SurveyLA Boyle Heights Pilot Survey Report Prepared for: City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning’s Office of Historic Resources Prepared by: Architectural Resources Group, Inc Pasadena, CA April 2010 SURVEYLA BOYLE HEIGHTS PILOT SURVEY REPORT APRIL 2010 Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Project Team ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Description of Survey Area ...................................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................................... 5 II. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ............................................................................................................................................ 5 2.1 Summary of Contexts and Themes .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Individual Resources ................................................................................................................................................ 6 2.3 Historic Districts ..................................................................................................................................................... 23 III: GENERAL COMMENTS, FEEDBACK AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................. 28 Appendix A. Integrity Thresholds for Potential Historic Districts ARCHITECTURAL RESOURCES GROUP Architects, Planners & Conservators, Inc. SURVEYLA BOYLE HEIGHTS PILOT SURVEY REPORT APRIL 2010 ARCHITECTURAL RESOURCES GROUP Architects, Planners & Conservators, Inc. SURVEYLA BOYLE HEIGHTS PILOT SURVEY REPORT APRIL 2010 I. INTRODUCTION This Survey Report has been completed on behalf of the City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning’s Office of Historic Resources (OHR) for the SurveyLA Pilot Survey of Boyle Heights. This project was undertaken from December 2008 to December 2009 by Architectural Resources Group, Inc. (ARG) with assistance from Christopher A. Joseph and Associates, Inc. (CAJA). This Survey Report provides a summary of work completed, including a survey area description, a brief summary of the survey methodology, a summary of findings, and recommendations regarding the analysis of survey findings and the completion of further study in Boyle Heights. 1.1 Project Team The Boyle Heights survey team included ARG staff Katie Horak and Amanda Davis, with project oversight from Charles E. Chase, AIA, and technological support from Takashi Fukuda. Katie Horak served as Project Manager. CAJA team members included Teresa Grimes and Christina Chiang. 1.2 Description of Survey Area Boyle Heights is located directly east of Downtown and the Los Angeles Civic Center, across the Los Angeles River. The boundaries of the Boyle Heights Pilot Survey are Indiana Street to the east, Olympic Boulevard to the south, Medford/Marengo Streets to the north, and Clarence Street to the west. The total legal parcel count for the survey area is 9,952; approximately 90% of those parcels (8,900) contain resources constructed before 1980. The Pilot Survey did not include parcels that were included in the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) historic resources survey of the Adelante Eastside Redevelopment Area (completed 2008‐09), which focused on commercial corridors and industrial properties. Boyle Heights has a generally flat topography, with slight elevation changes as the terrain rises eastward from the riverbank. The community was built on the bluffs (inspiring the name Boyle “Heights”) as well as the flats below; several residential neighborhoods have commanding westward views of Downtown. Its elevation ranges from 175 feet in the southern section to 475 feet near the northern boundary. The community is mainly laid out on a grid except at the northeastern area where the streets follow the natural changes in topography. Major thoroughfares in Boyle Heights include east‐west corridors Cesar Chavez (formerly Brooklyn) Avenue, First Street, Fourth Street, Whittier Boulevard and Eighth Street. Major north‐south corridors include Boyle Avenue, Soto Street, Lorena Street and Evergreen Avenue. The survey area is further characterized by a curvilinear network of state and interstate freeways; Interstate 5, Interstate 10, U.S. Route 101, and State Route 60 all converge in Boyle Heights. 1 ARCHITECTURAL RESOURCES GROUP Architects, Planners & Conservators, Inc. SURVEYLA BOYLE HEIGHTS PILOT SURVEY REPORT APRIL 2010 Figure 1. SurveyLA Boyle Heights Pilot Survey survey area map. 2 ARCHITECTURAL RESOURCES GROUP Architects, Planners & Conservators, Inc. SURVEYLA BOYLE HEIGHTS PILOT SURVEY REPORT APRIL 2010 An early residential enclave, Boyle Heights predominantly comprises single‐family residences, most dating from 1885 to 1930. Multi‐family properties are generally small in scale, such as bungalow courts, duplexes, fourplexes, and two‐story apartment buildings. Small concentrations of multi‐family properties exist on Soto Street and in the northeastern part of the survey area (north of Cesar Chavez and east of Soto Street), though many isolated examples are scattered throughout. Also present are the public housing developments of Wyvernwood at the southern boundary of the survey area and Ramona Gardens at the northeastern boundary. Commercial properties are almost exclusively found on or adjacent to the east/west corridors of Cesar Chavez Avenue, 1st Street, 4th Street, and Whittier Avenue. Industrial properties are mainly concentrated near the Los Angeles River and in the southern part of Boyle Heights. The community is serviced by a number of local schools, churches, hospitals, and social institutions, many dating to the early part of the 20th century. Area parks include Prospect Park and Hollenbeck Park, along with several local recreation centers. The 67‐acre Evergreen Cemetery is located at the eastern edge of the survey area, and the smaller Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery is at the southeastern edge. Boyle Heights retains resources dating to nearly all periods of development of the City of Los Angeles. The earliest buildings were predominantly farmhouses relating to the agricultural uses, which gave way in the late 19th century to large mansions belonging to many of Los Angeles’s early landowners and civic leaders. The construction of streetcar lines on nearly all of Boyle Heights’s major thoroughfares connected the area with Downtown, and residential development ensued on a large scale at the end of the 19th century. Residential development dating to the 1880s boom years mainly consisted of modest and large single‐family homes designed in styles associated with the Victorian era: Queen Anne, Eastlake, Stick, and Vernacular Hipped Roof cottages. Residential development continued to proliferate after the turn of the 20th century and Boyle Heights was almost completely built out by the late 1920s. Predominant building styles dating to this era include those relating to the Arts and Crafts Movement and early Period Revival styles: Shingle, Craftsman, Colonial Revival, and Spanish Colonial Revival. After the turn of the 20th century, Boyle Heights became a point of entry for a number of people moving to Los Angeles from other parts of the world. Widely unplagued by the restrictive covenants that were rampant throughout much of the City in the 1920s and 30s, pre‐World War II Boyle Heights was Los Angeles’s most diverse community with significant concentrations of residents from Mexico, Japan, England, Germany, Russia, and Armenia. Buildings constructed to serve these various groups, such as synagogues, temples, and various social institutions, still exist in the area. There are a number of resources in Boyle Heights that have already been designated as Los Angeles Historic‐Cultural Monuments or have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places or the California Register of Historical Resources. These include: 3 ARCHITECTURAL RESOURCES GROUP Architects, Planners & Conservators, Inc. SURVEYLA BOYLE HEIGHTS PILOT SURVEY REPORT APRIL 2010 Name Address Designation Type Residence 2700 Eagle Street LA HCM #262 Bridge at Fourth and Lorena Streets 4th Street, Lorena Street LA HCM #265 Malabar Branch Library 2801 E. Wabash Ave. LA HCM #304, National Register Breed Street Shul 241‐247 N. Breed Street LA HCM #359 Nineteenth Century Los Angeles Chinese 204 N. Evergreen Ave. LA HCM #486 Cemetery Shrine Santa Fe Hospital 610 S. St. Louis Street LA HCM #713 Boyle Hotel‐Cummings Block 101‐105 North Boyle Ave.; 1781‐1785 LA HCM #891 East 1st Street Washington Boulevard Bridge, No. 53C1375 E Washington Blvd., between Soto LA HCM #903 Street and E. 23rd Street Sixth Street Bridge, No. 53C1880 E 6th St. between Mateo Street. and S LA HCM #905 Boyle Ave. International Institute 435 S Boyle Ave. California Register Ellis Residence 1914 Michigan Ave. National Register Residence and Carriage House 1051 Thornton Street National Register Rhodes Residence 325‐327 S State Street National Register Robert Louis Stevenson Branch Library 803 Spence Street National Register 4 ARCHITECTURAL RESOURCES GROUP Architects,