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-   -   noirish Los Angeles (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170279)

Sebisebster Jan 19, 2011 8:39 PM

Thank you very much guys for your welcome, and for your coments!

To gsjansen: I'm glad you liked the compo pic. Sad to check out that everything has changed for bad or for worse, I dont know.

To Los Angeles Past: Yes I really love your then and now pics of Bunker Hill, because they have helped me a lot to learn about the area. Thanks once again.

Keep on with the good job you guys are doing here!

ethereal_reality Jan 19, 2011 11:01 PM

Welcome to the thread Sebisebster!
I enjoyed your post very much. :)




I've often wondered why L.A. had these pigeon farms.
In addition to the USC archive photos, I have seen numerous postcards of the pigeon farms.
I just thought they were shitty (literally) tourist attractions.

Gsjansen mentioned in his post they supplied squab to local restaurants.
It didn't occur to me that squab was pigeon.

I found this menu I had posted earlier, and sure enough squab is offered at the Hotel Westminster.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8492/aaawmmenu.jpg
NYPL


If you look closely, the menu is dated May 21, 1901.

ethereal_reality Jan 19, 2011 11:06 PM

The beautiful Hotel Westminster at Main & Fourth Street in 1900.

(no pigeons in this photo either...they're all inside being eaten)




http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7...rhotelat4t.jpg
usc digital archive


I posted this photo earlier, but it's such a great photograph I knew you wouldn't mind. ;)

ethereal_reality Jan 19, 2011 11:35 PM

This small photo was on ebay a few months ago.
All that was written on the back was Los Angeles 1913.


http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/3...al1913ebay.jpg
ebay



below: A detail of the above photo.

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/4...onial1913a.jpg
ebay


To me, this building looks more like a nickelodeon than a theater.
I haven't been able to find any more information.

ethereal_reality Jan 20, 2011 12:05 AM

The Herman W. Wellman Bldg. at Spring & Fourth Street in 1908.

If you look down Fourth Street you can see the Hotel Westminster (at the corner of Main & Fourth)


http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/312...lmanbldgsp.jpg
usc digital archive

ethereal_reality Jan 20, 2011 12:20 AM

Since I reposted the Hotel Westminster......I couldn't resist revisiting this wonderful building.

The Hotel Nadeau at Spring & 1st Street was a rival of the Hotel Westminster (photo from 1905).

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/765...uatspring1.jpg
usc digital archive

sopas ej Jan 20, 2011 1:11 AM

Welcome to the forums, Sebisebster! Or shall I say Benvingut and Bienvenidos? :) Great posts, here and on the other site too.

I'm curious to know of your love and fascination with Los Angeles. Have you been here or lived here before?

JeffDiego Jan 20, 2011 1:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebisebster (Post 5131490)
Intro: Hello everybody.
Since I discovered this Forum, I have been an enthusiast follower of all your work, and I have learned many things about this city, Los Angeles, which I love so much.

Thanks to you folks, and thanks to all LA lovers of its history, I have been able of seeing Los Angeles changing and growing up from 'El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora, la Reina de Los Ángeles, to the present day. In addition I must admit that all of your work has opened my appetite to create my own thread in a spanish forum like this one. (With Moderator's permission, here's the link: http://www.urbanity.es/foro/urbanism...y-cristal.html)

I tried to be a good student and I started my learning about Los Angeles with your help, and among others, with LAPL website and USC Digital Archives.
I never dared to post anything here since my english is not my natural born language, and I was very afraid of being severely criticized just for this simple reason.

But now all my fears are over and this is my first contribution. I hope you like it.


Now let's work.
I've always loved all this then and now pics. Do you remember the next following pictures?

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/2...4thstreetf.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us



http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9...fbuildings.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I bet you do, because they have been already reposted on another post. The first one shows 4th street from Hill street looking west, and the second one shows almost the same corner in Downtown, both in 1939.
Well, if we put them all together, we get a very good panoramic of 4th and Hill intersection, looking northwest:


http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/536...street1939.jpg

Et voilà. A busy street, right? Pedestrians walking along the street, and many business. Amazing, isn't it? The present show us a very different and ugly reality.


http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/5...nd4thtoday.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us



It's the same corner, in 2009. It looks like an aseptic view because it seems to me that everything we saw in the picture above, has been cleaned, and vanished. Both California Plaza towers and the Angelus Plaza apartments are the symbols of an aseptic and dull redevelopment. Even the nostalgic Angel's Flight has changed.

Then and now: what do you think?

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2891/abcw.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Finally, here's another then and now excercise of the same area. Now is 4th street, looking east, corner of Olive:

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7523/pageda.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

First picture is from 1913, second is from 1923, and to come to an end, the last one show us a widened street with the base, on the left of the pic, of the Two California Plaza tower.
And that's all for now. More to come soon.

Yes Sebisebster, Welcome. Wonderful photos!
Indeed the before-and-after photos are just plain depressing. One does need to remember that there are countless wonderful vistas, streets, bldgs. etc in present-day L.A. but SO MUCH that was fascinating, atmospheric and very human-scaled has been bulldozed to oblivion and replaced by blank ugliness - especially downtown and particularly around Bunker Hill.

malumot Jan 20, 2011 6:00 AM

Very true, Jeff Diego.

And I doubt if Sebisebster will get much argument from people who spend time on this thread. Aseptic to the core.

I bloviated on this theme a few pages back. And I still say the planners ripped the soul from this city - and many other.

Look at those pictures....what's with all the grass....and the trees on Fourth?

Don't get me wrong---- I like trees and grass. But in a few instances - and more specifically the very heart of a downtown - they just gunk up the works.

Personally I like all those buildings set right up to the sidewalk - and the stores on the lower levels, and the telephone poles and the overhead PE catenary and all the upfront, no-apologies, no-frills advertising on billboards for whiskey and cigars. And the neon...don't get me started on the neon.......LOL

The whole place looked 1000 times more lively and vibrant and energetic than it does now.

KevinW Jan 20, 2011 6:44 AM

Digital Preservation
 
I am interested in building a 3D model of Los Angeles with a time slider so you could go anywhere and see what it used to look like.

I figure with L.A. completely lacking in preservation, digital may be the only way to go. From all these pictures one can build L.A. from at least the beginning of the 20th century if not a little earlier.

This video game coming out, L.A. Noire, has already digitally built downtown to Hollywood in the 1930's, I just have to find an investor and a reason to build the rest.

Any ideas, history buffs?

Sebisebster Jan 20, 2011 2:50 PM

To Ethereal_reality: Thank you very much for your welcome and many thanks in advance for your advices and coments about my thread in the spanish forum about L.A. towers. I bet you didn't know it yet, but I really love this thread NOIRISH L.A. from the very first time I saw it. It's fascinating.
Thanks to all.


Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 5132353)
Welcome to the forums, Sebisebster! Or shall I say Benvingut and Bienvenidos? :) Great posts, here and on the other site too.

I'm curious to know of your love and fascination with Los Angeles. Have you been here or lived here before?

Sopas ej: You said it right: moltíssimes gràcies per la teva benvinguda (in catalan) or muchisimas gracias por tu bienvenida (now in spanish), which it means: thank you so much for your welcome.

I really don't know why I feel this fascination and attraction for L.A. I guess it could have been any other city from all over the world... On tv they show us that L.A. is the perfect city where anything can happen, just as it was the perfect set to shot a movie, where everything seems to be a fake.
But no way.
What we see on tv or in the movies is the real fake, not the real L.A.
Yes, I have been in L.A. in 2006 and 2008 as a tourist. My first time in America, and guessing not to be the last time. Walking around Downtown (yes, first time the tour was by car, then for next time I wanted and I needed to walk) I started to feel all these things we are talking about on this thread. I felt the vibrations of a vanished past on Broadway, and all those art-decó buildings made me think that in the past, that part of the city was alive, plenty and full of life. Not to mention Bunker Hill: as a foreigner, those towers could have seen fascinating but my imagination was asking me for a major question: what was there before the towers were built. When I got home, to Spain, I started to search on the net old pics or vintage pics of L.A. like these ones:

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/6538/1930z.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us


http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/147...estfromthe.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us


http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/2694/shorror.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Once I found out what was behind of such pics like all shown above, I thought to my self: what has happened there? How is it possible that in just one man life, landscape has changed so much and why did it happen?
And so simple, I felt in love with Downtown. I like history and I wanted to know as much as I could, from L.A. history but especially Downtown. Here's the explanation.
Apologizes for my grammar or spelling mistakes.

Sebisebster Jan 20, 2011 3:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malumot (Post 5132724)
Very true, Jeff Diego.

And I doubt if Sebisebster will get much argument from people who spend time on this thread. Aseptic to the core.

I bloviated on this theme a few pages back. And I still say the planners ripped the soul from this city - and many other.

Look at those pictures....what's with all the grass....and the trees on Fourth?

Don't get me wrong---- I like trees and grass. But in a few instances - and more specifically the very heart of a downtown - they just gunk up the works.

Personally I like all those buildings set right up to the sidewalk - and the stores on the lower levels, and the telephone poles and the overhead PE catenary and all the upfront, no-apologies, no-frills advertising on billboards for whiskey and cigars. And the neon...don't get me started on the neon.......LOL

The whole place looked 1000 times more lively and vibrant and energetic than it does now.

Hey Malumot: I agree. According to the present day pic, the view show us just another modern street: a few pedestrians going or coming around, many open spaces (the vacant lot on 4th and Hill, which it seems to be now the kingdom of a bunch of goats)

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9...perandgoat.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us


http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/7705/42235675.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Goats seem to be the only form of life that exists there. But after the joke, this corner, in the past dymanic and crowded (many business, cafeterias, warehouses, stores, and above all many pedestrians) is now the vacant lot for a planned Three California Plaza tower (or at least that's what I read on skyscraperpage)
Are things getting better or getting worse for this corner?


To JeffDiego: Hola. I'm glad you liked the pics. Thanks for your welcome.

gsjansen Jan 20, 2011 4:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5132198)

I found this menu I had posted earlier, and sure enough squab is offered at the Hotel Westminster.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8492/aaawmmenu.jpg
NYPL

i was intrigued by the sentence at the bottom of the menu..."Puritas water used exclusively on tables"

i can see why

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics24/00046901.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics24/00046901.jpg

Puritas was the original name of Arrowhead spring water sourced at the arrowhead spring in the San Bernardino Mountains

In 1884, Puritas Water was established by Ralph Rogers, becoming the predecessor to the Arrowhead water brand. In 1903, the company formally changed its name to Arrowhead water. The manufacturing and bottling of the water brand originally took place in the back of the arrowhead springs hotel. Puritas and Arrowhead was sold around the Los Angeles area.

By 1917, the bottling operations had been moved to Los Angeles. In 1932, another important development for the company happened in the Los Angeles area, as it was named the official water refreshment of that year's Olympic Games, held at the City of the Stars.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets.../CHS-5560?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets.../CHS-5560?v=hr

Puritas advertising around town

http://www.thewaterdeliverycompany.c...vertisment.jpg
Source: The water delivery company blog http://www.thewaterdeliverycompany.c...vertisment.jpg

originally puritas water was sold in ceramic containers

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics27/00048082.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics27/00048082.jpg

but then changed to glass

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics27/00048081.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics27/00048081.jpg

puritas, (and later arrowhead) water would be brought into los angeles in large tanker style railroad cars

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics27/00048072.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics27/00048072.jpg

where the water would be bottled at the bottling plant located at santa fe and 7th street next to the 7th street viaduct. you can see the puritas sign on the left

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...-EN-30-23?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...-EN-30-23?v=hr

the bottling plant at 7th and santa fe

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics27/00048074.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics27/00048074.jpg

making the bottles

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...77-007~30?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...77-007~30?v=hr

and with that, i do believe i have posted just about as much as anyone can about bottled water! :cool:

gsjansen Jan 20, 2011 4:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsjansen (Post 5130795)

here's a 1940 image of the same building, apparently now named old los angeles which claims to offer the shortest route to union station....i'm kinda guessin' that the Big "Y" at the far right indicates that this building is still the YMCA

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019099.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019099.jpg

i guess i was kind guessin' wrong. in this 1943 image of calle de los negros during a rally for Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the "Y" was actually for Ye Bull Pen Inn

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5082/...65916097_b.jpg
Source: Calisphere http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb6k4007sj/FID5

Sebisebster Jan 20, 2011 4:24 PM

A few more from old Chinatown
 
I dont know if the next pics have been reposted, but since Ethereal_reality has posted those beautifull pics from old Chinatown, I would like to show a few more. Here they are:


http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/171...9196116394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Photo of two women wearing traditional Chinese clothing walking on the sidewalk in a street in old Chinatown. Photo date: circa 1930.



http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9...3196216394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Men are assembled, probably to read posted newspapers in Chinese, in Ferguson Alley in Old Chinatown. A banner hung from a building advertises a temple: the Kong Chew Temple.


Question: what was Ferguson Alley in old Chinatown?



http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2...7203316394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Funds being collected for Chinese refugees in old Chinatown. A sign says, "A dollar saves a family."



http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/6...1203416394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Old Chinatown Ferguson alley leading to the Kong Chew Temple. Numerous Chinese paper lanterns are hung along the entire alleyway. Photo date: 1936.




http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/5...5203516394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
A man peers in a shop window near a barber pole in Chinatown. It is in Los Angeles St? Photo date: circa 1920.



http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/7...7207316394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Photo shows Chinese New Year celebration with parade of the dragon in Old Chinatown, circa 1920.



http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2...9267116394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Old Chinatown: the dragon parade and the chinese new year's day celebration. Notice the dusty and dirty streets. No date available for this picture.



http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/7709/afishvendor.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
A fish vendor sells his fish from the back of his truck. A scale hangs on the right side of the truck


Source: all pics are taken from www.lapl.org.

Sebisebster Jan 20, 2011 4:49 PM

More old Chinatown
 
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6...dcalledelo.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Los Angeles St, aka Calle de los negros.



http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/6462/alisost1920.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Aliso St, circa 1895. In the foreground a hill can be seen.


Hills in the picture above... Bunker Hill and Forth Moore Hill?



http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/5558/alisost.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Crowds gathered to watch the parade of the chinese dragon in Aliso St.



http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3...lasastreet.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Chinatown in Los Angeles, busy with commerce. View is of Apablasa Street, looking east from Alameda Street. The road is unpaved and lined with street vendors and horse drawn wagons.



http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1...ookingeast.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Los Angeles St, looking east.




I dont know if this one has been reposted:


http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/4...idethegarn.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
The street outside the Garnier Building at 415 North Los Angeles Street is closed to traffic for the Chinese Moon Festival. The building is part of Old Chinatown in the Plaza area and faces what later became Union Station.



http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4613/whorehouses.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Part of Chinatown featuring whore houses. It was a segregated district near what became Union Station

And to come to an end:


http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/9...adenafreew.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
A view of the Pasadena Freeway with Chinatown in the background. On the right, the former place of Chavez ravine, not seen in the picture (or I guess so)


All pics from LAPL.

Sebisebster Jan 20, 2011 6:23 PM

The history of Chavez Ravine - Introduction.
 
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5...5849716394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
'Division of the Barrios and Chavez Ravine', a segment of the Great Wall of Los Angeles,1983.

The "Great Wall of Los Angeles," from which this detail was taken, extends for one half mile in the Tujunga Wash flood control channel . It was painted over 5 summers by 215 teenagers supervised by 25 artists under the direction of Judith Baca. Judith Bacca, born September 20, 1946, in East Los Angeles, California, is an American artist, activist, and University of California, Los Angeles professor of fine arts, best known as the director of the mural project that created one of the largest murals in the world, the Great Wall of Los Angeles. This great mural tells the history of California through several panels; the first panels begin with prehistory and colonialism, but most of the following panels deal with events of the 20th century. It was created in conjunction with the rise of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s-1980s. The Great Wall of Los Angeles also places emphasis on the history of Native Americans and minorities with sections depicting events such as Japanese internment and civil rights.

The 'Division of the Barrios and Chavez Ravine' sections of the Great Wall concerns the struggle over land use in poor neighborhoods. In these areas, urban "renewal" often condemns land for development projects that aid white middle class interests rather than the local residents. The freeways are an example of this. They primarily cut through barrios and ghettos, dividing former neighbors and leaving little or no access between them.


http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/928/freeways.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us


When Dodger Stadium was built in the 1950's, many residents of the largely Mexican American Chavez Ravine area were persuaded to sell their homes with promises of new low cost housing which was never built. Others, like the woman in the mural, fought to keep their homes but were forcibly removed.


http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/2...5844716394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story is a film and a document in it self, released in 2003 and directed by Jordan Mechner. The film tells the story of how this Mexican American community from Chavez Ravine was destroyed by greed, political hypocrisy and good intentions gone astray. This half hour documentary is based in the historical photographies taken in 1949 by Don Normark. In 1949, photographer Don Normark visited Chavez Ravine, a close-knit Mexican American village on a hill overlooking downtown Los Angeles. Enchanted, he stayed for a year and took hundreds of photographs documenting community life. But little did Normark know that he was capturing the last images of a place that was about to disappear—within a few short years, the entire neighborhood would be gone.


http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4...3803416394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Many of the next following pictures are taking from the net, but in fact all of them belong to the film.


Source: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/chavezravine/ and LAPL.

Sebisebster Jan 20, 2011 6:42 PM

The history of Chavez Ravine - Part One.
 
Located in a valley a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, Chavez Ravine was home to generations of Mexican Americans. Named for Julian Chavez, one of the first Los Angeles County Supervisors in the 1800s, Chavez Ravine was a self-sufficient and tight-knit community, a rare example of small town life within a large urban metropolis. For decades, its residents ran their own schools and churches and grew their own food on the land. Chavez Ravine’s three main neighborhoods—Palos Verde, La Loma and Bishop—were known as a “poor man’s Shangri La.”


http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/382/00088967.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Aerial view of Los Angeles looking northwest, showing the Civic Center, Alameda St, and Union Station. At top right; Chavez Ravine (upper middle) before Dodger Stadium was developed.



http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/1...9439616394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Photography by Don Nonmark, taken in 1949. It shows a view of Elysian Heights: a man follows the path, perhaps heading home.



http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6958/sroad.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Bishop's road, circa 1950



http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/528...rdesschool.jpg

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Palos Verdes school, Chavez Ravine.



The death knell for Chavez Ravine began ringing in 1949. The Federal Housing Act of 1949 granted money to cities from the federal government to build public housing projects. Los Angeles Mayor, Fletcher Bowron voted and approved a housing project containing 10,000 new units—thousands of which would be located in Chavez Ravine.

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1...5439516394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Photography by Don Normark taken in 1949.



Viewed by neighborhood outsiders as a “vacant shantytown” and an “eyesore,” Chavez Ravine’s 300-plus acres were earmarked by the Los Angeles City Housing Authority as a prime location for re-development. In July 1950, all residents of Chavez Ravine received letters from the city telling them that they would have to sell their homes in order to make the land available for the proposed Elysian Park Heights.


http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9419/00017632.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us



The residents were told that they would have first choice for these new homes, which included two dozen 13-story buildings and more than 160 two-story bunkers, in addition to newly rebuilt playgrounds and schools. Some residents resisted the orders to move and were soon labeled “squatters,” while others felt they had no choice and relocated. Most received insubstantial or no compensation for their homes and property.


http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/8...3436716394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Photography by Don Donmark, 1949.



Using the power of eminent domain, which permitted the government to purchase property from private individuals in order to construct projects for the public good, the city of Los Angeles bought up the land and leveled many of the existing buildings. By August 1952, Chavez Ravine was essentially a ghost town. The land titles would never be returned to the original owners, and in the following years the houses would be sold, auctioned and even set on fire, used as practice sites by the local fire department.


http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/3176/00051172.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us



The plan for Los Angeles public housing soon moved to the forefront of a decade-long civic battle. The story of Chavez Ravine is intertwined with the social and political climate of the 1950s, or the “Red Scare” era. While supporters of the federal public housing plan for Chavez Ravine viewed it as an idealistic opportunity to provide improved services for poor Angelenos, opponents of the plan—including corporate business interests that wanted the land for their own use—employed the widespread anti-communist paranoia of the day to characterize such public housing projects as socialist plots. In 1952, Frank Wilkinson, the assistant director of the Los Angeles City Housing Authority and one of the main supporters behind Elysian Park Heights, faced questioning by the House Un-American Activities Committee. He was fired from his job and sentenced to one year in jail.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7825/frankfa.jpg

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Photo of witness Frank Wilkinson, L.A. Housing aide who has refused to tell the investigating court of any past ties he may have had with the Communist Party. Photo dated: August 29, 1952



http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/7...5433016394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The picture above shows a sketch of the third proposed housing project of Chavez Ravine in Elysian park: two dozen 13-story buildings and more than 160 two-story bunkers, plus newly rebuilt playgrounds and schools. As the years goes by, in the middle of the historical "Red Scare" context, the project was totally abandoned.



http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/141...1432916394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Two happy little girls, somewhere in Chavez Ravine.
Photo date: 1949 by Don Nonmark.




http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/3052/00033692.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Close-up view of three boys at the bottom of the steps of a slum home, in Chavez Ravine.



The Los Angeles City Council attempted to cancel the public housing contract with federal authorities, but courts ruled the contract legally binding. But by the time Norris Poulson was elected mayor in 1953, the project’s days were numbered. Poulson ran for office using the Chavez Ravine controversy as a platform, vowing to stop the housing project and other examples of “un-American” spending. After much negotiation, Poulson was able to buy the land taken from Chavez Ravine back from the federal government at a drastically reduced price, with the stipulation that the land be used for a public purpose. What do to with the land?


http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/4...1430416394.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Norris Poulson, major of Los Angeles from 1953 to 1961.


As a result, families simply mailed an eviction note. They were never consulted. They were about to loose almost everything they owned.


http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1482/00041367.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Photograph caption dated August 21, 1957 reads, "Chávez Ravine family studies notice; Mrs. Aurora Vargas, 36, and daughters, Dolores, 10, and Rachel, 8. Parents, Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Arechiga

Source:

www.wikipedia.org
www.lapl.org
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/chavezravine/cr.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...re-in-the.html

Sebisebster Jan 20, 2011 8:11 PM

The history of Chavez Ravine - Part Two.
 
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Photo date: 1959.
From: Herald Examiner Collection and LAPL.


Eviction notice: A turkey seems to be playing the role of an innocent bystander on April 10, 1959, as Deputy Sheriff Joe Goyencha reads an eviction notice to Mrs. Victoria Augustain on a Chávez Ravine property which is part of the site proposed for the Los Angeles Dodgers' $12,000,000 baseball stadium. The property belongs to Mrs. Augustain's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Arechiga. It consists of three lots at 1761-71 and 1801 Malvina Avenue. "I don't know what we'll do, or where we'll go," sobbed Mrs. Augustain.


Some of them refuse to leave their homes, but some others...

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On May 8, forcible eviction in Chavez Ravine has begun. This next picture speaks for itself:


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In the picture, some residents say good-bye after losing their homes, which have been already torn down by bulldozers. In the foreground, the remaining Chavez Ravine warriors, eventually to become the last families to leave the place, living in tents: Mr Manuel Arechiga and Mrs Avrana Arechiga with her daughter Victoria Angustian and mrs Aurora Vargas. Protest signs can be seen as well.
Photo date, may of 1959.



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1761-1771 Malvine Av, in Chavez ravine, home the Arechiga family. After receiving the eviction note from the city council, the family refuses to move out. The house is everything they own. As the days went by, they were still there, fighting to defend their home. In this picture, units of LADP inform to mrs Arechiga about the situation: if they don't leave voluntarily the building, they will be thrown out from their home by using force.
Photo date: May 1959.


Here's another historical picture to show the infamy of evictions in Chavez Ravine:


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Forcible eviction, May 8, 1959.Los Angeles County Sheriffs forcibly evict Mrs. Aurora Vargas, 36, from her home at 1771 Malvina Avenue in Chavez Ravine. Media representatives record the event. The family put up a fight and reported they had only received a written eviction notice, causing criticism of the government's methods.

And another one:


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Movers remove belongings of the Vargas-Arechiga family at 1771 Malvina Avenue in Chavez Ravine


Until the most senseless absurd:


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A heroine from Chavez Ravine: May 8, 1959. Mrs Victoria Angustain fights to protect her baby from LAPD agents, which had the order to force her and their family to leave her home, while bulldozers were awaiting to start to work.


Despite protests and resistance of Chavez Ravine residents demolition of the entire neighborhood, the barrio, couldn't be avoided.


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The night of "Ocho de Mayo," a date that will live in infamy for Chavez Ravine folks (May 8, 1959). Friends sit around a warming fire with some of those who were evicted from their homes to make way for Dodger Stadium. Mrs. Augustain is sleeping on the cot.

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Evicted family in a tent. Photograph caption dated May 9, 1959 reads, "Victims of an eviction notice in Chavez Ravine build a tent on their property at 1771 Malvina Avenue. Left to right, Mrs. Victoria Angustain (standing outside the tent), Mrs. Manuel Arechiga and her son-in-law Mike Angustain holding Ira, 8 months, standing before the tent while their children, left to right, Ida Angustain, 7, and her sisters Rachel, 10, and Ivy, 5, bed down. More than 100 friends and relatives gave assistance with food and bedding. Other children in the photo are not identified."


Running out of time: May 8, 1959: Councilman Edward R. Roybal meets with the Arechiga family at Curtis Street and Malvina Avenue, where they camped out in their fight against being evicted from Chavez Ravine. Councilman Roybal offers a deal: 10.000 dolars for the vacant lot, a lot in wich there used to be the three Arechiga homes. Take it or leave it.


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Then desolation: this is day after, when bulldozers left the area:


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Para esto hemos luchado: just for nothing.


Sources:
www.lapl.org
www.wikepedia.org
and http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/chavezravine/cr.html

All pics are taken from LAPL archive and http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...re-in-the.html

Sebisebster Jan 20, 2011 8:43 PM

The history of Chavez Ravine - Part Three.
 
Los Angeles was a rapidly growing city in the 1950s. Despite its expanding population, the city had yet to host a major-league sports team. County supervisor Kenneth Hahn began to scout out potential teams that might be willing to relocate to Los Angeles, including the Brooklyn Dodgers. Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley soon struck a deal with the city officials, acquiring the minor league Los Angeles Angels and its small ballpark with the promise of a new stadium to be built on the land from Chavez Ravine.

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A construction proposed project for the new upcoming Dodgers Stadium.

As former council member Frank Wilkinson, explains in his book CHAVEZ RAVINE, “We’d spent millions of dollars getting ready for it, and the Dodgers picked it up for just a fraction of that. It was just a tragedy for the people, and from the city it was the most hypocritical thing that could possibly happen.” Also he adds: "It's the tragedy of my life, absolutely. I was responsibile".


Dodgers owner, Walter O’Malley’s move to Chavez Ravine did not occur without major controversy. Vicious inter-city politics included allegations of Mayor Poulson making illegal deals with the Dodgers while betraying the public, while supporters of the stadium, including public figures such as Ronald Reagan, argued that opponents were “baseball haters.” In the end, O’Malley supporters won a public referendum by only three percent, allowing O’Malley to build the stadium in exchange for giving the Angels’ ballpark back to the city. Additional lawsuits froze the official transfer of land and delayed construction, but in 1959, the city began clearing the land for the stadium after removing the last few families that had refused to leave Chavez Ravine.



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Dodger Stadium in construction, built for $23 million.


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Dodgers Stadium in construction as a crowd has gathered in the area to show their support to the Dodgers, and to welcome them to the city, as well. Photo date: May, 1960



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Dodgers Stadium in construction. Photo date: April 21, 1961.



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Mister O'Malley in front of an almost-completed Dodger Stadium.



Finally On April 10, 1962, the 56,000-seat Dodger Stadium officially opened. The stadium wasn't completed yet as we can see in this picture, dated on April 12, 1962:

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Source:
www.lapl.org
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...re-in-the.html
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/chavezravine/cr.html
and
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...ller/index.htm


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