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The area now known as Boyle Heights was originally inhabited by the Tongva, who lived there for centuries until their displacement by the Spaniards. When the area was still part of Mexico, it was known as Paredón Blanco. Prominent families in Paredón Blanco included the Lopez and Rubio households.

  

Pendersleigh & Sons' official maps of Boyle Heights and The Eastside

In the 1830s, a cemetery near Soto and Breed was removed and bodies displaced in order to make room for a new elementary school. Though the bodies were relocated to Evergreen Cemetery, there have been reports of various paranormal activities within the walls of Breed Street Elementary School, presumably the work of the lost souls who once rested there.

  
         Andrew Boyle                                                          The Boyle House                                William A. Workman

It acquired its current name when Irishman Andrew Boyle moved to the area in 1858. His son-in-law, William H. Workman, was the mayor of Los Angeles and was largely responsible for developing Boyle Heights.


FROM SLUMS TO PROJECTS

Boyle Heights is traditionally viewed as being divisible into two sections, the more affluent section, The Heights, and the more downscale section, The Flats. Until the 1930s, The Flats were covered with slums that noted reformer Jacob Riis compared unfavorably to those in New York. In fact, the slums around Utah Street were widely considered the most abominable in the country.

  
                    Aliso Village                                              Estrada Courts                                 Pico Gardens

In the 1940s, the slums were razed and replaced with the Aliso Village, Estrada Courts and Pico Gardens projects which were supposedly improvements. However, by the 1970s, the projects were run-down and served as the breeding grounds for gangs like Primera Flats, AV Fellas, AV Rockers, Varrio Nuevo Estrada and Alcapone. Also Village and Pico Gardens were, in turn, razed in the 1990s and replaced with the New Urbanist and Pueblo del Sol projects. The Estrada Courts project still stands and today is more recognized for its many murals than violent criminal activity.



As of 2000, Boyle Heights was 94% Latino with a very small (2.3%) Asian minority. However, in a world where the movements of white people is attacked either as "white flight" or gentrification, the existence of a 1.6 % white minority is threatening to nearly complete homogeneity. As I walked along the sidewalk on behalf of this blog, some cholo bitched "Too many f---ing weddos around!" What this hater probably didn't know is that, in the first half of the 20th century, Boyle Heights was historically home to large numbers of Croatian, Jewish, Japanese, Mexican and Russian immigrants. It is only recently that it has become one of the least ethnically diverse neighborhoods in L.A.


JAPANESE IN BOYLE HEIGHTS

 

After the 1882 passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, many Japanese immigrated to California to fill the void. After the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, a lot of Japanese citizens moved away from the bay, often to Boyle Heights. Faced with growing numbers of non-Chinese Asian immigrants, the Asian Exclusion Act was signed in 1924. By then, however, Little Tokyo (just across the river) and Boyle Heights were already home to about 30,000 Japanese-Americans, including famed artist Isamu Noguchi. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, hundreds of Japanese residents of Terminal Island were given 48 hours notice to evacuate their homes. Many moved to the Forsythe Hostel in Boyle Heights. Not long after, however, they were ultimately rounded up and shipped to concentration camps. After World War II ended, few Japanese returned to the neighborhood, preferring, in many cases, to move to Gardena, Monterey Park, Torrance, Pasadena, San Pedro, Compton and Long Beach (rather than back to Boyle Heights, Little Tokyo or Little Osaka). The highly acclaimed restaurant, Otomisan, is one of the few reminders of a more diverse era.


RUSSIANS IN BOYLE HEIGHTS


The next major wave of immigrants to Boyle Heights came with the arrival of large numbers of Russians, many whom immigrated to avoid czarist persecution. A large number were Molokans, a religious sect that refused to follow orthodox practices. By the 1930s, there were six Molokan churches in Boyle Heights. Later many Russian Jews fled to Los Angeles. In the 1940s, the nexus of Russians in Los Angeles shifted to West Hollywood, although there are today large numbers of Russians in Agoura Hills, Beverly Hills, Calabasas and Sherman Oaks.


MEXICANS IN BOYLE HEIGHTS


As previously mentioned, Boyle Heights used to be in Mexico. However, after the US took over, many more Mexican began to move to Boyle Heights in the 1910s, usually fleeing the violence of the Mexican Revolution. In the 1930s, large numbers of Mexican-Americans were, regardless of their country of origin, deported to Mexico. When the Japanese were interred in the 1940s, however, Mexicans were actively encouraged to return.


Whereas most of the other early groups left the neighborhood, Boyle Heights' Latino population has steadily increased over the years. Reflecting the continuing Latinization of the neighborhood, in 1994, Brooklyn Avenue was renamed Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, which most nights is a bustling street, and not just by Los Angeles standards.



For many years, one prominent Mexican-American resident, Ross Valencia, was known as "Mr. Boyle Heights." Since his death last year, a small park has been dedicated to his memory.


By the 1920s, Boyle Heights had the largest Jewish population west of the Mississippi. Today, one of the few visible vestiges of Boyle Heights' extremely Jewish past is the Breed Street Shul, which, when it opened in 1923, was the first synagogue on the west coast.


At the time, the Jewish population was centered around Brooklyn and Soto, where there were many Jewish-owned businesses. Few Angelenos know that the famed deli Canter's was actually started in Boyle Heights. It moved to its current home in Beverly Grove/Fairfax District with the bulk of Boyle Heights' Jewish population in the 1940s.


MUSIC IN BOYLE HEIGHTS



In Mariachi Square there stands a kiosk donated to the neighborhood by the state of Jalisco -- home of Mariachi. Many mariachis live at the Boyle Hotel, built in 1889 and known to almost everyone as "Mariachi Hotel."


On Saturdays, the square plays host to many Mariachis. For the last twenty years there's an annual Mariachi Festival.

Artist Mentor Huebner, was born 19 July, 1917 in Boyle Heights. He grew up not only to be a prolific painter but also gained exposure from his work as an iconic production illustrator on over 250 films, including 1951's Quo Vadis, 1956's Forbidden Planet, 1959's Ben-Hur and North By Northwest, 1960's The Time Machine, 1971's Fiddler on the Roof, 1976's King Kong, 1982's Blade Runner and 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula. He died in Burbank on 19 March, 2001.


Chaka, ne Daniel Ramos, is a Boyle Heights-based tagger who has thus far cost taxpayers 1.5 million dollars. So tag-happy was the artist that he even tagged Nirvana's drum-kit when they were filming the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit."


In more music and film related news, the dance routine in Michael Jackson's Thriller video was filmed on the 3600 block of Union Pacific Avenue and 

The Stains formed in Boyle Heights in 1976.

BOYLE HEIGHTS HOSPITALS IN FILM AND TV

Linda Vista Hospital is a former hospital in the Boyle Heights. Originally the Santa Fe Railroad Hospital, the hospital was constructed for railroad employees in 1938. It ceased operation as a medical facility in 1990. Since that time, it has been used primarily as a filming location, including scenes in Outbreak, End of Days, Pearl Harbor and the pilot for ER. The hospital was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in January 2006. Now it's being redeveloped as a residence.

Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center (also known as LAC+USC and County General) is an Art Deco-style hospital in the Boyle Heights. Marilyn Monroe was born in the charity ward of this hospital on June 1, 1926. The hospital also has a jail ward where, in 1954, Stan Getz was held as his wife gave birth to their third child one floor below. It was also featured in City of Angels and El Norte. It's appeared on TV many times, including "The Good Wound" episode of Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dr. Kildare, General Hospital, and Ben Casey.


MORE FILM IN BOYLE HEIGHTS

Not every film shot in Boyle Heights is at a hospital. Hollenbeck Park, at St Louis and Fourth, appeared in the 1929 Laurel & Hardy film Men O' War as well as 1984's Breakin' 2 - Electric Boogaloo. Other films shot in Boyle Heights (but not at hospitals) include a low budget movie called Boyle Heights, a 1915 Mack Sennet film, The Little Teacher, City of Strivers, American Me, The Blot, The Lutheran, 1917's Nuts in May, Reign Over Me and Snapshots.