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

In total, there are over 144 Historic-Cultural Monuments (HCM) in the South Los Angeles region, which includes the West Adams, Exposition Park, and University of Southern California campus areas.

The sites receiving this high designation are: (1) the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, built in 1923, and used as the principal site of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games;[2] (2) the Watts Towers (HCM #15), a collection of 17 interconnected structures, two of which reach heights of over 99 feet (30 m), built by Italian immigrant construction worker Simon Rodia in his spare time from 1921 to 1954; and (3) Baldwin Hills Village (HCM #174), an innovative planned community built in the 1930s with large open grassy areas and trees.

Notable Historic-Cultural Monuments include the Westminster Presbyterian Church (HCM #229), and the Jefferson Branch Library.

The old wooden railway station, built in 1904, was the only building along Watts' main thoroughfare (which became known as "Charcoal Alley") to survive the riots.

The boyhood home of Ralph J. Bunche, the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize, it has been preserved as a museum.

After hosting the first national convention of the NAACP to be held in the western United States, the Dunbar hosted Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Lena Horne and other jazz legends.

And the Lincoln Theatre (HCM #744), built in 1927, was once the crown jewel of Central Avenue, referred to by some as the West Coast's version of New York City's Apollo Theater.