An Excavation of East Hollywood, Part I

Posted on by J.T.

This is the first of a three part series.

All photos are specific to a particular pocket of Los Angeles known as East Hollywood, and are courtesy of publicly available collections at the University of Southern California Libraries and California Historical Society, as well as at Los Angeles Public Library with the exception of two: The first, taken at LACC by L.A. Times photographer B.I. Oliver on March 13, 1969, and the second, taken by J. Benton Adams at Vermont & Santa Monica, circa 1998.

  • Hollywood, a land of valleys to be sold according to a map by Harvey Henderson Wilcox and wife Daeida Wilcox, 1887
  • View of the future site of East Hollywood, pre-Melrose and Normandie avenues, circa 1900
  • East Hollywood Lemon Groves, circa 1905
  • Cahuenga Valley Line steam-engine train, from Temple and Hoover street, circa 1905
  • Cahuenga Public Library on Santa Monica boulevard, 1916
  • Aerial view of LACC when its campus actually served as the first home of UCLA, 1920
  • Hollywood Memorial Cemetery showing the Cathedral Mausoleum on the lower west side, circa 1924
  • Western avenue & Santa Monica boulevard going east, 1924
  • A home at 519 North Vermont avenue before it was torn down to make room for the 101 Freeway, 1926
  • Oil heiress Aline Barnsdall donates the “Hollyhock” house to the city of Los Angeles, circa 1927
  • Flooding on Santa Monica and Sunset boulevard, according to photographer (most likely Sunset junction area today), 1928
  • Wrecked Nash automobile at 218 North Virgil avenue (right by the historic Public Storage building), circa 1929
  • American Storage Company building near Virgil avenue and Beverly boulevard, circa 1929
  • The former Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (now property of Scientology), circa 1930
  • North Virgil avenue and Santa Monica boulevard rail crossings, 1931
  • Santa Monica boulevard and North Virgil avenue rail crossings, 1931
  • Los Angeles City College Administration building, circa 1924 – 1957
  • Los Angeles City College Administration building, 1938
  • Red car with the Pacific Electric Railway system travels west on Santa Monica boulevard, 1940
  • Drivers head south on Vermont avenue from Sunset boulevard, 1949
  • Opening of the 101 Freeway entrance heading west from Silver Lake boulevard, 1950
  • The 101 Freeway heading east, as seen from North Vermont Avenue, 1951
  • Jewish Community building erected (now West Coast University), 1951
  • Jewish Community building ceremony (now West Coast University), 1951
  • Car along Santa Monica boulevard heading east of Vermont avenue, circa 1951
  • Car crash on Vermont avenue just over the Vermont exit for the 101 Freeway, 1955
  • An aerial view of the “hospital center” of East Hollywood, showing Hollywood Presbyterian hospital as well as Children’s hospital at center, 1968
  • Photo of a barricade being torn down by students in front of Los Angeles City College during a period of frequent protests against racist policies at L.A. schools, 1969
  • Students on Vermont avenue after the removal of a barricade in front of LACC during a period of frequent protests against racist policies at L.A. schools, 1969
  • Drivers wait at a stop light at the intersection of Sunset and Virgil avenue, 1976
  • A car flown through the window at Vermont and Beverly bank, 1986
  • A multi-ethnic community of approximately 10,000 commemorate the Armenian genocide at LACC, 1988
  • Vermont & Santa Monica Metro station wedge, designed by Mehrdad Yazdani, under construction, circa 1998

Before Los Angeles was called so by Spanish settlers,“the city” is supposed to have been known as Yaangna village by aboriginal Tongva people, with respect to what we now refer to as the L.A. river. This is according to Cindi Moar Alvitre, a descendant of the Tongva and Cal State L.A. lecturer of Indian American studies. An excerpt from Alvitre’s essay, “Coyote Tours,” from Latitudes: An Angeleno’s Atlas (2015) reads:

“Yaangna was the principal ancestral village that moved along the Los Angeles River for countless generations, before the water was confined and silenced in a concrete sarcophagus, separating the people from that which gives life. In pre-contact times people moved slowly, with the seasons, the food, and ultimately, the water.”

Alvitre also points out that Spanish invasion of the land in the late eighteenth century, which would eventually lead to “Los Angeles,” continually pushed out native or indigenous people farther away from their ancestral lands. For a time, the dispossessed communities found refuge along their ancestors’ storied riverbed. In Alvitre’s words:

“Colonization and missionization accelerated the pace of relocation as native people tried to outrun the colonizers, always clinging to the river…Yaangna became a refugee camp for tribal families seeking some sense of tradition.”

Finally, Cahuenga, the name first given to our special little library on Santa Monica boulevard in 1916, is Tongva for “place of the hill.” And since Cahuenga is also supposed to be related to Kaweewesh, describing “fox,” one can think of Cahuenga as “hill of the foxes.” Of course, more people think of the “Cahuenga pass” in Hollywood when that word comes up, but hey, I guess that does show the link between Humphrey’s Hollywood and our “East Hollywood.”

A few archival images of the area show hilly farsides, both before and up to the area’s time as a major site of lemon groves, hence Lemon Grove Park and such. The rest is history, as they say, although in a past that’s not yet past for our communities. At least, not if we’ve got anything to say about it.

J.T.

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