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A MIGHTY BRICKHOUSE: An 1870s Brick Commercial Building on South Central Avenue... ...was it originally a BARN?! The East Side of South Central. It is a powerful place for me as an Angeleno, historian, and lover of architecture. It is aptly named; residential structures in the area predate those in the West Side of South Central by some three decades. Indeed, it is one of the oldest surviving districts in Los Angeles. The land was a part of the original 1781 Spanish land grant, but residential development began in the 1880s. People of numerous origins—Anglo, Brown, Black, Italian, German, and others—resided, built homes, and opened businesses here. Historic South Central, as the area is now known, is particularly of significance to African-Americans. After the Tongva and Chumash lived here, a large swath of land along what its now Central Avenue fell into the holdings of Bridget “Biddy” Mason, a fervent entrepreneur and activist who was born into slavery in Georgia. Deprived of her rights, she lived in servitude until she was 38—not including another four years in captivity in Utah—whereafter she moved to Los Angeles in the early 1860s. Within a decade, Biddy became one of the most charitable figures in the budding City of Angels. She opened the first Black daycare-foster service, donated more than $300,000 to various charitable causes, and risked her life to help mitigate the City’s late-19th century smallpox outbreak. Later in her life and well after her death, communities of African Americans amassed on the land around her home on Spring Street, as well as on her land along Central Avenue. The roots of South Central had been established. ------- The East Side of South Central is an interactive, friendly, and densely populated neighborhood. Some of my former bandmates lived on Hooper Avenue. I like this community very much. I was in Santee Alley earlier this month and I decided to take a cruise down Central Avenue to the African-American Firefighters Museum. I had never been there. It was a very enriching visit. After leaving the museum, I decided to cruise around the neighborhood just south of the museum to scope some homes. I’d like to preserve one...or a few…or a dozen...in this neighborhood. This neighborhood is too authentically Los Angeles, too much of a relic, to be lost to large-scale development. The buildings in the immediate vicinity of Central and 14th Place, where the Museum is located, are mostly commercial. As I was leaving, one of these aging brick commercial buildings caught my eye. This building presently houses an auto body shop on the Essex Street side, and a bodega on the 14th Place side. It spans half of the block, encompassing the intersections of Central/14th Place and Essex/14th Place. ------- A few aspects of the building stood out to me. Foremost was the building’s larger-than-usual scale, given its apparent age; I figured it was just another 1920s Utilitarian-type brick building. Secondly, masonry buildings of this size would usually have two floors contained within it. However, this building was essentially one large, single story, similar to what one would expect of an airplane hangar, a mill, or a barn. Granted, there are light manufacturing buildings for blocks around, but few as apparently old as this one. As I circled the block, I noticed some of the warehouse’s distinctive features, namely the parapets, pilasters, brickwork, friezes, and other ornamentation. I conducted a permit search. I couldn’t find a “new construction” permit, which is always the sign of an old or pre-annexation building. Additionally, LADBS only has records after 1905. So, I consulted ZIMAS. Department of City Planning assesses the building’s year of construction as having happened in ’74. 1874. “No way,” I thought. So, I consulted the County Assessor’s Office. They assess the year of construction as 1869. (County records tend to be more accurate, since they have kept records of annexations since California statehood.) Indeed, the earliest permit available is from 1905, and its usage is described as a “Barn” belonging to E.T Earle. There is otherwise little documentation as to the original uses of this barn. The barn does not have Historic-Cultural Monument protection, and there is no nearby HPOZ. Absolutely stunning. ------ Though we are without an original builder or owner, as a historic resource this warehouse’s year of construction by itself has tremendous implications. The building represents is an embodiment of Los Angeles before its massive territorial gains and population boom. In 1869-74, the City of Los Angeles was less than a century old, and had only been an American territory for a quarter of a century. The vicinity of Central Avenue area would have still been quite small-town in nature. The dominant language in the neighborhood was probably Spanish, with hints of German to the south and Italian to the north. Just as is the case today, migrants and non-migrants were living side-by-side. Biddy Mason was still around. In fact, she lived right around the corner, and this 1869-74 barn was built near her land holdings. The Avila Adobe (1818) is generally recognized as the oldest building within City limits, followed by sprinkles of buildings from the early-mid 19th century, like the Plaza Church, Pico House, and Pelanconi House. The earliest period of which there is a profusion of LA architecture is about the 1880s-90s. So, you see, eighteen-anything is considered old for Los Angeles. Whether this barn was built in 1869, 1874, or later in the 19th century, the fact of the matter is that much of Los Angeles’ 19th century architecture was lost to the “re-development” of Bunker Hill, Temple-Beaudry, Terminal Island, and Dogtown. ELABORATIONS: Lintels and tops of pilasters, Retrofit plates visible (Essex Street Facade) Pilaster entablature (Essex Street) Pilaster entablature (14th Place) The building to the left of the wooden party wall, which faces Central Avenue, was added in 1929 when the barn was converted to an autoworks building. Note the differing hues in the brickwork. .....And what grand brick building can call itself complete without its very own dope BRICK-AD? Welp, Im going to submit this entry to MyHistoricPlacesLA now. Remember Black history every day, not just in February.
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