Part of the historical development and transformation of Sawtelle California, (West Los Angeles), from 1897 to around the 1950s is documented here on this site. To view the individual articles, Click on “SAWTELLE HISTORY” above.
Pictured above is a Tourist Road Map of the Westside of Los Angeles dated 1925 was issued by the Automobile Club of Southern California and was made into collage Art. Click twice to zoom in. For more information on the map, go to https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/1925-map-by-automobile-club-of-so-cal/
Shown below are the boundaries of Sawtelle, made from a 1926 map of Sawtelle distributed by the Sawtelle Chamber of Commerce. specifies the boundaries of Sawtelle as Wilshire Boulevard and Soldiers Home on the north, Sepulveda Boulevard on the east, Pico Boulevard on the south and Centinela avenue on the west.
This is the historical Sawtelle location, situated west of Westwood, Beverly Hills and 20th Century Fox studios and east of Santa Monica and south of Brentwood in the western district of Los Angeles, California. This 1926 Map of Sawtelle, California was originally distributed by the Sawtelle Chamber of Commerce and is Courtesy of the Henry J. Bruman map collection at U.C.L.A. in Westwood, California and was restyled here in Collage Art.
Go to the link, to view the original map https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz002c21wg
News article dated May 17 1923 was redesigned into Collage Art. There was a strong attempt from the businessmen of Sawtelle (Lions Club of Sawtelle) to change the name of Sawtelle to Westwood. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/1933-westwood-was-east-of-sepulveda-blvd/
Shown above is the 2226 Granville Avenue, Sawtelle California Victorian Craftsman 5 bedroom, 2 Bath Family House facing west, between Olympic Boulevard and Exposition Blvd. that my cousins (Carmen Gil, Connie Ortiz) and Aunt (Sara de la Torre) lived at 1944-1950. The house was demolished years ago, after the area was rezoned for commercial development.
Katherine Newton Graybill stands in front of her Sawtelle bungalow in the early 1900s, clearly proud of the well‑tended vegetable garden that framed her shack, or should I say “house”. I made the photo into Collage Art. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/11-mrs-graybill-her-sawtelle-cottage/
General Oscar Hugh La Grange
Pictured above is Union Veteran General Oscar Hugh La Grange (1837-1915) in his early Civil War Years, Obviously for whom La Grange Avenue in Sawtelle was named. General Oscar Hugh La Grange remains a distinguished emblem of patriotism, his legacy defined by his service in the American Civil War — a legacy that the Sawtelle street name ‘La Grange Avenue’ should rightfully preserve and reflect.”
From The Early 1901 Map of Sawtelle, we see that all the Streets running East/West were given Names of Anerican States except La Grange Avenue, and those Streets running North/South were numbered. Governor La Grange no doubt was honored at the beginning of the Township, with the only Street bearing a Name of a noteworthy personality, his own. Only the street name “La Grange” avenue has remained as part of Sawtelle from the very beginning to the present. Beside his military career, General Oscar Hugh La Grange served as Governor of the Soldier’s Home in Sawtelle, California from 1899 to 1908 and it was in 1899 that Sawtelle with its street name “La Grange” avenue was first established.
Above is University High School, Sawtelle, West Los Angeles California – Art Deco Image
The 1914 Nora Sterry Schoolhouse shown above is located on Nebraska and Sawtelle Boulevard with the original Brick cladding on the exterior. Today, we find that the original brick cladding has been replaced with painted stucco. In preservation terminology, removing the original brick cladding and replacing it with stucco is considered a major alteration that compromises the building’s historical integrity and Sawtelle’s architectural history. The Photo is dated 1953. See the link: https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/new-school-built-1914/
This picture above is from 1953 and depicts the original Window design and Brickwork cladding of the 1914 Fourth Street Nora Sterry Schoolhouse. This is the south side of the Schoolhouse looking northward from Nebraska avenue.
“Barefoot in the Classroom, a Poem” Listen to the Read Aloud Poem at https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/two-barefoot-boys-in-1934-at-nora-sterry-school/
My first cousin Carmen Hill (Gil) reigns as Queen at Stoner Playground May 1950. Watercolor image of Carmen from the newspaper clipping – https://www.zazzle.com/carmen_at_the_beach_pin_up_poster-256794303854952055
Stoner Park Tee shirts https://www.zazzle.com/stoner_skate_park_t_shirt-256683171671698352
Stoner Skate Board Park https://www.zazzle.com/stoner_skate_park_t_shirt-256819284942780884
Ketchie’s on Sawtelle Boulevard and La Grange Avenue in the 1960s – Sawtelle, California https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/ketchies-stand-on-sawtelle-boulevard/
Aimee Semple Mcpherson oil artwork – Samuel Dorame
Aimee Semple Mcpherson spoke at the Sawtelle Women’s club in 1923. She had the Angelus Temple built in the 1920s next to Echo Park, through private donations, where Marilyn Monroe was baptized and dedicated to the Lord in 1926 as an infant, named Norma Jeane Baker. The Angelus Temple structure is still there today. In the artwork above, she is clutching a white covered Bible next to her chest. She proclaimed the “Foursquare Gospel” – Jesus Savior, Jesus Healer, Jesus Baptizer, Jesus coming King.
Womens Club of Sawtelle 1912 Source: San Francisco Blue Book, Index of Women’s Clubs – Collage Art
This Emblem of the City of Sawtelle, California, has no historical authenticity but was made for artistic value.
Mr. Frank Langdon first Mayor of the city of Sawtelle 1906
I am using computer systems to make these following images and am in the process of adding more artworks. Posters of the images will be available at https://www.zazzle.com/store/westsidela
Nuart Theatre with a ’54 Corvette in Sawtelle California. The image was made in Art Deco style. This poster can be purchased at: https://www.zazzle.com/nuart_theatre_with_a_54_corvette_poster-256124162001762654
Sawtelle 2023, Art Deco Arial view from Sawtelle looking east toward Hollywood. Double click twice to zoom in.
The colorized Art Deco movie poster made from a 1926 newspaper Clipping, for the Sawtelle Tivoli Theatre https://www.zazzle.com/zorro_movie_poster-256687246005948607
Big Tomy’s Charbroiled Burgers on Sawtelle Boulevard and Pico is a beloved, affordable Sawtelle spot known for classic, charbroiled burgers and fries, offering reasonable prices, satisfying burger cravings. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/sawtelle-1897-1929/big-tomys-west-l-a/
Big Tomy’s Burgers at Sawtelle Blvd. and Pico Blvd. – Tee Shirt emblem print available at Zazzle https://www.zazzle.com/big_tomys_tee_shirt-256828232557373038
Cozy Court – Sawtelle and Olympic Boulevards Art Deco style from 1947 post card
Tivoli Movie Theatre in Sawtelle California 1930s. This image was re-created by AI from an old photo.
The old 1930 Sawtelle NUART Theatre marquee. This image of the old 1930 NUART Theatre marquee was restored from an old Newspaper clipping. To view the old newspaper clipping refer to this link: https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/1930-august-21-the-nuart-theater-is-opened/
The old 1930 Sawtelle NUART Theatre poster was made into ART DECO.
The tiny Crackerbox House at the Intersection of Bundy Drive and Idaho avenue in Sawtelle, California from the 1932 photographic Collection of Dick Whittington. This was identical to our small stucco “Cracker Box” 1 Bedroom house at 2236 Cotner Avenue just south of Olympic Blvd from 1947 to 1955. The small rectangular House was only about 300 sq. ft. total – The Living room as you opened the front door was about 100 sq. feet, the Second window was the Bedroom 100 sq. feet with the Kitchen and bathroom remaining 100 sq. feet. The image was colorized.
Bundy’s Lock & Key Company – Sawtelle California – West Los Angeles – Independent Newspaper December 13, 1929. The newspaper clipping was made into collage Art as shown https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/1929-bundys-lock-key-co/
My father would drive our entire family to the old “FOOD PALACE” Market at Pico Boulevard and Bundy every Friday evening after collecting his paycheck in the 1940s and ’50s. He always parked near the back entrance. The FOOD PALACE years ago was demolished, rebuilt and now known as the Japanese MARUKAI MARKET. The Food Palace ran full‑page advertisements in the West Los Angeles Independent newspaper weekly during the 1940s and 1950s, a reminder of the role it played in the daily life of the community. Across the street from the Food Palace stood the NU WAY restaurant famous for its chili dogs now called TEDDY’S. This newspaper ad is dated April 14, 1941.
The Food Palace super market, our family grocery store, it played a significant role in the daily life of the Sawtelle community beginning around 1940 before the war, located on Pico Boulevard and Bundy Drive not far from Robert Redford’s boyhood home. The car is a 1959 Ford Fairlane. The image was restored and colorized.
Nuart Theatre Art Deco poster was made from an old 1931 Sawtelle Nuart Theatre newspaper Ad
1920s Movie Actress Marion Davies Children’s Clinic – Sawtelle, California at Mississippi Avenue & Barrington Avenue 1930s. The image was restored and colorized in collage art style .
Lark Ellen Home for Boys – Sawtelle California located on Olympic Blvd. and Corinth Avenue dedicated Dec. 23, 1923 and ended 1950. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/dec-1923-lark-ellen-home-for-boys-on-corinth-and-olympic/
Made from a July 8, 1922 Outlook newspaper advertisement. The newspaper clipping was made into collage Art https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/1915-the-noeth-building/
Made from a June 3, 1938 Independent Newspaper clipping. The newspaper clipping shown above was made into collage Art by AI (Artificial Intelligence). The date of the Revival Tent meeting mentioned, was at around the same time Norma Jeane (Marilyn Monroe) 12 years old in 1938, first went to Sawtelle, to live with “Aunt Anna”. In June 1938 Norma had two significant things happen for her, she graduated from 6th grade Nora Sterry grammar school in Sawtelle, California and she turned 13. The tent mentioned in the ad was located on a large empty lot on the Corner on Westgate avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, where Target is currently located. The Tent was also used by an “old time Salvation Gospel preaching group”, who preached Salvation messages weekly. The tent could be the one where Norma Jeane is pictured at 12 years old with Aunt Ana in the following link. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/marilyn-monroe-in-sawtelle-1938/
1537 Corinth avenue Apartment built in 1928. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/year-of-1913-1537-corinth-avenue/
Sawtelle 2023, Art Deco Arial view from Sawtelle looking west toward the Pacific Ocean
Stoner Playground in Art Deco- The old Municipal & Swimming Pool Building before it was demolished.
Stoner Park – This old wood Structure at Stoner Park may have been the Playground Main office with 2 restrooms in 1926, where the doors are located. There were no Buildings at Stoner Park in 1926 and the main office was this wood framed structure at Granville and Nebraska avenues, where this is located, hence it was called, The Sawtelle Playground at Granville and Nebraska. The playfield was used for baseball games with only white Chalk used for the boundaries. The playfield existed as the total Playground in 1926 which was also used for Dog Races and Bicycle Races. This image was made into ART DECO from a recent photograph of the structure.
Foster’s Freeze of Sawtelle on Santa Monica Blvd. & Westgate Avenue in 1955 and a 1947 Chevy Fleetline Classic Car. The image was made in Art Deco style.
Hotel Brooks of Sawtelle and a 1935 Ford Coupe on Sawtelle Boulevard. The image was made in Art Deco style
Old Gardener’s truck parked on Pontius Avenue just south of Olympic Blvd. Art Deco Artwork.
Grand Opening Marshall’s 5 and 10 cent store Art Deco poster was made from an old newspaper Ad
Old Masonic Temple entrance on Butler Avenue – Art Deco
Artistic view of the Triangle Park
West End Studios on Sawtelle Boulevard and ’57 Chevy in Art Deco style from a photo. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/the-west-end-hotel/
Actor Robert Redford’s clildhood brick style home on Tennessee Avenue in Sawtelle California made in Art Deco style from a recent photograph. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/actor-robert-redfords-childhood-in-sawtelle-california/
National Soldiers Home monument at Sawtelle, California located at Sawtelle Boulevard & Ohio Avenue in Art Deco Artwork.
Kuruvungna Village Springs and Cultural Center site at University High School – Photo is a Native American dwelling Replica in Art Deco from a recent photograph. The site is located at University High School, entrance on Barrington Avenue, between Texas and Ohio Avenues. The Cultural Center is open to the public, the first Saturday of each month from 10 am to 3 pm. The center contains a permanent display of artifacts uncovered during improvements made at University High School. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/junipero-serra-sycamore-tree-in-sawtelle/
‘Tis the Season to Be Merry?
In the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and I personally recall in the early 1950s, before the 405 Freeway was built along with the massive apartment construction and Highrise commercial structures, Christmas overhang street decorations with lighting were displayed and highly visible on Santa Monica Boulevard that gave the small community, known by everyone as West L.A., that old hometown warm ambiance like in the 1946 movie titled “It’s a Wonderful Life”
The movie is uplifting when actor Jimmy Stewart at the end of the movie is ecstatic with joy running through the streets of Pottersville, to find his life is real again. But in today’s world, the Amazon Prime Video has a “cut out” version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” that removes THE ENTIRE SCENE of the movie, where actor Jimmy Stewart sees what it would be like, if he had never existed, with the help of his guardian Angel, to answer his pleading prayer that he wished, he had never been born, the most crucial part of the story.
Today, “Christmas ” has been “cut out” of the community by removing the annual street decorations. The West Los Angeles Civic Center along Santa Monica Boulevard would be “dressed up” for Christmas every year and volunteer singing carolers would make stops at individual houses. See the Link: 1929 & 1949 annual Christmas street decorations and 1941 Darla Hood of “Our Gang comedy” in Sawtelle.
The name of West Los Angeles was to be its normal identification and the sub divisional names such as “Westwood, Bel-Air, Brentwood and Sawtelle” were to fade away. The community of Sawtelle became re-identified as West Los Angeles and BLENDING the old stigmatized community of Sawtelle with the upper class communities of Brentwood, Bel-Air and Westwood asWest Los Angeles, rich and poor on the Westside was the plan of the Sawtelle elites. The plan was a confusing plot somewhat dificult to understand. The Sawtelle name was supposed to fade away after 1929. Nevertheless what the Sawtelle elite tried to do, did not succeed over time. The community of Sawtelle will always be called Sawtelle and West Los Angeles is a district name that encompasses the Western area of Los Angeles with all of its sub divisional communities to put it in simple terms.
Was this plan concocted by the Sawtelle progressives as a justification to rename the old town of Sawtelle, knowing full well that Westwood, Brentwood and Bel-Air would never be renamed “the community of West Los Angeles” to include the ramshackle community of Sawtelle with it?
Gone with the Wind
In today’s modern day Sawtelle, we see individuals, far from the old fashioned family centered community of yesterday that has gone with the wind, It appears that the Matrix they live in today, is a world of people trapped in millionaire and billionaire developed Apartments, high rise structures and Condos, a generation attached to their smart phones, seeking maximum financial security. We see the old fashioned family structure has broken up and disappeared, people are numb to what life was like in bygone years. A younger generation fleeing the aging consequences of Time, a culture tainted with consumerism, where local clubs and eateries are frequented as an escape and where pet dogs fill their emotional voids. The digital world of today has led to a decline in genuine human connection, and contributes to a sense of loneliness. A new generation that find themselves more engaged with their computer screens and cell phones, connected socially in a digital fashion leading to a paradox of being physically alone together, choosing to be disguised with a digital name online and losing sight of the importance of human physical interaction. A-I algorithm price fixing software that “calculates” the price of rents is now being used in other cities. Is this the future for sawtelle?https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/sawtelle-dingbat-apartments/
Sawtelle to West Los Angeles
Sawtelle kissed up to big sugar daddy, and annexed itself to the City of Los Angeles who promised Sawtelle gifts galore (fresh flowing water systems and new infrastructure to name a few) in exchange for paying Los Angeles the price of taxes at the amount they control and decide. Sawtelle property taxes, apartment owners, condo owners and everyone in between pay Los Angeles today, with taxes that are thru the roof. Shiver Me Timbers! Sawtelle has been taken captive by a corrupt controlling system, and we don’t even know it. Your high monthly rent includes a payment by the owner to Los Angeles, to cover his taxes. The small renter with their high rental payment ends up “carrying the bag.”
The city of Sawtelle’s annexation to the city of Los Angeles in 1922 began the movement by the hard core Anglo progressives (local merchants, social organizations, business leaders and the majority of the additional newer towns people of Sawtelle) of Sawtelle to change the name of the community of Sawtelle to the community of West Los Angeles. The goal of the Progressives was to eliminate sub divisional names such as Sawtelle, Westwood, Brentwood, Holmby Hills and blend them into one community named West Los Angeles, with Sawtelle as the Western Los Angeles Metropolitan center, generally west of Beverly Hills and east of Santa Monica, to Rival Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.
The Sawtelle community name change appeared to be orchestrated by the progressive elite of Sawtelle as a way to rid itself of the abhorred Sawtelle name, which to them represented smallness, narrowness and the Shanty Town stigma in the 1920s and 1930s. My view on this, is that a new central district Post Office could have been created in Brentwood for the greater Western Los Angeles district sub divisional communities such as Brentwood, Westwood and Bel-Air and still have kept the small Sawtelle Post office and its name intact for only the Sawtelle community. See the article much further below quoting Walter Armacost, the last city Mayor of Sawtelle, saying that Sawtelle had not lost its name after annexation to the city of Los Angeles implying that the Sawtelle name would not be changed but how wrong he was.
In 1929, the main central Post Office for the West Los Angeles District was located in the Sawtelle community and was the main central station for other parts of the sub divisional communities such as Brentwood, Bel-Air, Holmby Hills and Westwood at that time. Therefore, it would only be logical to change the name of the Post Office from the Sawtelle Post Office to the West Los Angeles Post Office. On top of this, The main institutions such as the Fire Department, Police Department, Court Buildings for the entire West Los Angeles District including Bel-Air, Brentwood, Westwood, Holmby Hills, home to the rich and famous, were located in old Sawtelle. See the Link for the house in Holmby Hills on actress Constance Bennett at https://vickielester.com/2015/09/01/constance-bennetts-got-style/
The progressive elite made the necessary petition up to the Federal Government, for the post office name change. The Federal Government in Washington D.C. officially approved and authorized the renaming of the Sawtelle Post Office to the West Los Angeles Post Office on November 1, 1929. The names of the local institutions such as the Fire Department, Police Department, District Court, Sawtelle Women’s Club and many local businesses in Sawtelle were renamed with West Los Angeles. By the early 1930s most everyone jumped on the bandwagon to become West Los Angeles. See the link Sawtelle Post Office dedicated & Changed to West L.A.
By the 1920s, the shanty town of Sawtelle was a stigma and hindrance to moving forward with the new vision for development of the entire West Los Angeles district. Sawtelle was developed years before the surrounding wealthy developments of Bel-Air, Brentwood, Westwood and Holmby Hills and was its own city in the early 1900s. Allowing the poorly pensioned Veterans to build their own community with their hammers and saws, was a noble Idea at first and the contrast between the shanty community of Sawtelle was not too obvious in the early 1900s. But into the 1920s and 1930s, with all the enormous and beautiful surrounding property developments of the rich and famous of Bel-Air, Holmby Hills, Brentwood, Westwood and the new delelopment of U.C.L.A. the contrast between the poor ramshackle community of Sawtelle and those new wealthy developments was like night and day. To give you an Idea of what some of the early Sawtelle homes looked like, See the link Mrs. Graybill and Captain Greeley’s Cottage.
The Progressive elite could not change the wood framed shacks owned by many low income property owners of Sawtelle, so, the course of action was to change the name of the community to West Los Angeles, as an effort to hide and cover up the Sawtelle ramshackle community stigma. At this time around 1922, William E. Sawtelle left the West Los Angeles area with no fanfare where most of his business activity took place and ended up at La Jolla, California where he and his wife retired. Likely, he saw the handwriting on the wall and understood where the progressives were taking the stigmatized community though he did not reside in the city of Sawtelle itself but he and his family lived closer to the central Los Angeles area. William E. Sawtelle and his name were closely identified with the old city of Sawtelle and it appears that he looked to shake off the past and begin a retirement in the San Diego area of La Jolla.
We have just about nothing, of photographic evidence, of all the ramshackle houses that existed in Sawtelle, obviously for the reason, that at that time in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, when photography was a precious technology, and not to be wasted on meaning less pictures with those having family Cameras, film and cost of development, who would take pictures of the old ramshackle neighborhoods? Many struggling at that time to pay necessities did not need frivolous expenses. Looking back today, those type of photos of many various locations of Sawtelle would be desirable to help understand how the community developed over time, for good or for bad. We now use any old photos we can find along with old newspaper articles to help us fill in the blanks.
Marilyn Monroe
Norma Jeane Baker known as Marilyn Monroe grew up in the old Sawtelle area and writes and signs her city as W.L.A. in a photographic modeling contract when she lived on Nebraska and Corinth Avenues in the 1940s, before she became Marilyn. She attended University High School in Sawtelle as Norma Jeane Baker. In a personal 1951 interview, she specifically states the community of Sawtelle, when she opens her heart describing where she lived in her poorer status as a young teen.
On March 2025, Esther Abelar tells the story of her brother-in-law Alphonso Herrera riding Norma Jeane (Marilyn Monroe) on his bike handle bars to Emerson Jr. High School in their early teens. Alphonso and Norma Jeane were the same age, attended the same Junior High School and lived across the street from each other in Sawtelle at that time 1938-1943. The Herrera family had 6 brothers and one sister.
Esther Abelar was married to Alphonso’s younger brother Henry Herrera and gives her personal account of Marilyn Monroe around 1952 driving up to her old teen house on Nebraska Avenue that she inherited from Aunt Ana, in a two Cadillacs and Lu (Lupe) Herrera (Alphonso’s younger brother) coming accross the street to meet Marilyn who recoginized Lu Herrera and asked about Alphonso. Esther Abelar lived on the same property with brother -in-law Lu Herrera with her husband Henry Herrera. Marilyn signed two baby photo books for them. I am currently trying to obtain a picture from Esther of the baby photo book and a picture of Alfonso Herrera. Alfonso Herrera’s parents were born in Mexico. . See the following link for the YouTube Video where I interviewed Esther March2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5cHwKnhxoA&t=33s
See the following https links about Marilyn:
1.https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/marilyn-monroe-in-sawtelle/
2.https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/marilyn-monroes-brentwood-home/
3.https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/marilyn-monroe-letter-from-aunt-ana/
4.https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/marilyn-monroe-sawtelles-most-famous-girl/
5.https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/marilyn-monroes-teen-neighborhood-and-the-gospel-lighthouse/
The early 1900s, Sawtelle and the Soldier’s Home undoubtedly represented the largest concentrations of Civil War Veterans living in Los Angeles and, for that matter, in California. Union Civil War Veterans were drawn to live in Sawtelle whether or not they were ever admitted to the Soldier’s Home illustrates that there was more to life in Sawtelle than simply aging Veterans receiving their federal benefits. Rather, Sawtelle, the Soldiers’ City provided new opportunities in a new century for Union veterans still open to the challenges of building a community and embarking on new business endeavors forty years after the Civil War ended. The active social, political, and economic involvement of Union veterans in the city of Sawtelle reveals the significant role that Civil War veterans played in the development of old Sawtelle.
Above, the Township of Sawtelle is in a welcoming ceremony for the President of the United States of America, William McKinley on May 9, 1901 when Oscar La Grange managed the Soldier’s Home. The photo was taken at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard (Oregon avenue) and Sawtelle boulevard (fourth street) looking northward toward the Soldier’s Home. Both roads are unpaved and Typically, a small horse driven carriage would pick up the visitors traveling on the Pacific Railroad from Los Angeles to the Sawtelle train stop and ride them on the carriage northward on Sawtelle Boulevard to the Soldier’s Home. The first house built in Sawtelle in 1897 can be partially seen on the upper left with a notable “circle” near the roof. Go the this link for a story and picture of the house: https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/february-1897-mr-taft/
Haij on Rails productions is the source of the image. https://www.facebook.com/p/Haij-On-Rails-Productions-100057667021169/
The Picture above, taken in 1927, is the old Security First National Bank structure on the North East corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Corinth Avenue is where Gillis Park was once located and it was July 4, 1899 at that park where the Name “Sawtelle” was officiated. Gillis Park was named in honor of Robert C. Gillis who was instrumental in the establishment of Sawtelle as Founder in 1896 and under whose auspices the town was laid out. Currently Gillis Park and the Bank do not exist but the modified Bank structure is used for non-Banking commercial purposes. The structure, as of today, is pictured below.
Santa Monica Blvd. and Corinth Avenue year of 2022. The old Bank building has been extensively stucco and painted over from its classic 1920s architectural design.
Sawtelle moved into notable phases through the years.
1. 1899-1920 Many Anglo patriotic Civil War Veterans were invested in Sawtelle those early days, often called at that time, the “Soldier City” with a very low population as the town was beginning to “get off its feet”.
2. 1920-1930 The hard-core Anglo progressives (local merchants, social organizations, business leaders and the majority of the additional newer towns people of Sawtelle) “rolled up their sleeves” and took control of Sawtelle, wanting to move Sawtelle in a new direction away from the shanty town stigma of the past “Veteran soldier city”. They desired to change the community’s name from Sawtelle to West Los Angeles, they voted to approve Sawtelle’s annexation to the City of Los Angeles and stubbornly pressed forward to remove the Patriotic Civil War Street Names from Sawtelle. Also, the University High School name was changed from the old Sawtelle original name of Warren Harding High School to reflect the new development of U.C.L.A. into the “University District” in 1929.
3. 1930-1940 The mood changed in the depression era and with it, the dreams of the progressives. Now the Sawtelle township saw the heavy infiltration of minorities (mainly Mexicans, Japanese and low-income whites) into the old stigmatized Anglo community as many were living on hard times during the depression years. Sawtelle was surrounded by the wealth of the upper-class communities of the Western Los Angeles district. Much of the old veteran wood framed bungalows became ramshackle blighted neighborhoods of Sawtelle that have all been demolished amongst some modest looking bungalows built in the 1920s and 1930s that still remain to this day.
4. After WWII by the 1950s and 1960s, the demolishment and Gentrification of old Sawtelle took place and continues to this day. Sawtelle for the most part is no longer a family centered community where generally families lived and owned their own houses with their properties but transformed into Apartment, Condo and home leasing businesses, motivated to make money from renting or leasing with the community boundaries situated in the ever prospering westside of Los Angeles. Many old small ramshackle businesses of Sawtelle have been demolished and redeveloped with “glamorous” touches to impress the naive younger generation. New high rise commercial structures are visible. Many modest looking bungalows were demolished along with the “shacks” and replaced with apartments and Condos in the 1950s and on. Industrial and large commercial structures along with the 405 Freeway barreled through the small community. The small “Holdouts” that continue to remain in Sawtelle, find out, that living in the “old family house” in the new Sawtelle environment is not worth it except to sell or lease the house and move on. Today, we find many on a trail to make a couple of grand a month, by converting their garage to an ADU.
I would wake up in the “quiet morning hour” at around 7am and could hear, outside our front door, the ROAR of the 405 -freeway traffic, where we lived, 12 blocks west from the Freeway. That Freeway, NOW known as the busiest freeway in the USA, built in the 1950s “elevated” above the community street level, barreled through and tore up part of the small Sawtelle community.
Early History of Sawtelle
The town site of Sawtelle was located inside of the old Spanish Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, granted by the Mexican Government December 20th, 1839 to Francisco Sepulveda. Robert S, Baker, descendant of a Rhode Island family, After some success in merchandise and the cattle and sheep business in the northern California, came to southern California in 1872 and bought from Sepulveda the Santa Monica y San Vicente rancho, for a total of 38,409 acres, at a price reported as $54,000. Some years later, the various interests of Robert S. Baker conveyed all his interests in the Rancho to his widowed wife, Mrs. Arcadia Bandini de Baker and Senator John P. Jones.
Arcadia Bandini de Baker courtesy of the Security Pacific National Bank Collection.
John P. Jones – 1890 https://digital.smpl.org/digital/collection/palisades/id/3074/ and https://archive.org/details/santamonicacommu00warr/page/n7/mode/2up?q=city+of+santa+monica
Senator John P. Jones invested $150,000 in a two-thirds interest in the San Vicente Rancho, in January of 1875. Under the guiding minds and vision of Senator Jones and Baker a townsite named Santa Monica was founded & surveyed on a scale that looked well into future development and to this day commands admiration. The site limits of the city of Santa Monica were Montana at the north, what is now Pico Boulevard at the south and Twenty-sixth Street at the east.
Another important contribution to California was the establishment of the National Military Soldier’s Home at Sawtelle in 1888. Senator Jones became champion for the measure that established the Soldier’s Home, the 640 acres coming from Senator Jones and his partners, Colonel Robert S. Baker, and Wolfskill. The Soldier’s Home and the huge annual income from pensions and payrolls it brought to this section are among the important commercial contributions that must be credited to the founder of Santa Monica, Senator John P Jones, one of the most distinguished and richest residents of California in his day.
Senator John P. Jones became more directly identified with business life in Santa Monica in 1893 by buying the interests of Williamson D. Vawter and his two sons Edwin and William in the First National Bank of Santa Monica. Senator John P. Jones’, Nephew, Robert F. Jones Became President and cashier and the name of the Bank was changed to the Santa Monica Bank in 1893. In 1894, Robert F. Jones was elected to the Santa Monica Board of Trustees and his fellow members made him Chairman (President) of the Board of Trustees. Chairman of the Board of Trustees was the Highest office in the City of Santa Monica and the term “Mayor” or “President” was used as a substitute.
Robert F. Jones Mayor of Santa Monica and Realtor along with Robert C. Gillis, who within months of quitting the local Santa Monica Drugstore business formed the Santa Monica Pacific Land Company. Gillis, an elected Trustee of the City of Santa Monica and local Realtor, was in his prime at around 32 years of age.In 1896 they(the Pacific Land Company) sought to purchase a tract of 225 acres directly south of the Soldiers’ Home from Moses Sherman and Eli Clark, the builders of the railway line. This tract of land was originally donated to Sherman & Clark for Railway construction by Mrs. Arcadia Bandini de Baker and Senator John P. Jones. Up to that time there had been no settlers on this land, the only structure existing was a shack near what is now Sawtelle Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd., known as Castle Garden. The interurban Railway developers Sherman and Clark promptly sold the 225 acres of land to the Pacific Land Company in 1896 and used the money to finance their railway line construction. The 225 acre purchase in 1896 by Robert F. Jones and Robert C. Gillis is considered the founding date for the community named Barrett Villa, later known as Sawtelle according to the account by Luther A. Ingersoll, Ingersoll’s Century History: Santa Monica Bay Cities.
Moses H. Sherman his brother-in-law Eli P. Clark pictured below created a successful business in Prescott, Arizona. They developed a railroad that ran from Prescott to Seligman. In 1890 Sherman and Clark went to Los Angeles to introduce the electric railway Lines that were successful in New York City. By the spring of 1896 the Railway tracks along what is now Santa Monica Blvd. had been extended from Sherman (West Hollywood) through the Mustard fields which were to become Beverly Hills past the Barley fields, what was to become Sawtelle to the ocean front at Santa Monica. The connection from Sherman (West Hollywood) to Los Angeles was completed in 1897.
They built and completed a interurban railway line from Los Angeles to Santa Monica in 1897 after completing the Pasadena route.
Source: “Ride the big red cars; how trolleys helped build Southern California” by Spencer Crump – The Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/ridebigredcarsho00crum/mode/2up
Moses H. Sherman – The interurban railway line developer from Los Angeles to Sawtelle & Santa Monica California.
Eli P. Clark – The interurban railway line developer from Los Angeles to Sawtelle & Santa Monica California.
Andrew Washington Barrett
Robert F. Jones and Robert C. Gillis had considered the possibility of dividing and selling the 225 acres of land in small rectangular tracts to Veterans from the Soldier’s Home which had opened eight years earlier in 1888. They succeeded, in securing from the management of the Soldier’s Home, permission for Veterans to purchase vacant Lots and construct houses on those lots, in order for the Veterans who resided in the Soldier’s Home, to now live with their families in the new township, without losing their membership in the Home. Membership in the Soldier’s Home meant many Government paid Benefits such as Medical health Care. The small development was surface graded with property and streets identified with ground stake markers. The development became known as Barrett Villa in 1897 and obviously was named to honor Andrew Washington Barrett, Local Manager of the Soldier’s Home from 1892 to 1898, who likely was instrumental in allowing Veterans to live outside of the Soldier’s Home without losing their Government Benefits, allowing the acceleration of the township development.
The 225 acre rectangular tract of the Pacific Land company was divided and laid out with the boundaries of Ohio avenue on the north, Sepulveda Blvd. on the east, LaGrange avenue on the south and Federal avenue on the west. Eventually, Sawtelle expanded on the south to Pico Blvd. on the west to Centinela Ave and on the north to Wilshire Blvd. See the following link for a map of the 225 acre layout: February 1901 – First Map of Sawtelle
Andrew W. Barrett circa 1900. Local Manager of the Soldier’s Home from 1892 to 1898
In the year 1899, an application to the United States postal authorities was made for the establishment of a post office at Barrett Villa. The name being so similar to that of Bassett Post Office in this state, the U.S. Postal department requested another name, and the wishes of its people centered on one of their chief citizens & proprietor (owner of real property) of the Barrett Township, William E. Sawtelle, as a fitting evidence of the high esteem in which he was held and who had done so much toward beautifying and giving character to the new town of Barrett Villa. William E. Sawtelle consented to the use of his surname and it was sent on to the Postal authorities who accepted it. The township was renamed Sawtelle officially. Postal zip codes were non existent at the time, which should have solved the problem without changing the name of the township. The Township name from Barrett Villa to Sawtelle formally took place during a 1899 fourth of July ceremony, held at a small Park located on the NE corner of Corinth avenue and Santa Monica Blvd, but it wasn’t until 1900 that William E. Sawtelle replaced the elderly Stephan H. Taft as Manager of the Sawtelle development for the Santa Monica The Pacific Land Company. That historical Park where the township was named Sawtelle, was named Gillis Park in honor of Robert C. Gillis who was instrumental in the establishment of Sawtelle as Founder and under whose auspices the town was laid out. The Gillis Park property was eventually sold and commercial structures were built there.
The Sawtelle Project was the first major development that Robert C. Gillis invested in. The successful endeavor of the The Pacific Land Company, propelled Gillis to purchase more land in 1899 from Mrs. Arcadia de Baker, who at that time was Heir to the remaining acreage of the original Rancho and invest in the Santa Monica, Sunset Beach development in 1900. Only beautiful and large structures were permitted using a notable building contractor, unlike Sawtelle. Robert C. Gillis had embarked in two other successful developments in the Santa Monica area, the Bandini tract on the south and the Gillis Tract on the northside of Santa Monica.
Robert F. Jones and Robert C. Gillis no doubt must have considered Uncle Sam’s small pension money sent to Veterans at the Soldier’s Home and tapped into it. They must have clearly understood that the small stacked rectangular vacant lots were to be sold, mainly to low income pensioned Veterans constructing their small bungalows as they desired. The wealthier class investor and buyer were not sought after in this endeavor. “you could say, It was the American thing to do, to help the Veterans of our great Nation”. The Sawtelle development was a first 1896 stepping stone and a jump start for Robert C. Gillis, President of the Santa Monica Pacific Land Company, to further pursue investments and grow his Treasure Chest.
Robert C. Gillis, likely, could not have made the successful investment & development of the 225 acres, without cunningly, acquiring the help of his business partner Robert F. Jones who was Mayor of the City of Santa Monica, President of the Bank of Santa Monica and the major Realtor of Santa Monica at the time and whose uncle, Senator John P. Jones had donated a major part of the acreage for the establishment of the Soldier’s Home. Robert C. Gillis was a Trustee for the City of Santa Monica under Robert F. Jones, engaged as a Santa Monica Realtor and made his big money as a successful land developer in Santa Monica and in the Westside of Los Angeles area over the years.
Above, we see Robert Conran Gillis President of the Pacific Land Company on the left and on the right is Charles LeRoy Bundy (1875-1953), Treasurer of the Pacific Land Company (for whom Bundy Drive is named after) circa: 1900. An Important note: Charles Bundy was also Secretary and Director under Robert Jones President of the Santa Monica Bank. More Questions are raised, How did Charles L. Bundy obtain such an elevated position in the Santa Monica Bank? There is a conspiracy theory that there are 13 Bloodline illuminati families known as a secret elite society that control the wealth of this nation rooted in Free Masonry. The “Bundy” family bloodline lineage from the east is one of the 13 families. Could Charles L. Bundy have been part of this bloodline elite and so elevated his position with connections to the “wealthy Jones family” of Santa Monica? More research is needed. People with extreem wealth just don’t come about by chance but are interconnected with others who drive the same train.
Stephen H.Taft
In 1896, Stephen H. Taft, who had had past experience in building up a town, having been the original proprietor of the beautiful town of Humboldt, Iowa and the founder and first president of the College of Humboldt. located in that town, was invited to inspect the land of the Pacific Land Company. He gave it as his opinion that it would-be quite possible to develop a thriving community here, provided water could be obtained. The company was already putting down wells and was successful in obtaining a fine flow of water from two wells. They put up a 50,000-gallon tank and began to lay pipes and grade streets. In February 1897, the Pacific Land Company asked Mr. Taft to take charge of the new enterprise upon a commission basis. Mr. Taft consented to do so. Mr. Taft assumed charge as manager of the new Barrett Villa development and at once began the erection of a cottage and office and the transformation of a barley field into a town.
Stephen H. Taft, the father of Sawtelle, California – This Photo of Stephen Harris Taft is from the site called “Internet Archive”. The Publication is titled “American Biography and Genealogy” Robert J. Jones 1844-1914 Page 832. The article has the most extensive early history on S. H. Taft. Some considered him “The father of Sawtelle” probably because he was the earliest Pioneer of Sawtelle and had that older Grandfatherly appearance. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/february-1897-mr-taft/
Sawtelle – The Soldier City 1899-1922
Luther A. Ingersoll comments in his contemporary history: “It was noticeable that some men who had hitherto squandered their money in dissipation now purchased land and became valuable citizens. Many families of veterans and widows also secured little homes in the new township. Married members of the Soldiers’ Home bought land in Sawtelle in order to return to some semblance of normal family life. Likewise, single veteran homebuyers sought privacy and a resumption of their civilian lives while retaining the safety-net that Soldiers’ Home membership provided. In addition, some Veterans of the Soldiers’ Home preferred to “live out” by renting rooms or cottages in the town. Though Pacific Branch members (Soldiers’ Home) and their families made up a large segment of Sawtelle’s population, they were by no means its only inhabitants. After Henry Laird bought land and built Sawtelle’s first grocery store, businessmen from Santa Monica and Los Angeles invested in and opened other businesses in the new town. Able-bodied Union veterans from throughout the western states who sought homeownership, businesses opportunities, and the fellowship of other veterans moved to Sawtelle.“
“The most pitiful sight in all the southland today is not the Soldiers’ home, a splendid series of fine mansions surrounded by a magnificent park and beautiful gardens, but the town of Sawtelle beside it, where many of the wives and daughters of the old, well-cared for veterans eke out a miserable existence in old shacks and tumble-down structures, taking in washing for a living or running blind pigs (Beer and Liquor houses) and ministering to the animal desires of some of the aged male veterans” (At the time, small pensions and medical care were given to the aging Veterans by the U.S. Government but not to their wives, children or grandchildren, an exception, widows were given a small monthly benefit.) Source: The Journal of the Assembly During the Thirty-Ninth Session of the Legislature of the State of California, 1911
Sawtelle was called “the Soldier City” from 1899 to around 1922. During this time, the community was in the beginning development stages with many Lots purchased for construction of simple, small wood framed houses, by Civil War Union Veterans, many surviving on meager government pensions of the adjacent Soldier’s Home. The veterans and volunteer Veteran carpenters with Horse driven wagons carrying their construction lumber in the early 1900s, likely constructed without strict building codes. Sawtelle was not annexed to the City of Los Angeles at that time. In 1911, 80 per cent of Sawtelle was owned by Veterans.
Sewer and Plumbing infrastructure for the township of Sawtelle was not commonly developed in those early days, unlike today, where everyone has access to a toilet, sink and bathtub/shower. Some residences used small outhouse structures, built from boards of lumber with a simple door, where one would sit over a pit six feet deep, position oneself over the pit and eliminate. An alternative “Poor Mans method” would be to simply “Do it in a Bucket”, avoiding the stench of an outhouse and have another person empty the contents into a pit covered with a board, away from the bungalow house. To have access to hot water, one would need gas lines and a gas water heater. Gas lines were not part of the early bungalows. Old wood burning pot belly stoves would be used, pouring the heated water into a bath tub for bathing and rinsing and a basin for shaving, face and hand washing. A horse or vehicle driven tank would come by weekly to collect the dirty water and pour it out in a desolate mountain area. The outhouses and wood burning stoves were still in use into the 1930s and 1940s of which our family used. Cold water pipes (Lines) into the bungalows were the only plumbing that many had and those cold-water lines were not full flowing as many complained the flow was coming out frequently as a low flow and even a trickle. This was one of the major reasons why Sawtelle sought the help and “bowed and kissed” up to the city of Los Angeles, with the city of Los Angeles forcing Sawtelle to be annexed in order to help it with its water issues. The city of Los Angeles also coveting Sawtelle’s increasing population with its tax base.
William E. Sawtelle
William E. Sawtelle shown above – Source: Historical and Biographical Record of Southern California by J.M. Guinn – Image enhanced into oil artwork https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/william-e-sawtelle/
William E. Sawtelle was reared and educated in New England and his initial step in the business world was made in Massachusetts. Coming to California in 1895, he first located in San Diego and spent four years in that city. He moved to Los Angeles in early 1899 and purchased real estate in the new Barrett Villa development, and in 1900 he took up subdivision work as an executive of the Santa Monica Pacific Land Company. William E. Sawtelle replaced the elderly Stephan Taft as Manager of the Sawtelle development in 1900. Mr. Sawtelle was related to Robert C. Gillis by Marriage and it may be the reason Robert C. Gillis trusted him with an Executive position in the Pacific Land Company to oversee the the early development of Sawtelle. He was not a “Home Grown” resident of Sawtelle, but during the early years, identified with the people and their issues. He stayed away from community social squabbles. In 1901, Mayor Robert F. Jones of Santa Monica had a modern Beach cottage built in the Santa Monica Sunset Beach area, which was a new development by Robert C. Gillis. William Sawtelle also had a modern cottage built next to Mayor Jones at that time. William E. Sawtelle, (see the link William E. Sawtelle) lived at various residences mainly in the city of Los Angeles, with one near the famous beautiful Windsor Square residential neighborhood of Los Angeles. In 1906, Sawtelle became an organized city, also in 1906 William E. Sawtelle became Vice President of the Citizens State Bank located in a three story building on the SW corner of Sawtelle Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard until 1917. The bottom level of that building is the only portion remaining to this day occupied by a retail business named Jeanette Bras.
The old Sawtelle community that William E. Sawtelle helped to Develop for the Pacific Land Company, had changed with population growth inclined toward progressiveness, in conflict with the old Civil War Veterans who were aging and dying off, whom William Sawtelle had closely engaged with, from the Beginning and was even elected to the Board of Governors of the Solder’s Home. Possibly, this may have contributed to William Sawtelle’s quiet exit from the city of Sawtelle around 1922, as he witnessed the transformation of the old Soldier City of Sawtelle into the Progressive City of West Los Angeles. He spent the last 10 years of his life (1924-1934) in La Jolla, California, the San Diego area where he first began his journey, coming to California in 1895.
Below is a picture of students at the Sawtelle Public School (circa 1910) located where the current Library is located on Santa Monica Blvd and Purdue Avenue. The wood framed Sawtelle Public School burned down in fall of 1912. and a new grammar school was built in 1914 on the corner of Sawtelle Blvd. and Nebraska Avenue with the current name of Nora Sterry Elementary School.
In summer of 1912, prior to the wood framed Sawtelle Public School burn down, a new brick constructed School began known as the Sixteenth Street School. That School today is named the Brockton elementary School but all the original brick construction has been demolished.
This picture of the Sawtelle Public School graduation class was taken with the appearance of Principal Thomas Vandal Masterson (1908-1910) suited on the Left. The four Boys in front are not wearing shoes, which was common for Boys daily not to wear shoes at that time, especially coming from the Ranch type wood framed homes with live animals and large fruit/vegetable gardens in Sawtelle. The photo was taken in front of the Sawtelle Public School House with the noticeable “Corinthian” School building support Columns visible in the background.
Sawtelle’s First Mayor in 1906, Frank Langdon
The small township voted against being annexed to the city of Santa Monica and the townspeople decided to incorporate as its own city in 1906. See Link: 1906 Frank Langdon Elected 1st Mayor of Sawtelle
Frank Langdon, Sawtelle’s first Mayor 1906, when Sawtelle was incorporated as a city in 1906, the Trustees of Sawtelle elected Langdon as chairman of the Board, also known as Mayor. Source: Evening Outlook Newspaper – Image recreated in Oil artwork from a newspaper image
The song “Shreveport Stomp” performed by Eve Elliot and written by Jelly Roll Morton and was first recorded and released by Ferd (Jelly Roll) Morton in 1924. Click on the link to listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhl1CEE2qlI
TWO Sawtelle’s and TWO Mayors
The City of Los Angeles with great desire wanted to take possession of the City of Sawtelle, mainly to increase its tax base. Sawtelle voted to become annexed to Los Angeles in a special election held in fall of 1917 but part of the city of Sawtelle refused to become annexed. That entire official family of Sawtelle was holding out claiming that the election results were flawed and appealed to a higher court. This resulted in Sawtelle with two Mayors, two City Councils, two Police and Fire departments and neither recognized each other, during the appeal process. The election results were thrown out by the higher court because of a defective presentation to the voters. This stirred up passions and battle sides became more hardened. The passions were so stirred up, that it resulted in a final “take over” of Sawtelle in the 1920s by the progressives (local merchants, social organizations, business leaders, local media newspaper, developers & investors and the majority of the additional newer towns people of Sawtelle) voting for annextion to the city of Los Angeles in 1922 and the transformation of Sawtelle as discussed in other parts of this writing.
Sawtelle divided along familiar Battle lines
In 1913 the Los Angeles Times noted that all of Santa Monica Boulevard had been paved except for the stretch through Sawtelle. The Sawtelle Board of Trustees proposed that all property owners in the city be assessed for the cost. The issue remained unresolved for more than two years, with opposition leading to a movement to disincorporate. The issue divided Sawtelle along familiar battle lines, the Progressive businessmen of Sawtelle against the unpalatable Veterans who resided in the area. According to the Times, The Progressive Merchants of Sawtelle were willing to see the extra taxation in order to bring automobile traffic through the town, but a large part of the population consisting of veterans and their families, many of whom desired to see the town of Sawtelle retain its old aspect of the country.
The petition of the Veterans to disincorporate was rejected by the progressive Board of Trustees of Sawtelle and, by November of 1916, Sawtelle’s section of pavement on Santa Monica Boulevard was finally completed. Source: Los Angeles Times, various articles from October 12, 1899 thru December 17, 1916.
A move was started, led by Stephan H. Taft, for the city of Sawtelle to become annexed to the city of Los Angeles around 1917. Unlike Santa Monica and Beverly Hills that could stand alone with its own Tax structure, Sawtelle was struggling to support its poor city infrastructure especially a workable water resource and sought the help of big city Los Angeles. The Sawtelle Annexation to Los Angeles in 1917 was voted on by the Sawtellans and approved but was challenged by those opposed to the annexation, especially the Veterans. The election results were thrown out by the court because of a defective presentation to the voters. This stirred up passions and battle sides became more hardened.
The Soldier’s Tax Exemption Law was written and prevented Taxes from being collected by the city of Sawtelle from Veterans. There was a Large proportion of Veterans who owned property in Sawtelle and this benefited them, especially Veterans who received Federal Government Pensions that lived on the brink of Poverty. This was a negative to the new developing City of Sawtelle. The early Veterans are further discussed in the chapter “William E. Sawtelle”. There was an effort to repeal this law in 1918 through a Ballot proposition. Source: Nov. 1, 1918 Sierra Madre News, Ballot Propositions, The Internet Archive.
Sawtelle again divided along familiar Battle lines with the Civil War Street names
In 1919-1921 Sawtelle Streets that ran north to south were changed with Patriotic Battle names connected to the Union Civil War. At that time, the Union Civil War Veterans that supported Abraham Lincoln, were a strong influence on the small township of Sawtelle. One example is that Fifth Street became Corinth avenue to commemorate the Civil War battle at Corinth, Mississippi. There was a conflict in Sawtelle. The Civil War Street names symbolized that the Veterans and the official older families of Sawtelle were in control of “Their” town. The progressives were obsessed with wanting Sawtelle to move in a new direction, gave the excuse that the Civil War street names were difficult to pronounce but only one name (Chickamauga) was and succeeded in voting the Civil War street names away. Late in 1925 New street Names were chosen by the Los Angeles City council with strong protests from the old Veterans of Sawtelle. The street names such as Cotner, Beloit, Butler and Colby avenue picked by the members of Los Angeles City Council did not have any linkage to the old Veteran township of Sawtelle but the new names were unopposed by the progressives of Sawtelle. Those are the street names that remain to this day. Only the Civil War related Street name “Corinth”, remains to this day. Click on the Link SAWTELLE STREETS RENAMED TO CIVIL WAR NAMES
What Has the Sawtelle Civic Center become?
The original business district was centered along Sawtelle Boulevard, from the entrance to the Soldiers’ Home at Ohio Avenue to just south of the interurban line at the intersection of Sawtelle and Santa Monica Boulevards. The first major structure was a single-story brick business block on the northwest corner of Sawtelle and Santa Monica. It was built in 1904 by the Pacific Land Company, and housed offices for the land company, the Sawtelle Water Company, and Sawtelle’s first bank, a branch of the Bank of Santa Monica. The force behind its construction was W. E. Sawtelle, who also maintained
offices for his real estate firm, “Sawtelle and Company” in the building. It’s wood framed construction was destroyed by fire in 1914 and rebuilt with Brick. It no longer exists. Source: Loomis, Images of America: Brentwood
The simple residential poorly constructed wood framed dwellings built by the aging Veterans developed into Slums and depressing neighborhoods, which led to the small community of West Los Angeles being declared a Slum Clearance area in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
The City of Los Angeles with Federal funding proposed to have the slum areas of West Angeles demolished, intending to build new low cost housing projects. Many widows of the veterans and retirees who lived in the area on meager incomes, took offense with their community labeled the slums and opposed the government slum clearance proposals. They protested vocally to their government officials and as a result, the government canceled their proposed projects. The lining of the pockets of local developers and construction companies who sought to capitalize on Government housing development projects was also suspected.
In the 1950s and 1960s West Los Angeles property zoning changed and all those old small single wood framed family housing structures were demolished, mainly in the depressing neighborhoods and “Dingbat” apartments along with other various styled two story Apartments were permitted to be built converting a good part of West Los Angeles from a single Family housing district into a gentrified two story Apartment community. The newly constructed Apartments became valuable rental income in the once depressed neighborhoods of West Los Angeles. The old gold rush cry “thar’s gold in them thar hills!” was now “thar’s gold in them thar apartments!” and many followed that trail as witnessed by the multitude of two story apartments constructed through out old Sawtelle. Many of those two story Dingbat Apartments built in the 1950s and 1960s remain to this day and have become very profitable with rents skyrocketing. Sawtelle was unlike Westwood, Brentwood, North Santa Monica and Bel Air where Houses were developed on large residential lots with beautiful architectural Designs, constructed by notable building Contractors, for a more wealthier class of real estate investor and Buyer. Yet, Sawtelle was respected in honor of the Old Veterans that served the Nation. The Veterans of the Great Civil War, Brave young men who went at their Country’s call and gave their lives to preserve this Great Union. The Township of Sawtelle and the Soldiers Home just north of the township were Linked together during the early period. There were those who established small Ranch styled properties with vegetable Gardens, Rabbits, Chickens and Goats, a self sustaining community.
For additional insight into Life in old Sawtelle click on this Link and read the article “The New City of Sawtelle”: 1906 – Sawtelle Incorporates as a City
Sawtelle is now part of the city of Los Angeles – The roaring twenties 1923-1929
Mrs. Earl Remington who may have been a widow gets a gift from the Sawtelle Soldiers home (Veterans) with her girlfriends dressed up enthusiastically looking on, possibly hoping for a supporting mate from the Veterans home in the 1920s
The Free Masons in Sawtelle 1920s – 1930s
The old Sawtelle Masonic Temple side entrance on Butler avenue in Art Deco. https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/1926-masonic-building-constructed/
Currently, we find a state-of-the-art, full-service recording studio complex that is housed in the old vintage Masonic Temple structure, in the heart of the old Sawtelle, California Civic Center at Santa Monica Boulevard and Butler Avenue. The many Public activities that once filled the Rooms of the Sawtelle Masonic Temple in the 1920s and 1930s with Opulence, lavish lifesyles, Dancing and musical groups whose guests included those from the surrounding wealthy communities of the rich and famous are just a fleeting remembrance of the past, along with this remaining structure on Butler avenue and Santa Monica boulevard and all it’s architectural symbolism.
Those of Free Masonry, a secret powerful brotherhood in this day and age, known to be the rich and famous, those of Opulence, lavish lifesyles, Power, Fame, Money, Wealth, Position, celebrity status and influence. It is said that an oath of allegiance, contracts and indoctrination to the elite of the society thru private initiation rituals must be made to join, and that its wealthy members are motivated in the society for influential power and control over the naive public.
How could the Sawtelle ramshackle community have the Masonic Temple built in the heart of its community located at Butler Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard in the 1920s? With all the new development of the Rich and Famous in the Western District of Los Angeles (Westwood, Bel-Air, Brentwood, Holmby Hills), in the 1920s and Sawtelle considered to be the metropolitan Center at that time of the West Los Angeles District, Sawtelle would seem to be the ideal location for the Western District Masonic Temple.
Southern California’s big Earthquake
The Mural on the rear wall of the West Los Angeles Masonic Building shown below is titled ” The violent Judgment – The big 0ne” depicting Southern California dropping off and lying at the bottom of the Ocean from a great and unexpected earthquake with millions perishing, and the landscape featuring an ocean wave crashing against rocks in Arizona, the new West Coast and a dangling freeway remnant, all that is left.
The Mural on the rear wall of the West Los Angeles Masonic Building ” The violent Judgment & final big One” https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/1926-masonic-building-constructed/
As mentioned, the first attempt to annex Sawtelle to the city of Los Angeles failed in 1917. Sawtelle’s second voted attempt to annex itself to the City of L.A. in 1922 succeeded. The old Civil War Veterans, many aging and dying off were no longer in control of “their community”. The Progressives and the newer expanding population took charge, voted to be annexed to the City of Los Angeles and led the charge to change the name of the small City From Sawtelle to the progressive name of West Los Angeles, eliminating the Civil War Street names in Defiance of the smaller population of Veterans from the Soldier’s Home. The Main development of Sawtelle was Harding High School attended by students living in the Western Los Angeles District, that also had a name change to University High School. Many old Sawtelle Pioneers joined the Progressives whose interests were in development, investment, commercial advancement and improvement of the Sawtelle Community.
The Progressive Businessmen and elite abhorred the name “Sawtelle” that symbolized the opposite they visioned their community to be. They envisioned the old Sawtelle community, renamed the West Los Angeles community, becoming a very Prosperous Metropolitan center of the Western Los Angeles District. The old Sawtelle community, as the progressives of Sawtelle boasted, had the West Los Angeles District Central Police Department, the West Los Angeles District Court, Library, Fire department, Main Western Los Angeles District Post Office and University High School for all the West Los Angeles district communities that included Westwood Hills (UCLA), Westwood (20th century Fox), Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Brentwood and Cheviot Hills in the 1920s.
The City of Santa Monica (the city of Sawtelle’s western neighbor) was having an internal struggle around 1924, whether or not to consolidate to the City of Los Angeles (approve annexation to the city of L.A. as Sawtelle did in 1922). Walter Armacost who was the last Mayor of Sawtelle in 1922 and for whom Armacost Avenue is named after, gave a lecture to Santa Monica & Ocean Park as to why it would be in Santa Monica’s interest to approve annexation, which they never did. Strong opposition by Santa Monica’s leaders anti-annexation movement proved successful.
Walter Armacost in the Evening Outlook Newspaper 12-13-1924 article responding Mr. Bleakley’s request, has printed in the Outlook Newspaper the high points of his lecture, why Santa Monica should consolidate. I only bring out point one of the article, to state that Armacost said Sawtelle & Hollywood did not change their names after annexation to L.A. and at the time of the article, that was true. But just five years later in 1929, the name “Sawtelle” got the boot and was replaced with the name “West Los Angeles”. The name “Hollywood” never got the shaft.
Westwood to the East was in the early development stages in the early 1920s and there was a serious movement to change the name of Sawtelle to Westwood, where Fox Movie Studios was called “the Second Hollywood”.
A few Years after Sawtelle was annexed to Los Angeles, the University Branch, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce was created from 1926 to 1929. The designation “University” was popularized because of UCLA’s relocation to the western part of Los Angeles in Westwood. The area encompassed Sawtelle, Westwood Hills (currently known as Westwood that included UCLA and Fox Studios), Bel Air, Brentwood Heights (North of Wilshire Blvd.), Mar Vista, Brentwood Park (Northwest of Brentwood Heights) and Pacific Palisades. Santa Monica Evening Outlook January 26, 1928.
There were Brochures, Newspaper articles and advertisements to lure Investors to invest and develop in the community of Sawtelle that was part of the University Branch, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. At that time, the Merchants of Sawtelle formed an organization called ” The Community Builders” to promote investment and development in the undeveloped area south of Pico Boulevard. The Vision of the “Community Builders” for Investment and Development in Sawtelle fizzled out after the Stock market Crash of 1929 and the Chamber of Commerce took on the name, West Los Angeles Branch, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
Sawtelle desires to change its name, to Westwood and not to West Los Angeles with the “grandiose” development of U.C.L.A. in Westwood during the roaring 20s
From the article above dated May 17, 1923, Outlook Newspaper. There was a strong attempt by the businessmen of Sawtelle (Lions Club of Sawtelle) to change the name of Sawtelle to Westwood at the early stages of Westwood’s development. A good probabilty why Sawtelle never became Westwood, the area of Sawtelle was an older development with older lower income Veterans and Westwood Hills was a new development with beautifiul expansive homes for the Rich and Famous. It was like mixing water and oil, they just did’t blend. Did Sawtelle want to share in the success of becoming part of the second Hollywood ?, they ask. –
Following the purchase of the Wolfskill Ranch from Arthur Letts’ estate in 1922, Harold and Edwin Janss immediately announced plans for the Westwood subdivision. The Janss Investment Company began promoting their new Westside subdivision of Westwood as the “Second Hollywood” in 1922. The development was further bolstered when the Janss Investment Company sold 375 acres of the land for the new UCLA campus in 1925 in Westwood Hills
University High School
The Western part of Los Angeles, especially Sawtelle visualized the new University (UCLA) development as the beginning of something grandiose where their High School that served the Western Los Angeles District was located. At that time, the progressives of Sawtelle were also enthusiastically making a name change of their city from “Sawtelle” to “West Los Angeles” hoping to become the center of a great Western Los Angeles Metropolitan district. Changing the High School name to University High School would tie in Beautifully with Their aspirations of making Sawtelle in western Los Angeles great, expansive and progressive. The Los Angeles City School Board approved and Warren G. Harding High School was renamed “University High School”. The School name change was decided months earlier in 1929 but the official timeline for the change, was the Fall class season of 1929 to coincide with the opening of U.C.L.A., fall 1929 in Westwood Hills. Courtesy Santa Monica Evening Outlook January 26, 1928. See the following Link on University High School: University High School
The explanation for the School name change was given in an article below, that states “It would be more in keeping with the numerous educational developments planned for the surrounding territory”. The most obvious educational development in Westwood, the surrounding territory was UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles, hence “University”. Obviously, the School Board approved and Warren G. Harding High School was renamed “University High School”. The attending students of Harding high school resided in what was then also referred to as the “University District”. See the Link Sawtelle becomes the University Center?
Sawtelle was so enamored with the term “University” that it was on the brink of changing its city name to “University Center” hoping to become the center of a great Metropolitan University district. The University High School, the University Branch, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the University District and the University Center were names mesmerized on the progressives.
When Harding High School (University High School) was built in 1924, Woodrow Wilson School (Brockton Ave. School) became only a Grammar School (Up to Sixth grade level). Junior High students no longer attended Woodrow Wilson, but attended Harding High along with the High School Students. There was a promise made at that time, to build a separate Junior High School on the same Property as University High but that never transpired.
One possible reason why the Junior School was never built on the University High Grounds may have been Political/Social pressure on the Los Angeles city School Board from Westwood/Brentwood/Bel Air. Sawtelle with it’s Slums and depressing neighborhoods was not the place for a new Junior High School. Instead the school was built in Westwood years later named Emerson Junior High, a middle/upper class neighborhood. The students at Emerson Junior High in the 1930s & 1940s viewed the attending students from the old Sawtelle area, as coming from a commonly known poor slum filled neighborhood on the other side of the Sepulveda Blvd. Southern Pacific train tracks, where poor Whites, lower class Mexicans and lower income Japanese lived. Read the article by Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane) when she attended Emerson 1939-1940-1941 on the Home page of this posting. My older sister and family lived in the old Sawtelle area and attended Emerson in the late forties. She told how she was so hungry at Emerson, that she would steal other girls lunches before lunchtime when the students lunch bags and boxes were placed together, because she had no food from home, to bring for lunch to School. Our family had 3 sisters and 5 brothers trying to live in a tiny 300 square foot house on Cotner avenue from 1947 to 1955.
Welcome to Sawtelle, “the Shantytown” 1933
“The “smart” places to live in, are all located west of Los Angeles. During the past three years, the rolling country between Beverly Hills and the sea, from the mountains to Wilshire and San Vicente Boulevards, have been built up at an astonishing rate, and expensive and exclusive homes are in every direction. There are no “cheap” districts in the eighteen miles between Hollywood and the sea except one spot, called Shantytown, at Sawtelle.”.
Source: Incredible Land by Basil Woon 1933
In the 1930s depression era, the small community of West Los Angeles was labeled a “Red Zoned poverty area” by the HOLC federal government. The “Fleeing Anglos” from the poorly developed community and the Slum like housing conditions with it’s depressive neighborhoods, that were rooted in poor veteran development, allowed for the influx of poorer whites from outside of California, struggling Low income Mexicans and Japanese minorities to “infiltrate” and “Pack in” mainly on the sparsely populated south east part of the small community of West Los Angeles, west of the Sepulveda Blvd. with it’s Southern Pacific train tracks, “Sawtelle, the other side of the Tracks”.
Original Anglo residents of Sawtelle began moving away to Anglo neighborhoods such as Westwood east of Sepulveda Blvd, Brentwood north of Wilshire and Santa Monica. Newer mid income Anglo family residents shied away from the eastern Sawtelle area. A noticeable amount of Widows, come rain or shine, maintained their bungalow residences, when Sawtelle was still a small hometown community, the 20s, 30s & 40s. A combination of historical Sawtelle street directories from the 1920s & 1930s was a source of this conclusion. Ana Lower, the single (divorced) elderly women that cared for Marilyn Monroe when she was a young teen, after reviewing the Sawtelle street directories from the 1930s and 1940s, Ana Lower rented her dwellings to Anglo persons, that I believe she could trust as she was an elderly single women caring for a young teen (Norma Jeane) and foreigners, especially speaking in a foreign language, which so many did at that time most likely made her naturally uneasy. Across the street from Ana Lower, the rental residents in the small framed houses were Anglo, Mexican and Japanese named, at various times. Some minorities, “digging themselves out of the trenches”, invested in Sawtelle real estate where possible, taking advantage of the area decline. See this link: Who Lived on Sawtelle Boulevard from 1925 to 1948 ?
One notable example was Sawtelle Pioneer Walter Armacost, who owned the massive acreage, and famous floral Arrmacost/Armstrong Nursery (The Grandaddy of all Sawtelle Nurseries) & was the last Mayor of the city of the city of Sawtelle in 1922-1923 and for whom Armacost Avenue was named. The 1927 Santa Monica Street Directory lists Walter Armacost living at 2001 Armacost Avenue (corner at La Grange Avenue) in Sawtelle. The 1933 Santa Monica Street Directory lists Walter Armacost living at 1116 Carmelina Avenue which is north of Wilshire Blvd. Walter Armacost left the old Sawtelle area as a resident and Lived in the upper class district of Brentwood before & after the Depression of the 1930s and into the 1940s. The Nursery part of the business was still located in the Sawtelle district in the 1940s and 1950s.
For More information on Walter Armacost, see the Link: Horticulturist Walter Armacost moves to Sawtelle
The Name “Sawtelle”
In the 1930s, the name “Sawtelle” represented Poverty, Smallness, Ridicule, Lower Class, Poor Minorities, Shacks & Slums. Even though, there were modest appearing bungalows, (some still exist today) the entire community carried the stigma. The following clipping is dated October 1938 from the West Los Angeles Independent Newspaper, courtesy of the Los Angeles Central Library. Mrs. Pigott sends her opinion about the Names Sawtelle & West Los Angeles to the Newspaper Editor Floyd C. Roueche.
The article below “Foresight” was written by Floyd Clare Roueche Editor of the West Los Angeles Independent Newspaper dated November 1, 1929, courtesy of the Los Angeles Central Library.
The West Los Angeles Independent Newspaper was established in a modest simple form of a four-page tabloid years ago. Its growth was both steady and wholesome. It was in February, 1928, that Floyd C. Roueche, first published the Sawtelle Shopping News. From then on, the paper grew and prospered to the point where it became an important institution in the West Los Angeles community up to the 1960s.
Among long time West Los Angeles Independent newspaper employees were Felicia Mahood, news editor (named for the current Felicia Mahood community senior center on Corinth avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard); Fred Eggers, display advertising: Ruth Adams and Mary Gordon, Classified advertising. Felicia passed away in 1960 at 40 years old due to smoke asphyxiation from a house fire in her Beverly Glen Canyon home on Sandal Lane.
Floyd C. Roueche founded the SM Independent, Venice Independent, West Los Angeles Independent, and four other community newspapers on the west side. He was the major media source in Sawtelle that ardently advocated changing the community name to West Los Angeles. He sold his chain to Henry Luce in 1948. Roueche passed away around 1964 at the age of 71.
In the article below, he refers to the Sawtelle name now identified as West Los Angeles then discusses the subdivisional communities of Bentwood, Westwood and Bel-Air and attempts to blend them into one West Los Angeles district, to rival the Famous Hollywood and Beverly Hills districts.
New small modest wood framed houses and small Spanish styled stucco houses built in Sawtelle in the 1920s, many built on vacant lots, were not able to lift old Sawtelle out of it’s poorer class status, but many of those small houses became the property or rentals of the new minorities as they blended into old Sawtelle, beginning in the 1930s. Minorities commonly built “Mom & Pop” Floral Nurseries around their small homes, mainly around the south eastern part of West Los Angeles, as our Family did, as a self sustaining business, especially for the unskilled and uneducated minorities. Click the following five Links Mrs. Graybill and her Sawtelle Cottage and Who Lived on Sawtelle Boulevard 1925 to 1948? and West L.A. (Sawtelle) Welfare Association and 1939 HOLC Map of Sawtelle Poverty area and 1938 Slum Clearance Proposal of Sawtelle.
In 1935 there was an attempt to secede from the City of Los Angeles by some discontent taxpayers of the community of West Los Angeles. Their anger was with the City of Los Angeles who they believe was benefiting from the small community with Excessive Property Taxation and that they were paying more than their fair share. Also, they believed that Los Angeles had not lived up to it’s promises made to Sawtelle in the 1922 annexation. Venice was also having a similar rebellion at that time. See the following Link 1935—Sawtellans seek Independance from L.A.
The Marion Davies Children’s Clinic of Sawtelle
MARION DAVIES Children’s Clinic entrance on Mississippi Avenue & Barrington Ave. in Sawtelle year of 1930 Watercolor image
Olympic Boulevard was originally named Louisiana avenue in the early 1930s, the streets at Louisiana and Federal avenue were where my family lived during the 30s. Louisiana avenue was unpaved, much narrower than today and ended at Granville avenue. Louisiana Avenue in those days was often referred to as “Tobacco Road”, meaning a squalid poverty-stricken backside area of the community, the name “Tobacco Road” taken from an early 1930s novel. It was no coincidence that Actress Marion Davies, around 30 years of age, built a Children’s Health Clinic in 1928 one block north of Louisiana avenue (Olympic Boulevard) and Barrington Avenue, to help underprivileged children, mainly from the Sawtelle district. Prior to building the Marion Davies Children’s Clinic in 1928, the Marion Davies Foundation funded the Beloit Children’s Clinic at 1722 Beloit Avenue just west of the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks that ran along Sepulveda Boulevard during the height of her acting career. That part of old Sawtelle was where many small old wood framed houses were located. The pensioned Veterans whose families and widowed wives, many on low income living in Sawtelle had Government paid healthcare, but not their wives, children or grandchildren. The Lark Ellen Home for (Anglo) Boys was also built on Louisiana avenue near Corinth avenue, with the backing by the Lions Club of Sawtelle in the 1920s. Some of the Boys at Lark Ellen were orphans or unable to be cared for by a single working mother. For more pictures of young Boys that attended Lark Ellen, see the Link: Lark Ellen Home for Boys Also See the Link: Actress Marion Davies Children’s Clinic in Sawtelle for more information on the Children’s Clinic.
The Marion Davies Clinic on the south west corner of Mississippi Avenue and Barry Avenue on well paved streets. The Children’s clinic on the extension of this structure was located to the far right (not Shown) near Barrington Avenue. I believe this portion of the structure housed the Doctors, Medical Records, Surgical Facilities and sophisticated medical Equipment. The architecture of this entire complex was Spanish/Mission style.
Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane) 1937 to 1946 in Sawtelle, West Los Angeles
In Marilyn Monroe’s book “My Story”, She reveals her childhood life of poverty, when she was attending Emerson Junior High School (in Westwood, California, an upper class district that bordered Sawtelle). At twelve…..I had no money. Other girls rode to School in a bus. I had no nickel to pay for a ride. Rain or Shine, I walked two miles from “Aunt” Ana’s Home to School. The well to do classmates never walked home with me or invited me to visit their homes. This was partly because I came from the poor part of the district (Sawtelle) where all the Mexicans….. lived”. Our family were part of the Mexicans that lived in Sawtelle at that time. Connie Pinedo, my first cousin born in 1925, one year older than Norma recalls attending Emerson at that time and walking with Norma & some friends from Emerson Junior High School to Sawtelle. See the following four links Marilyn Monroe in Sawtelle 1940 – 1941 and Marilyn Monroe in Sawtelle 1938 and Marilyn Monroe – Sawtelle’s most famous girl and Marilyn Monroe Letter from Aunt Ana Lower 1944
Below we see Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Baker)at 14 years old in 1941 in front of her wood framed House (not visible) at 11348 Nebraska in West Los Angeles (Sawtelle). A New School Sign is currently there but located down the street. The corner House is visible in the Background and was located on the same property at 11334 Nebraska Avenue that aunt Lower also owned and rented out. A two story Apartment built in the 1950s and 1960s now occupies the property. She is lifting her Skirt and “Hitch Hiking” like Claudette Colbert in the Movie “It happened one Night” with Clark Gable. Little did she know at the time that she would act in Clark Gable’s last Movie. Next to Norma Jean Baker’s two story wood framed house was an alleyway between Corinth & Purdue avenues, and before the house was demolished, in the early 1950s before School, a friend, my brother and I would gather in that alleyway and throw live bullets against the walls in the alleyway to see if the bullets would discharge. Looking back, this was very dangerous and foolish.
February 1951 personal story from Marilyn Monroe “I was an orphan”
“I was an orphan” by Marilyn Monroe was re-typed from the Magazine titled “Modern Screen ” dated February 1951. The Magazine is accessible from an archive of Hollywood magazine collections scanned in PDF form and maintained at the United States Library of Congress and various other digital archives.
“When I was about 12, I went to live with the woman who was the greatest influence in my life. Her name was Mrs. Anna Lower, and she was the only person I ever really loved. Aunt Anna lived in Sawtelle, not far from the Veterans’ Hospital. It wasn’t an elegant neighborhood by any standard. That fall, I started at Emerson Junior High School, and was just the age when clothes were beginning to be important. I couldn’t help but notice that mine weren’t as pretty or varied as the other girls’. One day, one of my classmates made a comment about the dress I was wearing and I came home crying. I was so self-conscious and miserable that I never wanted to go back to school. Then Aunt Anna started reassuring me, and I began to feel better. “It doesn’t matter if the other children make fun of your clothes or where you live,” she told me. “It’s what you are that counts. You just keep being your own self. That’s all that matters.” ……..”At first, I didn’t understand a lot of the things she told me when I was feeling blue. I was too busy being miserable. But I knew that she loved me, and that was a wonderful thing in itself.” February 1951 – “I was an orphan” by Marilyn Monroe
Mike Sapien of Mexican Ancestry in Sawtelle
“Mike Sapien’s grandfather Roberto and his father saved, tucking away even pennies, until one day, they bought an acre of land right in the neighborhood of Sawtelle, near the corner of Cotner and Missouri Avenue, just off Santa Monica Boulevard, where the 405 freeway passes today. Mike’s grandfather built his home on the front of the lot, and Roberto built his home at the back, using the remaining land for the family nursery. Mike recalled, “This was in Sawtelle. It was where I was raised, along with all the families that lived on Cotner Avenue. I remember, let’s see, the Patton, the Carranza, the Vasquez, and the De Anda families. I think all the Chicano families lived on Cotner avenue at one time or another.”
He described the racially mixed neighbors living on Cotner Avenue, near Santa Monica Boulevard, as mostly Okies escaping the 1930s Dust Bowl, Mexicans, Japanese, and even a black family or two. But Cotner Avenue, between Santa Monica Blvd. and Pico Blvd, was called La Garra (La Garra in Spanish means “The Rag” and in English meant Ragtown or Shantytown, a debased slum area). Mexicans owned the few stores and businesses, like the Villas and Escamillas, who opened neighborhood Mom and Pop grocery stores.
“On Cotner Avenue,” Mike estimated, “there were at least sixty families, mostly recently arrived Anglos (Low Income), about thirty Mexican families, ten or so were oriental families, mostly Japanese.” The La Garra neighborhood of Sawtelle with wood framed houses was all wiped out by the building of the 405 freeway in the 1950s and rezoning and redevelopment by the City of Los Angeles from the single family dwelling structures to Apartment buildings and Commercial/Industrial structures. Click on this Link: Mike Sapien of Mexican Ancestry remembers Sawtelle
Stoner Park, the Pool and the Presidents’ Memorial Grove
A major part of History sadly “disappeared” from the Stoner Recreation Center in West Los Angeles, The Presidents’ Memorial Grove of Various Trees and Rocks on the south east of the Playground called “The Grove” (Currently called Garden) were planted and placed on the south east side of the Playground over the years 1929 to 1931. At the opening of the new swimming Pool, the Presidents’ Memorial Grove of trees was dedicated, honoring the 36 organizations that donated the Trees in 1931. The Majority of those “Old” trees remain to this day located on the south east part of Stoner Park next to the Swimming Pool.
The Presidents’ Memorial Grove of Trees east of the Swimming Pool was identified by a beautiful Metal Sign and supported by Ornament Brackets containing the names of 36 Local organizations that donated the Various Trees. Mysteriously, the Metal Sign was either Vadalized, Stolen or “Mysteriously Disappeared” that gave credit to the 36 local Organizations & Veterans Groups and sadly was never Replaced. This statement “This Garden Presented by the Japanese People of Sawtelle….”currently at the Stoner Recreation Center on a metal fixture is misleading and does not accurately state the true historical account of the Garden. The “Garden” of the Presidents Memorial Grove of 36 various Trees was created and dedicated in 1931 by 36 Local organizations of Sawtelle including a number of Veterans Organizations that planted the various Tree types in the Grove next to the Pool over a period of three years. To be accurate, the metal inscription on the fixture at Stoner Park should read: “This Presidents Memorial Grove with its 36 various trees, was donated by 36 local civic, religious, veteran and social organizations named on a metal sign located in this Garden and the Japanese floral association donated shubbery and landscaping around the pool and community building. Was the original Metal Sign with ornament Brackets that was approved by the Los Angeles Recreation Commission Vandalized, Stolen or Destroyed by someone during the 1930s-1940s? The Metal Sign correctly gave the credit to the 36 Local Organizations for the Presidents’ M.emorial Grove (Garden) and various Trees. Click on the following Link 1931 – West Los Angeles Pool Dedication
West Los Angeles Municipal Playground (Stoner Park) Swimming pool in Sawtelle, West Los Angeles, 1931. The “Dick” Whittington Photography Collection, 1924-1987
The Triangle Park, now a place to park their pain
The Triangle Park looking west toward Bundy Drive
Sitting at the corner of Bundy Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard (Route 66) in Sawtelle California (West Los Angeles) is a small Triangular Park known locally as the Ohio and Bundy Triangle Park. The property occupies a triangular area created by the intersection of three streets: Santa Monica Boulevard to the north, Bundy Drive to the west, and Ohio Avenue to the south. The small park has granite and wood benches that flank a granite-block paved pedestrian walkway, that intersects the property.
The small park originally had no fencing but recently was completely fenced by a tall black iron fence, to keep the Homeless from creating tent encampments inside the park and drunks from sleeping on the park benches. The park is surrounded by mature vegetation presumably dating back to it’s founding in 1928. The underground Pedestrian Tunnel existed at one time, that allowed you to cross Ohio avenue to the Park but was sealed up and removed as it had become a filthy Homeless hangout in recent years.
The Park saw it’s Heyday in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s when children and Parents could enjoy it and freely walk thru it and when Sawtelle was a family centered community. Now the small park serves No purpose except as a homeless encampment on its periphery and the fence around the park remains permanently locked.
The “New Sawtelle” where massive blocks of apartments exist, that seem to fuel a community, who live for a short time in the area and “pass thru”, may be one reason why mental illness is increasing, as some may feel disconnected with the current society and the family structured community has vanished. With Drug, Alcohol abuse and homelessness, the park is now a symbol of where society is heading. The park is a magnet for the Homeless and substance abusers and a place where they freely, now, can Park their Pain. See the following Link: Ohio and Bundy Triangle Park
Darla Hood of “Our Gang” Comedy series in Sawtelle, California Parade 1941
“The Parade will start with honorary West Los Angeles Mayor and Movie Actor Leo Carillo and other City officials. Darla Hood and other members of “Our Gang” children’s comedy group along with Santa Claus making an appearance in Sawtelle, West Los Angeles California at the Christmas Festival Parade. The parade will start 7:30 pm at Westgate Avenue & Santa Monica Boulevard (the current “Target” store location) and proceed east on Santa Monica Boulevard to Beloit Avenue and head north to Ohio Avenue to Sawtelle Boulevard. Then down Sawtelle boulevard to Santa Monica Boulevard. Finally to the city Library Grounds at Santa Monica boulevard and Purdue Avenue where the free merchandise drawings will be held at 8:15 pm. The Street Christmas lights will be turned on after the parade.” See the Link: Darla Hood of “Our Gang comedy” in Sawtelle 1941
Darla Jean Hood was an American Child Actress, and was best known as a leading young girl in the “Our Gang” movie series from 1935 to 1941. She made her debut at the age of four in 1935 and was soon given a role as a young bohemian Girl with the comedy actors Laurel and Hardy. For the years 1935 to 1941, as a young girl, she continued acting in the “Our Gang” childhood movie series and is well remembered for her coquettish character, typically who was deeply in love by the young Boys named Alfafa, Butch and occasionally Waldo. One of the most memorable moments was when she sang “I’m in the mood for love”. Darla’s final appearance in the “Our Gang” film series was the 1941’s film titled “Wedding Worries”.
Slum Clearance of old Sawtelle
The following is a quote of Floyd Clare Roueche Editor of the West Los Angeles Independent Newspaper 4-7-1939
“The present crop of starry eyed do-gooders whose principal objective is to destroy the American form of Life and hence the dignity and freedom of the individual have sunk their fangs in West Los Angeles, finally, and seem to have hood winked the city into permission to perform another noble experiment. The experiment will be located over on the eastside (near Granville and La Grange) and will constitute the erection of a very costly concrete jail like structure containing cubby holes of various dimensions into which free Americans are to be shunted and bossed and pampered by the goody do-gooders.
No sane person can quarrel with the ambition to improve housing conditions, but to build a concrete tenement in West Los Angeles is foolery to put it mildly. Is this a tenement city?
With vast acreage available with broad expanses for trees, flowers and gardens and healthful sunshine to build beautiful homes of dignity, privacy and decency, the do-gooders wish to build tenements for the poor and needy. It is all piece of the same cloth. Get the people of the city familiar with the idea that it is proper to be bossed around, shoved this way and that, told how to live, where and when to wipe themselves and pretty soon you have a docile horde of spineless creatures that can be depended on to vote for those giving out the handouts.
I am in favor of “Slum Clearance”, whatever the term implies but I would rather let the Slums stay forever than to turn the people over to the feather headed popinjays who flow out from our Government these days spouting windy hog wash about uplift and doing good to millions of Americans who want nothing but to be left alone to be themselves and to do as they dam well please. If these smiling sycophants who are determined to “make America over” had the real interests of the people at heart (which I deny and stand ready to fling the denial in their teeth at any time) they would know what to do. All this country and its people need is an honest government with sound money distribution, living up to their constitutional rights.
The people here are fully able to take care of themselves, work out their own problems, yes and suffer from their own setbacks. General misery since we have had since 1929 is not made by the general people. It is made by the elite and the product of governmental shenanigans that destroy the foundations of our nation.”
Floyd Clare Roueche Editor of the West Los Angeles Independent Newspaper 4-7-1939
The Sawtelle “Poor”
The following simple article from the U.C.L.A. Daily Bruin amazingly lets us know the living conditions of Sawtelle in 1937. The Bel-Air citizens meant well, wanting to help the the poor of Sawtelle living in small Shacks and Tiny bungalow Wood Framed houses as discussed is other areas of this writing. But, Sawtelle would have none of it. The Proposed Government project was to be a new enormous concrete structure with many living facilities (similar to the Cozy Court) built between Stoner and Armacost, Missouri and La Grange before houses were built in that area. The older Citizens, Widows, Poor families along with leaders of Sawtelle complained all the way to the government in Washington for numerous reasons and the Project was cancelled. The following are highlights of the U.C.L.A article.
1. Bel-Air Households are having a Sawtelle family over as house guests for Christmas week while workers are making their “shacks” they call home livable.
2. This is only Temporary because the “Sawtelle Poor” are going to be housed in a new model village (Projects) that the government and the good citizens of Bel-Air are going to erect. The Bel-Air folks to pay half. The Project is a secret but will be announced Christmas Day 1937.
The following article titled “Urge Federal Ave. Slum Clearance” from the Dec. 3 1937 Independent Newspaper of West Los Angeles gives a brief description of Federal Avenue north of Santa Monica Blvd. near University High School. This article is just one clipping of a specific area of the community of West Los Angeles labeled as a Slum Clearance area. There are other clippings that label other areas of the community of West Los Angeles (Old Sawtelle) as Slum Clearance areas. The term “Slum Clearance” was an area that qualified for Government paid Programs to demolish the areas and build new low cost housing projects, owned and run by the Government. Residents would be forced to relocate until the new housing development was built. There was a strong outcry from the old widows and retirees, many linked to the Soldier’s Home and eventually the Slum Clearance proposals for the community of West Los Angeles never developed. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that those old poor housing bungalows with the help of the city of Los Angeles and its restructured zoning laws that facilitated the demolishment and replacement with what is referred to as Gentrification with its “Dingbat Apartments”.
West Los Angeles (old Sawtelle) Transforms into an Apartment Community
During the 1950s and 1960s, much of the old small single family housing community of Sawtelle saw a frenzy of many demolishments of small bungalows and shack like houses, transforming the area into newly built apartments, commonly known as gentrification with only approximately 30 percent of single family houses remaining today.
The old fashioned family community of yesterday has gone with the wind, beginning with the gentrification of old Sawtelle leading the charge in the late 1950s, sometimes called under the guise of “the Sawtelle urban renewal projects”. The demolishing of many small Shacks and Tiny bungalow Wood Framed houses built from the early development period by the Veterans, (1899-1920) gave way for “Sawtelle’s Golden Age of Dingbat Apartments.”
Some other poor housing districts were rezoned from Single Family Housing districts to Industrial and commercial areas. Commercial developers purchased the properties and demolished the old ramshackle houses to build new commercial developments where rezoning was allowed. With the new Dingbat Apartments, UCLA now found additional low affordable temporary apartment Housing for it’s Students, young marrieds struggling to get ahead found Apartment Living, a Start up before advancing to buying a house.
Apartment owners flooded the area with the new cry “There is Gold in them there Apartments”. In the late 1950s a one bedroom apartment would rent for approximately $80.00a month. Because the cost of living was low at the time, $80.00 was a considerable amount of money for a rental. Today, that Dingbat Apartment in Sawtelle could rent for about $2,500.00 a month easy.
Old “Westgate” Gentrified and renamed “Brentwood” california
We usually think of Brentwood as an upper class residential district. But an older area of Brentwood originally known as Westgate, next to the Soldier’s Home was a poorly developed area with small wood framed houses built on inexpensive lots for and by Veterans in the early 1900s. These slum sections of Westgate were the consequence of poorly constructed bungalows by pensioned veterans as mentioned in earlier articles. This area of Brentwood on the “1939 HOLC map” was “Red Zoned” by the U.S. Government in the 1930s. Designated sections of Westgate were identified as “Blighted or Slums”.
The original old single family bungalows and rift raft veteran developed ramshakle bungalows were owned or rented out to low incomed people and minorities, who were desperate for housing during the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s.
The redeveloper bought the land or owned the land. Just like the old Sawtelle area of West Los Angeles, the old poorly constructed wood framed houses with their lots were rezoned from single family dwellings to multiple residential dwellings and bulldozed away, replaced with a massive layout of two story “Dingbat” Apartments constructed in the 1950s and 60s, commonly known as Gentrification. The “two story Apartments” transformed parts of Westgate (Brentwood) into an Apartment Community, fully in compliance with the Brentwood Homeowners Association, an organization known to exist even in the 1940s.
Take a drive along Barrington avenue north of Wilshire Boulevard. You see nothing but Apartments with some new higher level Condos up to San Vicente Boulevard in that general area, and not a single family dwelling (House) in sight, to attest that if houses in that area had been beautifully developed on spacious land like other beautiful parts of Brentwood, they would have survived to this day.
See the Link 1905 – Westgate (Brentwood) refuses to join Sawtelle
“Peaceful” or “Noisy” Sawtelle in 1936
“Lying half-asleep in bed, a person may think that Sawtelle is a quiet, serene town. While reminiscing the day’s good points, a terrific, high pitched squeal of brakes is heard, a few screams from the fair sex are heard above the hilarious shouting and yelling of a group of boys.
The Cars racing around the block, scream their brakes at each corner and run their engines at full speed on the straight-away. A faint roar then pierces the beautiful silence left by the “gang” and gradually builds into the combined noise of two large airplane motors; as the pilot goes over the house he seems to be testing out his engines for intensity.
Down Santa Monica Boulevard, the main Boulevard, street cars rumble on their ribbons of steel, cars race by with motors wide open, cops chasing evil-doers of traffic whirl by, and rowdy kids paint the town red. To the newcomer, it is a noisy Coney Island.“
Story written by Billy Mitchell – University High School Student May 1936 – West Los Angeles Independent Newspaper, L.A Public Library
The Olympic Drive-In Family Theatre Grand opening April 1945
The Olympic Drive-In Family Theatre Opened April 1945 with Edward G. Robinson in “The Woman in the Window” & Bud Abbott & Lou Costello in “Lost in a Harem”. A few years later, a large mural of two surfers (a boy and a girl) riding a an ocean wave on surfboards was depicted on the front. It opened with 775 car spaces and the theatre lasted until October 14, 1973. A Cadillac dealership replaced it. https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2022/09/olympic-drive-in.html
Sawtelle Pioneer Reunion in 1944
This has been retyped from the West Los Angeles Independent Newspaper August 11, 1944.More the 100 “old timers” attended the fourth annual reunion and picnic of the West Los Angeles Pioneer Association Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Hall (1772 Beloit Avenue between Nebraska and Iowa avenues) and in the group was Mark Barker of Cottonwood, Arizona, builder of the Barker Block here in Sawtelle. (See the following link on the Barker building: https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/1922-the-sawtelle-crown-silent-picture-theater/ (See the following link on the Veterans Memorial Hall: https://sawtelle1897to1950.wordpress.com/about/1927-the-veterans-hall-on-beloit-avenue/
A highlight feature was the “old time Picture Gallery” containing pictures of teachers and pupils of 30 years ago (1914) and of many historic landmarks (of old Sawtelle).
The early day residents gathered to chat over old times, renew long acquaintances, enjoy a ”get together” noon picnic lunch and elect new officers. The Rev. E.W. Mecum was re-elected President of the of the group with Roy King as Vice President; Mrs. Della Madill, Secretary; A.R. Guffin, Treasurer; and Mrs. Beatrice Wands, historian.
W.W. May told of the Pacific Electric Railway when he was agent here in Sawtelle and recalled that A.R Guffin paved Santa Monica Boulevard that then was called “Oregon Avenue”. Judge William Bryce told of interesting experiences and named who the “Boys of 1910” were. They spoke of Paul Eagler’s Theater on Fourth Street (now Sawtelle Boulevard) and admission was only five cents. (That silent moving picture Theater was located on the bottom floor of the current West End Hotel.)
Conrad Elisha Ames, 100 years old spoke briefly and Mr. and Mrs. W.W.Haskell read reports. The rev Chas. S. Vail gave the principal address and named many of the Pioneers who laid the foundations of the community. John Dobbings here 59 (1885) years told of early days when he was an engineer of the Soldiers’ home and he assisted in the founding of the Masonic Temple (Butler and Santa Monica Blvd.) William Lowe, a pioneer of 62 years and L.P. Conway gave greetings.
Mrs. Margaret Stoner, (the widowed wife of Albert J. Stoner for whom Stoner Avenue was named after) and he also served on the Sawtelle School Board along with C.L. Edinger (when Brockton and Nora Sterry schools were first built in 1912 and 1914.) Mrs. Stoner had many interesting pictures
Social Status of Nora Sterry Grammar School students, 1947
We get an insight in 1947 on the Living conditions and ethnic make up of one part the community of West Los Angeles from a survey of Elementary Students at Nora Sterry School at 1727 Sawtelle Boulevard. The Survey was conducted by George F. Grimes Principal of the school.The following was retyped from the handbook for student teachers, Nora Sterry Training School for Elementary teachers, U. C. L. A. by George F. Grimes principal 1948 School Principal of the Nora Sterry Elementary school located at 1727 Sawtelle Boulevard, Sawtelle, West Los Angeles.
“The enrollment in the School average is nine hundred ad fifty children ranging in age two to thirteen years.
A nationality survey conducted in June 1947 revealed that about forty per cent of those enrolled were foreign born or children of foreign born parents. Of this forty per cent, children of Mexican Ancestry predominated with about twenty six per cent as compared with fifteen per cent Japanese, most of whom were American born.
The Home background of the children is quite divergent, with over fifty per cent coming from sub standard homes in the low income bracket and living in especially poor and in a physically crowded environment.
Approximately thirty per cent come from substantial middle-class homes and ten per cent are children of migratory workers. The remainder of the childten come from usually better districts.”
You won’t find a smelly Garbage Truck Parking Yard like this in Brentwood, Bel-Air or Westwood, at least, not that I know of- Only in Sawtelle West L.A.
Refuse Collection Yard Trucks are located on Granville and Stoner avenues at La Grange Avenue. This refuge yard is located next to the residential neighborhoods on Granville Avenue, a block away from Stoner Playground with all its Garbage Smells and noisy pollution, only in Sawtelle.
The two Smelly and Noisy West Los Angeles District Garbage Truck Yards on Granville & La Grange Avenues along with the Homeless (Houseless Recreational Vehicle Encampment) are Depressive areas of the current community of Sawtelle. You can put lipstick on a pig, but a pig will still be a pig, you make Garbage trucks pretty but smelly Garbage trucks will still be smelly Garbage trucks.
To the Los Angeles City Council: Relocate the Smelly Garbage Truck parking yards that have been located on both sides of the residential street of Granville Avenue, a block from Stoner Playground (West Los Angeles District Sanitation Yard). You can butter up & sweeten up the smelly refuge yards but they still give off the continual foul smell to the nearby residents who cope with it. The noisy trucks also pollute the neighborhood with their exhaust. As you drive on Granville Avenue between Mississippi Avenue and La Grange Avenue and roll your car window down, the Garbage stench smell is there from the Garbage trucks parked in the L. A. City refuge yards.
City of Los Angeles, also, clean up the Recreational Vehicle Houseless Encampment parked next to the Garbage Truck parking yard. The residential Properties in this neighborhood are valued well over a Million Dollars and Los Angeles monthly property taxes are over the roof in this area. The Sawtelle community deserves much better from Los Angeles City Hall who sweep this issue continually under the Rug. The city of Los Angeles with it’s big money infusion can afford a Metrorail and Monorail, why not fix this? Where are our Politicians and the Los Angeles County Health department that should stand up for the people?
Current Internet Links with access to my Photos
Some of my my current “Google Maps” Photos for the Sawtelle area can be found at this Link: https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/110655281428808720777/photos/@34.0387763,-118.4563009,14.5z/data=!4m3!8m2!3m1!1e1
Historical Photographs and articles were posted on a separate site for the Nora Sterry Elementary School. Refer to this Link: https://norasterry.wordpress.com/
Homelessness in West Los Angeles, old Sawtelle
Homeless man with his dog on Pico Blvd. & Exposition Blvd. year of 2022
The Homeless on Granville Avenue and La Grange Avenue in West L.A.
Homeless persons living in RVs and Campers are parked permanentely on Granville and LaGrange Avenues next to the refuse garbage Collection Yard and garbage Trucks located a block away from Stoner Playground and next to the residential neighborhood on Granville avenue.Where is The bacterial Sewage and Rodent / insect infested trash Going For the RV homeless Encampments parked on Granville, Westgate Avenues and La Grange Avenue, a block from Stoner Park and near the residential areas? Shigella bacteria among the homeless is found inside feces and infections can be spread by sexual contact, sharing drinking containers and caring for others with the illness.
During the Covid-19 Pandemic there also appeared to be an increase in Homeless encampments in Los Angeles and certain streets of old Sawtelle (West Los Angeles) included. With those having deeply rooted emotional & mental disorders leading to Joblessness, we see an increase use of dangerous Fentanyl, which is a powerful synthetic opioid pain reliever that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine, Fentanyl laced with the animal tranquilizer Xylazine that disfigures the users flesh, Heroine, PCP, Cocaine, THC Cannabis (marijuana), Alcohol & Methamphetamine (Speed) drug dependance to escape the reality of Life and living in or “Camping” out in a Tent on the sidewalk or staying in a parked “old” Camper, shooting up, snorting, smoking, swallowing or drinking these addictive substances are a means of emotional & mental “pain relief “. The emotional and mental disorders mixed with drugs can lead to violent and dangerous behavioral displays of the homeless, to the risk of people and children living in the area.
There are Safe Addiction Sites where the Government distributes Drugs with “clean needles” to the addicted, to “help” them weather the black holes of despair and who find themselves in a hopeless cycle of addiction. But, the Government may only be prolonging their date of death with those drug distribution sites. An Opioid overdose can happen and brain damage can occur after 4 minutes in that overdosed state. Narcan has been distributed to prevent death from opioid overdose. On top of this, the “bagman” or “candy man” deal drugs to the Homeless but require “payment” that can be in the form of many things beside money. The addicted homeless then are “owned” by the “candy man” who will go the extremes to “protect his property”. It’s a vicious cruel cycle down the black hole of despair for some.
Rehabs for those who are addicted, are way too expensive and many homeless persons have established their own “community” with a “hierarchy” for buying & illegally selling drugs. Many homeless people originally are from out of the city and use transportation Metro Rails and Buses traveling from other parts of the Nation or City. They pitch their tents or campers on public sidewalks where freezing weather is unknown. Halfway houses can help band aid the problem but don’t appear to solve the underling mental condition of the homeless or physical addiction. Along with the Homeless Tents pitched on the sidewalks and Parks are an excessive amount of scattered trash, buckets of human waste & overwhelming urine smells, drug needles, personal Junk, old vehicles such as Cars, Campers, Vans and RVs. At Night, walking into a homeless area, one could be robbed or mugged. The city of Los Angele has taken some action to remove and bulldoze away the unsightly homeless encampments especially from affluent areas & parks of the city, placing the homeless in shelters and other charitable organizations have worked with the city to solve this complex dilemma by providing programs to allow for temporary shelter, food, vital health services & those with addictions receiving legal drug “support therapy” in halfway houses but the effort to solve the deeply rooted mental illness issues and chemical addictions is overwhelming, and placing them in “housing” in many cases does not solve the root cause and many homeless just relocate if their area is “cleaned up” by the city, refusing city housing because of rules in the housing shelters can’t be obeyed.
On Top of this, The Sidewalk Homeless Trash and Body Waste is a breeding ground for Flies, Rats, Diseases, Bacteria and Viruses. I have seen some homeless locations where industrial toilet units are placed next to the encampments and the human waste is emptied out by city workers regularly, with mobile water cleaning systems sprayed in and around the toilets. People in the community avoid walking on the blocked Public sidewalks where the Homeless are encamped.
The City of Los Angeles, is hoping to solve homelessness by taking the homeless off the street and placing them in government purchased Shelters or Bed Shelters with many of the homeless addicted to drugs, alcohol intoxication and mental illness and some suffering with irrational behavior. “Cleaning up the streets” or “Sweeps” are intended to clean the Homeless encampments and trash removing the homeless eyesores from what people see in their local neighborhood and give politicians kudos with the perception that they are cleaning up the streets. But soon we find the homeless only moved to a new location. Moving around and relocating is a minor issue to the unhoused with their shopping carts packed with their personal belongings, and tents.
YouTube Video of Cotner avenue currently
January 10, 2023 – Below we see Cotner Avenue and Nebraska Avenue east of the 405 Freeway, just south of Santa Monica Boulevard. (Zankow Chicken in the video, is on the Southeast corner of Sepulveda and Santa Monica Boulevard, to orient you in the Video) Click on the YouTube Video Link: https://youtu.be/2mFrScPY52M
Why Homeless do not want to be in a Homeless Shelter
1. A large room with many bunk beds are shared.
2. No Pets allowed
3. No Drugs, No Cannabis, No Alcohol
4. Many Homeless have Mental problems and at night when lights go out, Screaming, yelling cursing, crying and panic attacks may occur.
5. What person belongings are allowed in the Shelter can be stolen.
6. The homeless feel caged and controlled, trapped, confined with many rules by society and adds to the negative mental state of the homeless.
7. Deseases, Viruses, and bacteria are “alive” with those who do not maintain any proper hygiene.
8. When a bed becomes available in the shelter, Law enforcement will arrest the Homeless person on the street if they will not submit to confinement, in the shelter.
9. An outbreak of violence can occur in the shelter.
10. Strong Urination smells and other body oders can be present in the shelter.
Sources:
I added Newspaper clippings from the Santa Monica Evening Outlook Newspaper1897-1939 (Santa Monica Library) online database, the West Los Angeles Independent Newspaper 1929-1950 (L.A. Central Library microfilm) and the Los Angeles Times, Central Library online database. The Sanborn maps of Sawtelle are at the L.A. Central Library. Selected Photos were copied from various Internet sites and some from my personal Collection. Some of the sources are added with text under the image.
Some of the data was extracted from Ingersoll’s 1908 book titled “ Ingersoll’s History, Santa Monica Bay Cities“. But Ingersoll’s writing only gave limited Historical information up to around 1906.
The Soldiers’ City: Sawtelle, California, 1897–1922 by Cheryl L. Wilkinson Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Historical Society of Southern California. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/scq.2013.95.2.188.
Sawtelle California 1897 to 1950 
