by Paul R. Spitzzeri
A recent post here summarized an essay by Harry Ellington Brook on the recently deceased Pío Pico in October 1894 The Land of Sunshine, a magazine launched several months before and taking its title from a publication by Brook created by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce to boost the city and region at the World’s Fair in Chicago the prior year as a previous post here covered.
The monthly magazine continued the promotion efforts in a big way, though, after Charles Fletcher Lummis took over a few months later, in January 1895, he continued the boosting while also broadening the content to include poetry, short stories, history and more. Looking at the October 1894 edition, however, there is plenty more to delve into and that’s just what we’ll do with this multi-part post exploring other articles of note.
The lead-off piece is “The Parks of Los Angeles” and which begins with:
A matter of surprise to many new arrivals in Los Angeles is that with the remarkable advantages which the city possesses in climate and scenery more has not been done in the direction of creating extensive and beautiful parks. Trees, plants and flowers which only thrive in hothouses in the East grow here luxuriantly all the year round, and there are few days during the year when a stroll under spreading branches is not pleasant even to the most delicate.
Yet, it was noted, it was just over a decade before that “open fields, orchards and vineyards extended up to within half a mile of what is now the business center of Los Angeles,” which then had some 70,000 denizens within its thirty square miles. Many of these residents “are able to enjoy the privilege of a lot around their homes ranging in size from one-fifth of an acre to five acres of more” including landscaping of various kinds, including lawns, planters and trees “so that the need of public breathing places has scarcely yet begun to be felt.
When it came to public parks, though, the article observed that inroads were made, while it was also stated that “the great tracts which the city once owned,” many of these being 35-acre donation lots surveyed from the spaces within the original four-square league, roughly 17,700 acres, of the Spanish-era pueblo grant, “have been given away or sold for a trifle,” leaving only tracts “of insignificant size and lots scattered throughout the city.” The only way, therefore, to add to the park system was through donations or purchases of land.
To date, the city parks comprised some 650 acres, of which fully 85% was within the confines of Elysian Park, so that “the other parks are small tracts which do little more than show what may be accomplished in this direction.” One of those 35-acre lots mentioned above was utilized to establish Westlake Park, considered “the most popular open-air resort in the city” and which, consequently, “has hitherto received the most attention from the authorities.”
Cited was the ample lake with boats, Sunday concerts (though music was occasionally offered on other days), driveways, walks and some impressive landscaping. It was pointed out that “much of the soil was alkaline,” which was a key reason to use the land for park purposes as selling lots for residential development would have been adversely affected otherwise.
Yet, while the condition of the soil “made it difficult to raise plants and trees, yet the results achieved are very attractive” and, it was noted, “an enlargement of the lake is proposed by taking in more ground.” It is worth noting that the park, among the major advocates of which was then-Mayor William H. Workman, was also important as a selling point for the houses built around it. A previous post here explored some of Westlake’s early history and now there is talk of removing the portion of Wilshire Boulevard that bisects what is now MacArthur Park.
On the opposite end of town is what was referred to in the magazine as “East Side Park,” though it was more commonly known then as “Eastlake” and has been, for over a century now, called Lincoln Park. The essay asserted that it “has during the past couple of years been made the most beautiful in the city” with its fifty acres including the lake with boats, “charming lawns,” plenty of plants of various kinds, as well as a nursery and greenhouses “from which all the parks are supplies.” Another twenty-five acres was eyed for expansion, as well.
Not as well known as its colleagues is Prospect Park in the Brooklyn Heights subdivision of the Boyle Heights neighborhood, south of Lincoln Park and which was described as “a beautiful place, though small, only covering a city block. It was added that “there are extensive views of mountain and valley scenery, and the square is adorned with many choice trees and shrubs, also water lilies.” Another small park, St. James, located north of the University of Southern California in an exclusive neighborhood of the same name, was only noted as being “a pretty little square.”
The second oldest park in the Angel City and “the one where vegetation is most advanced” was Central, formerly Sixth Street Park, which also spanned a city block “but is a gem, and a good example of what may be done here in this line.” The piece noted that the park is in “the geographical center of the city” and “is kept in good order, while a quartet of rubber trees were deemed “the chief attraction of this open space, around which the market wagons cluster at an early hour in the morning.”
Another Workman, William H.’s brother Elijah, was involved in planting at the park, as well as the historic Plaza, which, curiously, is not discussed in the article. In 1918, Central Park was renamed for Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force that turned the tide in World War I. There is currently a proposal, being reviewed by city commissions, to rename the park after Biddy Mason, an African-American woman of great significance to the city’s Black community during the 19th century.
In 2025, Boyle Heights marks its 150th anniversary and a centerpiece of the early development, by William H. Workman and others, of that neighborhood was the establishment of Hollenbeck Park, named for the late capitalist and resident of the community, John E. Hollenbeck. Given that the park was only recently established, The Land of Sunshine noted that it “is yet in a primitive stage of development” as “the water supply has been leaking away and leaving the lake a stagnant pond.”
The article then observed that
Last and most important is Elysian Park, the only park of considerable size, covering about 550 acres of hill land, a remnant of the thousands which the city once owned. The 550 acres of which the park is composed was acquired under the old treaty, which gave to each pueblo four square leagues of ground, the park being a portion of that quantity. For a long time this rough land was considered almost worthless, and was finally set aside by the city . . . on April 5, 1886.
Mayor Henry T. Hazard was said to be excited about the idea “and immediately set about in the endeavor” including “the planting of trees on the hillside,” though “his idea was laughed at as absurd” because it was not believed that they could grow without irrigation and what was introduced mainly was the eucalyptus with several hundred thousand trees planted.
Hazard then understood that a road was needed through the park and, while there were challenges with funding, it was completed at a cost of $4,000 with all the work at Elysian said to be under $10,000. Other than the trees and road, “the park is almost in a state of nature,” with much of it left in its existing condition and this can be seen in some of the photographs included with the article.
The article continued by observing that “it is no exaggeration to say that this tract is capable of being transformed into the most unique and beautiful park in the United States, if not the world.” An advantage is that the space was “within the frostless belt of the Cahuenga valley” which allowed for the growth of delicate plants in the winter, which apparently was not the case in the city just a mile or so away.
It was also remarked that “even by our own citizens it is as yet little known and appreciated,” though those that perambulated through the park “rave over its natural beauties and express astonishment that it has been so much neglected.” While much of Elysian consisted of steep hills and canyons, it “contains enough level spaces to make it exactly fit for the creation of those striking effects the landscape gardener brings out, even under adverse circumstances.”
An additional 500 acres was promoted at relatively low cost
and we shall then have a place for recreation for our citizens and visitors where they can roam through forest and dale and enjoy the ever changing views, the shady walks, the hidden nooks, and the curious tree and plant growth, so delightful to the lover of nature.
Unlike cities elsewhere in the country, including Chicago, New York City and San Francisco, “nature has given us the fertile soil, varied conditions of climate, hillside and valley, the sheltered spots that are warm and frostless, where some of the tropical and all the semi-tropical trees and shrubs will grow to perfection.”
Moreover, “we have here rough, rocky peaks, from the summits of which a magnificent panorama spreads itself out” and to the south and southwest the ocean could be seen, while the opposite direction stood “the bleak range of the Sierra Madre,” known now as the San Gabriel Mountains, and Pasadena and the Arroyo Seco.
Northwest were the Los Angeles River and “the bold bluffs and rocky hillsides of Los Feliz. West was the Santa Monica Mountains and the aforementioned Cahuenga Valley (toward what became Hollywood) and east could be viewed the San Bernardino and San Jacinto ranges “and a good portion of Orange county.” Thus, the article went on, “it is doubtful whether such a succession of magnificent views as are found here can be seen in any city in the United States.”
With this praise, it was not surprising that the unidentified writer proclaimed,
We citizens of Los Angeles are beginning to realize the fact that it is in Elysian Park that we have the site for one of the great parks of the country, such as Central Park in New York, Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and that most of the park expenditure of the future should be on this site.
It was reported that, at a recent meeting of the City Council, it was unanimously agreed that bonds be issued “for the improvement of the parks on a systematic and liberal plan.” Visitors to the Angel City who reveled in nature were exhorted to spend time driving or walking through Elysian Park and, the piece concluded that “an hour’s ride would suffice, or a day might well be devoted to a ramble among its hill and glens.”
Some early history of Elysian Park has been covered in a prior post on this blog, while the Friends of Elysian Park have some interesting material on its website. Another post in a series by Nathan Masters for KCET on the city’s parks is also noteworthy. Finally, no discussion of Elysian Park could leave out the enormous controversy involving the construction of Dodger Stadium and the displacement of the mostly Latino residents of Chávez Ravine.
While it was understandable that Elysian Park was emphasized in this article because of its large size compared to the rest of the Angel City’s public parks, it was just two years later that Griffith J. Griffith donated more than 3,000 acres of the Rancho Los Feliz, mentioned briefly above, for a massive park that carries his name.
Yet, while the article called park development to 1894 inadequate and this is not disputed, what is striking is that the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the era of whatever “park boom” was to take place in Los Angeles. Very little comparatively has been added to the system since then in terms of acreage and, one could easily argue, aesthetics, though attention much later shifted to sports and other forms of recreation in public parks.
We will return in coming days for more coverage of articles in this issue of The Land of Sunshine, so be sire to check back in with us for those!
Great Article