Photo, Print, Drawing Watts Cultural Crescent, Bounded by historic Watts Station to the north; the commercial and commuter train lines to the West; Graham Avenue, Santa Anna Boulevard North, and Wilmington Avenue to the east; and East 107th Street to the south., Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA
About this Item
Title
- Watts Cultural Crescent, Bounded by historic Watts Station to the north; the commercial and commuter train lines to the West; Graham Avenue, Santa Anna Boulevard North, and Wilmington Avenue to the east; and East 107th Street to the south., Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA
Names
- Historic American Landscapes Survey, creator
- Rodia, Sabato "Simon"
- Southern Pacific Railroad
- Mobley, Lillian
- Watts Towers Community Action Council (WTCAC)
- Cultural Crescent Master Plan
- U.S. National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
- Walter Hood & Associates
- Mass Architecture
- Outterbridge, John
- Powell, Judson
- Saar, Betye
- Purifoy, Noah
- Shiokava, Kenzi
- Wyatt, Richard
- Tann, Curtis
- Garcia, Margaret
- Dickson, Charles
- The Watts Prophets
- Earth Wind and Fire
- Mingus, Charles
- Dolphy, Eric
- Higgins, Billy
- Hustle, Nipsey
- Charles Mingus Youth Art Center
- Watts Happening Cultural Center
- Watts Writers Workshop
- Schulberg, Budd
- Ojenke
- Troupe, Quincy
- Crouch, Stanley
- Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival
- Watts Towers Day of the Drums Festival
- Kennard, Robert A.
- Silvers, Arthur R.
- Martin Luther King Shopping Center
- St. John's Methodist Church
- Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA)
- Pacific Electric Railway
- Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA)
- Moffitt, Alyssa Leal, historian
- Stevens, Christopher M., transmitter
- McPartland, Mary, transmitter
- Stranieri, Marcella, transmitter
- Moffitt, Alyssa, photographer
Created / Published
- Documentation compiled after 2000
Headings
- - African Americans
- - performing arts
- - protest movements
- - civil rights
- - public sculpture
- - murals
- - amphitheaters
- - trees
- - trails & paths
- - gardens
- - immigrants
- - railroad tracks
- - railroad stations
- - lawns
- - plaques
- - urban parks
- - land development
- - California--Los Angeles County--Los Angeles
Latitude / Longitude
- 33.943,-118.24302
Notes
- - Entry 2021 HALS Challenge: Historic Black Landscapes
- - Significance: The Watts Cultural Crescent Park is a partially developed 10-acre crescent- shaped green space and the visible link between the historic Watts Station and Sabato “Simon” Rodia’s Watts Towers. The Park includes the Watts Towers, Watts Towers Arts Center, the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center, and the Garden Studio. The site is the location of the “Hub” of the Southern Pacific Railroad’s four-track electrical line that formerly connected Los Angeles to Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Long Beach, Huntington Beach and Santa Ana. The Park is also the geographical center of historic Watts, an independent city until its annexation into Los Angeles in 1926. For over 30 years the community has called for the development of a green space that celebrates the Towers and the mosaic of culture and history that is unique to Watts. The historic relevance of the Watts Cultural Crescent is its centrality and significance during three distinct time periods: the first Black Renaissance, the second Black Renaissance of Watts, which includes the 1965 Uprising, and the 1980s-90s, marked by the 35+ year struggle by local civil rights leaders for the Park’s recognition and true realization according to the vision of the community. It is also exemplary of the inclusiveness by the Black community of all the cultures that enrich the story of Watts demonstrated by the embrace of the Towers, built by an Italian immigrant, as a symbol of freedom, creativity, and initiative for all and the Watts Towers Art Center’s role in launching the careers of artists of all ethnicities. The first era is the first Black Renaissance that took place starting in the 1920s and paralleled the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. It accompanied the first Great Migration and includes the jazz music movement of Central Avenue. The second Black Renaissance during the second Great Migration of 1940-70s includes the writing, music, dance and visual arts movements, and the regional Black Aesthetic Assemblage movement that is specific to Watts. In 1961 the original Committee for Simon Rodia’s Towers in Watts established the Art Center in a house on 107th Street and in the early 1970s the current Art Center building was built. During the 1965 Watts Uprising, the Towers were protected by a community that adopted them as their beacon of freedom, their own “Statue of Liberty. The third historic period is between 1980-90s, marking the civil rights leader Lillian Mobley’s focused leadership in Watts. She was joined by other Black leaders in a community endeavor to address the frontline issues of social justice, economic inequity and immigration that remain critical issues to this day. In 1985, the Watts Towers Community Action Council (WTCAC) was founded to oversee the development of the bare space linking the Towers and Station through a Watts Cultural Crescent Project. Over a few years it attracted wide-spread community involvement with well-publicized and well-attended presentations and discussion groups. In 1994 the WTCAC presented its Cultural Crescent Master Plan with designs for a cultural green park to the City of Los Angeles. The City never developed the community envisioned park, but some plan features were later installed in unsuitable locations on site without consulting the community.” The last plan was funded by the National Endowment of the Arts in 2014 and was authored by Walter Hood & Associates and Mass Architecture- two renown, award winning, Black owned firms. The Watts art scene inspired regional expressions in the visual arts (i.e., Assemblage), music, and dance and brought such artists to the national forefront as John Outterbridge, Judson Powell, Betye Saar, Noah Purifoy, and Brazilian-Japanese artist Kenzi Shiokava, as well as painters Richard Wyatt, Curtis Tann and Margaret Garcia, and sculptor Charles Dickson. Watts musicians include The Watts Prophets, the entire winds section of Earth Wind and Fire, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Billy Higgins, and Nipsey Hustle, who took classes at the Charles Mingus Youth Art Center. Writers, dancers, and artists also emerged from programs housed at the nearby Watts Happening Cultural Center. The Watts Writers Workshop, one of the oldest, established Black writers’ groups, was founded by Budd Schulberg, and fostered writers, poets, and critics like Ojenke, Quincy Troupe, and Stanley Crouch. Festivals held on the site include the Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival and the Watts Towers Day of the Drums Festival.
- - Survey number: HALS CA-160
- - Building/structure dates: 1904 Initial Construction
- - Building/structure dates: 1921- ca. 1951 Subsequent Work
- - Building/structure dates: 2016 Subsequent Work
- - Building/structure dates: 1994 Subsequent Work
- - National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 77000297, 74000523
Medium
- Data Page(s): 13
Call Number/Physical Location
- HALS CA-160
Source Collection
- Historic American Landscapes Survey (Library of Congress)
Repository
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Control Number
- ca4479
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
Online Format
Part of
Format
Contributor
- Charles Mingus Youth Art Center
- Community Redevelopment Agency (Cra)
- Crouch, Stanley
- Cultural Crescent Master Plan
- Dickson, Charles
- Dolphy, Eric
- Earth Wind and Fire
- Garcia, Margaret
- Higgins, Billy
- Historic American Landscapes Survey
- Hustle, Nipsey
- Kennard, Robert A.
- Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (Dca)
- Martin Luther King Shopping Center
- Mass Architecture
- McPartland, Mary
- Mingus, Charles
- Mobley, Lillian
- Moffitt, Alyssa
- Moffitt, Alyssa Leal
- Ojenke
- Outterbridge, John
- Pacific Electric Railway
- Powell, Judson
- Purifoy, Noah
- Rodia, Sabato "Simon"
- Saar, Betye
- Schulberg, Budd
- Shiokava, Kenzi
- Silvers, Arthur R.
- Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival
- Southern Pacific Railroad
- St. John's Methodist Church
- Stevens, Christopher M.
- Stranieri, Marcella
- Tann, Curtis
- The Watts Prophets
- Troupe, Quincy
- U.S. National Endowment for the Arts (Nea)
- Walter Hood & Associates
- Watts Happening Cultural Center
- Watts Towers Community Action Council (Wtcac)
- Watts Towers Day of the Drums Festival
- Watts Writers Workshop
- Wyatt, Richard