by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Next spring marks the 150th anniversary of the announcement of the establishment of the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights, with its founders being Isaias W. Hellman, John Lazzarovich and William H. Workman. For close to a half-century, as the community evolved from a largely Anglo and well-to-do one to a diverse, largely working-class area, the name continued, but, in the early 1920s as another major boom was underway in the city and region, an effort was undertaken to make a change.
The Hollenbeck Heights tract was opened in fall 1902 in an area bounded by Chicago Street on the west, Soto Street on the east and Stephenson Avenue (later changed to Whittier Boulevard) on the south. Its name was derived from John E. Hollenbeck, who invested heavily in Boyle Heights from its founding and whose mansion was on the west side of Boyle Avenue just south of the Workman estate.
After his death in 1885, Hollenbeck’s widow Elizabeth assumed management of his large real estate portfolio, including several thousand acres on the Rancho La Puente, where a Hollenbeck Street runs north-south through Covina and West Covina, as well as his Boyle Heights domain. Several years later, she donated a third and Workman gifted the remainder of land for Hollenbeck Park, still a major neighborhood amenity northwest of the Hollenbeck Heights tract.
As Boyle Heights continued its significant growth early in the 20th century, a junior high school was established northeast of the subdivision at Soto and 6th streets and was named Boyle Heights Intermediate. The name was chosen in March 1911 and the site formally accepted by the fall, with a design by the prominent Jewish architect Alfred H. Rosenheim chosen the following spring. Construction began at the end of 1912 and was completed by the beginning of 1914, with a formal opening in early February.
A name change to Boyle Heights Junior High School took place in the early 1920s and, while the nearest high school was Lincoln in the community of that name to the north in what was known, since its 1873 founding, as East Los Angeles, fall 1923 brought the completion and opening of Theodore Roosevelt High across 6th to the north from the junior high.
Yet, the Hollenbeck Heights Improvement Association and others aggressively lobbied for a change in the community name from Boyle to Hollenbeck Heights. The 23 October 1922 edition of the Los Angeles Times reported that “there is a movement on foot [afoot] to revise a little of the city’s early history. They are talking of changing the name of Boyle Heights.”
In the editorial pages of its 17 November issue, the paper observed,
Looks as if good old Boyle Heights would lose its popular designation and be hereafter known as Hollenbeck Heights, in connection with its beautiful park of that name. The district won all its rough-and-tumble battles under the banner of Boyle Heights and now, in its placid serenity, it seeks to be freed from its rollicking past. Boyle Heights was a doubleheader, anyhow. One of the citizens says that a boil is an eruption and an eruption is a swelling and a swelling is a height. He says the Boyles have all deserted the section and there is no need of the preservation of the early legends. It looks like good night for Boyle Heights.
Indeed, the Los Angeles Police Department station was renamed Hollenbeck and the school district soon followed suit, as noted in the 16 February 1923 edition of the Los Angeles Record, which remarked, “The words, ‘Boyle Heights,’ will soon be extinct as the dodo” as the Board of Education approved the change of the school name, effective come the fall semester. When, however, President Warren Harding died in early August, an effort was made to change the name in his honor, though this was rejected.
Eventually, the community name was solidified as Boyle Heights and, apparently, Los Angeles City Council member [Andrew] Boyle Workman, son of the community founder and grandson of the namesake, Andrew Boyle, William H. Workman’s father-in-law, had a critical role in making sure the moniker was maintained. The school, however, kept its new name and is now known as Hollenbeck Middle School.
The Homestead’s collection has 29 issues of The Siren, the school’s student newspaper, spanning the years 1922-1924, during which time the name and community name changes were adopted and a couple prior posts highlighted editions from 30 November 1922 and 15 May 1924. For this post, we are delving into the pages of the edition of 13 December 1923 with added interest being due to the impending Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
The cover comprises, in green, a rendering of Santa Claus with a sextet of Christmas trees above him, and the holiday greetings. This was created by art class students, with Philip Blood responsible for the tree element, the Santa designed by Marian Johnson with finishing by the instructor, Miss Gray, and the printing done by Louis Chavarria. The paper asked students, “How do you like our front page—Pretty nifty, isn’t it?”
Notably, despite the presence of a large Jewish population in the community and among the student body, nothing was mentioned about Hanukkah, though plenty about the Yuletide season. A couple of holiday poems were penned by Margaret Aylor and Dorothy Stiles, with the former writing of Christmas Eve:
On Christmas Eve, that cold silent night,
The snow was falling so soft and so white,
Santa Claus came with his reindeer so fat,
Came to see both little Dicky and Pat.
Dicky had red stockings, Pat he had blue,
Santa Claus filled them with everything new;
How happy they were on the next early morn,
Dick with his skates, and Pat with his horn.
The latter’s verse was about Christmas Day and curiously also had boy protagonists:
On Christmas Eve when the lights are low
The burning candles flicker and glow,
And then out across the falling snow
Comes old Santa Claus, oh so slow.
Then down the chimney, as still as a mouse,
That’s how old Santa Claus enters the house.
He fills the stockings with goodies and toys,
And leaves the house without any noise.
Up in the morning, the boys full of glee,
Are wondering what they are going to see;
Then into the room go Jimmy and Warren,
One takes the drum and the other the horn.
They do not care for the other toys,
Only the ones that make the big noise;
Thus ends the day of many joys,
And Jimmy and Warren are two happy boys.
A brief tale, “Christmas In A Garden” was contributed by Helen Swain and concerned the lack of water for flowers, with a daisy and a rose offering prayers to God for help before seeing the Star of Bethlehem on the holiday. After recalling they saved a drowning ant by taking in all the water around it, the flowers were finally watered by the girl who owned the garden before she went to church services. They told her to take the best blossoms to Sunday school and the tale concluded, “from the day on, the flowers . . . always looked up to God in thankfulness for his kindness and gracious Christmas gift.”
The A9 contingent of the student body, meaning the first class of 9th graders, enjoyed a holiday party thrown for them by the faculty and it was remarked that “Santa Claus was there with his bag of gifts and his Christmas tree” having arrived “just in the nick of time” thanks to a telegram sent by the faculty requesting his presence.
Three teachers performed a musical selection and two others a skit, while others presented “a touching shadow-play, involving the projection of the shadows of puppets or other figures on a screen. After Santa arrived and distributed his presents to the students, “then came the grand march through the halls to the cafeteria for ‘eats,’ the girls wearing red paper caps, and thee boys green.” Student-led yells were followed by the singing of “We’re On Our Way,” this evidently being a tune written for the recent First World War.
Class President Rose Marias composed a thank-you on behalf of the students to the faculty “for the wonderful time we had” and added that “the program was delightful and entertaining.” Moreover, St. Nick “was a dear old fellow” and “the eats were fine, the Christmas tree was lovely, and the presents were great.” After reiterating what “a grand and glorious time” the graduating class had, it was concluded, “oh, how we hate to leave our dear school and faculty.”
There was also a term-ending Christmas program for the following day, with bells rung during seventh period for the summoning of the A and B cohorts for the 7th, 8th and 9th grades to the auditorium. After further instructions to the half-dozen contingents, students were reminded that “no one is to go home till the ringing of one long bell” for general dismissal. The program was printed listing performances by the senior orchestra and a play called “The Christ-Candle” along with individual student musical offerings and combined glee club singing.
While it was celebrated that students would embark on their winter break for sixteen days, it was noted that “our teachers are not lucky enough to have all their vacation time for their own pleasures, but will spend next week attending the sessions of [the] Teachers’ Institute.” For those looking to spend part of the break out of town, such destinations included Laguna Beach, La Jolla, Long Beach, Mt. Lowe, Mt. Wilson, San Diego, Santa Monica and Independence—the seat of Inyo County in eastern California.
Under the large heading of “Bring Christmas Donations,” one feature remarked, “we’d like to see every boy, girl, and teacher in this school bringing at least one donation tomorrow for our Christmas offering.” This followed a recent potato drive by the Girls and Boys clubs, yielding 1,200 pounds and almost $30 for the benefit of the city’s Orthopaedic Hospital, and looked to assist two schools, as well as the Ocean View Rest Home at Manhattan Beach and a boys’ home in Spadra, now part of Pomona.
What was requested were clothes, food, magazines, phonographic records and sporting goods, along with money. A pair of Christmas trees on campus were to go to the Spadra and Manhattan Beach homes and the piece ended “we’re counting on you to remember that Christmas means giving to others, especially to those who have little, and we’re expecting every one of you to bring something.”
This related directly to the “Editorial Comment” feature “What Does Christmas Mean To You?” and which asked a series of questions:
Do you have the spirit that says, “What am I going to get? or the spirit that says, “What can I do to make others happy?” Can you forget what you think the world owes you, and remember what you owe to the world? Can you remember that many hearts round about you are sad and lonely, just aching for a little kindness? Won’t you try to bring happiness into the lives of the people around you? And won’t you remember that it’s the little, common, everyday kindnesses that mean most of all?
The conclusion was “if you can do these things, you have the real Christmas spirit.” Other content included reports from scout troops, the standings for intramural basketball and volleyball teams organized by classes and results of recent contests, “Ye Classroome Gossipe,” “Rib Ticklers,” a tour of the school’s shop classes, an admonition about keeping order on campus stairs, and a reminder that all pupils were to remain on campus during lunch unless they had written requests allowing them to go home.
The newspaper is also filled with advertisements, most from Boyle Heights businesses, with a few from elsewhere in the city and some emphasizing holiday gifts available at their establishments. In all, this edition of The Siren is a fascinating window into schools newspapers of the period and the specific activities of the students at a school that has been open for well over a century.
I am curious why there was such aggressive promotion and support for the name change from Boyle Heights to Hollenbeck, both for the community and the middle school. As I understand it, both names carried long-standing and significant legacies within the area, and both names tied to elite backgrounds. Therefore, I believe the key factors driving this push were likely economic -centered on business interests, land holdings, real estate development, and so on – that stood to benefit from rebranding the neighborhood.
Hi Larry, as you noted, the Hollenbeck Heights Improvement Association, which was in a specific area of Boyle Heights, led the charge for the name change and there may have been several reasons for the movement, but one of those was mentioned in the press about the association of “Boyle” with the “boil” bump under the skin. Alliteration likely was another, but the use of “Hollenbeck Heights” for the entire community was short-lived, though the park, school and police station still retain the Hollenbeck name.
Thank you, Paul, for your reply. In fact, when I read that the press suggested the similarity between “Boyle” and “boil” as a reason for the name change, I was a bit stunned. This situation doesn’t seem comparable to the 2006 renaming of the boarding school that the Temple family’s two children attended in the 1920s – from “Governor Dummer” to “Governor.” In the case of an educational institution, it made sense to avoid negative connotations. I might agree with such a change if “Boyle” happened to be the name of a dermatology clinic, but certainly not here.
Hi Larry, there were likely a variety of reasons for the Hollenbeck Heights Improvement Association to suggest the name change—a much later account regarding the change of Brooklyn Avenue to César A. Chávez Avenue suggested that the Germanic sound of Hollenbeck was preferable to the Irish Boyle, though one woners, especially as it was not long after World War One.