Flashback Fridays: Jensen’s Recreation Center Sign

Photo by Echo Park Now

The Jensen’s Recreation Center building has always been a favorite Echo Park monument of mine. A historic cultural monument since 1998, the 86-year-old building has undergone quite a few changes inside.

The old bowling alley at Jensen's. Flickr photo via Mary-Austin & Scott

The building was built by German immigrant Henry Christian Jensen in 1924 and designed by architect E.E.B. Meinardus. Originally, it was a bowling alley with a pool hall at street level with 46 apartments on the other two floors. The Echo Park Historical Society website describes the space as catering to mostly males throughout the 1930s and ’40s. Even though the storefronts might not look exactly the same as the original structure, thankfully the Beaux Arts and Italianate inspired ornamentation that wraps around the outside of the building still exists.

The bowling alley is no longer there, but the sign featuring a bowling figure remains on the roof of the building. The 28 feet wide x 17 feet tall sign has 1300 red, green and white incandescent lightbulbs. An interesting fact: even though neon was a more popular application for signs in the 1920s (especially this size!), this one maintains the incandescent light bulbs.

Relighting of the sign. Photo from Paul Furlong

In 1997, after 50 years of neglect and the sign unlit, it was restored and relit through a cultural affairs grant. We’re not exactly sure how long the sign was lighting up the Rec Center roof, but we do know it was fixed and relit again in 2005. However, that lasted only one month, and the sign has been dark ever since.

Lately there’s been some great headway to relight the sign. The Echo Park Historical Society received $5,000 from an LA County Historic Preservation Society grant. Echo Park residents, fans of history, and Echo Park Improvement Association members have also privately donated to fix and maintain the sign as well. And just this week, the Greater Elysian Echo Park Neighborhood Council approved the allocation of $2,500 to the Historical Society for the restoration of the sign.

Hopefully we’ll see the sign relit (and maintained) some day soon!

If you’d like to donate to the Echo Park Historical Society for the restoration and upkeep of the sign, click here for the EPHS website.

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Flashback Fridays: Old Fire Station No. 6

The CCAC, photo from EPIAn Ways October 2000

A mention in the most recent Echo Park Improvement Association’s newsletter (EPIAn Ways) this month caught our interest – it’s been a whole ten years since the Central City Action Committee (CCAC) cut the ribbon on its current location in Old Fire Station No. 6 on Edgeware Road in Echo Park. Citing an article from the October 2000 issue of EPIAn Ways, the grand opening celebrated not only the organization, which organizes youth activities and graffiti removal in the area, but also displayed a “mini museum” of historical fire department photos. We thought we’d do some research on those photos and the history of Old Fire Station No. 6 for this week’s Flashback Friday.

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Flashback Fridays: The Echo building and Sunset Blvd.

This week’s flashback is another fun photo find, this time along Sunset Boulevard. We’re not certain when these photographs were taken, but my amateur classic car knowledge places it around the 1920s or early ’30s (please let me know if this is inaccurate and we’ll happily revise!).

The photo above shows the building where The Echo is currently located. The original architecture on the left-hand side of the image, where the arches are, display what is now Two Boots and Origami Vinyl, the central entrance is now The Echo.

Makes you kind of wish the arches on the right-hand side were maintained, right now there’s the old Nayarit Restaurant sign.

The photo on the right is around, I believe, the same time. This is taken from Sunset Blvd. on the Bridge that crosses over Glendale Blvd.. Notice the wooden sidewalk along the left side of the street, and you can see the Jensen’s Recreation sign in the distance. And of course, the trolley lines zigzag across the sky.

Flickr photos via Echo_29

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Flashback Fridays: Flooding in Echo Park

Unknown date, possibly late 1930s. Source: Paul Furlong

More flooding in 1959. LA Public Library image #28410

We’re trying to piece together little bits of history surrounding photos like one shown above – flooding along Glendale Blvd. at Park Avenue was extremely common prior to the paving of the Los Angeles river. But how all that water got to Echo Park (remember, this is prior to all flood control in Los Angeles) is actually an interesting story.

The story starts with a buried river called the Arroyo de los Reyes, which originates off of Glendale Blvd. near the 2 terminus. It flowed down Glendale, to where Echo Park Lake now is, and into downtown down 2nd Street where it ends up just south of Pershing Square and eventually connecting to the LA River (Source: LA Creek Freak).

So it makes sense this area would be more susceptible to flooding – when it really, really rains, the creek/river would swell, and so on and so forth. We’re not sure exactly when the river was buried or why exactly it no longer floods Echo Park, perhaps due to being buried, but it might also have to do with the storm drain and flood control in the late ’30s, early ’40s.

The photo to the bottom right is a pretty severe flood on Glendale Boulevard during the Los Angeles Flood of 1938, caused by a couple of storms from the pacific and killing over 100 people and $40 million in damage.

Glendale Blvd., Feb 1938. Photo source: Paul Furlong

These floods, especially the 1938 one, prompted the Flood Control Act of 1941, and thus the construction of mandatory storm drains and flood control channels. This, of course, means the Los Angeles River was paved to help control future flooding.

Looking at these pictures, it seems like a good idea to have some flood control in Los Angeles. But the paving of the LA River is more and more criticized as being a misguided effort because it interferes with, well, the natural flow of things. There are some green movements to help the River filter out pollution and revitalize the river overall, you can learn a lot about lost rivers and creaks through the LA Creek Freak blog and the Friends of the LA River.

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Get your tickets for Eco Echo Park home tours

The 2010 Echo Park Historical Society home tour date has been announced for Sunday, November 14. The theme this year is “Eco Echo Park: Urban Sustainable Living.” The tour will feature properties that utilize “gray water systems, solar power, natural light and circulation as ways to reduce dependency on public utilities.” They will also be showcasing properties that use native and drought-tolerant plants, no-dig gardens and urban farmers that raise livestock and/or crops for personal consumption.

Renew your annual membership to the Echo Park Historical Society for a discounted price of $15 for admission to the home tour. They are also accepting $25 donations to help re-light the sign on top of Jensen’s Recreation Center in Echo Park (which has been left unlit for several years now).

Individual subscriptions are $15, $25 for households, $40 for businesses, and $250 for a lifetime membership.

Go to www.historicechopark.org to buy your tickets in advance. Save $5 if you buy your tickets by November 1!

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Flashback Fridays: Our very first oil well

Edward L. Doheny (Source: LAPL photo #00028209)

You might know that Los Angeles has a long history of oil (there’s those, you know, La Brea Tar Pits, in case you forgot), but did you know Echo Park is the site of the first Los Angeles oil well?

It was Edward Doheny and Charles Canfield who dug this well in 1892. The story goes, Doheny was in downtown when he saw some guys pushing a heavy cart full of this black, sticky stuff called “brea” (Spanish for “pitch”). The driver told him he had pulled out of a hold near Westlake Park. Learning that the pitch was a fuel replacement for coal, he and Canfield raised money to buy a three-lot parcel at the corner of Patton and State streets, and started digging by hand.

Months later and after 155 feet, the fumes were making everyone sick. They built a crude drilling rig, using a eucalyptus tree trunk, which broke and delays the drilling for weeks until they got the broken rig out of the hole and fixed it. Finally, in March 1893 after 225 feet, the site became the first free-flowing oil well ever drilled in Los Angeles.

“I had found gold and I had found silver and I had found lead,” wrote Doheny, “but this ugly-looking substance… was the key to something more valuable than any or all of these metals.”

They produced 40 barrels per day, selling it for $2 pr barrel (50 cents below market rate). The well pumped for three years, and eventually, Doheny and Canfield expanded their partnership around Los Angeles, making a fortune.

You can read all about it in The Dark Side of Fortune.


Flickr photo via The Eastsider LA

Why show a picture of the Echo Park pool, you ask? Well, the parking lot is the exact site of the oil well. If you are interested in checking out the long history of oil wells in Los Angeles, you might want to read about the urban oil wells bus tour from Spring 2010 led by the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) – there are some interesting sites you might want to visit some day!

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Get your piece of historic Angelino Heights

This AMAZING historic home in Angelino Heights has been on my radar for at least a year now as a fun fixer-upper project. We noticed a little “for sale” sign a while back while I was showing off Carroll Avenue to some family, and I was curious to see how much we could buy this little bit of Angelino Heights paradise.

According to a Big Orange Landmarks website post last May, this seven bedroom, two bath, approximately 2,700 square foot house (as described by Zillow) is going for $1,750,000. We’re not sure what it’s up for now, the sales flyers were no longer there, but you can expect it’s going to be a high price for that crazy neighborhood (there are 51 Victorian residences and carriage houses in the area!).

Located at 1325 Carroll Avenue, the house is known as the Irey House, named after original owner and gardener Hiram B. Irey. It was built in 1887 but originally located at 1123 Court Street, and moved in 1978 as part of the Carroll Avenue Restoration Foundation’s efforts to restore Carroll Avenue.

Architecturally, the house is known as a nearly pure Eastlake style (that’s the Victorian style) like its neighboring houses but with a dash of “Stick” style – meaning it has those extra ornate features like gingerbread trim or other geometric patterns.

Of note is the angled bay window and “unusual asymmetrical arrangement of windows and roof line,” reads a description from a 1978 publication on Historic Angelino Heights. “Also of interest is the window that illuminates the interior stairwell on the second floor.”

The last I heard, the house was being repaired a while back by its current owner, but only foundational elements leaving the restoration of the aesthetic elements to the new buyers. So if you have a knack for Eastlake-Stick style restoration, drop by the house on Carroll Avenue and check it out for us!

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Flashback Fridays – Timothy Fonseca

This story can not really be considered Echo Park history as it is still not over. Timothy Fonseca was convicted and is still serving a 35 years to life sentence for murder based on shaky evidence. But I wanted to post something about him, and this seemed like the best way to do it.

On April 23rd, 1995 at about 4:00 am, Arthur Mayer was coming back from a party with his wife, Roxana, when he stopped to buy cigarettes at the Mobil Station on Scott and Glendale. While he was walking back to the car, Mayer was shot and killed. Roxana would later state that the shot was fired by a man standing at the 1900 block of Scott Ave. She identified Fonseca in a police lineup as the shooter. This is pretty much the only evidence the police had with which to convict Fonseca. However, Roxana had identified a different man in an earlier lineup as the shooter and even admitted that he and Fonseca looked very much alike. Also, the 1900 block of Scott Avenue (where the shooter was standing) is about 300 yards away from where Roxana was sitting in the car. That’s a big distance from which to make an identification, especially when it’s dark outside. Her story also changed several times. Details that varied included the number of shooters, where they were standing and what kind of firearms they were brandishing.

Another piece of evidence was the testimony of a young Echo Park gang member who said that on the day of shooting he had seen a gang member named Sniper carrying an AK-47. He later said that “Sniper” was Tim Fonseca. When the case went to trial, the young man recanted everything he had said stating that the police officers had threatened him into making an identification. Furthermore, he did not even witness the crime.

There was never any physical evidence linking Tim Fonseca to the murder. A possible murder weapon (an SKS rifle) was found behind a house on Scott Ave. There were prints on the weapon, but they were not Tim Fonseca’s.

Tim has been in prison for fifteen years and still proclaims his innocence. He says that he was in San Bernardino on the night of the shooting. Tim’s wife, Lynn, is still fighting to free her husband. Ironically, she used to work for the Indio and Palm Springs Police Departments. His case has gained the interest of high-profile legal organizations such as the Innocence Project. In 2008, he was also written about in the AIDWC (Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted) Journal (the article is in the Spring 2008 issue). Check out Tim’s website if you’re interested in learning more.

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Flashback Fridays – Angeleno/Angelino Heights

"Exterior view of the first Kaspare Cohn Hospital at one thousand four hundred forty Carroll Avenue"

It was originally spelled with an E and a tilde over the second N. That is the original (Spanish language) spelling of the word. The sign just down the street from me at Sunset and Douglas reads “Angeleno Heights.” Somewhere along the way, some people began to spell it “Angelino”, but no one knows when or why although there are different theories. But the two different spellings do not connote any sort of difference in meaning. That’s just what happens over a period of 120 years.

Angelino Heights (see what I did there?) is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles second only to Bunker Hill. It was founded in 1886 by William W. Stilson and Everett E. Hall when they filed for the creation of a subdivision in this elevated part of Los Angeles. In the same year, the Temple Street Cable Railway was built. It ran from Angeleno Heights to downtown and allowed those living in this newly formed suburb to commute from home to work. This line was later electrified making transportation to and from home even easier for Angeleno Heights’ residents.

The first big building boom occurred when the neighborhood was first created which is where all the Victorian homes come from. Then, beginning in 1888,  a banking recession stopped all new construction. Another big wave of construction happened in the early 1900s resulting in Craftsman and California bungalow-style homes. Just after World War II, many older homes were split up into multiple apartments to accommodate more people.

In 1983, Angeleno Heights became Los Angeles’ first historic district. Several homes in the neighborhood are Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments and the entire 1300 block of Carroll Avenue is registered as a United States Historic District (and Michael Jackson’s video for “Thriller” was filmed there).

Unfortunately, I could only find one photo of old Angeleno Heights (see above) in our beloved USC Digital Library. But they do have a huge collection of filled-out census forms from 1939! One just has to search by street name to find them. Check out the census forms for Carroll Avenue, W. Edgeware Road and Calumet Ave. It seems there were a fair number of renters living in Angeleno Heights in the 1930s, and rent could cost anywhere from $25 to a whopping $35 per month.

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Flashback Fridays: A Brief History of Chavez Ravine and Dodgers Stadium in Photos

I sure hope you guys like photo posts, because I can not get enough of the photos of Echo Park in the USC Digital Library. The collection is full of awesome old photos, and I highly suggest you check it out.

Today, we are going to take a little photographic tour of Chavez Ravine and the early years of Dodger Stadium.

"They're playing ball in Chavez Ravine, 1957"

The text that goes with this photo reads, “Some day the Los Angeles Dodgers hope to be playing ball where Mrs. Barden Scott is playing with her three children, Richmond, 5; Matthew, 3, and Valerie, 18 months. She figures that when the Dodgers build their fancy new ball park in Chavez Ravine home plate will be just about where her home is. But first the Dodgers will have to buy up her place and a few others scattered through the area. Mrs. Scott is willing to sell, but some other owners aren’t.”

"Aerial shot of Chavez Ravine and surrounding area, 1959"

An aerial view of Chavez Ravine just before construction began on Dodgers Stadium.

“Dodger stadium (Chavez Ravine), 1961”

“Chavez Ravine Dodgers ball park, 1961”

Photos of Dodgers Stadium being built.

“Dodgers plant first tree in Chavez Ravine, 1961”

The text that goes with this photo reads: “The Dodgers will plant the first tree in the Chavez Ravine ball-park landscaping on Thursday morning March 9 at 9:30 am. The tree will be an ash — baseball bats are made from ash. Present will be Dick Walsh, Dodger Vice President, a bat boy in a Dodger uniform with a ball bat and Mrs. Carolyn Patterson, Chairman of Plant a Tree Week.” I want to know where this tree is!

“Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine at night, June 1, 1962”

A night game at Dodgers Stadium less than two months after it opened on April 10, 1962.

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Cooling down at Echo Park Pool in 1958

Photo via USC Libraries

The Echo Park Shallow Pool in 1958, with the 101 Freeway in the background. This pool (located by the Rec Center) is now closed until further notice, but the Echo Park Deep should be reopening today after dealing with some cloudy water issues.

h/t USC Libraries for the photo!

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Flashback Fridays – The Foursquare Gospel and Aimee Semple McPherson

Aimee Semple cutting herself a slice of Angelus-Temple-shaped birthday cake.*

Echo Park might not immediately strike people as an evangelist hot spot, but in the 1920s, it was the home base of fiery female evangelist and radio sensation Aimee Semple McPherson. She is the woman behind the Angelus Temple at the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (that giant, white amphitheater-looking building at the intersection of Park and Glendale).

Aimee was born into a farming family in Ontario, Canada in 1890. It was a religious household, but Aimee came to evangelism of her own accord. She began preaching in 1913, traveling throughout Canada and the United States and holding tent revivals. She became known as a faith healer, and became so popular that her gatherings began to fill to over capacity.

In the late 1910s, Aimee decided to settle in Los Angeles with her mother and her two children. She bought a plot of land next to Echo Park Lake which she described as “heaven on earth.” It was here that she decided to build a church from which she would spread the Foursquare Gospel, the name that she gave to her teachings after experiencing a vision.

While preaching in Oakland in 1922, Aimee had a vision similar to the one in the first chapter of the book of Ezekiel. She saw a cup, a dove, a crown and a cross and believed they symbolized (respectively) healing, baptism, the Savior and the Second Coming. She believed that these four symbols corresponded to everything that was important in society and in one’s own life. She named her teachings, with their focus on these four pillars of life, the Foursquare Gospel.

It took less than two years to build the church (1920 to 1922), and it was dedicated on January 1, 1923. It was built entirely with donations that Aimee collected from her followers which is believed to have amounted to 1.2 million dollars.

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Flashback Fridays – Early 20th Century Echo Park Lake

Panoramic view of Echo Park, looking north toward Mount Hollywood, December 1911

We recently found some photos in the University of Southern California’s Digital Library of Echo Park in the very beginning of the 20th century.

We’ve posted some of the pictures here for your enjoyment. The photo above was accompanied by a lovely account of the beginnings Echo Park Lake written by Jose Rivera.

Initially, the area we now know as the park was a natural arroyo that filled with water from a spring-fed stream that originated at Baxter Street and flowed down what is now Echo Park Avenue. In 1868 the Los Angeles Canal and Reservoir Co. dammed the arroyo to make a reservoir that aided in powering a woolen mill at what is now 6th and Figueroa (then known as Pearl St.) and was to eventually serve local residents, walnut orchards and vineyards to the south along Alvarado. The immigrants that worked these orchards and vineyards settled here and began to build small homes along Sunset Boulevard, between Echo Park Avenue and Lemoyne Street.

In 1875, the woolen mill closed and the reservoir land (then known as the Montana Tract) was sold off. Eventually, Thomas J. Kelley and Dr. W. Lemoyne Wills purchased the land for a business venture. In 1888, Mr. Kelley and Dr. Wills donated the land to the city for the expressed purpose of creating a public park for the enjoyment of the people of Los Angeles.

The first Superintendent of Parks for the city was an English immigrant named Joseph Tomlinson who was assigned the task of creating the park. One day, while overseeing the work, Mr. Tomlinson thought he heard his workers talking during a break, but he knew they were across the park from him. The park had an echo! He knew what the name of the park would be! The park was dedicated and opened to the public in 1895. The famous bed of lotuses that grow in the lake at the northwest end of the park, the largest stand of lotuses outside Asia, is a mystery yet to be solved. One legend says that evangelical Chinese missionaries planted them for use as food, but no one knows the real story. They appeared some time in 1923 or 1924.

Click below to view more photos.

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Filmed in Echo Park: Mi Vida Loca

On my list of to-dos this weekend is to watch Mi Vida Loca, a film I haven’t seen in a long, long time. With Echo Park in the background, and a good movie overall, I’m looking forward to re-watching it now that I live in Echo Park. Here’s a little trailer/overview from the 1993 movie:

25 seconds into the video, you can see how big El Batey used to be at Chicken Corner on Echo Park Avenue (now Chango at the corner and a smaller El Batey shop next door).

UPDATE:

How silly for me to forget, the Echo Park Filmmobile is screening Mi Vida Loca tonight (Friday, August 6) at 8:00 pm, 1559 Echo Park Ave at Delta. Perhaps I will see you there!

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When can I move in?

This Echo Park property, listed on Trulia for $649,000, not only looks like a dream but also has an incredible backyard with a pool. Not that I could afford the two bedroom property anyways, the Baxter Street place does have an interesting history. The bottom photograph shows the 1917 Baxter Street house (built in 1910) being moved up the steep street in 1952. According to the listing information, it also was “featured on the Historical Society’s annual ‘Historic Home Tour’ and combines original architectural elements with a modern design sense.” With central heat and air, along with the gorgeous backyard, I’m ready to move in!

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