1976 (1975) (1977) (1970-1980) (1980-1990) Table of Contents
Richard Diebenkorn: Paintings and Drawings, 1943-1976, with essays by Robert T. Buck, Jr., Linda L. Cathcart, Gerald Nordland, and Maurice Tuchman. Albright-Knox Art Gallery: Buffalo, NY, 1976, 1970, 1967, 1966, 1955, See Text
David Clark L.A. On Foot: A Free Afternoon, Camaro Publishing: Los Angeles, 1976, 1927, 1926 See Text
George T. Hastings Trees of Santa Monica (Revised by Grace L. Heintz), Friends of the Santa Monica Library Committee for Trees of Santa Monica: Santa Monica, CA, (1981), 1976, 1956, 1944 See Text
Lawrence Lipton Bruno in Venice West and Other Poems, Venice West Publishers: Van Nuys, California, 1976, See Text
James W. Lunsford The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1976, 1900, 1894 See Text
Santa Monica Planning
Division Santa Monica Landmarks Tour,
2003.
32. Loof Hippodrome, 1916
33. Santa Monica Pier See
Text
Amanda
Schacter (ed.) Santa Monica Landmarks Santa Monica
Landmarks Commission, 1990.
8 Santa Monica Municipal Pier
See
Text
Jack Smith The Big Orange Ward
Ritchie Press: Pasadena, CA, 1976. 252 pp.
Sister Aimee's Temple, 1926,
1922
Venice 1906
Watts Towers 1959,
1923
Santa Monica 1933,
1928,
1900, 1875,
1869,
1769,
1542
See
Text
Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier: A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1976 See Text
Jodi Summers Days on the Market, 2 May 2003's Santa Monica Daily Press, 2003, 1976, 1913, 1911 See Text
2421Third 1976 See Image
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1976 See Text
Associated Sources:
Windward Avenue Sketches (1976) by Venice historian John "Dr. Video" Hunt, 2005
Featured Quote:
"Each day when Diebenkorn drives from his home to his studio down the coast, he follows the Pacific Coast Highway in West Los Angeles along the wide stretches of Santa Monica beachfront below the earthen cliffs. The mellow sparkle and soft golden richness of tone bestowed upon this landscape by the California sun are unique. Sam Francis, Diebenkorn's friend and neighbor, describes the effect of light in Los Angeles as "clean and even bright in haze" and he continues to prefer it to all other light he has worked in.
"The Ocean Parks are a staggering triumph on Diebenkorn's part, summarizing to date a career of concern to turn his experience, sensitivity to observation, and awareness of his immediate environment into a language of non-objective abstraction. The wash quality applied liberally in fields of blues and greens across the surface of many of the works and the wide field of golden color of others contribute to the impression that these paintings are celebrations of the California coast line, ocean and hills virtually at the artist's doorstep.
"The banding and marking-off of fields is also generally conceived to emphasize vertical format although no fixed linear system defines or predicts color. The large expanses of the loosely worked green and blue fields in Ocean Park No. 54, 60, 64, 66 and 88, built up over the luminous foundations of worked, white grounds are unmistakably conceived in the presence of the sea. The artist's new, recently completed studio near the location of the former one is nearer the ocean and from a back, open porch one can catch a glimpse of the languid, calm Pacific . . . Ocean Park No. 68 presents an unusual note in the series because of its horizontality and brilliant emerald tonalities. Diebenkorn has generally avoided the wide format, the expected horizontality of still life and landscape, in favor of the vertical one more receptive of tectonic concern and tighter space. Many earlier Ocean Parks such as No. 7, 10 and 27 refer to the land and earth in hues of amber and golden brown . . . Ocean Park No. 27, with its pronounced and solid structure, recalls the urban landscapes of the early sixties while Ocean Park No. 10's juxtaposition of both lively and inanimate greys conjures up scenes of brilliant sun breaking over the urban industrial zones of Los Angeles. . . . "
-Robert T. Buck, in Richard Diebenkorn pp. 42, 43-48 See Text
Documents
Richard Diebenkorn: Paintings and Drawings, 1943-1976, with essays by Robert T. Buck, Jr., Linda L. Cathcart, Gerald Nordland, and Maurice Tuchman. Albright-Knox Art Gallery: Buffalo, NY, 1976, 1970, 1967, 1966, 1955,
" . . .
"In October, 1966 Diebenkorn moved from Berkeley to assume a professorship in the art department at the University of California, Los Angles. He established a studio in a section of Santa Monica which takes its name from an amusement park called Ocean Park. The painting, Window, 1967 is one of the last representational paintings completed prior to the appearance of the new Ocean Park Series paintings, which has occupied the artist during the last nine years. . ." - Gerald Nordland, p. 40.
"Richard Diebenkorn's paintings are deeply affected by his immediate environment. "Temperamentally," Diebenkorn once said, "I have always been a landscape painter." . . .
". . . This is not to imply the simplistic and misleading formula that the environment shapes the aritst and hence, each move in the artist's life automatically caused stylistic change. . . .
"More recently in Los Angeles, Diebenkorn has created a series of large, reductive, non-objective abstractions combining a new interpretation of structural, formalistic concern with expressionistic and lyrical tendencies continually apparent in his work. The Ocean Park paintings, which the artist has worked on steadily since 1967, represent the most significant accomplishments of his career to this point and are among the major contributions of the past decade to contemporary American painting.
"These luminous and open works called the Ocean Park series by the painter after the section of Santa Monica where his studio is located, are nonetheless carefully controlled by superimosed linear structure, using both closed form and spontaneity into what the artist himself described in earlier years as "tension beneath calm." The works are the product of concern continually in evidence in Diebenkorn's work with added attention to surface, chromatic range, spatial definitions, luminosity, and resolutions of open and closed form.
" . . .
"The first Ocean Park paintings were created in 1967 and the painter has continued to work only in this mode. The origins of the Ocean Park paintings . . . lie in the vast and open landscapes of the American West. In 1970, a few years after moving to Los Angeles, itself carved out of arid land largely dependent on massive water control and irrigation from nearby mountain sources, Diebenkorn was invited by the U.S. Bureau of Water Reclamation to participate in a new program . . . to photograph systems of irrigation . . .
"It would be mistaken, however, to regard these flattened, richly worked linear compositions as only personal recapitulations of landscae by the painter, for the experience transcends this. . .
" . . . For a man who had grown suspicious in earlier years of his own dependence on 'gearing up' emotionally to get into each work, the previous transition in 1955 from abstraction to figuration had provided an immediate means of plunging into form and structure as compositional prerequisites. In the late sixties, any topical references is discarded once again with the Ocean Park paintings which, instead, result from the artist's full resolution of creative impulses, a blend of spontaneity and painterly qualities with a deepened sense of emerging structure and space. The analogy remains one of natural truths transfomed into personal ones.
" . . .
"The Ocean Park paintings depend crucially on the artist's ability to create an alliance - strike a balance - between structural concern and tonal, spatial illusion. Space is 'negotiated' in John Russells's apt term by definition and re-definition of the relationship of line and tonal field. And yet . . . the colors of Diebenkorn's lines and bars are notably ambiguous as well. The vestiges of figure-ground relationships remain in force though now the emphasis occurs in preserving the integrity of surface while wedding surface notation to spatial illusion within. The colors chosen for the linear elements tend to diminish or strengthen their structural role as Diebenkorn wishes while providing him with an important key with which he integrates pictorial elements with the total formal and spatial unity of the work.
" . . . Flatness . . . locates the works at a relatively fixed distance from us. Spatial illusion depends entirely upon Diebenkorn's masterful handling of luminosity emanating from deep within. . . . Diebenkorn's recent work has by-passed restrictions and limitations inherent to figure-ground relationships in favor of a "cumulative materiality," by which he contrasts form through varied densities. . . The experience of facture is purposely and prominently retained . . . frequent pentimenti . . . are left visible across the work and are integrated into the entire experience of its creation . . .
"The duration of the facture involved, witnessed in the open, honest character of the works, denies that art is a finished product, readied and presented as such to the consuming art world. . . . Sequences of numbers within the Ocean Park Series disappear, integrated into later works, nascent from the no longer surviving ancestors scraped off or painted over in order to begin afresh. . . .
"The types of spaces created in the works range alternatively from quite constricted to relatively open and unconstrained examples. . . . the Ocean Park paintings are not primarily about the formalism which helps created them but are more concerned with a harmony and integration of various elements of surface, space, luminosity and illusion of depth.
"Each day when Diebenkorn drives from his home to his studio down the coast, he follows the Pacific Coast Highway in West Los Angeles along the wide stretches of Santa Monica beachfront below the earthen cliffs. The mellow sparkle and soft golden richness of tone bestowed upon this landscape by the California sun are unique. Sam Francis, Diebenkorn's friend and neighbor, describes the effect of light in Los Angeles as "clean and even bright in haze" and he continues to prefer it to all other light he has worked in.
"The Ocean Parks are a staggering triumph on Diebenkorn's part, summarizing to date a career of concern to turn his experience, sensitivity to observation, and awareness of his immediate environment into a language of non-objective abstraction. The wash quality applied liberally in fields of blues and greens across the surface of many of the works and the wide field of golden color of others contribute to the impression that these paintings are celebrations of the California coast line, ocean and hills virtually at the artist's doorstep.
"The banding and marking -off of fields is also generally conceived to emphasize vertical format although no fixed linear system defines or predicts color. The large expanses of the loosely worked green and blue fields in Ocean Park No. 54, 60, 64, 66 and 88, built up over the luminous foundations of worked, white grounds are unmistakably conceived in the presence of the sea. The artist's new, recently completed studio near the location of the former one is nearer the ocean and from a back, open porch one can catch a glimpse of the languid, calm Pacific . . . Ocean Park No. 68 presents an unusual note in the series because of its horizontality and brilliant emerald tonalities. Diebenkorn has generally avoided the wide format, the expected horizontality of still life and landscape, in favor of the vertical one more receptive of tectonic concern and tighter space. Many earlier Ocean Parks such as No. 7, 10 and 27 refer to the land and earth in hues of amber and golden brown . . . Ocean Park No. 27, with its pronounced and solid structure, recalls the urban landscapes of the early sixties while Ocean Park No. 10's juxtaposition of both lively and inanimate greys conjures up scenes of brilliant sun breaking over the urban industrial zones of Los Angeles. . . . " -Robert T. Buck. pp. 42, 43 - 48 (Back to Sources)
David Clark L.A. On Foot: A Free Afternoon, Camaro Publishing: Los Angeles, 1976, 1927 1926
This was a city of heretics . . . a city of refugees from America; it was purely itself in a banishment partly dreamed and partly real.--Frank Fenton A Place in the Sun p. 26
2 Venice
"Three miles of canals, some decaying Italian architecture, and the name "Venice" are the last remnants of the fantastic dream of a tobacco magnate who wanted to create the Riviera of the American West. For decades Venice has been the traditional haven of Los Angeles nonconformity (nonconformity in ouur city is no easy feat; it's hard to find any standards to rebel against). Today the area is threatened in its role as a refuge for social exiles by the encroaching affluence of Marina del Rey.
"Starting point: Ocean Front Walk and Rose Ave., Venice.
"NOTE: This tour may be taken either on foot or by bicycle. Ocean Front Walk abounds in bike rental stores which are open on weekends.
"Directions: From downtown L.A. take the Santa Monica Freeway west to Lincoln Blvd., then right (west) on Pico Blvd., and left (south) on Neilson Way. Proceed south on Neilson as it changes into Pacific, then turn right (west) on Rose Ave. and park your car. Walk west to Ocean Front." p. 27
"You are now at the site of the mysterious disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson on May 18, 1926. Sister Aimee is the shining symbol of our city, with all its flamboyance, brashness and Culture of Eccentricity. If Chicago is the Hog Butcher of the Nation, tempting farm boys under the gaslights, then L.A. is its Faith Healer, the City of the Second Chance. Sister Aimee led the way with a brand of religion denounced by traditionalists as "supernatural whoopee." Most Angelenos agreed with Harper's Magazine in 1927 that she provided "the best show in town," and her Angelus Temple in Echo Park, seating five thousand, was a "must" item on the agenda of every tourist.
"Aimee created a charismatic faith to match the new competition of radio and movies. Thompson Eade, a former vaudevillian who told me that he had been miraculously cured of shell shock by Aimee, designed a giant stage on which sermons became panoramas. The stage set might show the destruction of the world in flames and believers crossing over into heaven, or Aimee would chase a band of devils wearing horns and tails (representing her enemies) around the stage with a pitchfork. On one occasion she roared onto the stage on a motorcycle in a traffic cop's uniform, jumped off the cycle and shouted, "Stop in the name of the Lord!" Her message was positive, never dwelling upon divine punishment and retribution. Many Protestant ministers resented her for taking away many of their parishioners, and labelled her services, a "sensous debauch." When Aimee led a crusade in London, these ministers sent a delegation to warn the British of "her tendency to induce insanity in her audiences." p. 28
"Sister Aimee's controversial career hit its peak when she disappeared from Ocean Park Beach, where you now stand, after leaving her room at the Ocean View Hotel, the large white building at the corner of Rose Ave. and Ocean Front Walk. Los Angeles went wild with panic at the news. Thousands, hoping for her return, kept a continuous prayer vigil at the beach. Her mother announced that she had ascended into heaven, to sit among the angels. but on June 23 she suddenly appeared at the Mexican border, with the story that she had been kidnapped by two miscreants named Jake and Mexicali Rose, and had escaped when they were drunk. The largest crowd ever to greet a public figure in L.A. turned out for her return, including the entire Fire Department (which she had converted) and the Mayor and the City Council.
"Skepticism was soon expressed, however, by reporters who noted that her flight across the desert had left her shoes unscuffed and her skin unburned. (I have interviewed one of first men to seee Aimee when she appeared at the border. He stated that she did not seem to have been through a long desert ordeal.) Aimee answered that neither had Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego been touched by the flames of the fiery furnace. The most often-repeated explanation was that she had been in a "love nest" in Carmel with the handsome radio operator of her church, but this was never proven. Recently, Milton Berle, in his autobiography, claimed to have had an affair with her. . . . What is far more certain is that she fed over one and one-half million people during the Depression, providing the only aid mission in L.A. where food, clothing and shelter were given with no questions asked and no red tape. Throughout the '20s and '30s, when Christianity was the third largest industry in Los Angeles after the movie industry and real estate, she gave hope and entertainment to many." p.30
"Ocean Park Pier and Lick Pier formerly stood north of Rose Ave. At various time they held the Casino Gardens of Tommy Dorsey, the Aragon Ballroom, home of Lawrence Welk and champagne schmaltz, and Pacific Ocean Park. During the early 1900s the Pacific Electric streetcar line, then the best urban transit system in the U.S., took only thirty minutes to reach Venice beach from central L.A. (most of the area in-between was empty for the total L.A. population was only 112, 000, approximately that of Santa Monica today. The beach piers were then the carnival center of Loas Angeles, filled with freak shows, thrill rides and ballyhoo. During the '30s luxury liners converted into gambling casinos floated off the coast just beyond the three-mile limit. In 1938, Attorney General Earl Warren rode out in a motor boat and shut them down.
"You will encounter many elderly Jewish residents in this area who lived in Eastern Europe until forced to flee from wars and pogroms. Many were radicals in their youth, including a few Russian revolutionaries exiled to Siberia by the Tsar. One such revolutionary was Pinches Korolsky who later founded Karl's Shoes. . . . Even on the hottest days they wear formal clothing, and their conversations are a combination of English and Yiddish. But L.A. is the city of violent contrasts. Bare-midriffed girls, surfers, and an Indian swami selling both incense and Jesus postcards stroll beside men and women born in nineteenth-century Vienna. A poet ranting about the problems of his sex life draws a crowd, and a blues guitarist sings, "Nobody ever loved me but my mother, and she might have been jivin' too."" pp. 30 and 31
"As you pass Dudley Avenue and the His Way Building, a group of 15-year-old God-Squadders may try to save you from the fires of hell. The Hare Krishna people are a little more up-beat with their message as they dance around, chanting and ringing cymbals. Their standard pitch is, "Wanna buy some incense? I'm trying to get to India."
"Directions: Continue south on Ocean Front Walk to Brooks Ave.
"After passing old people feeding the pigeons and couples walking their dogs by bicycle, turn left at Brooks to see the "mirror Image." On the side of a building about two hundred feet up the street a gigantic painting exactly duplicates the scene behind you. This work was the first effort of the L.A. Fine Arts Squad, done to attract public attention to the talents of a group of starving painters. Their latest work, The Isle of California, located at Santa Monica Blvd. and Butler Avenue in Santa Monica, took over a year to complete. It depicts a sheared-off highway at the California - Arizona border, the aftermath of a cataclysmic earthquake. One little island is all that remains of the state of California.
{Note that even for figurative painters the landscape remains an object of the imagination, malleable, fertile, manipulatible, illusionistic, imposing, assertible, or vice versa ; there is the Venice Beach in the Snow past Windward near the paddle tennis courts which pictures the corner of Brooks Ave. and Ocean Front Walk; and there was a proposal to paint out a Sacramento building from all sides.kr}
"Except for the mural, the neighborhood around Brooks Avenue has definitely seen better days." p. 31
". . .
"Directions to Santa Monica Pier: Take Rose Ave. east to Pacific and drive north. Pacific will change into Neilson Way, and then into Ocean Ave. after Pico Blvd. Continue north to Colorado Ave. and park your car. The pier is at the end of Colorado Ave. Instead of driving, you could walk or bicycle up the beach to the pier.
"Pico Blvd. is named for Pio Pico, the last Mexican Governor of California. In 1920, Donald Douglas began his aircraft business in the backroom of a barber shop on Pico Blvd. By 1942 the aircraft industry employed over one-third of all the factory workers in Los Angeles.
"The outlandish building ahead houses a real old-fashioned merry-go-round. The Wurlitzer calliope here has been playing continuously since 1898. The horses are all hand-carved, and each one is different. You may recognize the merry-go-round building as the hide-out of Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the film The Sting." p. 38
"Looking north two miles from the pier, at the mouth of Potrero Canyon, the line of rocks jutting out from the beach is all that remains of the longest and largest wharf in the world. It was built in 1891 by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in an attempt to turn Santa Monica Bay into "Port Los Angeles." In addition, the Southern Pacific intended to monopolize L.A.'s ocean trade, for the beach was only wide enough for the one railroad line which the S.P. owned. By this time, however, L.A. was aware of and embittered by the high-handed practices of the Southern Pacific and its principal owner, Collis Huntington. The Company had charged L.A. a king's ransom to be connected to their line; the price included five percent of the assessed value of all property in Los Angeles. . . . . When the City Council protested the extremely high freight rates and monopolistic tactics, Southern Pacific partner Charles Crocker (who founded the California-based bank) threatened to "make the grass grow in the streets of your city." Eventually, Los Angeles succeeded in defeating Collis Huntington in Congress and secured the San Pedro Harbor, where different lines would compete. . . . " p. 41 (Back to Sources)
Frank Gehry Santa Monica Place Proposal
(Back to Sources)
"Santa Monica is versatile both in the numbers and the kinds of its trees. Early growers and developers planted many, especially north of Wilshire. Later nurserymen and private collectors vied with each other in introducing unusual species which enriched an already significant plant palette. The City itself did not get into tree planting until quite late, 1952 to be exact, and while its selection is somewhat limited due to narrow parkways and widening streets, there are many fine new trees, particularly where none existed. This policy, plus the horticultural interest of home owners, has produced a notable result.
"The trees described here-in, far from being a complete list of those growing in Santa Monica, are only the ones along the streets or easily seen from the street. Less visible subjects, some equally fine or better, are not included. The purpose of this selection is to identify specimens everyone can see in each section of the city, and to suggest the special neighborhood character that only trees can impart.
"As the more interested readers follow the revision they will note that some subjects reported will have disappeared before the book is in print. This may well emphasize one significant facet of our bicentennial year-the vital need to preserve and augment our living environment."
In Appreciation:
[George T. Hastings [1875-1964] was born in 1875 and graduated from Cornell University in 1898, where he was probably influenced by Liberty Hyde Bailey, a significant Horticultural and Plant Taxonomist. After graduation, Hastings taught in Chile, and then returned to the Philadelphia Museum of Natural History, and then several New York high schools. He came to California in 1941 because of his asthma and took up residence in the 800 block of Euclid. He founded the Santa Monica Nature Club. His first edition of Trees of Santa Monica was published in 1944, second edition in 1956. On Oct. 10th, 1963 on his 88th birthday, a plaque was unveiled in his honor in Palisades Park.]
Acknowledgements:
" . . . "
Where Our Trees Came From
"A glance at the map on the following page shows that our treees have come from all around the world, chiefly from subtropical and warm temperate regions, with more from Australia than any other region. Comparatively few of those commonly planted are natives of our own state, so that we seem to neglect these in favor of ones introduced from foreign lands. Of trees native to California that we see in our city the Monterey Pine, Monterey Cypress, California Fan Palm and California Sycamore are ones most often grown. Other Californians are Torrey Pine, Coast Live Oak, Incense Cedar, Coast Redwod, Big-leaf Maple Toyon and such small trees as Catalina Cherry and Laurel Sumac. One or two specimens of the Big Tree-Sequoia gigantea-may be found."
" . . ."
Palisades Park:
"Palisades Park is not as old as the city but comes close. What is now the park was given to the city in 1895 by Senator Jones and Mrs. Arcadia de Baker. This mile and a half strip of cliff-top has been effectively planted with trees, shrubs and flowering plants. The project was started by Mr. Edward H. Sweetser, who, as Park Commissioner in 1908 stipulated that his salary be spent for trees for the park. . . .
" . . ."
City Hall:
"Balanced symmetry is the keynote in plantings at the City Hall.
"Along the street curb in front grows a line of Podocarpus macrophylla var. maki. In the lawn north of the rear parking entrance near the bridge over the freeway, stands a magnificent clump of Yucca elephantipes. A row of Washingtonia robusta (Mexican Fan Palm) lines the crest of the freeway cut. Farther back in the parking lot north of the building are three Canary Island Date Palms (Phoenix canariensis). Three Carobs (Ceratonia siliqua) line the south side of the parking lot. A bunya-bunya (Araucaria bidwillii) stands at the northwest corner of the building. Along the north wall are Yew pines (Podocarpus macrophylla), with Bird-of-Paradise (Streilitzia reginae) and a bank of Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa).
"The western facade has matching quintets of Windmill Palms (Trachycarpus fortunei), and four fine Hollywood Junipers (Juniperus chinensis "Kaizuka') flank the main entrance, matched by an equally happy pair at the street end of the entrance walkway. Along the south face of the building are more Yew pines, compact trees with slender leaves four to five inches long, Bird-of-Paradise with conspicuous orange and blue flowers; New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax), with six-foot sword-like leaves, Green Dracena (Cordyline australis); and very tall Mexican Fan Palms. Carobs line the border of the parking lot, between the lot and the street are two elegant clumps of Senegal Date Palms (Phoenix reclinata) and a small Olive tree (Olea europaea).
Santa Monica County Building
"Along the north side of the County Building are five luxuriant Rubber Trees (Ficus elastica 'Decora') and in the planters two Mahonia lomariifolia. At the northwest corner stands a group of Windmill Palms (Trachycarpus fortunei). Along the west-facing facade are, from north to south, three Canary Island Pines, a group of Yucca, a small grouping of Mediterranean Fan Palms (Chamaerops humilis), and four more Windmill Palms. In the recess of the north entrance is a remarkably fine Tupidanthus calyptratus which closely resembles the other Umbrella Tree (Brassaia actinophylla). Beyond is a Fern Pine (Podocarpus gracilior) and more Chamaerops.
"The main western facade presents from the north a trio of taller Windmill Palms, clusters of lower Chamaerops, and groups of Yucca. In the raised planter at the main entrance grow a Mahonia lomariifolia and three dainty Pygmy Date Palms (Phoenix roebelenii). More Mahonias stand beside the walk.
"Across the lawn in front of the building is a row of Rusty-leaf Figs (Ficus rubiginosa). The raised planter near the flagpole has a cluster of Yuccas and Chamaerops. The two planters flanking the steps in front contain Hollywood Junipers and Chameaerops humilis.
"The western face of the south wing has a grouping of four pines (Pinus carnariensis), and at the southwest corner, several Windmill Palms.
"North of the flagpole near the entrance to the parking lot serving the County Building and the Auditorium is a trio of California Fan Palms (Washingtonia filifera) with sturdy, stout trunks; east of the flagpole, at the end of the divider between the two main sections of the parking lot, is a trio of Mexican Fan Palms (Washingtonia robusta) with their very tall, slender, graceful trunks. Eastward along the same divider are large bushes of Myoporum, then Pittosporum undulatum and Ribbon Gum (Eucalyptus viminalis).
Rand Corporation
"In the freeway to the west of the Main Street overpass, Lombardy Poplars (Populus nigra 'Italica') grow at the foot of the slope against the fence; and midway on the slope stands a lone Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa). Several Canary Island Date Palms (Phoenix canariensis) and Queen Palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana) stand near the street in the northeastern corner of the parking lot. The trees along nearby Main Street are Podocarpus macrophylla var. maki. The northern parking lot is lined with Oleanders (Nerium oleander), Mexican Fan Palms (Washingtonia robusta), Catalina Cherry (Prunus lyonii), and more Canary Island Date Palms. The most striking tree in the area is a Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla) with large, leathery leaves, and roots conspicuously buttressed. There is also a Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus), and a Silk Oak (Grevillea robusta). Farther west and part way down the bank grow two Bushy Yate Trees (Eucalyptus lehmannii) which in flower seem to have green moss growing out of the stems. These are the stamens which are clumped together. The fruit will be clumped also; it sometimes clings to the trunk in a most curious fashion.
"In the northwest corner, next to the freeway cut, are two small Monterey Pines (Pinus radiata) which seem quite unhappy there. Young Mexican Fan Palms have been planted as the curb tree along Ocean Avenue along the western edge. The islands in the parking lot are planted with Indian Laurel Figs while against the north side of the building are Snail Seed Trees (Cocculus laurifolius), with three-veined leaves. Next are more Indian Laurel Figs. The larger multi-trunk tree is Ficus rubiginosa var. australis. These are called Rusty-leaf Figs but this variety has almost no tomentum under the leaves. In the planters on the north side of the eastern end of the underpass are seven small graceful Pygmy Date Palms (Phoenix roebelenii) and two Fern Pines (Podocarpus gracilor), together with three tree ferns. On the southern side of the underpass, from west to east are a Mexican Fan Palm, seven King Palms (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana), two Fern Pines, more Mexican Fan Palms, one little Cycad (Cycad revoluta), a large leafed Phildendron, and eight clumps of Bird-of-Paradise Trees (Strelitzia nicoli). Farther northeast are several Indian Laurel Figs and toward the corner seven Cordyline and a lone Magnolia.
"Near Main Street are five Ficus rubiginosa var. australis (again note the lack of tomentum on the underside). The main east facade of the Rand building complex has large clumps of Bird-of-Paradise at the north, and at the entrance, two Mexican Fan Palms, more arborescent Philodendron, and more Bird-of-Paradise Trees. Farther south are Rusty-leaf Figs.
"Opposite the County Building stands a row of Kaffir Plums (Harpephyllum caffrum) with one lone Brazilian Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius) near the south end.
"The south parking lot contains two species of Coral Trees, both Erthrina. Those in the northern part nearest to the building are E. caffra, a South African tree, with lightish bark and burnt-orange flowers that are quite expanded. The others, largely situated in the southern part of the the lot, are a Mexican species, E. coralloides; they have a darker, more twisted trunk and bright red flowers that are never as expanded as their neighbors. The leaves of E. coralloides are less glossy than those of E. caffra, and the stems of the former possess weak spines on their undersides, while the leaf stem of E. caffra is spineless. A hedge of Myoporum serves as a windbreak along the western edge of the parking lot.
Municipal Auditorium:
"On the northwest, near the stret and the entrance to the parking lot, is a group of Senegal Date Palms (Phoenix reclinata). At the northwest corner of the building is a cluster of small Mexican Fan Palms (Washingtonia robusta), while closer to the street is a Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata), and closer to the announcement board is a Green Dracena (Cordyline australis). Near the box office is a Hollywood Juniper (Juniperus chinensis 'Kaizuka'), and a large planting of stemless Yucca. The low shrub along the front is a purple-flowering evergreen, Hebe.
"Around the corner near the delivery entrance are two Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). The nearby hedge perpendicular to the street is composed of Tobira (Pittosporum tobira) while its continuation southwards parallel to the street contains Karo (Pittospoum crassifolium), a tall shrub or tree with gray-green leaves, and at the base Rhaphiolepis indica (India Hawthorn) with finely saw-toothed leaf margins. Closer to Pico one may see several shrubby Myoporum, some Oleander, and Escallonia rubra with dark red tubular flowers. Within the hedge grows a single Canary Island Date Palm and a Mexican Fan Palm.
"Across the north side of the Auditorium, from the nothwest corner towards the main entrance, occur in succession: Hollywood Juniper; Japanese Aralia (Fatsia japonica); Bird-of-Paradise Tree with its flattened stalks and with flowers each with a dark blue tongue; and the aborescent Philodendron selloum with huge, deeply divided glossy dark green leaves. Beyond the entrance is Griselinia lucida, with glossy rounded leaves.
"The huge tree near the Conference Room is a Coral (Erythrina coralloides). At the northwest corner of the Conference Room is a hedge-like planting of Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa) interspersed with Weeping Bottlebrush. Along the east wall is Tobira, and Viburnum japonicum, as well as Viburnum suspensum which has hanging flowers with a tubular corolla and somewhat warty stems. Two evergreen pear trees (Pyrus kawakami) flank the driveway near the stage entrance. At the entrance are three Mexican Fan Palms, Hibiscus, Aralia and several unclipped bushes of Viburnum japonicum. Parallel to Pico east of the entrance driveway are three Canary Island Date Palms rising above a shrubby border of India Hawthorn, Oleander, Carob, and Tobira.
"In the parking lot divider east of the Auditorium grows a row of New Zealand Christmas Trees (Metrosideros excelsa) with two Myoporum at the north end.
High School
"Proceed along Pico from 4th St. The first trees seen are along the girl's gym and are Eucalyptus citriodora, the lemon-scented Gum with its smooth almost while bark which can be quite dark and reddish at shedding time. The shrubs are Pittosporum tobira 'Variegata' with green and white varigated leaves, and Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa) a member of the dogbane family that has edible fruit. The small trees are Queensland Pittosporum (P. rhombifolium). Turn the corner to the left at the Girl's Gym and on the right are: two Canary Island Pines, three Redwood Trees, and a Karo with gray foliage. The very tall trees there are Torrey Pines (Pinus torreyana) which have five stiff long needles. These are native to the San Diego Coast and are rare here in the city. Near the amphitheatre is a large Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus) with several small ones in the clump near by.
"At the Boy's Gym is another Torrey Pine then many Canary Island Pines. The trees that are not Pines are Liquidambar (L. styraciflua) also called Sweet Gum. The shrub along the west wall of the rehearsal room is Snail Seed (Cocculus laurifolius) with interesting three-veined leaves. Follow the walk going east, the large Eucalyptus with the pendant branches is a Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis). Just beyond are three Lemon-scented Gums, while against the rear wall of Barnum Hall are more Snail Seed.
"Turn south at the eastern end of the amphitheatre; the tree to the right is Magnolia grandiflora while to the left is more Canary Island Pine, then three Indian Laurel Figs (Ficus microcarpa) whose leaves are more rounded than those of Ficus microcarpa nitida, some Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica) in planters, and a row of Jacaranda. To the south of the diagonal walk near the rest area are four Evergreen Pear (Pyrus kawakami), and two Canary Island Pines. At each end of the bench is a well trimmed Eugenia (Syzygium paniculatum). The large tree with the stiffly rigid leaves is a Bunya-bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), while the two trees with the red fruit are Strawberry Trees (Arbutus unedo). The fruit is edible but rather insipid. Also there: a large Blue Gum, two Aleppo Pines (Pinus halepensis), a Coral (Erythrina caffra) with burnt orange flowers, two rather sad California Bay, and a lovely Grecian Laurel (Laurel nobilis) with striated bark in grays shading from light to dark. Beyond are two sycamores while along the upper walk on the inner side is a row of Sweet Shade (Hymenosporum flavum) which is a near relative of the Pittosporums and whose flowers have similar characteristics.
"Go out to Pico and enter again at 6th St. The large feather palms to be seen are Canary Island Palms. The large trunked Fan Palm is Washingtonia filifera, a California native. To the left are clumps of Bamboo while the nicely trimmed trees are Indian Laurel Fig (Ficus microcarpa nitida) which lends itself to such treatment. To the right are dark green twisted trees, Hollywood Juniper (Juniperus chinesis 'kaizuka'). Against the wall near the History Building grow Jacarandas. The four fig trees in planters near the Administration Building are the Rusty-leaf Fig (Ficus rubiginosa). On the left is a Monterey Pine with needles in three. On the lawn near the Business Building are two Ash. Against the History Building is a well trimmed hedge; the taller shrubs are Eugenia, the shorter dark ones are Viburnum while flanking the door on each side is Abelia grandiflora with white tubular flowers, and reddish sepals that look like petals. Nestled in a corner where the wall and Business building join is a purple-flowered shrub, Solanum rantonnetii.
"At the north end of Barnum Hall is a Desert Gum (Eucalyptus rudis) and Carob Trees. Across the walk toward the tennis courts are two Brisbane Box (Tristania conferta) with red bark peeling to show a gray to bright green beneath. Primrose Trees (Lagunaria patersonii) are seen along the tennis court. In the center turn around is an Olive (Olea europaea). Turn now toward Michigan, first is Coral (Erythrina caffra), to the right is a row of Oleander. The large trees in the planters are Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla). At the Technical Building are two rows of Ficus rubiginosa, (note the much darker one in their midst). On the right is a row of Red Gum followed by Carob.
"At 7th Street is Pittosporum undulatum whose leaves are wavy along the edge; a couple of Strawberry Trees; Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia); the white flowering shrub is privet (Ligustrum japonicum) whose flowers have only two stamens as do all members of the Olive family. Nearer the building is a Monterey Pine.
"Continue south. All the young, light green, two-needled pine near the Art Building are Aleppo (Pinus halepensis). The tall tree standing alone is a nut tree tentatively identified as a Pecan (Carya illinoinensis). Fruit which would quickly verify it has not been seen. The small tree to the west is a Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia). In the front of the English Building are two Dragon Trees (Dracaena draco).
"In the cluster at 7th and Pico are: first Toyon, then Japanesse Pittosporum (P. tobira), then more Strawberry, Carob, a Blackwood Acacia, a Torrey Pine with its five stiff needles, and a very large old Pink Melaleuca (M. nesophila). Nearer the building is Queensland Pittosporum (P. rhombifolium).
"Growing along the Pico side of the Library and Languages Building are: young Monterey Pine (to know it in its mature state check 14th Street), Melaleuca quinquenervia with spongy paper-like bark. The trees with leaves in a flat plane are a cross between Monterey Cypress and Alaska Yellow Cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis). It more closely resembles its Chamaecyparis parent with its flat leaf sprays, and grows rapidly in youth. Beyond are more young Monterey Pines.
Street Index to The Trees of Santa Monica
Additional Street Trees
Lawrence Lipton Bruno in Venice West and Other Poems, Venice West Publishers: Van Nuys, California, 1976
" . . .
" I should mention that the poems in this volume were selected and arranged by Lawrence Liption in 1974, the year before his death.-Nettie Lipton"
"The poems in this volume are a selection from the work of Lawrence Lipton since the 1930's. They reveal not only his gift for acid satire, but his love of jazz, of the spoken word in poetry, of people. If Lawrence Lipton is a pathologist of American culture, and pitilesss to corrupt institutions and to "Senator, preacher President teacher robber liar killer panderer general thief," he is no less a renaissance man, having lived through half-a-dozen renaissances, as he has said, from Greenwich Village and Chicago to Venice, California. Still, he speaks to the future now as always- . . . "
"Lawrence Lipton is the author of The Holy Barbarians, The Erotic Revolution, a volume of poems, Rainbow at Midnight, several novels, and a forthcoming autobiography. He was the voice of Radio Free America, the weekly column in the Los Angeles Free Press for some eight years and directed its Living Arts Supplement."
James W. Lunsford The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1976, 1900, 1894
Ocean Park
"32. Chronicle Restaurant, 2624 Main Street. A gourmet restaurant in a restored Victorian house that was formerly located at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Washington. Built about 1900 and once known as the Kyte House, in 1976 it was moved to its present location along with the adjoining Roy Jones House to form Heritage Square.
"33. Roy Jones House, 2620 Main Street. An 1894 Victorian house originally the home of Roy Jones, nephew of Senator John P. Jones, it was moved in 1976 from its initial location at 1007 Ocean Avenue and is now a public museum operated by the Heritage Square Museum Society.
"34. Mural, Early Ocean Park Scene, southeast corner of Main and Ocean Park. Probably one of the most recognizable murals in the city, it was painted in 1976 by Jane Golden and sponsored by Citywide Mural Projects."
"63. Mural, John Muir Woods, northwest corner of Lincoln and Ocean Park. A two-panel mural, fronting two sides of the John Muir Auditorium, depicts forests, mountains and streams; it was painted by Jane Golden in 1976."
Santa Monica Planning Division Santa Monica Landmarks Tour, 2003.
32. Loof Hippodrome, 1916
Foot of Colorado Avenue
Architects: various builders
Designation: 17 August 1976
"The Hippodrome is a California-Byzantine-Moorish-style fantasy that has housed a succession of vintage merry-go-rounds, carousels and Wurlitzer organs over the years. The current carousel was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1922. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, the carousel was moved from the Venice pier to the Santa Monica Pier in 1947. It has 44 hand-carved and hand-painted wooden horses, which were restored in 1990.
"The Hippodrome building was restored during the period from 1981 through 1984, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987."
33. Santa Monica Pier
Foot of Colorado Avenue
Architect: Charles Looff {?}
Designation: 17 August 1976
"The Pier is California's oldest pleasure pier and has the only amusement park on a pier on the west coast. It was originally two separately owned, adjacent piers: the Municipal Pier built in 1909, and the Pleasure Pier, built in 1916 by Charles Looff. Looff said he chose this location because Santa Monica beach "is well-known as one of the finest on the Pacific Coast, it attracts the highest class of people, and transportation facilities are unequaled." Looff was a pioneer amusement entrepreneur who had built Coney Island's first carousel in Brooklyn, New York. In 1909, Looff moved his operation to Long Beach, after realizing the potential for amusement parks along the Southern Californian coastline.
"While the Municipal Pier was for strolling and fishing, Looff constructed amusement and food establishments on the Pleasure Pier, including the exotic Hippodrome building to house the Pier's carousel. Looff sold the Pleasure Pier in 1924 to a corporation which lengthened it that year and built the famed La Monica Ballroom, which soon became home of some of the earliest national radio and television broadcasts. Although the ballroom was demolished in 1963, in its heyday the massive structure could accomodate as many as 10,000 people.
"In 1953, the City took over the Pleasure Pier and leased it to a private operator. Since the 1970s, the Piers have been known collectively as the Santa Monica Pier. The entire Pier was named a County Historical Landmark in 1975. After the 1983 storms that destroyed the west end of the Santa Monica Pier, the structure of the Pier was strengthened." (Back to Sources)
Amanda Schacter (ed.) Santa Monica Landmarks Santa Monica Landmarks Commission, 1990.
8 Santa Monica Municipal Pier
West end of Colorado Boulevard
Built: 1909, 1917, 1924
Designated 17 August 1976
"The Santa Monica Pier was originally two separately owned, adjacent piers: the Municipal Pier built in 1909, and the Pleasure Pier, built in 1916 by Charles I.D. Loof and privately owned. While the Municipal Pier was for strolling and fishing, Loof constructed amusement and food establishments on the Pleasure Pier, including the exotic Hippodrome building to house the Pier's carousel. Loof sold the Pleasure Pier in 1924 to a corporation which lengthened it that year and built the famed La Monica Ballroom. Although the ballroom was demolished in 1963, in its hey (sic) day the massive structure could accommodate as many as 10,000 people. The City has owned both Piers since the 1950's and, in 1970, assumed direct management. Since the 1970's the Piers have been known collectively as the Santa Monica Pier.
"The Hippodrome has housed three carousels over the years. The first carousel, installed by Loof, remained until 1939, when it was replaced by a carousel that had previously been located at the old Pacific Ocean Park Pier. The current carousel was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1922 and was moved from Nashville, Tennessee to the Santa Monica Pier in 1947. The Hippodrome building was designated a National Historica Landmark in 1988. In addition, the entire Pier was named a County Historical Landmark in 1975.
"Other buildings of interest on the Pier include the Billiard Building, constructed on the the Pier in 1923, and the building know today as Sinbad's, originally constructed next to the Billiard Building in the early 1920s. The building remained there until 1929, when it was moved to its present location, adjacent to the site of the La Monica Ballroom. It served as the home of the La Monica Dancing Company and Hoyt's Chesapeake Cafe until the use changed in 1955 to "Sinbad's" restaurant." (Back to Sources)
Jack Smith The Big Orange Ward Ritchie Press: Pasadena, CA, 1976. 252 pp.
Sister Aimee's Temple
"Angelus Temple
Aimee Semple McPherson
Founder
Church of the Foursquare Gospel"
"Gaudy and notorious she was, but Sister Aimee was also adored by tens of thousands of her followers as the personal handmaiden of God. As an evangelist she was bold, inventive, tireless and courageous, and these were qualities that served her with abundance in the great crisis of her life.
"Sister Aimee was born in rural Canada . . ." p.42
" I sometimes look back upon those years with amazement, and wonder just how the Lord enabled me to go into new cities, without even an invitation or any earthly backing, search out a piece of vacant land, erect a tabernacle, swing the sledge hammer, drive the stakes, tie the ropes, build the seats, erect the platform, distribute handbills on the streets and paste posters in the windows, hold several street meetings each day and conduct two or three tent services, play the piano and lead my own singing between each testimony, lead in prayer, preach the Gospel, give the altar call, pray for the converts, dismiss them, put out the lights, put the babies to bed and cook our own late supper over the campfire . . . " p. 43 quote from Aimee
"If it was this tranquility that drew Sister Aimee to Echo Park, she was soon enough to shatter it. Here, in 1922, she built her temple, with seats for five thousand, and added a Bible school and the chateau and started radio station KFSG (Kall Four Square Gospel) with the third radio license ever issued in Los Angeles. . . . services . . . featured Sousa's band, a Wagnerian opera and the burning of Joan of Arc.
"Angels descended. Cardboard waves crashed against cardboard lighthouses. The Devil appeared in person. Heaven and Hell were rolled in from the wings. And the singing, wrote a contemporary critic, was 'stupendous, cataclysmic, overwhelming.'" p.43
"{Her severest trial} began on May 18, 1926, the day Aimee Semple McPherson vanished; it ended, officially at least, nearly eight months later when the Los Angeles Superior Court reluctantly dismissed the criminal charges against her for conspiracy to corrupt morals and obstruct justice. On that May day half a century ago Sister Aimee disappeared while swimming, supposedly, at Ocean Park. Her mother, the redoubtable Minnie (Ma) Kennedy, a partner in her temple affairs, announced to the world that 'Sister is drowned. She has gone to the arms of Jesus.'
"For the next five weeks Ocean Park was the scene of a macabre carnival. Thousands came down to see where Sister had gone into the sea. A human chain, miles long, kept vigil on the sands around the clock. Boats and airplanes searched for Aimee's body. At night searchlights played over the water. Divers probed the pilings of Lick Pier. At least two men were drowned." p. 45
Venice
"'It is a kind of no man's land, given up by default and occupied by irregulars and their dogs.'
"In the early morning, even in high summer, our Southern California beaches are often overcast and misty, and for the genuine beachcomber, like me, this is the best time of all.
"On these mornings the sky is as gray as the sea. It is hard to tell one from the other. There are no horizons, and sometimes a distant sailboat will seem to be sailing in the sky.
" . . . on an overcast Saturday morning I drove down to Venice for my own communion with the sea around us. Now that I have given up waiting for the ninth wave, I find a fascination in this place which seems to be lost in time. I parked near the old Ocean Park Pier; a grand piece of wreckage it was then, like something bombed out in" p, 113 "the war, before they cleaned it out. The sky was opal, with a hint of fire in it, and the sand was more yellow than gray." p.114
"Venice had fallen into decay from the vain-glorious splendors of Abbott Kinney's dreams. It had been taken over by the new barbarians, as some saw them; and now it was under siege, its bohemian life-style threatened by affluence.
"It was only seventy years ago that Kinney had turned a slough into a new Venice, building a system of canals with arched bridges and a central lagoon. There were genuine gondolas from Italy and genuine singing gondoliers. Stores and hotels with mock-Renaissance fronts and cast-iron Italian columns were built around the lagoon and down Windward Avenue to the sand and along Ocean Front Walk. Now the lagoon is asphalt; the canals broken down, weed-grown and scummy; half the Venetian fronts are missing, like pulled teeth, and the others are scabrous and decayed, their columns rusted. It is a funky slum, not without its charm, in which the inheritors of the vanished beatniks, disdainful of the affluent life of the nearby marina, have rooted their counterculture.
"In the winter, and in the night and early morning, before the lemmings of the inner city come swarming down to the sea, there is a strange and vital community along the Venice beach front; an incongruous mixture of young bohemians and hippies, black and white, and remnants of old people, mostly Jews, who live in tacky Victorian hotels on Ocean Front Walk, shop at the kosher delis in between the hot dog stands, and worship at painted stucco temples with Stars of David painted over the doorways. An uneasy harmony seems to exist, stabilized perhaps by the black and white police cars that creep silently back and forth along the front.
"Venice is a place where the past is still hanging around, waiting for an appointment with the future; but the future hasn't shown up. In the meantime it is a kind of no man's land, given up by default and occupied by irregulars and their dogs. . . .
"It is astonishing how much human energy is expended along this exhausted-looking front, by young and old. . . .
"Outside the pavilion old men were playing at bowls on the clay courts, and half a dozen shuffleboard courts were in use. The pace here was slower, but the intensity no less than it was up the walk a way, at the basketball and {paddle-} tennis courts and the weight-lifting enclosure, where young men with bulging thighs and biceps tremulously lifted 200-pound barbells, for reasons known only to themselves." p. 117
"Riders were beginning to appear on the bicycle path. It was rather new, a concrete path separate from the walk, with six lanes painted on in yellow. Some locals had protested the bike path, for fear it would bring in more people, which it did. The Venice front had been isolated when they took out the jitneys that used to shuttle down from Santa Monica with tourists and other outsiders, and now the bike paths had brought them in again.
"At the end of Rose Avenue there is a small pavilion . . . The regular weekend music festival was already going on with two men and a woman on bongos and a small crowd sitting around absorbing the beat. Nearby, enveloped by the sound, a row of four old women sat on a bench, like old sparrows in their threadbare wrappings, watching life go by on Ocean Front Walk . . . They had survived the beatnik generation and the hippie generation, these ancients from middle Europe, and they would probably survive their successors." p.119
Watts Towers
""They tried to knock it down, you know."
"In the southeast corner of the section know as Watts there is a piece of 107th Street that is cut off by old Pacific Electric tracks. It can be entered from Wlllowbrook Avenue, but it runs only one short block, and there it dead-ends in the rusted old tracks that slash across the neighborhood on their way to nowhere.
"In most ways it is a typical Watts street; two rows of small frame houses, dateless houses that have outlived their time but are trying to keep up appearances, like old chorus girls, with paint and flowers. But this is a distinguished street, because at its dead end, on a small lot cut like a piece of pie by the old tracks, stand the Watt Towers. They are the most remarkable works of open air art in Southern California, and perhaps in the nation.
"They are the work of the late Simon Rodia, an immigrant Italian who gave up women and liquor at the age of forty and spent the next thirty-three years of his life erecting these implausible monuments." p. 121
" . . . The Watts Towers are a wondrous poem, built in the sky by a man who was possessed by unquenchable urgings and fancies . . . "
"'I wanted to do something big,' said Simon Rodia; and he did.
"More than anything else, the towers reminded me of the boojum tree, which is also unique and improbable. It is found only in the wilderness of Baja California, and there is nothing even close to it anywhere else. Ot the three towers, the highest is one hundred feet. They rise like upside-down ice cream cones made of lace and encrusted with costume jewelry.
"A wall runs around Rodia's triangular garden, and it also bears his mark. The wall is a mosaic of Rodia's improvisations. There are panels of broken tile and panels of green bottle glass and plaques of cement in which he impressed his initials, SR, and the date, 1923, and the shape of hammer and tile cutter and the other tools of his trade, or perhaps it should be called his passion. The wall seems without design, without order. Bits of broken tile, yellow and red and blue and purple; pieces of china plates; pieces of green and blue bottles; hundreds of white seashells - all are pressed into the cement of the wall without apparent pattern; yet the wall is a masterpiece. It dazzles the eye and delights the spirit. It is all one lovely harmony." p. 122
" . . . I sat in the gazebo and studied the towers.
"They are made of steel rings and spokes and central cores, all covered with cement, set in chicken wire and encrusted with the humble materials of Rodia's art - the debris of a wasteful society. They are connected by bejeweled spars that leap from one to the other and to the other fancies in the garden - the gazebo and the Marco Polo ship and the fountain - so that all is one interlocking structure.
"Rodia was only a tile setter by trade, without any schooling at all. He owned and boasted of a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, but nobody was ever sure he could even read, Yet he had created from some infallible inner sense of order this exquisite feat of art and engineering. For thirty-three years he worked alone, rising with his towers, coming down to fill his cement pail and climbing up again to add another bit of frosting. He used no ladders. The towers themselves were his scaffold.
"Why did he work alone?
"'I no have anybody to help me out,' he said one. 'I was a poor man. Had to do a little at a time. Nobody helped me. I think if I hire a man he don't know what to do. A million times I don't know what to do myself.'
"Why did he build his towers at all?
"'Some of the people say what was he doing . . . some of the people think I was crazy and some people said I was going to do something. I wanted to do something. I wanted to do something in the United States because I was raised her you understand? I wanted to do something for the United State because there are nice people in this country. . . " p. 123
"Paul Laporte wrote: "Even the ornamentation, the bits and pieces of tile and glass and china, was essential to provide a protective shell over the reinforced cement. . . . 'Thus every part and combination of parts in these structures is a technical necessity while at the same time emerging as the character and beauty of the whole.'" p. 124
"A wood flooring has been laid over the foundations of Rodia's little house. Only the fireplace is left, and the arched doorway, which is faced with pieces of broken mirrors. Everyone come back for a second look at the doorway, seeing himself fragmented, abstracted, in that wall of broken mirrors." p. 124
{One historical consideration might be that so much has been written about the Ocean Park/Los Angeles landscape because it has changed so much so radically that it is always renewing itself, and that writers can find cheap digs from which to write about themselves in that landscape.}
"It was a dramatic day, October 10, 1959, when the main tower was put to the test. Reporters and television crews were there. A crowd gathered in the street, some hoping the tower would win, some hoping it would fail. A hydraulic jack was used to apply a ten thousand- pound load to the tower, much more than any wind or quake would give it. It was to be a five- minute test. A minute went by. The crowd was tense. The tower leaned almost imperceptibly. And then the main beam of the test rigging began to give.
"The city surrendered. The test was over. Simon Rodia's innate engineering skill was proved, and his work prevailed.
". . . Many people on the street had been there a long time and remembered Simon, the odd little Italian with the gnarled hands and the big nose.
"Simon used to sing as he worked, forty, fifty feet up, arias from operas and songs nobody in the neighborhood had ever heard anybody else sing. Funny man; complained about everything; taxes and painted women and drinking parents. But loved the country, loved America.
"'He used to go off down that railroad track walking, . . . all the way to Wilmington sometimes, with his gunnysack, picking up things. Be gone all day, come back with a sackful of junk.'" p. 125 to 126
"'You know he even put his car in those towers there?' . . . 'Old Hudson. He put the springs and the wheels and everything he could use.' 'What happened to the rest of it then?' . . . "Buried it. Right there by the tracks.' . . ." p.126
Santa Monica
"'Title to the ocean, the sunset, and the air is guaranteed by God.'
"More than any other place in Southern California, the Santa Monica bay front perhaps fulfills the fantasies of the inlanders on their first pilgrimage, despite the disappointment of the lady from Iowa {who, looking out at the Pacific Ocean for the first time from Palisades Park, judged that it wasn't as big as she had expected}.
"The beach is broad and tan and scattered with sun-browned people in bits of dazzling color. Small boats nod at their moorings or glide back and forth inside a crumbling breakwater. Sumptuous homes and beach clubs with tennis courts and swimming pools sit at sand's edge, just inside the highway. To the north this vision ends in the dark bulk of Point Dume; to the south, in the voluptuous silhouette of Palos Verdes Peninsula." p. 247
"The Santa Monica pier is antique. Naturally many people want to tear it down. Naturally, many people want to leave it up. At best, it is on reprieve. It has an embattled look, somewhat misshapen and askew. It creaks and groans on its weathered pilings, and supports a ramshackle row of shops, fish markets, galleries and cafes. At its shore end it is ornamented by an enchanting old merry-go-round." pp. 248 and 249
"It has stood there throughout the century, this Victorian playhouse, while generations of concrete buildings have come and gone. the little horses of the carousel are exuberantly sculptured, obviously of Arab blood, with wild eyes and flaring nostrils. The old organ pounds and clangs and wheezes as if trying gallantly to finish this one last song before expiring. A sign tells its story:
"'Welcome friend. The music you are listening to is coming from one of the oldest organs in the country, built in 1900 . . . Constantly playing for seventy years. The merry-go-round has the happiest record in the U.S. The horses were imported from Germany and are all hand-carved. There are no two horses alike. Your grandparents and mom and dad probably rode this ride when they were children. All the great actresses, and their children, too. Come aboard, close your eyes and listen to the music . . . '
"This was the first merry-go-round my own sons had ridden. We had lived in Venice then; the older boy was three . . .
"I . . . walked out on the pier, looking into an 'art gallery' awash with pop posters and urns and statues of chalky white Venuses and elongated cats; a gift shop offering such marine novelties as dried starfish, driftwood and abalone shells; a penny arcade, its pennies inflated by time to dimes and quarters; a shooting gallery; a palmist who was out to lunch." pp. 249 & 250
""Fishing is free from the end of the pier, and there is always a hardy group of fishermen out there, whatever the hour and the weather. . . .
"He looked out at the breakwater, a ragged dark line, like the back of some enormous sea monster. It had been made of great blocks of granite, many of which had tumbled into the sea.
"'Fishing hasn't been so good here, though,' he said, 'since they built that new breakwater.'
"'New?' I said.
"'Well, new in Thirty-three, it was. I been fishing here since Twenty-eight.'" p. 250
"The view inland from the pier is as pleasant as the view from the palisades - the opposite side of the picture postcard. Behind the beach the palisades run for a mile or two - the visible end of the continent - pinkish-brown cliffs, agonized by the centuries. The park runs along their top, a thin green line, and beyond that the row of structures on Ocean Avenue - . . .
"Below the pier in the water near the shore, a school of surfers floated on their blue, red or yellow boards like water bugs. Umbrellas of brilliant hue polka-dotted the beach; pink and brown flesh and scraps of cloth covered the sand like fluorescent confetti.
"It seemed incredible that only a hundred years ago there was nothing here but land, sea and sky. An Easterner, writing years later of a visit he made to this shore in 1869, recalled that it was 'an unpeopled waste - no light (dressed) brigade of sportive bathers charged the angry surf; neither keel nor oar vexed the breakers that broke on the desolate shore.'
"Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his crew were the first white men to see Santa Monica Bay, on their voyage of 1542. Then two hundred and twenty-seven years passed before Gaspar de Portolá and his soldiers camped at a spring above the bay. It is said that one of Portolá's men named the place Santa Monica, likening the spring water to the saint's tears for her wayward son, Augustine.
"It was another century before John P. Jones, a Nevada senator, and Colonel R.S. Baker, a cattleman, who had bought the old Mexican land grants, formed a township, filed maps and started selling lots. The sale was held on a hot day in 1875. They hired Tom Fitch, an orator and auctioneer of note. Hundreds of people buggied down from Los Angeles to hear Fitch and to see the ocean. Both were magnificent.
"Fitch promised that anyone who bought a lot in Santa Monica would have the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop, with a daily sunset of 'scarlet and gold' and 'a bay filled with white-winged ships.'
"He went on to say that the title to the land was guaranteed by his employers, but the title to 'the ocean, the sunset and the air is guaranteed by God.'" p. 251
"South of the merry-go-round are the volleyball courts. They are used exclusively by the very young, good-looking and sun-tanned, of both sexes, who play the game with a fierce animal energy, leaping high, lunging through the sand, tumbling head over heels and bellowing Tarzan cries of triumph or dismay. Bronze thighs and biceps twitch and ripple as the contest see-saws.
"On the sidelines other youths, equally flawless, take their ease beside lissome young females in bright bikinis, together worshipping their youth, the Lord's wisdom in providing two sexes, and the blessed sun.
"Only a hundred feet on down the promenade another generation is at its games: Old men on benches at long tables, bent over chess or checker boards, their seamed faces knit, their concentration as intense as that of the volleyball players, . . .
"Walking back past the merry-go-round I stopped to read the weathered sign over the entrance: 'Merry-go-round apartment house. The only apartment house in the world that has a merry-go-round and an organ. In the morning the guests awaken to the tunes of the organ and all day they go about their duty with music in their ears, When they are ready to go to bed music helps put them to sleep . . . '
"What a wonderful thing, I thought as I drove back to the heart of the city, to live one's life at the beach above a merry-go-round." p. 252
Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier: A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1976
Chapter 6: City Owned Pier (1974-1990)
" . . . Community Development Grant . . . Gehry's* plans . . . for the face lift were approved in September . . . for a wooden boardwalk between the carousel building and Moby's Dock restaurant, new stairs on both the north and south side of the pier for easier beach access, forty new benches, and additional pier lighting. . . . Work began in January 1976, and the project was completed by June. . . ." p.148
"McClosky opposed using the Community Development Grant for pier repairs rather than housing for the elderly. "The pier," he said, "is no historic monument and besides it carries no fire insurance." Mayor Nat Trives said the pier fell in the category of recreation for low and moderate income persons . . .
"After federal funds were officially granted in June, a group of residents challenged their use by mounting a letter wriing campaign to HUD officials . . . City grants coordinator, Martha Brown Hicks, . . .
"The city's Landmark's Commission in 1976, after studying the pier's history, declared the pier a historic landmark. The commissioners did so primarily to control changes on the pier. Landmark status meant that the city was required to apply to its Landmark Commission for certificates of appropriateness to make alterations."
Jodi Summers Days on the Market, 2 May 2003's Santa Monica Daily Press, 2003, 1976, 1913, 1911
" . . . 1976&endash;The City of Santa Monica passes its landmark ordinance, giving the city the right to designate which properties are of historic significance.
"Since Santa Monica passed its first landmark ordinance 27 years ago, 18 houses have been declared city landmarks. The most recent designation is a newly restored craftsman located in Ocean Park. The single-family home, which was built between 1911 and 1913, is located on street full of newer apartment buildings and condominium units. The application for landmark status was filed by the homeowner, who describes the property as 'as a little house in a wood full of big buildings.'" p. 6
"The new home of Kelyn Roberts, Ruth Weisberg and Alicia Weisberg-Roberts. 2421 Third St., Santa Monica, CA 90405"
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1976
"Prospects for major change appeared on the horizon in 1976, with court's decision to implement racial integration in the schools through mandatory busing. Canyon School . . . propose[d] its own voluntary plan. . . .
"A voluntary plan carefully crafted by a PTA group under the leadership of the principal, Victor Tomaszewski, was set in motion in 1978 . . . The PTA was disbanded and replaced by a three-school advisory council . . . Enrollment plummeted . . . and private schools welcomed the influx. . . .
" . . .
"After three years, mandatory busing was ended by court order, but the minority children already enrolled . . . continued to attend Canyon School. . . ."