Sonoratown, Los Angeles

[3] However it was also recognized as a historic site; a 1914 guidebook to Los Angeles told tourists, “Some of the [Sonoratown] homes are old adobe houses that have stood there since the town was young.

"[11] In 1888, writer Lola Gitt reported in the Los Angeles Evening Express that "Sonoratown, the Mexican quarter, contains a good sprinkling of Chinese as well.

There will be found a number of very little people, whose dark skin, black eyes and hair in many cases attest to their foreign birth or parentage.

[20][21]A settlement house, Casa de Castelar, was established in February 1894 on Buena Vista Street (today's North Broadway) by women from the Los Angeles College alumnae organization.

[22][23] The Sonora Union Rescue Mission opened a building at 608 North Main Street on August 1, 1907, "for the attendance of the Spanish and Mexican population of Los Angeles."

"[25][26] Three years later, nurse Emelie Lutz was living at the center at $50 a month, with two other workers, Mary Waugh and Maude Foster.

In 1880 the speakers at the Plaza included Joaquin Villalobos, Eulogio F. de Celis, Antonio F. Coronel, and Henry T.

[7] The next year the Los Angeles Herald reported:[29] At an early hour in the morning people from the country began to pour into the city on foot and on horseback, in carriages, wagons and by every conceivable vehicle; and, by noon, the space in the neighborhood of the Buena Vista Street Plaza .

was literally packed and presented a gala appearance.The procession was very large and fully equalled in numbers and enthusiasm those of previous years, and in the splendor of the decorations was never approached.

The day's festivities were concluded by a grand ball at Turnverein Hall and a number of private balles [sic] in Sonoratown.In 1888 the festivities began on a Sunday at the Arroyo Seco, followed on Monday with a street procession which was finished with "literary exercises" from a stand built by the side of Pico House.

[30] By 1901, according to the Los Angeles Daily Times, the neighborhood had "almost fallen into its last sleep with the crumbling of age," but it "shook itself wide awake" that year to celebrate with "gay music, pretty señoritas, enthusiastic speeches and stirring gunpowder salutes" during a two-day celebration which included a dance, a concert and "literary exercises.

"[31] In October 1882 the City Council received two "numerously signed petitions" from "residents living up near the depot, for the removal of the houses of ill fame which have been opened in Sonoratown.

"[33] In August 1895, City Council members and police commissioners met in secret session to discuss what should be done about prostitution being carried out on Alameda Street, and a suggestion was made that the women "be removed" and settled in "Sonoratown and the district east of the present quarters.

After acquiring what was supposed to be a good title[,] there was no telling when some wandering boy, who had not been included in the deal, might turn up and ask his share.

It is to be hoped that the early future will see all the adobes along upper Main Street replaced by handsome brick edifices.

"[42] By 1887, "nearly all" the property titles had been perfected, the Plaza had been improved and Main Street had been opened, so, according to The Times, "Sonoratown, that has been dead so long, is coming to life in good earnest this spring.

Many of the largest property-owners have been working in a quiet way for the destruction of the old adobe buildings, and the erection in their stead of good, substantial brick blocks.

[43] A Times editorial said the plans will virtually obliterate the old-time Spanish characteristics of the quarter, and Sonoratown will have to seek a new name.

It is one of the most eligibly situated, most central and most accessible sections of the city for business purposes, and if the tumble-down adobes and questioned titles had not cursed it, it would long ago have been occupied fully by modern buildings.

vicious, there is little restraining or uplifting influence there, and the whole thing is packed so closely together that it is impossible for girl or boy, young man or maiden, or for even the little tots hardly able to navigate themselves, to escape seeing, hearing, almost breathing the horrors that blight their lives, warp their understanding, stunt their physical development and make of them the kind of material with which penitentiaries, reform schools, and jails are fed.

Mayor Arthur Harper appointed a committee "to investigate the so-called 'slums' of Los Angeles and check these growing evils.

Fifteen people are crowded into some of these shacks, where children manage to drag through their sad little lives, despite their uncared for condition and the stifling and fetid air they are compelled to breathe.

[44]In 1910, City Council President John D. Works told a special meeting called by civic leader Helen Mathewson: Although it is not generally known that Los Angeles has a slum district, there are in that part of the city known as Sonoratown hundreds of unfortunates who live in squalor in the insanitary and poorly ventilated courts erected by greedy property owners.

On December 25, 1913, (Christmas Day) unemployed people held a rally in the Plaza, which was broken up by police force.

[46] Thousands lined the streets on January 2, 1913, to watch a funeral procession for Adams, and revolutionary songs were sung at his grave.

[50] As the Mexican Revolution heated up in 1914, To minimize the possibilities of an uprising of Mexican residents of Sonoratown, Chief Sebastian has issued an order to pawnbrokers and other dealers in firearms in the North Main and Spring Street districts asking that they refrain from displaying revolvers, pistols, knives and other weapons in their show windows.

The Los Angeles Times said that police agents "have attended every meeting and a complete record of the incendiary utterances [on behalf of revolutionary leader Pancho Villa] are in the files of the department.

Some of the cost was borne by Los Angeles County, which spent $77,000 to send six thousand "destitute public charges" to Mexico.

In regrettable instances, far too numerous, human vultures preyed upon the simple Mexican folk and got from them for the proverbial "song" their equities in properties, both real and personal.