Autry National Center Jewish LA Exhibit and Boyle Heights

The Autry National Center's newest exhibit, Jews in the Los Angeles Mosaic, which just opened and runs through early January 2014, provides a broad overview of the multidimensional history of Jews in Los Angeles from the 1850s to the modern day.  Elements relating to families, religion, business and economics, Hollywood and the entertainment industry, sports, politics and other topics are included.  One interesting tidbit was a section of the little-known Iranian Jewish community.

Naturally, a significant part of the exhibit, as representing Jewish life in the city and region, touches on the importance of Boyle Heights as the center of Los Angeles Jewry for several decades, especially between 1920 and 1950.

Yesterday, a symposium was held at the museum as part of the exhibit opening and it was telling that, when someone asked the audience how many of them had a connection to Boyle Heights, dozens of attendees raised their hands.

Highlights in the exhibition relating to Boyle Heights included emphasis on such major institutions as the Breed Street Shul (for more on the Shul click here) and the Phillips Music Company store (see this great site on the Phillips store here).  The first part of the event featured tours of the exhibit and three persons were stationed to discuss aspects of the display.  In addition to interesting talks by a descendant of the early Newmark and Lazard families and on the story of Sephardic Jews, whose roots dealt mainly with Spain before the 1492 expulsion of them by the crown, there was a fascinating presentation touching upon Boyle Heights. This talk was by Carol Schneider, whose mother, Lorraine, was born in Chicago, but came to Boyle Heights as a child.  Later, Lorraine Schneider became famous for an iconic piece of art that has become a focal point for anti-war activists.

Lorraine Schneider's story will be the subject of the next post on this blog, but, meantime, anyone interested in Boyle Heights and, of course, the history of Jews in Los Angeles, should make a concerted effort to see this exhibit and its broad overview of a complex, fascinating and varied history.

For more on Jews in the Los Angeles Mosaic, visit the museum's Web site page for the exhibit here.

The Bernstein Film Studio of Boyle Heights

The Bernstein Studio complex with its open-air stage at the right and the Perry-Davis/Ganahl mansion at the left.  A sliver of Boyle Avenue is at the lower right corner.  The photo, dating from around 1917, is courtesy of Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archives.  Click on this or any photo to see them in a new window and in a larger view.

From the time that motion pictures were first filmed in the Los Angeles area around the turn of the 20th century, the industry has, obviously, been identified with Hollywood. The first studios, however, were in Edendale (the Silver lake/Echo Park/Los Feliz area) and others eventually were established in Culver City, Universal City, Burbank, Lincoln Heights and elsewhere.

There were two film studios in Boyle Heights, one being the Majestic Studios where Charlie Chaplin made some movies and which was located on Fairview Avenue in the north end of the community near where Interstates 5 and 10 and U. S. 101 are located.  A second location has been researched by John Mandel, this comprising the Bernstein Studio, which operated on South Boyle Avenue near the Daughters of Charity orphanage, though it produced only three films in 1917 and 1918. 

Its founder, Isadore Bernstein, came to Los Angeles from New York in 1913.  Possibly a relative of Carl Laemmle, the founder and chief of Universal Studios, Bernstein worked for Universal for a few years before deciding to strike out on his own.  A Los Angeles Times article from early December 1916 outlined his efforts to built a studio for two enterprises, his own Bernstein Productions Corporation and the Cleo Madison Film Corporation.  This latter was built around Madison, a Universal star actress, who made about eighty movies in the early to mid 1910s, but who never shot a film with Bernstein.  Instead, his leading lady for the three movies made at the Boyle Heights studio was Betty (Rosetta) Brice, who made several dozen films from 1913 to 1924.

In the Times article, it was mentioned that this new film enterprise was to be on the former estate of William H. Perry and this historic connotation was given some prominence.  The problem was that Perry's property was actually at the northwest corner of Boyle Heights in the Mount Pleasant Tract (his 1876 Italianate residence, designed by pioneer Los Angeles architect Ezra F. Kysor, is now at Heritage Square Museum near Highland Park.)

Mandel, through much digging, discovered the actual location of the Bernstein Studio site and this contributor and Boyle Heights Historical Society president Diana Ybarra assisted in identifying some of the ownership and history of the property, which was an eight-acre parcel and was reported to have been purchased by Bernstein for $100,000.  Rather than the William H. Perry estate, however, it was actually known as the Perry-Davis estate.  The Perry here was the lumber baron's daughter Mamie, while the Davis was her husband, Charles.



Mary B. (Mamie) Perry Davis Wood (1861-1949) was, with her first husband Charles W. Davis, the owner of the mansion that became the headquarters for the Bernstein Studio at the northwest corner of Boyle and Stephenson (now Whittier Boulevard) avenues in Boyle Heights.  After Davis's death, the property was owned by lumber yard owner Fidel Ganahl for a period in the 1890s.  This image comes from the Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, 1889.

As for the Perry family's background, William Hayes Perry was born near Newark, Ohio, just east of Columbus and migrated on a wagon train to California at the age of 20 with the group taking the route from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles and arriving there in early 1854.  
Apprenticed as a cabinet maker, Perry soon opened a furniture store, said to be the first in Los Angeles and had a partner named Brady before teaming up with Wallace Woodworth in 1858.  Perry and Woodworth worked first in furniture making and then, from 1873 when Los Angeles was in its first boom period, in dealing with lumber and building materials.

After Woodworth's death in 1883, Perry continued under the name of W. H. Perry Lumber and Mill Company and he did his own milling in the forests where the trees were harvested on his timber lands, shipped the product in his own vessels to wharves at San Pedro built by him, and delivered the finished materials to customers directly.  Perry, in fact, owned several other lumber-related companies for trade in Arizona, San Bernardino County and elsewhere. 

He also organized, in 1865, the Los Angeles City Gas Company, building a gas works across from the Plaza, and ran the firm for five years before selling it.  He was the president of the Los Angeles City Water Company and was involved in other business enterprises, including insurance, land and water development, and more.

In 1858, Perry married Elizabeth Dalton, a native of Los Angeles, whose father George was born in England and who was the brother of Henry Dalton, a migrant of the 1840s to Mexican Los Angeles and a merchant and owner of several San Gabriel Valley ranches, including Santa Anita, San Franciscquito, and Azusa. 

George Dalton emigrated with his wife and one child to the U.S. in 1837 and wound up in Circleville, Ohio, south of Columbus and a few dozen miles from where William Perry was from.  After his first wife died, George married a widower, Elizabeth Jenkins, and then brought his family to Los Angeles in 1851 at the urging of his brother, Henry.  George had a farm south of the city at Washington Boulevard and Central Avenue, where he raised his family including Elizabeth, died in 1892, and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights.

Known as the Perry-Davis place in an 1890 Los Angeles Herald article, the opulent mansion at the northwest corner of Boyle and Stephenson (Whittier Boulevard) avenues in Boyle Heights, was probably built by lumber magnate William H. Perry for his daughter Mary (Mamie) and her husband, Charles W. Davis.  Davis died about two years after their 1883 marriage and the house, by 1890, was owned by lumber operator, Fidel Ganahl.  When purchased by Isadore Bernstein for his fledgling studio, the parcel was owned by a Mary Turner.  The photo was located by Diana Ybarra of the Boyle Heights Historical Society and is courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library.

William and Elizabeth Perry's daughter Mary B. (or Mamie) was born in 1861 and quickly showed a great facility for music, especially singing.  In 1880, having performed in Los Angeles for a period of time, she went to Italy to further her studies in operatic singing.  She made her debut there there following year and, known as "Maria Perrini," her high soprano brought her some renown.

Returning to Los Angeles, however, Mamie married musician Charles W. Davis in 1883.  It can be assumed that the estate named for the two was presented as a gift by her father, who likely built the impressive residence there.  Davis, however, suffered from tuberculosis, which may have brought him to semi-arid Los Angeles, and died in July 1885.

Presumably, Mamie Davis sold the house and estate on South Boyle not long after her husband's early and untimely death.  A biography and photograph (see above) of her appeared in an 1889 Illustrated History of Los Angeles County and it seems she still lived in the house.  In 1888, she married another musician, Charles M. Wood, a native of Springfield, Illinois, who manged the Los Angeles Theatre and later turned to the real estate business.  The couple remained in Los Angeles, living with her parents and, after William Perry's 1906 death, in several residences in the city.  Wood died in 1928 and Mamie in 1949, when she was in her late eighties.  Interestingly, their daughter Elizabeth married James Stack and this couple's son was the renowned actor Robert Stack.



Mamie Perry Davis Wood's passport application photo from 1924 as obtained from Ancestry.com.  After marrying musician Charles Wood in 1888, Mamie continued to perform for benefit concerts and other events and lived in Los Angeles until her death in 1949.  Notably, her great-grandson was actor Robert Stack.

By June 1890, the Perry-Davis property had a different owner, as profiled in a lengthy article about Boyle Heights in the Los Angeles Herald newspaper.  A reporter toured the neighborhood, which had grown dramatically during the great land boom of 1887-88, but, like the rest of the Los Angeles region, had seen a contraction in the years afterward.  In any event, the correspondent left the residence of Elizabeth Hollenbeck (covered in a recent post here), which was soon to become the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged, and wrote, "Just beyond this is the unique and magnificent residence of Mr. Fidel Ganahl.  It has usually been known as the Perry-Davis Place.  It would ornament any city in the country."

Fidel Ganahl was born in Schruns, Austria, in the far western part of the country near the Swiss and French borders, in 1849.  He emigrated with his family to America in 1866 and settled in St. Louis, where the Ganahls became well-known in the lumber business.  He remained there until about 1890 when he relocated to Los Angeles and joined his brothers, Frank and Christian, in forming the Ganahl Lumber Company, which became a major firm and still exists today.  It is notable that the Perry-Davis estate had two consecutive owners with ties to the lumber industry.

In the 1890 and 1891 Los Angeles city directories, Ganahl's residential address is given as the northwest corner of Boyle and Stephenson avenues, with Stephenson later becoming Whittier Boulevard.  His stay at the house, however, was also somewhat brief as, in May 1896, he left the Ganahl Lumber Company and made his way back to St. Louis.  Ganahl continued in the lumber business there for another twenty years, but maintained his ties to southern California.  In 1916, he bought a ranch at Corona in Riverside County and, after his wife's death three years later, moved there.  He died in 1921 and the Corona ranch remained in the family hands for at least 75 years more.

It is not known yet who owned and/or occupied the Perry-Davis estate for the twenty years between Fidel Ganahl's departure and the sale in 1916 to Isadore Bernstein, who was reported in the Times article to have bought the property from a Mary Turner, for whom the eight-acre tract was held in trust.

The signing of the the contract for the first movie produced by the Bernstein Film Company, ca. 1917.  Company founder Isadore Bernstein is seated at the desk.  Seated to his right are Sam Wood and Grace Kingsley of the Los Angeles Times.  Standing from left to right are Murdock McQuarrie, an unidentified man, star Betty (Rosetta) Brice, and director Jack Pratt.  Courtesy of Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archives.

As thoroughly documented by John Mandel, the Bernstein Studio included a main filming area of over 150 x 50 feet leveled on over 750 concrete piles on the hillside location, with the Perry-Davis/Ganahl house serving as studio headquarters.  Mandel noted that Bernstein promoted his enterprise as making films "for the clean-minded millions" and had a motto of "Pictures for the Clean-Minded" painted on the wall of the studio facing the Daughters of Charity orphanage—perhaps to assure the nuns of his good intent!  Moreover, Mandel observed that Bernstein had managed a boys' home in New York and, though a Jew, edited the Christian Herald there.

This detail at the Bernstein Studio shows a banner with the studio's motto, "Pictures For The Clean-Minded."  Courtesy of Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archives.

Though he had grand plans for a seven-film series that was motivated by a pure ideal of romantic love, rather than base passions and lust, the epic never was filmed and the three films produced by the studio consisted of a western and two dramas.  These movies, Who Knows (1917), Loyalty (1917) and Humility (1918) appear to have striven for the clean approach Bernstein promised.  Another film, the 1917 comedy Nuts in May, was filmed at the studio and its star, in his first such role, was comedian Stan Laurel, who was paid all of $75 for his work.

Mandel also learned that, by April 1919, Bernstein was no longer involved in the studio, having taken on the presidency of the National Film Corporation.  He had short tenures at Universal and a San Mateo studio called Pacific Studios before having what may have been a nervous breakdown.  Later, however, he became a writer for Universal and worked on some 65 projects until 1938.  Leaving the film industry, he worked for an oil tool company before his death in 1944.

This publicity shot from March 1917, titled "Bernstein's / The first turn of / the camera," shows the studio chief turning the crank of the tripod-mounted device at the far right, while the cast and crew look on.  Courtesy of Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archives.

As for Boyle Heights studio, it continued on under different ownership with the Ormsby Film Corporation making a picture there in 1920; P. D. Sargent producing two films there in 1921 and 1922; and there was an "American Studio" shown there in the 1924 Los Angeles City Directory.  Mandel discovered, however, that apartment buildings were on the property by the mid-1920s, though it is not known when the Perry-Davis/Ganahl mansion was razed, perhaps during the construction of Interstate 5 in the 1950s.  Today, apartments cover what is left of the eight-acre parcel.

Contribution by Paul R. Spitzzeri, Assistant Director, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry, California.  Information on the Bernstein Studio is from John Mandel.  Assistance in identifying the Perry-Davis estate came from Diana Ybarra, president of the Boyle Heights Historical Society.  Thanks are also extended to Marc Wanamaker and his Bison Archives, an amazing treasure trove of film-related material, for permission to use photos from the archives.

John Edward Hollenbeck and Boyle Heights

His tenure in the emerging neighborhood of Boyle Heights was short, just under a decade, but the mark John E. Hollenbeck made in the community and in the Los Angeles area generally was notable and is still maintained in some key ways.

Hollenbeck was born in Summit County, Ohio, south of Cleveland and near Akron, in 1829 and was descended from Dutch settlers of New York from the mid-17th Century.  His family relocated to Illinois in 1845, a common occurrence as persons from the "Old West," meaning places like Ohio moved further west to new opportunities.  Hollenbeck, who generally went by his middle name and was known as "Ed," didn't take too well to his new home or to farming and convinced his father, also named John, to let him go back to Ohio to pursue his career.

John Edward Hollenbeck (1829-1885)

By the end of the 1840s, Hollenbeck had taken up the occupation of machinist and worked for a time for a small firm called Bell and Cunningham.  In the 1850 census, listed as Edward, the 21-year old machinist lived with another family in the community of Tallmadge near Akron.  Meantime, his family remained in Pecatonica, Illinois, northwest of Chicago close to Rockford and not far south of the Wisconsin border.

The uproar caused by the California Gold Rush made its way throughout America and much of the rest of the world and hordes of gold seekers made their way to the new El Dorado.  Included was an older brother of Hollenbeck, Alphonzo, and young "Ed" himself.  In 1850, probably very shortly after that census was taken, he made his way to New Orleans and sailed for Panama.  Like many travelers through the tropics, he took ill, however, after the steamer he was to take to California broke down.  Soon out of funds, Hollenbeck was compelled to remain at Panama to work and earn money on steamships to hopefully continue his travels. 

At the end of 1851, he migrated to Greytown, Nicaragua and soon opened a store, eventually abandoning his plans to search for gold once he was well established in Central America with his mercantile business, owning a steamship, contracting to supply wood to steamers, and operating the Nicaragua Hotel.  Eventually, he owned a fleet of ships to carry travelers, cargo and government mail and became very successful.

John, Elizabeth and John, Jr., ca. 1856, not long before boy, the only child of the Hollnbecks, died.

He also had a partner in this, especially with the hotel, where he met Elizabeth Hatsfeld, a native of Mainz, Germany, who went to Central America from New Orleans, where she had lived since childhood, and became a partner and manager in the hotel before Hollenbeck bought it.  Elizabeth had been twice married and widowed and in March 1853 she married Hollenbeck.  With her financial acumen, they were an apt team in the hostelry business and life was generally good in Nicaragua, but there were problems.

One was that they welcomed a son, John Edward, Jr., into their life at the end of 1854.  Fearing that the tropics might be dangerous for the young one's health, they took him back to the United States and placed him with Hollenbeck's family in northern Illinois before returning to Nicaragua.  In summer 1857, however, a diptheria epidemic broke out and took the two-and-a-half old child.  The couple never had other children.

Another issue was American filibustering in Central America, principally that of William Walker, whose fanatical and violent dream of establishing his own empire caused havoc in Nicaragua; in fact, the Hollenbecks were taken prisoner.  When Walker was captured and executed, the Hollenbecks were released, though much of their property had been destroyed.

In 1860, the couple decided, having been successful in reestablishing themselves in Nicaragua, to sell out and go back to the United States, specifically Missouri, but the onset of the Civil War led them to believe that they would do better back in Central America so they returned.  Hard work in the tropics also meant frequent exposure to ill health, but his enterprises in transportation and shipping were doing well through the 1860s and first part of the 1870s, though California always remained in Hollenbeck's sights.

The Hollenbeck home, La Villa de Paredon Blanco, from Thompson and West's history of Los Angeles County (1880.)

This in mind, he visited Los Angeles in 1874 when the town was in the midst of its first development boom and it was decided by he and Elizabeth that they would make the small, but growing, city their home.  Hollenbeck deposited $25,000 in the bank of Temple and Workman and returned to Nicaragua to close up his affairs for permanent settlement in Los Angeles.

He and his wife arrived in the town in March 1876 to learn that a financial panic emanating from San Francisco, due to overspeculation in silver mining stocks in Virginia City, Nevada, had engulfed Los Angeles and the poorly-managed and undercapitalized Temple and Workman bank had failed, taking his money with it. 

Nonetheless, Hollenbeck went ahead and invested heavily in local real estate, having had an agent star tin 1874 with acquisitions that eventually totaled nearly 7,000 acres.  This included about 550 acres of Rancho San Antonio a few miles south and east of Los Angeles; over 5,000 acres on the Rancho La Puente, half-owned by William Workman of the ruined bank; several properties in downtown Los Angeles; and an investment in the new community of Boyle Heights, recently laid out by William H. Workman, nephew of the failed banker, and others. 

With nurseryman and orchardist Ozro W. Childs and former governor John G. Downey, Hollenbeck lent his support for the purchase by the State of California for what became Agricultural Park, now Exposition Park.  This was in 1880, the same year a Methodist college was started adjacent to the new park site--the school became the University of Southern California.

In downtown, Hollenbeck acquired, in early 1879, a lot at Spring and Second streets.  Five years later, he built a two-story hotel, naturally called The Hollenbeck.  A few years after his death, Elizabeth added two more floors to the structure, which was a well-known hostelry for many years in the city.

The Hollenbeck Hotel at Main and Second streets in downtown Los Angeles.  The building was demolished in 1933.

He also became the majority owner of the Spring and Sixth Street Railway, which was the first streetcar project in Los Angeles when it debuted in 1874 due to the involvement of real estate enterpreneur and District Court judge Robert Widney, F. P. F. Temple (in whose failed bank Hollenbeck had deposited that $25,000) and others.  Later, Hollenbeck became a principal in the Main Street and East Los Angeles line and invested, shortly before his death, in the West Second Street cable railroad line.

Hollenbeck served on the Los Angeles City Council in 1878 and that year was a founder of the Commercial Bank of Los Angeles, of which he was president.  Two years later, he became the first president of the First National Bank of Los Angeles.

As to Boyle Heights, Hollenbeck acquired a section, or 160 acres, of the new community from its founder William H. Workman at a time when the local economy was depressed and the new enterprise struggling.  As Workman's daughter, Mary Julia (later a prominent educator, social worker and civic activist) wrote, "My father had carried on a lone struggle to secure the water and to develop the hill land until dear Mr. Hollenbeck came.  From that day, father had not only a strong personal friend but a most able and far seeing collaborator."  According to her, Hollenbeck advised Workman to open more east-to-west streets from downtown to Boyle Heights, with only First and Seventh then crossing at that time.

Not surprisingly, Mary Julia Workman had very positive things to say about Hollenbeck, stating that he "had a most delightful and dynamic personality;" that he "was genial and radiant, but he was also loyal and reliable;" and that, finally, Hollenbeck was,"generous and kind, but he was farseeing and practical and had unusual business ability."  Whether or not she laid it on a little too thick (and there were more expressions of admiration beyond the ones given here,) perhaps, there is no denying that Hollenbeck very quickly rose to the upper ranks of the little city's elite

The Hollenbeck residence, known as the Villa de Paredon Blanco, was a large Italianate-style house on the bluff (Paredon Blanco) overlooking the city and it was surrounded by the kind of lush, varied landscaping for which wealthier Angelenos were becoming increasingly known.  Hollenbeck also encouraged family members to join him in his new hometown.  His brother Alphonzo actually was here slightly before John, but died in Los Angeles in 1873. 

When John and Elizabeth came permanently to live in Los Angeles, they had left Central America for the East Coast, taking in the American centennial exposition at Philadelphia.  On their way west, they invited Hollenbeck's father to live with them and they all took the transcontinental route from the Midwest to the Coast, though the elder Hollenbeck took sick on arrival in California and died in the northern part of the state.  The oldest sibling, Silas, migrated to Los Angeles in 1882 and lived there until his death about two decades later.

Then there was John's only sister, Susan, who was first married to Chester Wells in Illinois and with which she had three children.  After Wells died in 1866, she married James G. Bell, a Kentucky native who had been friends with John Hollenbeck, and who also a widower with three children.  Together, the couple had two children, Maude and Alphonzo, the latter named for Susan's brother.  The Bells came to Los Angeles at the time that John and Eliza migrated here and they obtained 360 acres of the same Rancho San Antonio in which Hollenbeck had bought property.  James Bell helped develop a community named Obed, but which later became the town of Bell.  Bell Gardens also became a town derived from the family's involvement in that area.

The Bell family became even more prominent through Susan Hollenbeck and James Bell's youngest child, Alphonzo, who became a real estate investor and, quite luckily, an oil magnate, through an investment at Santa Fe Springs that was not made with black gold in the forecast, but which was there in huge amounts.  Alphonzo Bell went on the create the upscale community of Bel-Air and developed portions of similar tony areas, like Westwood, Pacific Palisades and Beverly Hills.  His namesake son was an eight-term Republican member of Congress, representing the same Westside area of which his father had developed so much.

Finally, James Bell was a founder of Occidental College, when it opened in Boyle Heights in 1887.  Daughter Maud was one of the first two graduates of the school and Alphonzo, Sr. and Jr were also alums of the school, now in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles.

John Hollenbeck had only been in Los Angeles as a permanent resident for just under nine years when he was stricken by a sudden stroke and died on 2 September 1885.  He was only fifty-six years old, but had lived, by any standard, a remarkable life from rural Ohio to the tropics of Central America to the nascent city of Los Angeles, achieving significant wealth and power, but also struggling through political turmoil, the death of his only child, and other adversities. 

A circa 1920s view of boaters at the lake in Hollenbeck Park.  From the collection of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry, California.

In his honor, his widow Elizabeth and friend and Boyle Heights business partner William H. Workman donated portions of their property to the city for the creation, in 1892, of Hollenbeck Park, which is one of the most notable features of Boyle Heights.  In 1896, the Hollenbeck residence was refashhioned into the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged, now Hollenbeck Palms, a retirement care facility that is approaching 120 years of operation.  The Hollenbeck station of the Los Angeles Police Department also represents his legacy of involvement in the community, which was actually renamed Hollenbeck Heights for a brief time in the 1920s (as covered in this blog previously.)  Out in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, there is a Hollenbeck Avenue in West Covina and Covina and a second Hollenbeck Park, this in Covina.  In  Huntington Park, there is also a Hollenbeck Street.

Boyle Heights certainly would have continued on if there hadn't been John Edward Hollenbeck's involvement in it from its earliest days, but it would not have been the same.  Ironically, he died the same year the transcontinental railroad directly reached Los Angeles and ushered in a land and population boom that greatly transformed the city and Boyle Heights in ways, to a large extent, that Hollenbeck evidently had foreseen.  The neighborhood has changed a great deal since then, but Hollenbeck deserves to be remembered for his early active efforts in Boyle Heights.

Information for this post was obtained from William Stewart Young's 1934 book A History of Hollenbeck Home, Thompson and West's Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California (1880), and genealogical material found on Ancestry.com, among others.

Contribution by Paul R. Spitzzeri, Assistant Director, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry, California.

An Interesting Boyle Heights Letter from 1891

One of the other early notable players in the early development of Boyle Heights was John Edward Hollenbeck, of whom and his wife Elizabeth, there will be a separate post here soon.  The Hollenbecks were successful business people in Nicaragua for some twenty years before moving to Los Angeles in 1876, just as Boyle Heights was being launched by William H. Workman, John Lazzarovich, and Isaias W. Hellman.  Seeing opportunity in the new tract, Hollenbeck became an investor and developer and was a partner of Workman in subdividing property in the community.  Hollenbeck also had property in downtown Los Angeles, on which he built, at the southwest corner of Second Street and Broadway, the Hollenbeck Hotel block, and owned a few thousand acres of Rancho La Puente in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, as well.  But, he died in 1885 after less than a decade in the area, though his widow continued to manage his investments, established (with William H. Workman) Hollenbeck Park in her husband's memory, and resided in the large estate the couple built at 573 S. Boyle Avenue in Boyle Heights.

The first page of a six-page letter from George W. Simonton, business manager for Elizabeth Hollenbeck, to his sister, Dorcas Simonton Cleveland, on Hollenbeck Hotel stationery, but written from the Hollenbeck residence in Boyle Heights, 2 August 1891.  Courtesy, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry.

Recently, a fascinating six-page letter and envelope on Hollenbeck Hotel stationery and a hand-drawn map of downtown Los Angeles was acquired by the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in City of Industry.  Dated 2 August 1891, the correspondence was from George W. Simonton to Mrs. D. B. Cleveland of Camden, Maine.  The missive is mostly concerned with an encouragement from Simoton to his sister, Dorcas, to come out to Los Angeles to stay during the ensuing winter of 1891-92.  For many years, it was common for people from the colder Midwest and East regions of the United States to "winter" in the Los Angeles area and, while this is more famously connected with the wealthy who spent their winters in Pasadena, Santa Monica, Redondo Beach and other tony areas, there were middle-class folks who did the same under less lavish conditions.

What leapt out from the letter, however, was a statement at the bottom of the first page, when Simonton, starting his push for his sister to come out, wrote, "Of course you could visit us at Mrs. Hollenbeck's a part of the time . . ."  This invited a little research to determine what Simonton's connection was to Elizabeth Hollenbeck, because with the document on hotel letterhead, it first appeared to be from a visitor to town.

The last page of the letter discussing Simonton's rejected offer of resignation to Mrs. Hollenbeck and showing her address at 573 Boyle Avenue.

After some poking around, however, the story emerged.  George Simonton was from Camden, Maine, a seaside town in the center part of that picturesque state about 100 miles north of Portland.  Married and with several small children, he made the long migration all the way across the country to Gold Rush-era California in the latter 1850s and took up residence in Vallejo, northeast of San Francisco.  There, Simonton became a noted educator, teaching and then administering the public schools in that city, as well as being a prime mover in the establishment of the local orphanage.

By the mid-1880s, however, Simonton, who was about 60, made his way down to Los Angeles, just prior to the massive land and population boom commonly called the "Boom of the Eighties."  Not long after his relocation, he became the business manager for the newly-widowed Elizabeth Hollenbeck and her substantial estate. 

The envelope with the Hollenbeck Hotel name and names of proprietors, Cowly, Baker and Co.

As expressed in the 1934 book, A History of Hollenbeck Home by William Stewart Young, a Hollenbeck confidante, John Hollenbeck's death created a situation in which, "many demands were such as required a man to look after [her interests], [so] Mrs. Hollenbeck employed a business manager with whom to consult and to carry out her directions."  An initial attempt at working with someone proved to be a failure, so, "she changed to the plan of bringing an experienced man and his wife into the home to take the responsibility of the business and a portion of the household cares . . .  Mr. George W. Simonton now becaeme the business manager and with his wife resided in the home."  The wife in question was Simonton's third wife (he was twice widowed), Jane Leiter.

Simonton, however, wrote his sister in August 1891, that, "this spring, I offered my resignation to Mrs. H. and hoped to be housekeeping this winter with nothing to do but visit with you . . . but Mrs. H. did not accept and hoped I would not insist, that I knew all about her business, and she liked my wife so much, hoped I would stay, that she couldn't bear the idea of making a change, &c, so we are still here and likely to remain."

The reason for his desiring to leave was likely retirement, as Simonton was 67 years old and the demands of managing a large estate for several years probably took its toll.  As it was, he continued on for almost five more years until Elizabeth Hollenbeck made a significant change to her estate by creating what was then called the "Hollenbeck Home for the Aged," a retirement facility on the grounds of her property that opened in the summer of 1896.

Simonton's hand-drawn map of downtown Los Angeles from First to just beyond Sixth and from Los Angeles to Hill streets and notations of churches, theaters, business buildings, the city hall, and other notable features.  Click on this or the other images to see them in a larger view in a separate window.

Stewart wrote that, "the business part of the enterprise having been carefully handled by Mr. Simonton, after ten years of service he resigned and built himself a home nearby, into which he and his wife moved."  Although then in his early seventies, Simonton did not exactly ease into a total retirement.  As noted by Young, "Mr. Simonton was elected to membership in the city school board and served with fidelity and genuine interest for a number of years."  Young further noted that "in the earlier days of his life he had been a teacher and his love for the cause of education never waned."

With respect to Simonton and his longtime employer, Young noted that, "the close relationship of the years had begotten a friendship that was mutually prized," a sentiment certainly found in the letter.

The document also has a very detailed description of a part of Los Angeles in which Simonton did some research for his sister about a suitable boarding house (that was "not nice but comfortable") on the west side of Broadway between Second and Third streets and which would run between $30 and 45 a month for room and board.  He also spent some time letting her know the amenities of the area, to calm presumably any qualms she might have had about living in a big city that was a far cry from little Camden, Maine.

In his description he noted the new city hall across the street from Mrs. Locke's boarding house, which was "a magnificent stone and brick structure, in which are all the city offices, the public library, &c."   He also described the vicinity as having a bath house, the Jewish synagogue, several Christian churches, the YMCA, elegant houses (including that of Mrs. Hollenbeck's lawyer, John D. Bicknell), business blocks, the Post Office, and, of course, the Hollenbeck Hotel building.

Also of note was his reference to the fact that the boarding house he recommended was "along side the cable road, on which you can go to every part of the city, and to any part for five cents."  Moreover, he continued, "this road coems to Boyle Heights, near to Mrs. Hollenbeck's," which would obviously prove convenient for visits.

In all, this letter and map are full of interesting information about 1891 Los Angeles and Boyle Heights and a little more to the story of the community in which Elizabeth Hollenbeck, whose endowed institution is now called "Hollenbeck Palms," played a notable role.

Early Spanish-Language Theater Programs from Boyle Heights, 1929

Though there is a great deal of printed and digital information about downtown Los Angeles theaters, the vast majority cover those centered in the theater district on Broadway and nearby streets and concern those that featured English-language films and live entertainment.  Material on theaters that catered to Spanish-speaking audiences is much harder to come by.

A broadside advertising the January 9, 1929 program for entertainment at the Teatro Principal at 423 N. Main St., Los Angeles and which was printed by Jalisco Press in Boyle Heights.  Click on the images to see them in separate windows and in a larger format.  Courtesy of Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry.

Here, however, are two programs from the Teatro Principal (Main Theater), which was at 423 North Main Street, just southwest of the historic Plaza, where the Pico House hotel, Merced Theater, and Masonic Lodge structures stand nearby and the proprietor of which was Dionisio Acosta, while the artistic director was Hilario Altamirano and the concert master was José de Léon Paniagua.

The broadsides, though, were printed by the Jalisco Press, located at 1605 Brooklyn Avenue, now César E. Chávez Avenue, in Boyle Heights.  The location is on the north side of Chavez, just slightly east of Echeandia and there is a one-story brick structure with two storefronts with the street numbers 1601 and 1605 that could well be the same building that housed the press over eighty years ago.

These January 9 and 10, 1929 flyers are filled with information about the entertainment offered at the theater, with the live performances in the vaudeville format embracing comedy, music and variety show elements.  For example, on the 9th, there was the variety performance of El Cabaret del Amor (Love Cabaret) and the comedy Agencia Matrimonial (The Wedding Agency), while the following day was offered ther comedia de risa loca (comedy of crazy laughter) called La Casa de Baños (House of Bathrooms).  Among the performers of note on both days was baritone singer Gilberto Soria, who was given an especially prominent credit on the flyer for the 10th. 

Soria may have been more prominent than his fellow entertainers as he did record some sides for Victor Records just a few months after.  On March 30 and April 11, he did solo and duet performances with an instrumental quartet (two violins, a cello, and piano) recording what were marketed as "Spanish" songs.  The first, "Escúchame Siquiera," was written by José de Léon Paniagua, the Teatro Principal concert master.

The January 10, 1929 program for Teatro Principal.

As for Paniagua, he had two of his compositions recorded by Victor in 1924 and then eleven more in 1929.  Meantime, Soria and another featured vocalist on the January 9 program, Josefina Rivas, did record together in Los Angeles for Columbia Records in September 1927 on a song called Mañana Triste credited to the duo of Elena Ramirez y David Valles.

Other listed performers included the singing ensembles Cancioneros Tapatios and Cancioneros Yucatecos, and individual entertainers Rafael Trova (a tenor who recorded for Columbia), Natalia Rubio, Pedro Valdez, Eloisa Valdealde (an actress by that name did perform in a 1937 Mexican film, The Obligation to Assassinate!), Hilda Espinosa, Consuelo Melendez (who may have done voice over as a singer in a 1934 Warner Brothers production called La Buenaventura as well as a low-budget 1940 movie called Mad World in which a Consuelo Melendez was an opera singer associated with La Golondrina Cafe, the famed Olvera Street eatery and which was the last movie of former silent film ingenue Betty Compson), and Hugo Ivanoff (one wonders if he was part-Latino, part-Russian!) and these joined Rivas and Soria in the presentation of El Cabaret del Amor.  And, there were the debuts of Carlos Altamirano and Delfina Rivas, perhaps related to the artistic director and performers listed above.

Finally, there were several references to the mimados del público (darlings of the public) Don y Doña Chema, a comedic duo who provided risa disbordante (boundless laughter) and mucha alegria (much happiness or joy.)  The theater was sure to remind its patrons: No Olvide que el Teatro Principal es el Preferido (Don't Forget that the Main Theater is the Favorite.)  Notably, there were no admission prices for the flyer of the 9th, but for the 10th, tickets were 15 and 35 cents.  Finally, there was one advertisement on the latter broadside, this for the Salazar Pharmacy, located next door to the theatre, one building to the north, and operated by Dr. Hidalgo y Terán.

These flyers are rare examples of broadsides for Spanish-language theaters in Los Angeles and the fact that they were printed by a Boyle Heights print shop makes them an interesting footnote to the history of the community.  These objects are courtesy of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum.

Contribution by Paul R. Spitzzeri, Assistant Director, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry.

Boyle Heights and Its "Pioneer Aristocrats"

As noted in the last post, there was a brief time in the 1920s, when, at least to some people, Boyle Heights was actually known as "Hollenbeck Heights."  In September 1926, a lengthy article appeared in the Los Angeles Times called "Hollenbeck Heights Once Was Home of Pioneer Aristocrats."  Though romantic essays like this were usually penned by Anglo reporters or guest writers, the piece was written by a descendant of one of the Californio families that occupied the area well before the founding of the Boyle Heights neighborhood.

The author was Isabel Claire Lopez (1902-1985), who had an interesting Los Angeles background on both sides of her family tree.  Her father was William Henry Thomas Lopez (1869-1908), whose forebears were father Jose Antonio Lopez (1822-1873), grandfather Esteban Lopez (1790-1852), great-grandfather Claudio Lopez (ca. 1767-1833) and great-great grandfather Ignacio Lopez (1728-1781).  In 1826 when Claudio was alcalde (roughly, mayor) of the small pueblo of Los Angeles, his son Esteban happened to sit on the ayuntamiento or town council.  About a decade later, in September 1835, Esteban was able to acquire land on the east side of the Los Angeles River that became known as Paredon Blanco (White Bluffs.) 

On her mother's side, she was the granddaughter of James Alonzo Waite, who came to California from Maine in the 1850s and worked as a printer for his uncle, James S. Waite, proprietor of the Los Angeles Star from 1854 to 1856.  Known as Alonzo, Isabel's grandfather then founded the Union-supporting Los Angeles News, which operated from 1860 to 1865; the Los Angeles Daily News, the first daily paper in town, from 1869-1872; the Downey Courier from 1875-1881; and finally operated the Santa Ana Herald from 1881 until his death in 1889.  The newspaper business was in the family's blood (or genes), evidently, as Isabel's mother and Alonzo's daughter, Olive, became a society pages editor and reporter for newspapers for decades, including after her husband, William Lopez, died at a young age.  She was also city treasurer in Santa Ana from 1915 to 1927 before moving with Isabel to Beverly Hills where another daughter lived.

Consequently, Isabel took to the business, as well.  Born in Santa Ana, Isabel was listed in the 1920 census as a school newspaper reporter, though for what school wasn't stated, perhaps the city high school.  It seems probable that the "Hollenbeck Heights" article was a freelance piece.

This drawing is of the Andrew Boyle residence, which was on the property obtained by him in 1858 from Petra Varelas, widow of Esteban Lopez, grantee of the Paredon Blanco tract in 1826.  Portions of this home survived until after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and were torn down.  The site is now a Japanese-American senior housing facility.  Courtesy of David Workman from the Workman Family Collection.

In any case, it contains the flowery language and romantic sentiments often found in the era.  For example, in referring to the name Paredon Blanco, Lopez wrote, "the soft accent which the Spaniard gave it and the significance of it seemed to breathe the exotic grandeur of the heights, which were then covered with tiny white pebbles, glistening in the California sunlight."  The author also offered that the community was "formerly the palce of residence of the aristocrats of the city," though that assertion might be countered by the fact that many of adobe "town houses" of the ranchero elite who dominated Spanish and Mexican-era Los Angeles were clustered around the Plaza that was the center of the pueblo.

Lopez continued that with "Hollenbeck Heights" consisting of "colonies of people of all nationalities," it was to be noted that "no longer do the spreading vineyards of those colorful days lie at its white feet.  Gone are the orchards, its waving fields of grain, the shops of the thrifty shoemaker, goldsmith and the pliers of other trades who sang lilting Spanish melodies as they worked."

This might sound too romantic and fictional, though Lopez claimed that the information for the article came from Francisca Lopez de Bilderrain, who was a first cousin to Isabel's father.  Yet, it was related that Claudio Lopez was the "son of noble Spanish parents," and though noble might mean well-mannered and respected, the connection to Spain was certainly several generations back in the family tree.

In any case, Francisca related that Esteban gave some of his Paredon Blanco land to his children and reserved property between what is now Second and Fourth streets for himself and that his adobe house was "on the bluff about thirty feet south of the present site of Second street."  Although Esteban would have been an "aristocrat" as defined earlier in the piece, it was noted that, regarding the house, "although modest in structure, it was comfortable."

Among the children he provided with land was Geronimo who was given "a piece of land south of where Seventh street runs at present" and "there another attractive home was erected."  Geronimo later moved to the area surrounding San Fernando Mission, where Claudio Lopez was once mayordomo or foreman, and established a house and stage stop called Lopez Station and then occupied an adobe house in what is now the City of San Fernando, the Case Lopez Adobe, that is to be reopened, after several years of closure, to the public by early 2013.

Two daughters, Manuela Lopez de Ruiz and Josefa Lopez de Carrión (who later lived in what is now San Dimas, where the Carrion Adobe is still privately held, on the Rancho San Jose, owned by another Lopez daughter and her husband, Ygnacio Palomares), with the former being immediately north of Geronimo and the latter having her house where John and Elizabeth Hollenbeck later established their estate and which is the location of the Hollenbeck Palms senior residential facility.

Then, in 1837, a son, Francisco (Chico) Lopez, who was Francisca Lopez de Bilderrain's father, was given land adjacent to that of Esteban as a wedding gift.  Within several years, in addition to an adobe residence, Francisco had a successful vineyard and the article noted that he sold grapes to the budding Gold Rush city of San Francisco in 1849 and also sold to local buyers like Mathew Keller, a prominent winemaker of the era.  Keller also resided at the base of the bluffs in what is called the "Flats".  Francisco's holdings also included "granaries, workingmen's quarters, [a] toolroom and silversmith shop where two men made silver and gold filigree jewelry.

Francisca's recollections were that, in 1855, her father added twenty-five acres of fruit orchards, sugar cane fields and vineyards to the north near Aliso Street and in the Flats.  Two years later, a new adobe house was constructed and she reflected that "as it stood fronting the grandeurs of the west and its sublime sunsets, it was indeed a land made ready by God for human hands to embellish!" 

The twenty-five acres just mentioned was soon given to another of Don Francisco's daughters, Juanita Lopez de Warren, who married William C. Warren, a Los Angeles city marshal who was killed in an 1870 daylight shootout on a busy street with one of his deputies, and who was the grandmother of longtime Los Angeles County Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz.

Francisca elaborated for her cousin on the types of fruit raised in the orchard, including "peaches, rosy-cheeked pears, oranges, lemons, sweet limes, citrons, walnuts, pomegranates, almonds, applies, mulberry trees, plums" and what were referred to as "Mission figs."  A nearby garden was "profuse with gorgeous white and pink moss roses, lilacs, snowballs and hollyhocks, verbenas, marigolds, violets and daisies.  Also of note were wooden bath houses, lined with tin, which took water from the zanja or water ditch diverting from the Los Angeles River by flood-gates, and from which emptied water was directed into pools for swimming.

There was also a simple sugar mill, using a horse moving round in a circle while hitched to a pole and thereby crushing the cane, with the juice running into a wooden trough.  After cooking in kettles, the sugar was dried on wood planks before being taken for export.

However, Esteban Lopez died in 1852 and, about six years later, his widow, Petra Varelas, put up part of the Lopez property for sale.  By mentioning both that she had remarried and that the land had been granted by the town council to her husband, Francisca and Isabel Lopez seemed to imply their displeasure with her decision.  In 1858, however, the local economy was in a doldrums, affected by the end of the Gold Rush, the oversupply of cattle and a national depression that erupted the prior year.  A sale might well have been out of financial desperation.

Francisca did, however, refer to the buyer as "the affable and jovial Irishman, Andrew Boyle, who saw the land and took a fancy to it."  Moving into the Lopez adobe, Boyle began the manufacture of wine in 1862 under the label of Paredon Blanco.  The article then concluded with the reminiscences conveyed to Isabel Lopez by Boyle's daughter, Maria (pronounced Mariah), whose husband, William Henry Workman founded Boyle Heights in 1875, but much of that story has already been related elsewhere, while the story of the Lopez family has been underrepresented in the historical literature.

Meanwhile, Isabel Lopez went on to write a small book with Pasadena artist Eva Fenyes (whose residence is now the Pasadena Museum of History) called Thirty-Two Adobes of Early California, published by the Southwest Museum in 1950.  Isabel married Alphonse Fages of Pomona and resided in the Casa Alvarado, an 1841 adobe situated within a stone's throw of the original adobe of Concepcion Lopez de Palomares' Rancho San Jose home, which the couple bought in 1951.

As for "Hollenbeck Heights," its use as the replacement for Boyle Heights was entrenched enough for it to be used in this article, but within a short while, the latter term reemerged as the neighborhood name and has remained so since, though occasional calls for a new name have come along.

In any case, romantic and embellished as this article may be, it is a rare, detailed source of information about one of the first families to live in the Boyle Heights area.

Contribution by Paul R. Spitzzeri, Assistant Director, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry, California

The Boyle Heights and Hollenbeck Heights Controversy!

A recent question about when the name "Hollenbeck" was applied to the Los Angeles Police Department station in Boyle Heights led to an interesting aspect of the history of the neighborhood. 

First, a police station was contemplated for the community as far back as the mid-1890s, though it was a few years before one was opened.  It appears that it was called the "Boyle Heights Station" well into the 1920s.  The name "Hollenbeck," which was the name of an early investor and resident, John E. Hollenbeck, came in as part of a larger, controversial proposal: changing the name of the community.

This idea of changing the name of Boyle Heights is not limited to the 1920s.  For example, there have been calls to rename the neighborhood because of the name "Boyle," which reminds people of "boils"!  Others have argued that namesake Andrew Boyle lived so long ago (he died in 1871) that no one knows who he is and, that being the case, why not come up with a name of someone more familiar to modern Angelenos.

Whatever the merits of those and other arguments are, there was a serious movement to rename the community by 1922.  Late that year, an article appeared in the Los Angeles Times provocatively headlined "Boyle Heights in Arms" with the subheading of "Proposal to Change Name of Historic Section Rouses Protest From District's Citizens."

The article was put out in advance of a meeting to be held at the Boyle Heights Public Library the following evening under the auspices of the Boyle Heights Improvement Association (which likely had a strong interest in promoting business and commerce in the neighborhood), a committee of which, consisting of W. J. Miller, Dr. D. D. Edwards, and D. S. Valentine, considered alternative names, including "Roosevelt Heights," presumably in honor of the late president Theodore Roosevelt, who had died in 1919, and "Hollenbeck Heights," and perhaps others.  When the committee went public at a recent Improvement Association meeting with their suggestion of "Hollenbeck Heights," this was reported in the Times with caveat that "it is possible another name will be chosen in case the association with the approval of the citizens decides to take steps to have the name changed."

This is a page from a Baist's Real Estate Atlas dating to about the 1910s and shows a section of Boyle Heights a few years before a controversy erupted concerning a name change proposed by the Boyle Heights Improvement Association.  The area covered is roughly from 4th Street on the north to Whittier Boulevard (then called Stephenson) on the south and from Soto Street west to about Camulos on the east.  Click on the image to see it in an enlarged view in a separate window. Courtesy of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry.

As noted by the paper, members of the Native Sons of the Golden West, the Pioneer Society, and other like-minded organizations, planned to attend the confab at the library because they were "up in arms against the change in the name of this historic section of Los Angeles."  That is, if 45 years was historic enough, though the paper reported that proponents of keeping the name "Boyle Heights" for the "prominent citizens of Boyle Heights are vigorously protesting against the proposed change, pointing to the fact that" the existing name "has served well enough for the last sixty-five years."  Actually, the term "well enough" hardly seemed like an enthusiastic defense (and reminds of a campaign button issued for mayoral candidate Arthur C. Harper in the 1904 municipal elections and which read "He's Good Enough For Us."  Not only did the slogan lack zing, but Harper proved to be hardly good at all, being recalled a few years after his election!)

The defense, as outlined in the article, was based on the fact that Boyle was "the first American settler in the district" rather than, apparently, for any accomplishments or virtues he may have had.  For a community that was in the midst of a major demographic change in ethnic diversity, embracing larger numbers of Japanese, Blacks, Latinos, and other groups, this association may not have been as significant as it had been forty years before.  If anything, the Times piece extolled the specific virtues of Boyle's son-in-law and community founder, William H. Workman (whose photo, not Boyle's, accompanied the article.)

Curiously, the article ended with the statement that "in spite of the service rendered Boyle Heights and Los Angeles in general by the Boyles and Workmans  . . . it is proposed to change the name to one 'more in keeping' with the progress of that section."  Why the name "Hollenbeck Heights" was more symbolic of so-called "progress" than that of "Boyle Heights" went unexplained.  In any case, the piece concluded by observing that "a hot debate is promised for tomorrow."

On 14 November 1922, the Times duly followed up on the meeting with a piece titled "Eclipse on Boyle Heights" and a subhead of "Hollenbeck, as New Name for District, Obliterates Old Appellation by Turbulent 150-1 Vote."

Actually, the vote was not at all turbulent, as indicated by the overwhelming consensus in the final tally, the only naysayer being the widow of attorney Robert H. F. Variel, a prominent Boyle Heights resident.  There were, however, several impassioned speeches in defense of the name "Boyle Heights," including Andrew Boyle's grandson and namesake, Boyle Workman (a Los Angeles city councilman through most of the 1920s), Henry C. Lichtenberger of the city's Planning Commission, and Frank Dominguez of the noted Californio family who owned much of the South Bay area.  While Lichtenberger and Mrs. Variel were described as "making passionate pleas for the memory of Andrew Boyle, pioneer, and W. H. Workman, who originally owned all that land . . .," it appeared that Dominguez applied every rhetorical device known to humanking in his remarks.

The article was sure to note that "Mr. Dominguez waxed so eloquently that his rhetoric encompassed the towering mountains reaching unto imperial heaven, the shimmering ocean lapping against our fair shores, the chivalry and righteousness of our forefathers, the blood of our dead in France [during the late World War], and the glorious principles of civilization."  Alas, all the flowery and impassioned language was to no avail.

Speaking of language, the motion put forward to change the name (though the copy of the article found online was remarkably faint and hard to read) includes some laughable language.  For example, the motion stipulated that "whereas the name of Boyle occasioned ridicule and stimulated ribald thoughts in the impressionable mind . . . [and] it aroused thoughts of pimples" the name should be changed to something "more dignified" such as Hollenbeck Heights.  This was deemed necessary because the "ribald" name of Boyle "thereby proved to be a serious hardship to the development of the" community.

Notably, Dr. Edwards, one of the committee members promoting the name change, asked the assemblage whether any of the descendants of Andrew Boyle or William H. Workman live in Boyle Heights, which provoked, reported the paper, a "loud and naughty laughter."  Indeed, the Boyle/Workman descendants had only recently uprooted from their namesake community and transplanted themselves to the emerging desirable residential enclaves to the west of downtown, as many people had been doing as the "Westside" developed.  Edwards then mocked those who came in from other districts of the city to defend the early founders of Boyle Heights and suggested that a properly-inscribed monument be erected to them "and then change the name of Boyle."

Other comments and repartee were issued and recorded before the overwhelming standing vote was taken and Mrs. Variel was left alone to defend history and precedence, leaving the paper to remark that "the intruders could not vote" and, while they were a "gentlemanly, rhetorical opposition," they proved only to be "ardent, but voteless."

In coming years, there were occasional references to "Hollenbeck Heights," including an April 1924 Times article that addressed the fact that "the Hollenbeck Heights division" of the Los Angeles Police Department was "to be made the model police division of the city," according to Chief August Vollmer (a longtime chief in Berkeley, whose short stint in 1923-24 was terminated by his disgust at the corruption and hostility against the department from outsiders leading to his return to the Bay Area city he had left.)  In fact, Vollmer specifically referenced the systems he used in his previous job as to be implemented first at Hollenbeck Heights before being used elsewhere.  His resignation soon after, however, ended those plans.

In September 1926, a fascinating article that will be the subject of a later post on this blog was written by Isabel Lopez, descendant of the family that, in the Mexican era, settled what became Boyle Heights.  The piece was called "Hollenbeck Heights Once Was Home of Pioneer Aristocrats" and mentions the fact that the Spanish-language name for the area, El Paredon Blanco, or White Bluff, was "now known as Hollenbeck Heights."  The contents of the article awaits further discussion, but there were at least some people, including scions of the early Latino settlers of the area, who had accepted and used "Hollenbeck Heights" as the community's name.

Yet, the original name of Boyle Heights soon was revived.  When and how exactly that happened awaits further probing and poking . . . unless someone out there already knows and can leave a comment to this post about it.

Contribution by Paul R. Spitzzeri, Assistant Director, Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry, California.