Bunker Hill – Los Angeles, California – 1963
It’s spring, 1963 – a time of major transition on Bunker Hill – a once fashionable Victorian-era neighborhood in Los Angeles.
With the erector-set like skeleton of what was to become the most spectacular mid-century building in the city, the Department of Water and Power, as a dramatic backdrop, a woman immortalizes an old Victorian house across the street before the bulldozer arrives. In the meantime her husband tunes up their 1959 Triumph TR3. What a happy couple! They are members of the Long Beach Camera Club on an outing taking pictures on Bunker Hill.
By 1963, Bunker Hill’s old 1880s and 90s homes and hotels had become boarding houses for the not-so-fortunate crowd. Downtown redevelopment agencies saw it as an one big “tear-down” and the prime place to build the “new utopian” downtown Los Angeles. In a period of twenty or so years city leaders managed to virtually erase the cities oldest and most unique neighborhood and replace it with a “TOMORROWLAND” of skyscrapers and elevated sidewalks.
GOD BLESS AMERICANA and DOWNTOWNIANA
Regarding Bunker Hill; During the battle between historic preservationists and the developer, mysteriously one night a fire broke out and made the decision on development “convenient”. I remember the controversy over the Bunker Hill homes being torn down as a young girl. Many people worked to save the historic homes and tearful interviews regarding the tragedy on the local news. The proposed plan started with the Bunker Hill Towers. The glistening plans splashed through the LA Times. Suspected arson could not be proven although it sure teaches a lesson. Leave it to disrepair or arson and the plans can move through. Hopefully buildings that replace old ones will be of the quality that deem them nostalgic to the next generation.
From what I can tell from the visual landmarks in the photo…
It looks that the Music Center would be built later to her right…
Maybe there were still Victorians standing on that side for her to draw?…
Just saw this great movie on my new favorite channel “This” 5.2 on the
digital rabbit ears… It’s called “The Outside Man”, released in 1972 and the
opening credits are over a flyover of downtown and the new Music Center,
moving from south to north… Great shots of downtown before all the
skyscrapers but after they had leveled Bunker Hill so some large dirt lots show…
Too bad they didn’t save the Victorian homes! What a loss! I hope they were moved?
When I was a child, the downtown area was vibrant with shops and people walking about. When they developed Bunker Hill to “modernize it”, all they did was create a desolate downtown for the next 40 years. Now, they are desperatly trying to bring the same foot traffic and pizazz they had lost when they foolishly leveled the place. Sadly, many of the new ‘lofts’ are not priced so a family can afford them, and who wants to live there anyway? It is a ghost town at night. They swept away which would today be a great tourist attraction because of false claims of ‘blight’. The City of Los Angeles has been busy to attact tourist dollars since then while they destroyed an important link to their past.
They should have left those homes where they were. The City Officials in those days were complete idiots. Downtown L.A. could have had some charm like San Francisco.
Re Scott Mercer’s note: Actually, only two Bunker Hill houses–including the Queen Anne-style Donegan “Castle” at 323 South Bunker Hill Avenue–were carted to Heritage Square, and both were burned to the ground by vandals as soon as they arrived. Re Charles Phoenix’s photo, the couple is sitting on Flower Street near First, at the northwest corner of Bunker Hill.
A few of the buildings from Bunker Hill were moved to Heritage Square, a short ride away on the Gold Line train. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. I urge all Angelenos that haven’t been to Heritage Square to check it out.
I’m lost in wonder at your website. I can’t look away…it’s like watching a pleasant apocylypse
What a great picture, Im really interested in the painting that the women is holding, there used to be a old hotel on bunker hill. i lived on bunker hill when I was a child. I lived there with my grand mother and some of my cousins at the top of the steps. We also lived in one of the victorian houses at athe top of the street. Where the culdisac ended.
Great photo, thanks.
Frank Aguilar
original bunker hill resident
A lesson in urban redevelopment==had these old victorian structures been saved this district could have been a tourist attraction instead of giant skyscrapers. (I admit they are really impressive).