 West Adams which is also known as Historic West Adams is a large district located in the center of Los Angeles, southwest of downtown Los Angeles, California. Major subdistricts include North University Park, Kinney Heights, and University Park, the last of which is the site of the University of Southern California.
West Adams is home to one of the largest collections of historic homes west of the Mississippi River. The West Adams area was developed between 1880 and 1925, and contains many diverse architectural styles of the era. Architectural styles seen in West Adams include the Queen Anne, Shingle, Gothic Revival, Transitional Arts and Crafts, Craftsman/Ultimate Bungalow, Craftsman Bungalow, Colonial Revival, Renaissance Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival, Egyptian Revival, Beaux-Arts and Neoclassical styles. Its historic homes are frequently used as locations for movies and tv shows including: CSI, Six Feet Under, The Shield, Monk, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Of Mice and Men to name a few.
West Adams is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, with most of its buildings erected between 1880 and 1925, including the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. It was once the wealthiest district in the city, with its Victorian mansions and sturdy Craftsman bungalows home to downtown businessmen and professors at USC. In the 1990s, three areas of West Adams were designated as Historic Preservation Overlay Zones by the city of Los Angeles, in recognition of their outstanding architectural heritage.
The development of the West Side and Hollywood, beginning in the 1920s, siphoned away much of West Adams' upper-class white population; upper-class blacks began to move in around this time, although the district was off-limits to all but the very wealthiest African-Americans. One symbol of the area's emergence as a center of black wealth at this time is the 1948 headquarters of Golden State Mutual Life, a late-period Art Deco structure at Adams and Western that housed what is still the nation's largest black-owned insurer. West Adams' transformation into an affluent black area was sped by the Supreme Court's 1948 invalidation of segregationist covenants on property ownership; soon thereafter, most of the district's white residents moved to other parts of the city. The area was a favorite among black celebrities in the 1940s and 1950s; notable residents included Hattie McDaniel, Joe Louis, and Little Richard. Ray Charles' business headquarters, including his RPM studio, was located at 2107 Washington Boulevard, just outside the northern edge of the district. (The intersection of Washington and Westmoreland Avenue, near the studio, is named Ray Charles Square in his honor.)
In the 1950s, the construction of the Santa Monica and Harbor Freeways obliterated much of West Adams, their routes chosen in large part to demarcate areas acceptable for black settlement and those deemed whites-only (in both cases, this was notably unsuccessful, as many African-Americans moved into Mid-City and Arlington Heights during this period.) Upper- and middle-class blacks began to leave after the 1965 Watts riots, which also led to calls (ultimately unheeded) for USC to leave the district. By the 1970s, the desegregation of areas such as Ladera Heights and Baldwin Hills had led to a further exodus of upper- and middle-class blacks. Some of the elegant mansions they left behind were often purchased by landlords who carved them up into apartments, for students at fast-growing USC and the burgeoning population of single Latino immigrants. The 1992 Los Angeles riots while largely spared West Adams' historic buildings. Mirroring changes seen throughout Los Angeles the district's Latino population had been growing but the area's architecture and proximity to USC have brought a number of upper-middle-class whites as well. Many of the neighborhoods are experiencing a renaissance of sorts with their historic homes being restored to their previous elegance.
|
