by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As we wrap up this three-part post examining the contents of a special Boyle Heights section from the 3 June 1906 issue of the Los Angeles Herald, the shortest of the three main articles on the second page concerned the construction of a Los Angeles Railway streetcar line from downtown along Stephenson Avenue, this being the eastward extension of Sixth Street after the crossing via a bridge over the Los Angeles River and which is now Whittier Boulevard.
The article commenced with the observation that,
Those who bought lots and built homes along Stephenson avenue, extending from Boyle avenue east to the city limits [at Indiana Street] and in contiguous territory, are rejoicing over the completion of the electric car line on the avenue, a double track, and are availing themselves of the excellent car service. The line was placed in operation on May 30 and cars are making regular trips.
After discussing other lines within Boyle Heights and those of the Los Angeles Traction Railway that ran along 3rd and 4th streets nearly to what was then called the Ninth Ward in reference to city council districts, the piece remarked that “the Stephenson avenue line is soon to be extended . . . to the Catholic cemetery, opening up new territory for improvement.”
The new Calvary Cemetery, in what became East Los Angeles but was generally identified as Boyle Heights, though it is east of city limits, opened a decade before having moved after more than a half-century from a site below the Elysian Hills, where Cathedral High School is now located. As for the last statement, the importance of streetcar lines in paving (!) the way for new housing tracts was essential before the automobile became predominant in regional transportation.
Also mentioned in the article was the extension of the 1st Street line, east of Evergreen Cemetery, over the city limit on Indiana Street and to Rowan Avenue, where the route went north to Brooklyn Avenue, now César A. Chávez Avenue, with plans to soon go a couple of blocks further to Gage Avenue and beyond. The Herald concluded that, “there is a large amount of undeveloped territory that has no car line for an outlet which would be reached.”
From its beginnings, Boyle Heights was readily identified with street railways, starting with the Los Angeles and Aliso Street Railway, which was horse-drawn and began service early in 1877. One of its promoters was the neighborhood’s co-founder, William H. Workman, nephew of Homestead founders William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste and who named the area for his father-in-law, Andrew A. Boyle.
In “Boyle Heights in Early Days,” the paper looked at some of the history of the community, but with a particular slant that needs some major correction. It began with,
Boyle Heights comprises that picturesque section of Los Angeles whose political division is the Ninth ward—a district that embraces many industrial enterprises and the beautiful homes of a large per cent of the population of the city.
Hon. W.H. Workman, present city treasurer, and familiarly known as “Uncle Billy,” is one of the residents of the Ninth ward, who by his personal enterprise and influence has succeeded in bringing Boyle Heights to the front as a residence district.
One major error in the account was the assertion that Boyle “was the pioneer settler east of the river,” when, if not indigenous people in the flats or on the bluff, this really applied to the López family after the receipt of their Paredon Blanco (White Bluff) grant from pueblo officials in the 1830s. It was nearly a quarter century later that Boyle bought land from Petra Varela de López and settled on the bluff and took over the López vineyards and orchards in the flats, but the article claimed he set out the vines.
It may be true that, as the piece went on, that “the highland was thought at that time to be worthless, except for pasture,” while it was certainly “a matter of record” that property along the east bank of the river fetched $100 to $200 per acre, while the upper parcels, “now adorned with handsome homes, sold as low as $5 an acre.”
With Boyle’s death in 1871, it was averred that “Mr. Workman was left alone in the heights section as the man destined to do great things” and it added that he came to the Angel City in 1854 and married Boyle’s only child, Maria (Mar-eye-uh), so he moved in to the Boyle brick house on the edge of the bluff “and has ever since been prominently identified with that particularly locality and the interests of the city in general.”
Next was the introduction of John E. Hollenbeck and his wife Elizabeth Hatsfeldt who “arrived from northern California,” which was technically true as they traveled from San Francisco, but lived for most of more than two decades in Nicaragua, “and bought a large tract in Boyle Heights.” The account went on that “Mr. Workman and the Hollenbecks united in developing the highland, donating to Los Angeles beautiful Hollenbeck park,” with the former offering the land from 4th to 6th streets and John the section below. The problem, though, was that the latter died in 1885 and it was his widow, who was given equal credit by him for their financial success, who donated the property.
It was said that in 1879, farming needs led to the digging of a ditch “brought down from a reservoir, now the lake in Eastlake [Lincoln] park” for irrigating and that Workman invested $30,000 in the project. What followed “was that a large tract was set to vineyards and orange trees, and the tract soon became famous, being one of the distinctive show places of Southern California” and this led to the situation that “hundreds of home prospectors visited the tract, and, seeing the possibilities of the country, in horticultural and agricultural lines, were induced to remain.”
It was in these areas of endeavor, the narrative continued, that the environment remained until two issues arose: the growth of Los Angeles forcing the uprooting of vines for houses along with the onset of “Anaheim vine disease,” accounted to be “that mysterious scourge which swept over Southern California years ago,” about two decades, specifically, “wiping out entire vineyards.” These occurred during and just after the Boom of the 1880s, which peaked during Workman’s term as mayor of Los Angeles during 1887-1888, but the chronology was confused.
This was because it followed that “the first subdivision of heights land was in 1876, since which time there have been many tracts added to the residence section,” though the earliest mention of Boyle Heights in local newspapers, like the Herald, was in April 1875—hence the reason why we’re commemorating its 150th anniversary now. Moreover, Workman didn’t engage in that work on his own, but had two partners, John Lazzarovich, who’d married into the López family, and Isaias W. Hellman, who owned large swaths of Boyle Heights land and had a major role in future development there. Also not mentioned was the economic crash of 1875-1876 (including the collapse of the Temple and Workman bank, co-owned by Workman’s uncle) and the “Long Depression” that afflicted America through the Seventies.
It was also correct that “comparatively little was done on the heights during the great town lot boom of 1885-6,” though, again the peak was the next couple of years, the lack of attractive approach to the quarter at that time interfering with its satisfactory development.” This referred to the crossings of the Los Angeles River, which were limited to one bridge from Aliso Street to the north end of the community on what was a rare covered span in the southern part of California.
There was, however, some modest growth during that period and the piece commented that, “by slow stages, however, in subsequent years, population grew, and the liberal policy of the land owners in making donations of land for school, church and public charity purposes laid the foundation for the great era of development which has set in now.” With this, an interesting argument asserted,
The slow growth has made it possible for the development of beautiful homes in the section without attracting the attention which has been bestowed on other sections of the city, and as a consequence there are comparatively few citizens who realize the great beauty of many of the homes in the district.
Even if most Heights denizens were those of “moderate means,” it was claimed that “there are many homes in the district which will rival the most pretentious in the fashionable districts, where greater development has been made in recent years.” This would include such sections as University Park, St. James Park and Chester Place near the University of Southern California or areas around Westlake (now MacArthur) Park.
Also touted were landscapes and gardens with “spacious grounds and a wealth of flowers and foliage being everywhere in evidence,” including those “about the home of Mrs. Hollister,” that is, Elizabeth Hollenbeck, “and of the home for aged persons which she established in memory of her husband.” The landscaping at the Workman estate and that of George Chaffey, the founder of Ontario and a major force in irrigation in southeast California, were also credited with the latter said to be “an earnest champion of the heights.”
The third piece of note on the page is one that has the subheading of “Future of Los Angeles The Brightest in History” and which quoted entirely from Julius R. Black of Black Bros. and who was said to have “voiced the sentiments of the Los Angeles Realty Board and loyal citizens generally in recent remarks that mark the most emphatic of booster promotion. His comments, however, began with a negative, “Los Angeles must expect to be hammered, and that in a most unmerciful manner” by any city in the country which “begrudges it its enormous tourist patronage” as well as “correspondingly enormous investments which are made by wealthy travelers in our city.”
Adjudging that the Angel City was “the Mecca of the wealthiest class of American tourists,” the realtor suggested that Denver, Portland, Seattle and other municipalities “have been prone to misrepresent the condition of affairs which existed here at the time of the destruction of San Francisco,” which endured the terrible earthquake and fire of just over a month-and-a-half prior. Without detailing what these misrepresentations were, Black assured that “Los Angeles has not suffered and will not suffer from these false reports” and locals coming back from the east reported that tourism was likely to be even greater the next season.
Averring that “we do not desire to profit by San Francisco’s calamity” because “we do not need that as an impulse to make us grow” even if there were a dozen San Franciscos with which to compete, the orator reminded that “we have something which they never will have and never can have, and that is the extraordinary asset of climate.” The weather “enables human energy and human genius to develop to greater extremes” than elsewhere and allowed for Los Angeles to ascend to “the highest type of municipal growth.”
Claiming that “something has been accomplished in Los Angeles that has never been accomplished in any inland city in the world,” meaning that without “the aid of seaboard transportation,” Black again discounted any competition with San Francisco, adding that Angelenos were generous in contributing to the rebuilding effort financially and morally and earnest hoped for its rise from the ashes because “there is plenty of room on the coast for more metropolises than one, and we do not care to hog it all.”
Moreover, the Angel City was “far too important in the scheme of coast development to be derided by antagonistic Jim Crowe [sic] communities,” though what he meant by the use of “Jim Crow” and its propagation of racial discrimination is not clear, “who are jealous of our great growth.” Black followed by noting that Los Angeles would hereafter always be larger than San Francisco, so he concluded, in terms mirroring the American empire building embodied in the recent Spanish-American War,
All that we wish for now is that the development of the commercial affairs of our city will expand as largely as the expansion has been in other lines. We must reach out for more territory to transact business in. A great part of Mexico geographically belongs to our wholesalers; so does a good deal of Nevada, in fact the entire southwest part of the United States. Unjust railway and steamship discriminations must be fought bitterly and every effort put forth to bring the guilty companies to a strict accounting [major Progressive changes to the state would come within several years, including the revamping of the Railroad Commission into what is now the Public Utilities Commission]. Los Angeles has grown despite railways and steamship lines, not because of them, and it is to be presumed that for a long time to come the expansion must continue under the same conditions. In the meanwhile let the battle-cry be, “BOOST!”
Tremendous change continued to come to Boyle Heights in ensuing years, including as industrial growth downtown and to the southeast exploded and working class residents settled in Boyle Heights. The area was also one of the few areas of the rapidly expanding Angel City to be exempt from racist restrictive covenants, so a great diversity of the population, including Asians, Blacks, Jews and Latinos, resided in the neighborhood as conditions evolved.
We will be holding a second Boyle Heights 150th anniversary event on Sunday, 31 August at 2 p.m. with presentations on the Jewish community, the important Phillips music store and the involvement of Lalo Guerrero and his family in the development of Chicano music. We hope to see you there!