©1996 Michael Vallen A view of Los Angeles from the Thesis site. “Oh, it will become bigger and bigger and extend itself north and south. And soon Los Angeles will begin in San Diego, swallow San Francisco and pave every acre of earth up to the Gold River. The only historic monuments spared will be the rest rooms in the gasoline stations.” Attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright, late 1950s 4 Los Angeles is a city apart, not only in derived from a popular Spanish novel of gold, and territorial conquest were the significant trade among the estimated 500 location, but in ideals and pursuits. This city, 1510, in which a terrestrial paradise is motivations of the Spanish. Instead the tribal groups of the region. They possessed little understood, has been, and is, the described... Spanish discovered the coast of California. a strictly organized religious system, a keen model from which we currently fabricate our “Know-ye that at the right hand of the It was Juan Cabrillo, who in late 1542, became knowledge of plant and animal material, metropolitan areas; an experiment in urban Indies there is an island called California, the first European to meet the native people and an intricate architectural language that and social planning unlike any previously very near the terrestrial Paradise...It is the of the Los Angeles Basin, the Gabrielino linked all parts of their structures to their known to humanity. To some these grand spiritual beliefs. experiments have failed, miserably; to others, not only have these experiments The Spanish were not interested in con- been a success, but they have also forged the quering the Gabrielinos. They were more future in ways simply unthinkable a genera- concerned with their religious conversion, tion ago. which they felt would aid in the process of civilizing them. Once civilized, these Misconceptions, many created by Angelenos, indigenous people would make perfect have set Los Angeles apart negatively and colonists. The Spaniards set up a system of positively. To understand this place, a missions, presidio, and pueblos along the historic perspective of its creation must be California coastal areas. This system acquired. Myths and generalizations pro- stretched south from the San Diego Bay to mote unrealistic ideas of this city. Point Reyes in the north. From the begin- We must form our interpretations and truths ning the missions were established to teach about this habitation, as Los Angeles did not the natives self-sufficient techniques, such happen by accident. This city is purely the as farming, weaving, reading and writing. It creation of people, nothing more and was the Franciscan Padres’ original intent nothing less. to return the missions and the land sur- rounding them to the natives once they Significant contributions made by the were civilized. people of Los Angeles are manifest within the realm of the house. Our understanding It was the missions and the myths fostered of the house today is the direct result of the by their existence that has left us today with work of scores of architects, designers, and the ideal of an Arcadian lifestyle in South- planners who have worked in the Los ern California. Nothing, however, could be Angeles region. Their efforts span over 100 farther from the truth. years, continuing today, shaping the future Human greed soon took over, and the of how we live in our most private environ- missions were never returned. ments. Not working in a vacuum, they were influ- enced not only by the various movements The Town Housing...the Hillside Los Angeles occurring in their respective fields, but by the immigrants who chose to make this Los Angeles was established in 1781 and corner of the world their home. named el Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles (The Village of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels.) It was Discovery primarily established to provide supple- mental hides, wine and tallow for the main Despite popular mythology, Los Angeles mission San Gabriel to the East. They does have a past; in fact, its history spans established the pueblo on a high point several thousand years. Because it is above the Los Angeles River to avoid perceived as a city of constant change, the flooding. The original pueblo plan was city has gained a reputation of being established using the Spanish Law of the arrogant, elusive, eccentric and superficial. Indies as a reference. The Law required the It is told that the Chinese were the first to plan to have a central plaza. This plaza had discover the western coast of North Ameri- its corners fixed by the cardinal points of can in about 500 AD. Not being a people of the compass. The surrounding area was territorial wants, they simply made note of divided into building lots, sowing fields, their discoveries in journals, and never with the remaining property being set aside touched land. They left the true discovery of for newcomers and common use. the coast to the Spanish in the early 16th The 1914 Rand McNally map of California, with enlarged Southern and Central areas. Because of the region’s weather, ample century. land of Amazons, of gold, of bold rocks, Indians. water and fertile soils, the pueblo grew crags and griffins.” Spaniards discovered and named the 1 These peoples had an extremely sophisti- beyond Spanish expectations, becoming the California coast. The name “California” was Hopes of finding trade routes to the East, cated economic system that enabled largest settlement in California by 1820. 5 From the collection of the Bancroft Library, University of California Angeles the first such grant was San Pedro; 1860s. Large tracts of land became more To the north, the Los Angeles basin is the last, ironically to an American, was scarce, and by the end of the decade, bounded by east/west traversing moun- Catalina Island in the Santa Monica Bay. following the drought of 1863 and the flood tains, and between these rows of up to of 1867, the ranchos began a process which 10,000 foot peaks are expansive valleys. To With the American occupation of 1846, and continues to this day-Subdivision. the east is the southern end of the Sierra the discovery of gold in Northern California Nevada mountains and beyond them the in 1849, there was a tremendous influx of Through a process of intense advertising, great deserts of the Southwest. To the west American settlers. In search of quick riches, the land of Los Angeles County was pro- is the Pacific, and to the south, Mexico. they found that they also needed to eat, and moted throughout the United States and thus the first economic boom of Southern Europe. People boarding ships in San Transportation to and from Los Angeles was California was born. Within a few short Francisco bound for Los Angeles were each difficult before the connection of a mainline years, Los Angeles and her attendant given Boom packages telling of the area’s railroad from the eastern United States. At ranchos became know the State over as natural wealth, agricultural prowess and the best, a ship to San Francisco could be had Queen of the Cow Counties of California, availability of cheap land. every third day, a ship around South establishing cattle ranching as the occupa- America every third week, or a stage coach A series of economic boom periods oc- tion of choice. As with all economic booms, daily to San Francisco, and then east. curred during the 1870s, including the there was the inevitable bust. production of silk worms, wool and citrus. A battle lasting ten years between San The Mexican government did not have a Land, though, remained the most economi- Diego and Los Angeles occurred over which policy of taxing land based on an assessed cally viable industry in Los Angeles. Stories of the two towns would be connected to the valuation. However, the American Govern- abound of the plats of land bought in the Central Pacific’s mainline railroad to San ment did. This put Mexican land owners in morning by one person and sold the end of Francisco. The battle ended with the forma- jeopardy. Along with proving ownership of the day to another for a 300% profit. tion of a new railroad company, The South- the original rancho lands, they found their ern Pacific, a subsidiary (and thus a friend) Publication of the story Ramona by land possessed significant value and was of the Central Pacific. Los Angeles won Helen Hunt Jackson did more to end the therefore a tax burden few were able to pay. through a series of land concessions and era of California as frontier than any Throughout the 1850s the ranchos were the inclusion of an existing rail line from Map of the Pueblo, 1793. other event of the late 19th Century. This confiscated or sold in bankruptcy courts to the central city to the port at San Pedro. As a The Spanish Colony of Mexico declared its novel, which tells the story of the confis- American speculators. result, the Southern Pacific had a monopoly independence from Spain in 1822; included cation of California mission and rancho on intrastate transportation. Intra-city in this was Alta California, or roughly the American entrepreneurs sought several land by American interests, was meant by transport, on the other hand, grew easily area that is currently known as California. opportunities in Los Angeles. Abundant Miss Jackson as a social statement. Her and quickly. The structural framework for The missions, as a result of complaints of cheap land, a mild climate, an abundant intentions, to provide information about subsequent transportation systems in Los abuse from the natives and accusations of water supply and an unskilled labor force the atrocities being perpetrated against Angeles was thus established.