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Photo, Print, Drawing Los Angeles County Poor Farm, Patient Wards 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208 & 209 - Type A Plan, 7601 Imperial Highway; bounded by Esperanza Street, Hawthorn Avenue, Laurel Street, and Descanso Street, Downey, Los Angeles County, CA Rancho Los Amigos, Los Angeles County Building Nos. 1189, 1190, 1191, 1192, 1193, 1194, 1195, 1196 & 1197 Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center

View 9 images in sequence.
[ Photos from Survey HABS CA-2800-A  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS CA-2800-A  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS CA-2800-A  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Los Angeles County Poor Farm, Patient Wards 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208 & 209 - Type A Plan, 7601 Imperial Highway; bounded by Esperanza Street, Hawthorn Avenue, Laurel Street, and Descanso Street, Downey, Los Angeles County, CA

Other Title

  • Rancho Los Amigos, Los Angeles County Building Nos. 1189, 1190, 1191, 1192, 1193, 1194, 1195, 1196 & 1197 Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • County of Los Angeles Mechanical Department
  • Harriman, Ruddy
  • County of Los Angeles, Chief Executive Office, sponsor
  • Sapphos Environmental, Inc., contractor
  • Ostermann, Wanda, field team
  • Lee, David, photographer
  • Backes, Clarus, photographer
  • Carmack, Shannon, historian
  • Silva, Rebecca, historian
  • Howell-Ardila, Deborah, historian
  • Carias, Laura, historian
  • Heumann, Leslie, historian

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  hospital wards
  • -  California--Los Angeles County--Downey

Notes

  • -  Significance: Patient Ward 201 represents one of two types of ward buildings found on the Rancho Los Amigos Historic District. Documentation of Patient Ward 201 represents all patient ward buildings of Type A. Constructed from 1923 to 1928, 13 Patient Ward buildings provided hospitalization for chronically ill patients at the Los Angeles County Poor Farm. The County Poor Farm began in 1887/1888 as an agricultural facility that provided work, housing, and medical care for the indigent to relieve the overburdened Los Angeles County Hospital system. By the 1910s, an increasing number of inmates with chronic medical disorders were being admitted to the Poor Farm, causing a transition from providing rehabilitative, short-term treatment for the impoverished to a long-term patient care facility that eventually became the Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center. The Patient Ward Buildings were the first buildings constructed at the institution strictly to provide ward space for these chronically ill patients. Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center is significant as an example of early twentieth century healthcare of Los Angeles County’s indigent population and for its later treatment of those in Los Angeles County with chronic illnesses, both mental and physical. In 1995, seventy-six buildings located in the South Campus area of the former Poor Farm were determined eligible for listing as a historic district in the National Register of Historic Place, and as a result, the South Campus was automatically listed in the California Register of Historical Resources. The Patient Ward Buildings were listed as contributors to the Historic District.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1618
  • -  Survey number: HABS CA-2800-A
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1923-1928 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1936 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1980 Subsequent Work

Medium

  • Photo(s): 9
  • Data Page(s): 18
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 1

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS CA-2800-A

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • ca3510

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

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  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS CA-2800-A
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, County Of Los Angeles Mechanical Department, Ruddy Harriman, Chief Executive Office County Of Los Angeles, Inc Sapphos Environmental, Wanda Ostermann, Shannon Carmack, et al., Lee, David, and Clarus Backes, photographer. Los Angeles County Poor Farm, Patient Wards 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208 & 209 - Type A Plan,Imperial Highway; bounded by Esperanza Street, Hawthorn Avenue, Laurel Street, and Descanso Street, Downey, Los Angeles County, CA. Los Angeles County California Downey, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/ca3510/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., County Of Los Angeles Mechanical Department, Harriman, R., County Of Los Angeles, C. E. O., Sapphos Environmental, I., Ostermann, W. [...] Heumann, L., Lee, D. & Backes, C., photographer. (1933) Los Angeles County Poor Farm, Patient Wards 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208 & 209 - Type A Plan,Imperial Highway; bounded by Esperanza Street, Hawthorn Avenue, Laurel Street, and Descanso Street, Downey, Los Angeles County, CA. Los Angeles County California Downey, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ca3510/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographers by Lee, David, and Clarus Backes. Los Angeles County Poor Farm, Patient Wards 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208 & 209 - Type A Plan,Imperial Highway; bounded by Esperanza Street, Hawthorn Avenue, Laurel Street, and Descanso Street, Downey, Los Angeles County, CA. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/ca3510/>.