Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Charles
(Disclaimer for any lost soul who might stumble across this post: NONE of the "maps" in this post are real or accurate, they are quick, mock-up images I made for illustration purposes ONLY!)
Hey, folks!
I was wondering if anyone here possesses a map - or aerial photo - that shows the location and boundaries of the now-gone hills in downtown, LA?
Something that looks similar to this, maybe?
Google Maps
Or perhaps something that looks like this:
NASA.gov
Certainly, some of the old hills are more easy to understand, but with say, Normal Hill - all I know is that the Public Library stands on what used to be Normal Hill. But I have no idea whether Normal Hill covered one square block or six square blocks! And as to Poundcake Hill, I'm pretty much completely lost!
I did do a Google search, but pretty much came up with squat. Even this article - The Lost Hills of Downtown Los Angeles - only gives very vague descriptions.
Does anyone have an image - either map or photograph - that shows the boundaries of these respective hills?
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Well, gulp, not me; but I just wanted to pass along that, in contemplating Bunker Hill in the abstract, the name belies its origin: It seems to be the case that what we call Bunker Hill isn't actually named for a particular hill, but rather for a real estate project which was called the Bunker Hill Development because . . . the deal securing water service to the planned area was signed on Bunker Hill Day (June 17). The following doesn't mention the name, but talks about the deal: "In the year 1872 improvements were commenced in the hills [
note the plural] West of Los Angeles city. These hills, although offering delightful sites for residences, from lack of water and difficulty of access, had not shared in the prosperity of the city, but had remained comparatively valueless and neglected. To the energy and perseverance, more especially of two men, Mr. P. Beaudry and Mr. J.W. Potts, is due the change that had taken place. Mr. Potts has, since 1872, expended in grading, principally upon the lines of Temple and Second streets, upwards of $30,000. Mr. Beaudry has in like manner expended upwards of $50,000. The work with which Mr. Beaudry’s name has been more especially linked is the furnishing of an abundant supply of water to these hill lands. Mr. Beaudry has had excavated a large basin amid the springs lying along upper Alameda street, from which, with a sixty horse power engine running a Hooker pump of the capacity of 40,000 gallons per hour, water is forced to an elevation of 240 feet, where it is received by two reservoirs with a storage capacity of 3,500,000 gallons, and thence distributed through eleven miles of iron pipes over the tops of the highest hills. These works have cost $95,000” (from what is usually known as the
Centennial History, more properly
An Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles, California: Louis Lewin & Co., 1876, p. 128).
At one time I put some effort into trying to find any indication that the name "Bunker Hill" for the area preceded the development, without success. I indeed once found a map which was older than the development, and which displayed the name Bunker Hill where one would expect it . . . but then realized that that name had been written in on the map at some unknown time after the map had been created, so was inconclusive as evidence. My hasty check of the
Los Angeles Times just now showed no mention of Bunker Hill at all until 1882 (the
Times started publication in 1881); and, checking the early usages that year of the term, they are all specifically referring to the street Bunker Hill Avenue, not to the general area. And so, here is the challenge to all Los Angeles historians: What is the date of the first usage of the term "Bunker Hill" for the
area we now know by that name?
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Edit add: Here are the two earliest references I can find in the
L.A. Times to Bunker Hill as an area rather than as a specific street; and if the Holtons lived on Bunker Hill Avenue, then the first, earlier, item should be excluded:
L.A. Times via ProQuest via CSULB Library.