by Paul R. Spitzzeri
We see it everywhere in education as there is a concerted push higher education to students from very early grammar school onward, emphasizing four-year colleges and universities as an aspiration asserting that the path to good-paying jobs and prosperity is paved through the campuses of these institutions. While there is every reason to encourage youngsters to think well beyond high school as they pursue careers (though there is obviously a major societal concern now about artificial intelligence), it is unfortunate that not enough attention is giving to other forms of education, such as trade schools.
A U.S. News and World Report commentary by Nushrat Ahmed from early May includes this insight:
Growing up, I was given the same advice many young people hear today: If you want a good career, you go to a four-year college. That path was presented as the safest and smartest route forward. Trade school was mentioned only in passing and usually as a second choice to consider if college did not work out. I accepted that message for a long time, even though it didn’t reflect who I was or how I learned.
I have always been someone who works best by doing. I learn with my hands, through problem-solving and practice. The idea of sitting in lecture halls never felt right, but I pushed those doubts aside because I thought there was only one respectable option. Eventually, when the traditional four-year college path stopped making sense for me, I finally allowed myself to consider a different direction. That decision changed everything.
In early 20th century Los Angeles, the city’s school district dealt with enormous growth in its student population as boom after boom swelled the populations of its campuses from elementary through high school. One of the high schools founded during that period was the Los Angeles Polytechnic, established in the first decade as an outgrowth of a commercial course offered by Los Angeles High and now the John F. Francis Polytechnic in the Sun Valley neighborhood in the eastern San Fernando Valley.
With the onset of the Roaring Twenties, another boom was experiences in greater Los Angeles, peaking in 1923 (when Walter P. Temple established the Town of Temple, now Temple City) and a new effort was undertaken for a trade school, important because industrial and manufacturing growth was also skyrocketing in the area. This culminated at the end of 1924 with an announcement in the Los Angeles Times of 7 December, under the headline of “SCHOOL TO AID INDUSTRY” and the subheading of “Trade Institution Important Factor in Promoting Business Development in Southern California.” The article began with:
The building of the Frank Wiggins trade school, approved by the Board of Education, will be an important factor in promoting the industrial development of Southern California, as reported to the manufacturing committee of the Chamber of Commerce at its meeting last week.
With expansion of industrial districts from the east side of downtown, on both sides of the Los Angeles River, to places like the Central Manufacturing District of Los Angeles (which we’ll feature soon) to the southeast near Vernon as well as to South Los Angeles, such as at Greater Goodyear Park, recently highlighted on this blog, it made sense for the school district to pursue a trade school, though offerings were varied and diverse, including those for young women.
Frank Wiggins (1849-1924) was the indefatigable secretary of the Chamber of Commerce for nearly three decades, from 1897 until his death. A biographical sketch published not quite a decade later recorded that the Indiana native and Quaker worked in his father’s saddle and harness business (an occupation followed by members of the Workman family here in Los Angeles during the same period) and he managed it until 1886.
As with so many migrants to our region, Wiggins came west to improve his health—he apparently was given just a few weeks to live when he headed our way—and he arrived during the Boom of the Eighties. When that went bust, Wiggins joined the Chamber as a staff member and was quickly appointed superintendent in 1890, with one of his important early projects being the creation of a large exhibit extolling the agricultural might of the region, while he also prepared displays sent to exhibitions and fairs across the country, including the World’s Columbian at Chicago in 1893 that was very important to promoting greater Los Angeles. Wiggins was also a commissioner to the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904 and the Alaska-Yukon expo five years later.
In October 1924, Wiggins was aboard a steamship heading back home from Cuba when he died at age 75 and he was widely praised for his dedication to the Chamber and as a prominent figure in promoting the region in myriad ways. An obvious manner of honoring and recognizing him and his achievements was to name the new trade school after him. The institution occupied temporary quarters at Grand Avenue and 8th Street while the site of the Sixteenth Street School was readied for the large building, shown here in an image from the publication, that was officially dedicated, though occupied a couple of months earlier, in early May 1927 on the block between Venice Boulevard (formerly 16th Street) and 17th and Olive and Hill streets.
The June 1928 pamphlet of 75 pages, constituting the district’s “School Publication No. 1858,” was created by the institution’s printing department and features an attractive and up-to-date Art Deco cover. Principal Howard Campion submitted the “symposium of the courses” to Superintendent Susan M. Dorsey, who held that position for most of the Twenties and whose teaching career in Los Angeles began in 1896—Dorsey High School was named for her when it opened in 1937.
In a “Milestones” page, Wiggins was lionized for his work as a “community builder and civic leader,” Dorsey was noted for her “keen interest” in the school’s organization and evolution and Campion, whose portrait is included along with Arthur G. Waidelich, the vice-principal, and coordinator Hazelle S. Moore, was mentioned as the stalwart leader of the school from its founding. It was added that, in just over a year, since the current campus was completed, it “is crowded to the doors” as “more than 2,100 students are enrolled in the day school and a waiting list of 10,000 is clamoring to be admitted to the forty-eight trades in which instruction is offered.”
The foreword informed readers that,
The purpose of the Frank Wiggins Trade School is to build young men and women competent to do their share of the world’s productive activities and to earn satisfaction in the daily doing of the job; to develop their responsibilities to society, a well-founded code of trade ethics, and high standards of home and community citizenship.
After providing a photo and listing of the names and disciplines of faculty, the booklet presented information and images on its main subjects of instruction, beginning with the Automotive and Metal Trades, with this former acknowledged to have grown very quickly so “that the demand” for mechanics “has always exceeded the supply with the result that a great many unskilled men have found their way into the trade” and “resulted in a great deal of unsatisfactory work.”
Training for auto mechanics was available to “young men who are 17 years old, or older” and
“of good health and character,” here we see at the outset the rather strictly defined gender roles of the period, though today the number is thought to be about 2-4% of the total. Photos show students working in well-appointed and substantially sized spaces in the relatively new buildings of the campus. Welding was mentioned as a field that “is always in demand” with good wages ad steady employment.
For “Building Trades,” there were seven fields, including bricklaying, cabinet work, carpentry, plastering, plumbing, sheet metal work and tile-setting, with these divided into technical knowledge and the use of tools and recent work by students included a 900-square foot classroom and a shop double that size. A group of photo again illustrate the resources provided to students at Wiggins, one of these captioned “ARTISTRY IN TILE,” though if the students had a chance to see (or work on) La Casa Nueva, the recently completed home of the Temple family, they would have seen that form of art in profusion.
As noted above, the school’s Department of Printing produced the pamphlet and it was asserted that “the printing trades are pre-eminent” because “they are an integral and indispensable part of commerce, manufacture, distribution, education, jurisprudence, and social usage in every country in the world.” It was even suggested that “there is no nobler calling and no other trade affords a wider field for individual advancement or offers a greater reward for skill and competency.” The sections featured hand composition, linotype, monotype, press work and pamphlet binding and among the illustrations showing the equipment and instruction, it is interesting to see that the only one featuring young women is that of binding pamphlets like this one.
The “Drafting Trades” section included detail on architectural, structural, and mechanical (with machine design) fields as it was remarked that “drafting is a universal language” applicable anywhere in the world. Moreover, it was asserted that “there is no other occupation which is so necessary to all of the construction trades” and, therefore, high demand for skilled draftspersons. Beyond this, “the work is fascinating because it opens the door to” further study in engineering, inventing and production and “its appeal to the young man,” not woman, “should be very strong.”
With respect to electrical work, the pamphlet observed that “those choosing to enter one of [these] trades are linking themselves with one of the most recent but most important and progressing industries of the century.” Subsections concerned elementary electricity, power service installation, inside wiring, radio (only commercially viable in the last several years), several versions of telegraphy (some women were shown in a photo), telephone switchboard operation (this was entirely women’s work as shown in an illustration), and elevator operation.
Under the banner of “Art Trades” was the statement that “commercial art is merely fine art dressed for business” and it commented on “the growing emphasis on illustration, design and pictorial art” which concerned mass media from a business standpoint. It was added that “manufacturers now realize the importance of originality of design and in their sales campaigns stress design as well as quality of materials.”
It asked and answered, “Do without art in commercial life today? Impossible to conceive!” and advised that “there can be no doubt as to the necessity and permanency of these art occupations.” The divisions included sign painting, show card writing, commercial art and design, illustrating for advertisements, interior decorating with drapes and furnishings and decorating, painting and paperhanging. Notably, there was more gender mixing in much of these aspects.
This was less so with “Janitor Engineering,” which actually concerned the maintenance and care of the physical plants of school buildings and which involved far more than cleaning, but understanding methods and techniques of this work, as well as “precautions against fires,” and planning, efficiency and evaluation of results. This was virtually all-male work, at least as shown in the pair of illustrations.
With “Textile Trades,” on the other hand, it was largely women depicted in the photos demonstrating instruction in dressmaking, power sewing, alterations of women’s garments, and millinery (hat making), though, when it came to fabric spotting and pressing, it was mixed. As to the field as a whole, it was considered “one of the largest and most important industries in the entire industrial world” and emphasis was placed on industrialization revolutionizing clothing.”
“Industrial Office Practice” concerning clerical work applicable to the various trades taught at Wiggins and involved typing, shorthand, operating office machines, filing, calculation, and “office ethics,” with instruction leading to positions in general clerical work, stenography, operating calculating machines, or a switchboard operator.
A major area of study was in the “Food Trades,” deemed “one of the safest vocations that could be chosen,” but it was cautioned that “trade cooking requires excellent health and energy, for the hours are long and the work arduous.” In addition to that element, with the school cafeteria being where the food produced by students was served from 11:30 to 1:30 daily, there were sections on the soda fountain and the school offered one of these, with bar stools, counters and decor of what would be seen outside of campus.
The “Food Trades” component looked to have been mostly for female students and this was definitely the case with “Beauty Culture” and it was noted that California was one of the 17 states to have cosmetology and hairdressing regulations, having enacted these in October 1927 with a state board holding exams for these. The pamphlet added tat,
During the last decade the attitude of women towards beauty parlors has radically changed. Instead of being a luxury, a visit to the beauty shop has become a necessity. With this increase in public patronage has come the demand for scientifically trained, thoroughly competent specialists. No longer can an indifferent, partially trained operator succeed.
Among some 18,000 such businesses in America, it was estimate that Los Angeles had somewhere around 4,000 workers in this trade and the course of 10 months at Wiggins satisfied the Golden State’s new legal requirements, including four months in the school shop, which allowed for the public to have work done by students and was located in the ninth floor of the building, offering the latest in equipment and instruction.
The remainder of the document concerned the school library, registration, attendance planning, the district’s policy with respect to trade education and how the night school was operated. Interestingly, it was pointed out that,
The trade school is in no sense a try-out school, a correctional institution, nor a place in which to mark time. It is meant for the earnest young man or woman who wishes to prepare for a given occupation in the quickest possible time.
Wiggins did not charge tuition, though there were some costs associated with equipment, clothing and the like for certain areas of study. Nor were there semesters or terms because “students are continually being admitted as others qualified for employment give up their places in the classes to enter industry.” It was also mentioned that students were expected to declare and follow a sole trade of study and that transferring was “a serious matter” so that the seeking of advice and counsel was prior to enrollment, but “a thorough investigation at this period often brings large returns throughout a lifetime of active service.”
Also of significance was the statement that, “this is predominantly an adult school, the average age of students enrolled here last year being 24 years,” with the youngest age being 16, though it was added that many of that age “can not profit by instruction in this school because they are not mentally and physically mature.” There was no limit at the upper age because “it will vary with the individual and the employment conditions in the various trades, some of this being determined by businesses along with educational and professional requirements. If Wiggins was not considered the right place, public or private agencies were sought because, it was observed, “the welfare of the individual is the determining factor in all cases of counsel and advisement.”
Flexibility was an avowed aim, so that “every person should be given opportunity to come to the trade school whenever he can, at whatever hours he is able to attend, and for any length of time he has available.” High schoolers generally were taught three to four hours daily beyond their time at their campus, but generally only for juniors and seniors, while there were adults with jobs, who studied to learn a new trade. This, for most, would involve study for three to four hours after an 8-hour workday “but the ambitious, healthy individual is able to carry out such a program for a period of several months.” There were some students who studied at Wiggins full-time, as well.
The district policy on educating for trades included the statement that,
Trade training concerns itself with the making of well trained, civic minded mechanics only in sufficient numbers to establish a reasonable expectancy of gainful employment as a result of such training. The training concerns itself secondly with the improvement of those already in the craft to the end that both the craft and the craftsman may be profited by such training.
Though it was added that there was to be no discrimination with “regard to race, color, creed, affiliation or beliefs,” the many photos in the publication showed that the faculty appeared to be all-white, while it does not appear that any of the students depicted were of color, though it is not always possible to tell.
In 1948, what became Los Angeles Trade Technical College offered Associate of Arts degrees as a community college does. Nine years later, it moved to the former Los Angeles Poly Campus, where it remains, and the old site is now occupied by the Abram Friedman Occupational Center, run by the Los Angeles Unified School District. A merger with Metropolitan College in the mid-Sixties was followed by its inclusion in the Los Angeles Community College District. After more than a century, LATTC is still evolving and growing with Design and Media Arts and Construction Technology buildings expected to be completed next year.