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THE EAST SIDE OF SOUTH CENTRAL (aka Historic South Central): A Brief History and Architectural Tour.6/30/2019 THE EAST SIDE OF SOUTH CENTRAL (aka Historic South Central) A Brief History and Architectural Tour by Damian Gatto With its diverse socio-cultural history, architectural gems, and closely-knit communities, the East Side of South Central is one of Los Angeles’s oldest residential districts and one of its first suburbs. The district is bound roughly by Washington Boulevard (N), the City of Vernon (E), Main Street (W) and Slauson Avenue (S). Central Avenue, the district’s namesake, runs prominently throughout South Central and all the way to Del Amo Boulevard in the City of Carson. Much of the future neighborhood was included in the City of Los Angeles' original 1781 imperial land grant, but it remained largely agricultural until the mid-late 19th century. Even then, residential development in the East Side of South Central predates the West Side of South Central by over three decades, commencing in earnest around the 1870s. The community's antiquity reflects in the historic architecture that appears throughout the district. (Above: Some early residents of South Central, expatriates from Bunker Hill, sure brought their architectural sensibilities with them. This is a beautifully restored Queen Anne Victorian on 32nd and Maple, with Second Empire influences.) (Source: the author.) I. Early History and Biddy Mason This community, like relatively few other districts of Los Angeles of the time, contained a fascinating mix of people across race and class. The earliest residents included fire fighters and police officers, such as Officer Cecil S. Bowman, who resided at 1000 East 32nd Street and died in the line of duty on June 8th, 1911. Many early immigrant entrepreneurs purchased homes in the Central Avenue District, as it was first known. Peter Mayer, who was born in Colorado and ran one of the nation’s largest leather suppliers with his father, P. Mayer Leather Works, retired to Los Angeles in his old age, living on East 34th Street. Others commuted to Downtown on the Red Car trolley to work in factories or to help build the railroad. Still others were day workers who built homes for the more privileged, as my genealogies on Chavez Ravine, the Naud Junction neighborhood, and the Macy Street neighborhood have revealed. Even further still, early residents included Anglo residents who had originally lived in Bunker Hill, but in their old age had decided to retreat to early suburbs south of Downtown, such as South Park. However, the residents who would come to define the area's cultural history were descendants of freed African-Americans and their families. They initially moved into an enclave near Spring Street known as the "Brick Block" and congregated around the landholdings of a woman named Biddy Mason. A tremendously successful and charitable woman in her own right, Biddy Mason donated considerable sums of her living to charity, sheltered the poor, and risked her life to help fight smallpox, which took the life of her young daughter. For this, Biddy Mason is one of the most important pioneers of early Los Angeles. The early African-American community in Los Angeles history was thus solidified with this congregation around Mason’s landholdings, along with Mason’s founding of the First AME Church, which is still in existence. However, many also sought to escape the ill habits of certain downtown neighborhoods, particularly those east of Main Street, which had become home to flop houses and red light districts. As such, they moved directly south along the Central Avenue Corridor and started anew in this suburban neighborhood, the Central Avenue District. By the 1910s, the California Eagle was calling the Central Avenue District the “Black Belt” of Los Angeles. Immigrants from all over the world also arrived in South Central, chiefly from Japan and Italy. Now transitioning out of its days as a mostly-White suburb, the Central Avenue district became attractive to working-class immigrants because it proximity to (and yet isolation from) Downtown’s business districts, as well as its being served by the streetcar. Even more African-American residents arrived in the neighborhood in the early 1940s due to the promise of wartime manufacturing jobs and the decline of other cities and towns across the country. By now, the Central Avenue District, which had been redlined in the 1939 HOLC surveys, had become a decidedly low-income area of the city. Nevertheless, the neighborhood continued to prosper as a center of working-class creativity and entrepreneurialism for generations. With, first, the abolition of racially-restrictive housing covenants in 1947, and then with integration policy in the late 1960s, African-Americans moved into the West Side of South Central, as well as other districts around Los Angeles like Mid-City and Baldwin Hills. Beginning in the 1980s, Latinos began settling in the East Side of South Central in large numbers. It was a first-stop for many first-generation immigrants. Others relocated in an attempt to escape the violence of districts like MacArthur Park and Boyle Heights--only to find themselves in one of the most violent LAPD divisions, Newton Division. Shootin' Newton. In 1988, the neighborhood had more completed applications for immigration amnesty than any other in the nation. While South Central and Southeast LA County cities like Compton had once been the focal point of the nation's largest Black community, between the 1970 and 1990 Censuses, the black population of South Central declined by 32%. By the 2000 Census, the East Side of South Central (by then coined “Historic South Central”) was one of the top 20 Latino-predominant statistical areas in Los Angeles County. As of the 2010 Census, there are 19,474 people per square mile, one of the highest densities in both the City and the County. A quarter of households are headed by single mothers, also high for the City and County. The population is quite youthful; the average age is 23, and nearly half are under the age of 35. (Below: An 1899 vernacular cottage with containing the shell of what used to be a stable.) (Source: Google Street View) Today, the East Side of South Central remains a humble, working class community on Los Angeles' border with the industrial city of Vernon. The neighborhood’s historic, low-rise nature is reminiscent of how much of Los Angeles looked until the early-mid 20th century. Some residential blocks closer to Long Beach Boulevard and Alameda Street exhibit an obvious transition into industrial land use, depicted below. (Source: Google Street View) I got to know the community through a South Central heavy metal band I used to perform with, called Sector. The drummer lived on 43rd Street near Compton Avenue. The community reminds me a lot of where I grew up in Northeast LA. Homies work on their cars together. Little kids frolic in their front yards until sundown and then some. Street vendors stroll the block. Dozens of small family iglesias all project their versions of the gospel upon the street scene outside. The East Side of South Central has even retained different monikers for its different sub-sections. The northern part of the district is known as the "Low Bottoms," because of the smaller numbered streets that run through the area (e.g. 20th Street and 31st Street), while the southern portion along Long Beach Avenue is called "the Pueblos" after the Pueblo del Rio Housing Projects. The Central Avenue District.....South Central.....Historic South Central......the Low-Bottoms.......the Pueblos.....I love each of these names, as they illustrate the neighborhood from a variety of historical and socio-cultural standpoints. II. Residential Development Settlement and residential development in the East Side of South Central predates that of the West Side (e.g. Jefferson Park, Arlington Heights) by several decades—on some tracts, up to 40 years. This, in effect, makes the East Side of South Central the original South Central. There are some stunning examples of architecture in the East Side of South Central. Many specimens transcend the facadism of many tract homes around the City. It is astonishing more of the East Side of South Central does not have a historic protection overlay zone, aside from the recently-proposed 28th Street HPOZ. Granted, I’m not suggesting a sweeping HPOZ spanning the entirety of the neighborhood (since it is not the function of historic preservation to prevent any and all development. The fact is, there are plenty of architectural gems in the East Side of South Central that can and should be documented before development takes out many more of them. Let's check out some examples of residential and commercial architecture in the East Side of South Central. CLICK "READ MORE" BELOW VVV This exquisite Victorian on the 900 block of East 49th Place looks like something that would be found in Angeleno Heights or Bunker Hill. Indeed, this is a rare architectural specimen of its type to be found outside the Central City. Although an outlier for the East Side of South Central, this specimen epitomizes the architectural treasures that can be found around here. It most prominently features a two-story hexagonal bay window, a balustraded porch, and five-foot double-hung fenestration. It also features multiple intersecting roof planes; some sections are gabled, some are hipped, and the hexagonal bay window has a mansard roof. More subtle features include the cornices, eave molding, pedimentation, gable detailing, and centered hipped dormer. Anyone want to take a guess as to the year? 1885. That is very special. When this house was built, there were hardly any others in the vicinity. Luckily, this pristine Queen Anne was listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1991. (Source: The author.) VVV This little Victorian castle is in the 600 block of East 54th Street. The focal element of this home is the turret with panoramic windows that emphasizes the building’s northwest corner. The lower floor balcony is rounded around the northwest corner, while the upper floor balcony is centered; both display fine vasiform balustrades. As with the above-mentioned Victorian, there are at least three intersecting roof planes; in this case, a gabled bay window elevation, a hipped center roof, and a conical roof atop the turret. Other more subtle features include the fish scales upon the mid-building partition. The front porch and focal turret face the main street, Avalon Boulevard, which at the time of construction was called South Park Avenue; South Park was an exclusive suburb of Downtown Los Angeles that arose in the 1880s, centered around the recreational area still known as South Park. (See also: Park Front Walk). In was built in 1923, which is pretty late for this turreted Victorian style. The owner-builders may have been feeling a little nostalgic. (Source: The author.) VVV I’m a sucker for wooden bungalows adapted from other styles. This bungalow in the 300 block of East 35th Street is one such example. It is a wooden, Transitional-era, fourplex bungalow modeled after Italianate architecture. It has a square floor plan, an aspect that makes Italianate architecture stand out from the other styles adopted in Southern California. Each of the four units have a dedicated porch, all of which have broad vasiform balustrades and bay windows on the exterior. Broad, un-tapered piers with recessed details span the two-story bungalow. While the signature Italianate arches grace the bottom floor veranda, squared openings characterize the upper floor veranda. The roof is flat with a small amount (about 12 inches) of overhang, lined with exposed rectangular rafters. Year built: 1913. (Source: The author.) VVV This pair of cute Victorians in the 200 block of East 25th Street were built in 1898, probably by the same developer; you can tell by the small details that constitute their design similarities. As with other examples I cited, these cottages have intersecting roof plans. Vergeboards and apex detailing compliment each gabled roof. The original sashed windows are intact, and fenestration graces the cottages on all elevations. Also note the variations among the exterior cladding—vertical clapboards at the foundation, horizontal clapboards at the bay windows, and fish scales on the gabled roofs. (Source: The author.) VVV This little house in the 400 block of East 47th Street represents an interesting fusion of American Foursquare and Gothic Revival architecture. The house is of a simple Foursquare floor plan, while the acute, Gothic-style gable with rafter tails and an elongated shutter-style dormer is by far the homes’s most prominent detail. The hipped porch overhang with enclosed eaves is reminiscent of the Prairie style. The diamond peep window to the right is very much a Queen Anne touch, while the rest of the fenestration is double-hung and/or sashed, similar to the combinations found on Craftsman homes. Finally, Victorian combinations of exterior cladding are showcased: vertical clapboards on the bottom floor, horizontal clapboards on the top. (Source: The author.) VVV This bungalow in the 100 block of East 31st Street is much the same story as the Italianate one on 35th—it is built in an established style, but it is adopted to meet additional needs—in this case, the need for space. That is, it was built in 1911 as a tenement house consisting of enlarged and elongated Craftsman features. This sixplex contains two levels, both showcasing open Craftsman porches fronted by bay windows with sashed panes. The lower porch has squared concrete piers, but the top floor contains Craftsman exposed rafters and multi-timber Craftsman piers. Just LOOK at the generous use of wooden beams! I like wood. (Source: The author.) VVV The owner-builder of this Transitional-style duplex on 42nd and Wadsworth was a retiree who wanted a place to live, but wanted to make passive income in the process. Thus he built a horizontal duplex. The bay window with a flared, peak roof is centered, rather than off to one side like many comparable Victorian or Transitional specimens in Los Angeles. Along with the mixed intersecting roof plans, each unit has its own porch, topped by a hipped roof supported by long vasiform columns. (Source: The author.) VVV This humble, 1905 Transitional cottage in the 800 block of East 46th Street was owner-built…and with style. Three flared gabled roofs and a gabled dormer frame a hipped roof. The right-side focal windows are hand-warped. The flared gables and rounded windows are no easy fabrication, which is why their inclusions are so interesting; they are detailed features on an otherwise humble cottage. The porch on this one has been enclosed, but this is an easily-reversible alteration. (Source: Google Street View.) VVV While altered (er, stucco-washed), I decided to include this Folk Victorian in the 200 block of 23rd Street. What makes it specifically a FOLK Victorian is its comprisal of a simple square floor plan with some Victorian features plopped on it. The focal window is a squared-off mansard window characteristic of the Eastlake style of Victorian architecture. I love Eastlake focal windows. The porch, which has been altered by way of enclosure, is also mansard-roofed. It is a neat little cottage that illustrates the humble origins of many early residents of South Central. The bad news is it's altered to heck. Good news is that this block of East 23rd Street is full of folk Victorians. Note the window panes bound by smaller colored glass squares on the Queen Anne-style Folk Vic at bottom right. Most homes that you will find on this block of East 23rd were built in the mid-late 1880s and retain much of their architectural integrity. VVV This transitional cottage in the 300 block of East 49th Street resembles approximately one-third of all extant homes in the East Side of South Central: a Queen Anne-derived elongated hipped roof cottage with an offset focal bay window and cutout gabled porch. I included this one because the builder went all out in terms of its exterior decoration. Broadly, the home has a left bay window resting under the main gable-on-hip roof. The gabled porch roof is detailed with a shutter dormer and is supported by rounded classical columns. (Sometimes these arrangements are reversed, with the gabled roof crowning the bay window, and the hipped section of the roof topping the porch.) This transitional cottage contains both horizontal clapboards (bottom) and fish scales (top). (Source: the author.) --- This Victorian manor in the 400 block of East 27th Street is another altered specimen, a victim of stucco-washing. However, if you look through these alterations, you can make out the exquisite Victorian features. Notable inclusions are the gingerbread vergeboards, corbels at most roof-wall junctions, the English pedimentation along the gables, and the Stick work on the 2nd floor of the western elevation. At least four separate gables intersect with the hipped roof. I have an itching feeling that this house was moved to its present location. I say this because the corner gable and the stick work on the western elevation, which are the house’s focal elements, are largely facing away from the street. Alternately, this could be because the lots adjacent to the home were undeveloped at the time of construction. Whatever the case, the placement of the house's features points to its more glorious days as a corner house. Two honorable mentions. Bottom left: A 1917 tenement house in the 1200 block of East 54th Street with Craftsman influence. Bottom right: A relatively straightforward Craftsman with a very detailed dormer in the 700 block of East 43rd Street. (Source of both photos: the author.) One dishonorable mention. This late-era Victorian cottage was stripped of its clapboards and stuccoed at the bottom, while the top gable and sedimentation have been left unaltered. (Source: Zillow listing.) --- III. COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE Fire Station #30 at 1401 South Central Avenue tells an important story about social relations and inequality in United States history, for it was one of the City’s two segregated firehouses, remaining as such between 1924 and 1955. Station #30 and Station #14 (on 34th and Central) both represent a time when African-American firefighters were relegated to districts of Los Angeles away from the Central City where, elite aristocrats figured, children might look up to the galant African-American firefighters as role models. Even after integration in the 1960s, Black firefighters spent years battling exclusion in their workplaces. The building that housed Station #30 is now the African-American Firefighter Museum. When people ask you which museums they should visit when they are in LA, this museum would be a unique and enlightening recommendation. The Prairie-style building was designed by John James (J.J.) Backus, who also designed the original fire station near Washington Boulevard and Arlington Avenue. He was also a driving force behind Los Angeles’ Tenement Act. Across the street is the Coca Cola Bottling Plant, which you should check out, too. VVV This church in the 900 block of East 23rd Street was built in 1911, with major alterations and additions added in 1937. It was built by a utopian group called the Progressive Society for Spiritual Truth Seekers. (Source: the author.) VVV This once prominent commercial multi-plex spans the corner of 31st and Trinity, along the former path of the City’s eastern-most trolley line. It was an early manufacturing center for Talbot Manufacturing, who whose Talbot Ant Powder pest poison was once the industry choice across California. (Source: Google Street View.) VVV The International Mart Building is located at 155 West Washington Boulevard and was built in the Romanesque Revival style in 1927. There are also a wealth of terrific school buildings in Historic South Central, such as...... Jefferson High School - 1319 East 41st Street - Art Deco style John Adams Middle School - 151 West 30th Street - Streamline Moderne style 28th Street Elementary School - 2807 Stanford Avenue - Spanish/Italian Renaissance Revival Trinity Street Elementary School - 3736 Trinity Street - International style Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School - 981 East 41st Street - Internationalist style Nevin Avenue Elementary School - 1569 East 32nd Street - Italian Renaissance Revival style In addition..... See my article for the especially old brick warehouse on 15th and Essex, right off Central Avenue, behind the African-American Firefighter Museum. http://theasphaltisland.weebly.com/blurbs/a-mighty-brickhouse-an-exceptionally-rare-1870s-brick-commercial-building-on-south-central-avenuewas-it-a-barn IV. The Jazz Clubs of Central Avenue No history of South Central—long or short—would be complete without mention of the jazz clubs that were fixations--treasures--of the neighborhood. There were dozens documented clubs that operated in South Central in the first half of the 20th century. Some of the buildings are still standing—albeit with no club operating within—and some have been demolished. A couple have been designated as Historic-Cultural Monuments, while others are inherently protected due to the moratorium on the demolition of residential hotels with single-room occupancy enacted in 2005 and amended in 2008. Imagine having one of LA’s great music scenes developing on the bottom of your apartment building. It was a reality for folks residing in these buildings during the early-mid 20th century. Motel at 1013 South Central Avenue – Hotel Operated by Jelly Roll Morton Believed to be the earliest of the South Central jazz clubs, the club was founded in 1917 by the hot-headed, self-proclaimed jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton, who was born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe. Jelly Roll was something of a jack-of-all-trades: he was a hotel proprietor, a club owner, an extortionate rent collector...…and a pimp. Adding to the beauty of the hotel-venue's history, it was built by Dr. Vada Watson Somerville and her husband John, a physician. She was the second African-American woman in California history to be awarded a Doctorate of Dental Surgery and would go on to be a civil rights leader in her later life. A woman and her husband, born into systemic inequality, who both went on to become doctors and construct a hotel for working class folks. Beautiful. The hotel still stands but is not a protected Historic-Cultural Monument. The bottom floor having once hosted a famous African-American jazz club, it now houses a bodega. Club Alabam – 4215 South Central Avenue Formerly The Apex Club, this club (yes, without the “a” at the end) was unique for being a venue that was enjoyed by Angelenos across race and class. Photographs from the period depict a fair number of White attendees. Everyone was welcome, and this made the club one of the busiest on Central Avenue. Dunbar Hotel – 4225 South Central Avenue Originally the Somerville Hotel, the Dunbar Hotel held the first national convention for the NAACP. Shortly thereafter, a jazz club openned on the bottom floor, and it quickly became one of the neighborhood's most popular hangouts. Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and Count Basie were among those who performed there at some time or the other. It was also a popular meeting ground for authors and intellectuals. Repurposed and restored at various points throughout the late 20th century, it was declared one of the first Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in 1974, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places two years later. Lincoln Theater – 2300 South Central Avenue A beautiful Moorish-style theater designed by the locally-renowned architect John Paxton Perinne, it was the largest-capacity theater on Central Avenue, with over 2,000 seats and even a few luxury booths. It opened in 1927 and was run by Curtis Mosby and his Dixieland Blues Blowers. The theater not only hosted prominent names in jazz like Nat King Cole, Ernie Andrews, Marshall Royal, Lionel Hampton, and Sammy Davis Jr., but it also hosted large musical productions. It operated until 1961, and thereafter saw uses as a Black Baptist church, a Nation of Islam Mosque, and currently a Spanish-language church. It was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2003. Elk’s Hall - 4016 South Central Avenue As its name suggests, the three-story performance venue and restaurant was once an Elk’s Lodge in the early 20th Century. Performers included Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Les Hite, Andy Blakeney, Count Basie, Vido Musso, and Andy Anderson. Its heyday was in the mid-1930s. According to building permits, this beautiful historic building was demolished in July of 1985 by the Majid Islamic Temple Association. Dynamite Jackson’s – 5501 South Central Avenue This club was operated in the mid-to late 1930s by a former heavyweight boxer of the same name. Though it achieved a relatively small following compared to the other venues, it was the only one to become something of a franchise, opening a second location at On Adams Boulevard at Crenshaw Boulevard. Jack’s Basket Room - 3219 South Central Avenue This venue is remembered, in particular, for its role in the evolution of bebop and for its impromptu jam sessions. The venue was also known for being a less packed and busy venue, and more so for its exquisite presentation. Jazz pioneers Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk performed—indeed, dueled—here on several occasions. Shep’s Playhouse – 204 East 1st Street Though not located in Historic South Central, I am including this club here for good measure. This jazz club was the furthest north, near the very northern tip of Central Avenue. It was a particularly lavish, two-story venue (with a basement) run by former camera operator Gordon Sheppard, with a cocktail lounge on the second floor, and the dancing and performance area above it. T-Bone Walker, Norman Bowden, Eddie Heywood, Emmet Berry, and Monte Easter were among the musicians and bandleaders who performed there. The venue's crowd often overflowed into the street. As a latter-day jazz venue in Los Angeles, it showcased jazz as well as its relatives bee-bop, blues, and boogie-woogie. Following the passage of Executive Order 9066 in December 1941, 120,000 Japanese people, the majority of them from California, were forcibly relocated. Many homes and businesses were abandoned or appropriated by other owners. Shep’s Playhouse is one such example of a business that acted as a placeholder until the rightful owners came home. Mr. Kawafuku, whose restaurant operated at the site before 1941, returned in 1946 and reopened his business. It operated until at least the 1960s. In 1974, the City Redevelopment Agency (CRA) demolished the site and left the property below street grade; this is why the current plaza appears to be an open-air basement--it was built at the grade where the basement to the old club would have been!!
2 Comments
Drexal Q Jackson
5/3/2023 07:25:08 pm
yes
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5/7/2023 11:51:20 am
Hello Drexel,
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