by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Continuing with our look at the special section of the 3 June 1906 edition of the Los Angeles Herald devoted to the east side neighborhood of Boyle Heights, established some thirty years earlier by John Lazzarovich, Isaias W. Hellman and William H. Workman, nephew of Homestead founders William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste, we turn to another key feature, under the title of “Boyle Heights Active Workers.”
This was the Ninth Ward Improvement Association, so named because the community comprised a large portion of that city council district and which was accounted by the paper as “an important force in the recent elaborate improvement” in the area, particularly with “the expansion of home building in new tracts, north and south of First Street.” The organization was a new one, having organized just a few months prior, on 12 March, and with a member of 312 residents.
As for the mission statement of the Association, the Herald recorded,
The aim and object of the association is to promote and encourage the improvement of streets and the construction of sidewalks, better drainage and sanitary conditions, and all modern public improvements that tend to the betterment of a first class community.
The local office was on First across from today’s Hollenbeck station of the Los Angeles Police Department, while another was in the Byrne Building, which still stands at the northwest corner of Broadway and 3rd Street in downtown. Among its key personnel was William H. Workman, then in his third and final term as city treasurer, as chair of the Executive Board, while he was also a member of a few committees including membership and finance, parks and a special one for the paving of First.
Former city council member Robert E. Wirsching was also involved, including as chair for a special committee from Brooklyn Heights, north of First, while his successor, Everett L. Blanchard, was on the executive and membership and finance ones. Brothers Andrew and James Chaffey, whose father was Ontario founder George, also served on committees, as did Elizabeth Hollenbeck and her Hollenbeck Home’s superintendent, Rev. Daniel W. Hanna.
The Herald remarked that the organization worked to “better sanitary conditions by obtaining better drainage of storm water from the low places on some lots caused by grading streets,” while also working to secure passage of a sewer bond issue and raise funds for paving First from the river to Chicago Street and seeking confirmation of a new school at Stephenson (Whittier Boulevard) and Euclid avenues in the southeast portion of Boyle Heights.
Under the subheading of “Looking Ahead,” it was remarked that the Association was to improve mail service, including adding it to outlying sections; procuring more schools; getting more sewers for Brooklyn Heights; extending First Street’s paving to Evergreen Cemetery; further streets and their improvement, including sidewalks; more street lights, fire hydrants, and mail boxes; better streetcars and improved service; band concerts at Hollenbeck Park; a park near 4th and Lorena streets; lights on bridges crossing the Los Angeles River; and opening the branch library six days a week.
With respect to schools, a separate short piece observed that the growth of Boyle Heights got the attention of the Board of Education for the construction of a school at the corner of Stephenson (Whittier) and Euclid Avenue, serving the Euclid Crest and Euclid Terrace subdivisions. It was added that “the building will be an imposing structure of a substantial character,” with fifteen rooms, a sizable playground and “the sanitary arrangements will be perfect.”
Though it was stated the campus would be on the northwest corner of the intersection, Euclid Avenue Elementary is on the northeast corner. The article concluded with the observation that “the site for the school building is high and beautiful, affording a fine view of the Sierra Madre [San Gabriel] and San Bernardino mountains and the valley country to the south and east.”
One of the subdivisions mentioned in the Ninth Ward Improvement Association piece was Euclid Crest, which had its own short article and it began with the remark that “many real estate operators who have long since recognized the merits of Boyle Heights as an ideal residence section comment in flattering terms on the hill district and its wonderful development. A realtor made the rather striking comment that an aspect that seemed to verify that “humanity is but little higher than the animals who do our bidding” was the sheep-like tendency towards absolute uniformity “still strikingly illustrated in this city today in the peculiar trend of development and home-seeking.”
An example was the “unreasonable rush to less favored sections” leading to long commutes (of 30-46 minutes, mind you!) and lost time, as well as higher prices in following others to these areas, when “they could secure high, sightly, improved property for [sic] in Boyle Heights, with quick car service, freedom from frost and fog and a view of the mountains and valleys.” The prior complaint about the neighborhood of lack of access across the river was ameliorated by new bridges, so
a reactionary current has set in strongly in favor of the Hollenbeck park and Euclid Heights section of the city, especially since the high class improvements have been put in at Euclid Crest and the new Stephenson avenue car line of the Los Angeles railway [sic] has been put in operation.
The streetcar meant that commuters could reach First and Spring streets in just 15 minutes, while it was added that “street work of the highest class is being followed by the erection of high-grade buildings.” The desirability of Boyle Heights was avowed because it was said to be easier to get to Broadway than those living near Westlake Park and the former was said to be “certainly more healthy.” Lastly, prices were just $20 per frontage foot instead of ten times that in some overpriced areas.
On the second page of the section an advertisement for Euclid Crest was taken out by the firm of Edward D. Silent & Co., this being the son of Charles Silent, a notable figure in regional real estate from the Boom of the 1880s onward, with activity in Inglewood, Redondo Beach, Redlands, the Chester Place subdivision near the University of Southern California, and Azusa, near which his Rancho Los Alisos, situated in the west end of adjacent Glendora.
Edward worked with his father before the latter’s retirement and continued on to substantial success on his own. Describing the tract as “this beautiful crown of the Euclid avenue section,” the ad promoted the “high-class street work, so long held up by city red-tape,” as finished with the result that Euclid Crest was “one of the handsomest tracts in Los Angeles.” Moreover, it was added, “there is nothing in the city, price, location, view and quality considered that compares.”
Noting that the tract offered “a home site at a bargain,” Silent noted “the new Stephenson avenue [streetcar] line is building right past this tract.” Prices were listed as $800 and up, with lost mostly being a standard 50-foot frontage, with 15-foot wide alleys in the rear. Also emphasized were “reasonable building restrictions, graveled streets and cement sidewalks, and very easy terms.”
In the mid-1890s, Dr. Peter Janss, a native of Denmark and long a resident of Keokuk, Iowa, moved to Los Angeles, but forsook medicine for real estate and, in 1906, he and his sons, Edwin and Harold, formed the Janss Investment Company, which purchased six tracts in what was said to be Boyle Heights, but was actually in soon became known as East Los Angeles, for development, with the Cornish-Braly Company as agents.
The tracts included the 225-lot Palma Heights, being east of Indiana Street, the sole remaining original “pueblo grant” boundary of the city, and north of César A. Chávez Avenue (formerly Brooklyn), up to Folsom Street, and costing $475-$700; Highland Villa #2, to the south near First and Rowan streets, with 300 lots at $300-$600; Home Acres, east of Rowan, and comprised of 290 lots costing from $200-$500; and Crapo-Occidental Heights #2, of which nothing was said concerning location, though it was around Gage Avenue and Hammel Street, near Palma Heights.
Despite these not technically being in Boyle Heights, the area not being otherwise named, and the Janss family had a water company to supply the tracts. As for the realty firm, it was formed two years prior with Herbert L. Cornish making a career change from being an insurance adjuster, while Harold Braly was a Princeton University graduate and mining engineer, whose father, John, built the well-known Braly Building, Los Angeles’ first high-rise when completed in 1903 at the southeast corner of Spring and 4th streets and now known as the Continental.
Another highlighted tract was the Bowen & Dolton, situated off the southwest corner of Fourth and Mott streets, though another of the firm’s properties was across Mott, including frontage on 4th and south to Eagle Street. On that southwest section, there were three dozen lots, but this later became the site of Theodore Roosevelt High School, which opened in 1924. It was added that,
The great merit of Boyle Heights as a residence district met with comparatively little notice as compared with other parts of the city for many years, even after the rapid growth began; but about two years ago the awakening came, and well located lots in this section are greatly sought after.
Stated to be on the highest elevations in the city at the time, the community “is noted for its healthfulness and its freedom from frost, fog, smoke and other inconveniences inseparable from less fortunate localities.” What developments there offered comprised all “city conveniences,” meaning electric lights, gas, sewers, water and more, while “its comparative nearness to the business district gives it an added advantage.”
The soil was said to be well-drained and the property was “centering in a gentle eminence,” with street improvements similar to those of other Bowen & Dolton projects, these being south of downtown. Four new houses, denoted as cottages, were under contract for construction and the piece concluded that “there is nothing better in all Boyle Heights than this subdivision for the homeseeker and investor.” Even though the tract was only recently placed on the market, “the sales have been encouraging and to a very desirable class” of buyer.
A second page advertisement included a logo that stated that the firm owned “12 Big Tracts” and offered the motto of “The Lots Are High, The Price Is Low, The Terms Are Easy.” For just $50 down for lots as low as $750 and the balance due monthly, quarterly or semi-annually to suit, the firm’s Boyle Heights Tract was already said to be 25% sold.
Streets were about completed, as well, so prospective buyers were urged to “go over to see this splendid tract” by taking the Boyle Heights Interurban car to Mott, just 12 minutes from downtown. The realtors exhorted “THIS IS THE BEST CLOSE-IN TRACT IN THE BEST PART OF BOYLE HEIGHTS, THE MOST HEALTHFUL RESIDENCE SECTION OF THE CITY,” with readers reminded “don’t miss the opportunity to secure a home site and make money.”
Also of interest is an article titled “Cost of Home Building” and which informed readers that “men on salary and bread-winners generally should be attracted to Boyle Heights.” Moreover, it went on,
Leaving out the considerations of health, climate, scenic attractions and accessibility by many street car lines, which are all that can be desired, the question of expense of home building is all in favor of the man who is determined to obtain a home for himself and loved ones at the least outlay.
To that end, the piece observed, the cost of a Boyle Heights residence comprising a single-story cottage was pegged at exactly $963, although “to these figures there can be added the price of the lot, which may range from about $175 to about $1500. The highest figure was for a lot with frontage of 75 or 100 feet (a common width was 50) “on a desirable corner.”
It was added that “taking a considerable range, the cost of a neat five-ro[o]m cottage on the Heights, hard finished throughout and built in a manner that would make it a desirable place of residence, need not exceed $1000 for house and lot.” Not included, however, was landscaping including the seeding of a lawn.
When it came to “an elegant six-room cottage, with every modern convenience and most of the modern luxuries that go with home building,” a corner lot example with that “unusually wide frontage,” would run the cost to up to $2500.” Here, however, the residence would boast “garden facilities” and would be “a structure that would rank with the best and handsomest” of the houses of that size elsewhere in the Angel City—these “would cost about $4000 in quarters of the city which have values already established on the basis of extreme desirability for residence.”
We will return tomorrow with part three of this post, getting into some of the history, including the major role of the Workman family, of Boyle Heights, the new Stephenson Avenue streetcar line, and a portending of the future of Los Angeles, so be sure to check back in then.