List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in South Los Angeles

This is a list of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in South Los Angeles, California, USA. In total, there are 145 Historic-Cultural Monuments (HCM) in the South Los Angeles area, which includes the historic West Adams, Exposition Park, and University of Southern California campus areas. It also includes historic sites in Watts (including Simon Rodia's Watts Towers), Crenshaw, Leimert Park, and Baldwin Hills.

Overview of the Harbor Area's Historic-Cultural Monuments

The southern portion of Los Angeles includes some of the city's most historic sites, including National Historic Landmarks. The three sites receiving the highest designation are: (1) the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, built in 1923, and used as the principal site of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games; (2) the Watts Towers, a collection of 17 interconnected structures, two of which reach heights of over 99 feet (30 m), built by Italian immigrant construction worker Simon Rodia in his spare time from 1921 to 1954; and (3) Baldwin Hills Village, an innovative planned community built in the 1930s with vast open grassy areas and trees.

The majority of the historic sites in the South Los Angeles area are concentrated in the West Adams district, along a three-mile stretch of West Adams Boulevard between Arlington Avenue and Figueroa Street. Though South Los Angeles is now considered one of the poorer sections of the city, the West Adams district was one of the city's most affluent areas from the 1890s through the 1920s. As the city boomed, the city's wealthy built elaborate mansions in the area. There are more than 60 Historic-Cultural Monuments in West Adams, including some of the city's most reknowned landmarks, such as the Oliver G. Posey-Edward L. Doheny Residence, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Stimson House, Frederick Hastings Rindge House, Forthmann House, and the birthplace of two-time U.S. Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson.

West Adams also includes three of the city's most recognizable churches, the domed Second Church of Christ Scientist, the second Catholic church in the city to be consecrated, St. Vincent de Paul, the city's Episcopal cathedral, Saint John's Episcopal Church, the Gothic McCarty Memorial Christian Church, which became one of the first white Protestant churches to be racially integrated in the 1950s, and the

To the south of West Adams is the campus of the University of Southern California and Exposition Park, which also has a large number of important historic sites. These include the Coliseum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Exposition Park Rose Garden, and USC's Widney Hall, the oldest university building in Southern California, in continuous use since 1880.

The southern area is also the home of the city's Greek Orthodox cathedral, Saint Sophia Cathedral, located on Normandie Avenue.

The area also includes sites that have played an important role in the history of jazz and soul music. The Ray Charles Worldwide Offices and Studios was designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument in 2004, and the Dunbar Hotel was at the heart of the thriving Central Avenue jazz scene in the 1930s and 1940s. The Dunbar hosted the first national convention of the NAACP to be held in the western United States and hosted Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Lena Horne and many other jazz legends. Former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson also ran a nightclub at the Dunbar in the 1930s.

A map displaying the historic sites and districts in South Los Angeles can be viewed by clicking "Map of all coordinates" below to the right.

Current and former Historic-Cultural Monuments

Non-HCM sites also recognized

The Historic-Cultural Monuments listed above include many of the most important historic sites in South Los Angeles. In addition, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in the area. Some other sites and historic districts within the South Los Angeles area have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places or designated as California Historical Landmarks, but were not also listed as HCMs. These are:

ee also

*List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
*List of California Historical Landmarks
*List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in the Harbor area
*List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in the San Fernando Valley

References

External links

* [http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/HCM/dsp_hcm_result_Citywide.cfm?APC=South%20Los%20Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) Report for South Los Angeles]
* [http://www.laalmanac.com/LA/lamap2.htm City of Los Angeles Map] at Given Place Media