th century and the film studios that helped to create Los Angeles’s film industry.

A celebration of the birth and early growth of the movie industry in Los Angeles that happened right here in our neighborhood! Award-winning film editor, writer and film industry historian Robert S. Birchard presents over 100 images and some early films exploring the Selig, Keystone/Bison, Pathe, Mixville and Norbig studios that constituted L.A.’s first “Studio Row” in the 1910’s.

The screening is FREE and open to everyone. The Echo Park Film Center is located at 1200 N. Alvarado St.


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Time Travel Mart Hosts a Tour of Curious Los Angeles Locales

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads…

As part of Obscura Day (a day of exploring hidden places in cities across the world), The Time Travel Mart will be hosting a tour of several of Los Angeles’ more obscure and hidden locations. The bus takes off from the Time Travel Mart (1714 W. Sunset) this Saturday, March 20 promptly at noon. Tickets are $30 (you pay when you get there), and a bagged lunch will be included.

More juicy details:

The Echo Park Time Travel Mart and Atlas Obscura are teaming up to lead a special bus tour of some of Los Angeles’ most time-specific places. We will travel back to the days of cane sugar sodas, panoramic paintings, and whimsical marionette performances.

John Nese, soda afficionado and owner of Galco’s Soda Pop Stop, will share some of his favorite bubbly beverages of yesteryear. Box lunches will be provided at Griffith Park’s Old Zoo, where we will picnic among the spirits of the apes and climb into abandoned animal cages from the 1930s.

Travel from one extreme locale to another at the Velaslavasay Panorama, where we will trek into a 360-degree display of the arctic north and explore a carnivorous plant garden. Finally, witness a puppetry performance and backroom tour of Bob Baker’s Marionette Theater, the longest-running of its kind in North America.

Go here for more info and to reserve your spot!

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Flashback Friday! Leo Politi: “The Artist of Olvera Street”

From waltarrrrr's Flickr photostream

Perhaps some of you have noticed the sign on the corner of Sunset and Echo Park Ave. that reads “Leo Politi Square”? I myself just noticed it about a year ago and then promptly forgot about it until my roommate asked me what it was all about last week. It turns out that neither of us were completely clueless as this corner was just dedicated to him in 2008. But once I observed that Mr. Politi also had a school and an area of Elysian Park dedicated to him, I did some more investigating. So let’s take a journey into Echo Park’s past and learn a bit about one of our most famous historic figures!

Leo Politi was an artist and an author who write and illustrated at least two dozen children’s books. His most famous is Song of the Swallows which won the Caldecott Medal in 1950. He also illustrated books for other writers, drew and painted countless works of art and created a mural entitled “The Blessing of the Animals” located at El Pueblo de Los Angeles on Olvera Street.

He was referred to as the “artist of Olvera Street.” Beginning in the 1930s, Politi would set up an easel amongst the vendors and sketch tourists and the residents of the Mexican-American community that lived there. He was also an anthropologist of sorts as much of his artwork and his writing dealt with Mexican-American religious ceremonies and customs. Politi’s book Juanita and his mural “The Blessing of the Animals” both explore the traditions surrounding the Easter celebration in that community. Pedro: The Angel of Olvera Street is about Mexican-American Christmas traditions.

While working on Olvera Street, Politi lived with his wife and children on Bunker Hill which at the time consisted of Victorian Homes and bungalows. In 1961, their house (along with several others) was condemned in order to make room for office buildings, and the family moved to the Angelino Heights area of Echo Park. Both of these neighborhoods served as inspiration for some of Politi’s later books including Bunker Hill, Los Angeles: Reminiscences of Bygone Days and Angeleno Heights. Created for the adult reader, these books featured Politi’s stunning watercolor paintings of historic Los Angeles neighborhoods.

Mr. Politi passed away in 1996 at the age of 88. His artwork and a couple of his rarer books are now sought after collectibles. However, one can find his more popular books for sale on Amazon, and it looks as though you can find most of them at the L.A. Public Library.

Check out more images of his work below and be sure to take a look at his entry on the Echo Park Historical Society’s website.

Read more

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Echo Park Historical Society Presents: A Tribute to Edendale

On Saturday, July 25 from 7 to 9 PM, the Echo Park Historical Society and the Echo Park Film Center will be hosting an outdoor presentation and silent film screening at Echo Park Lake to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first film studio in Edendale (a section of what is now Echo Park where most of LAs first film studios were located). The presentation begins at 7 PM and will be followed at 8 PM with a screening of silent film shorts. The event is free and open to the public.

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