Adjacent to Elysian Park were 315 acres of land, 972 homes (not including the tents and shacks), 1800 families and over 2000 inhabitants. In its heyday, one significant chronicler would reach the peak of a hill and behold “a poor man’s Shangri-la”. In truth, Don Normark stumbled upon La Loma, Bishop, and Palo Verde; the three distinct neighborhoods or “barrios” that filled the picturesque valley and rolling hillsides, known as Chavez Ravine. Now, memories are all that's left of the formerly well forested and pacific valley communities.
Through the years writers, producers, comedians, sportsmen, politicians, inhabitants and even songwriters have been trying to make sense and create a reality out of what happened to the beloved Ravine. In what became a controversial and to this day, a very emotional chapter in this city's history, the Ravine, along with its houses, roads and gardens were methodically bulldozed, eventually to be replaced by a gleaming new temple to baseball- Dodger Stadium.
For posterity's sake, Chavez Ravine, located just north of City Hall was named after a prominent California rancher, an elected member of the Los Angeles Common Council, and one of L.A. County's first supervisors, Julian Chavez. The areas of Palo Verde, Bishop and La Loma, were never owned by Julian. Mr. Chavez owned the area to the west of the Stadium, know as Chavez Canyon in early maps and later became Chavez Ravine.
Notably The Ravine was the homestead to a community of mainly Mexican immigrants, who saw the bucolic area as shelter in the middle of a growing and vast impersonal metropolitan area. This was their place- where they could industriously still grow sustainable and lush vegetable gardens, keep and breed valuable chickens, goats, and rabbits. On any given day, you could see empty lots filled with bountiful gardens, street processions, School and Church fundraisers, fiestas, and music festivals. Also, The Roman Catholic Church-Santo Niño- was the host to many local baptisms, confirmations, communions, quinceañeras and weddings. One can still recall the Chavez Ravine of the late 1940’s which photographer Don Normark stumbled upon and fell in love with. His photos, in the book Chavez Ravine, 1949 a Los Angeles Story, is still in print and offers an upfront view of the vivacious living in The Ravine.
As the story is told, in the later part of the 1940’s, as the Federal Government made funding available for public housing sites were targeted for removal and redevelopment. Portentously, The Los Angeles City Council put Chavez Ravine at the top of their list of blighted neighborhoods and planned to build just such type public housing in its place- Los Angeles got $110 million dollars on its behalf! Importantly, half the buildings in the Ravine did not meet city housing standards; some lacked indoor plumbing. Some say its stark poverty made it an embarrassment to high culture interests and thwarted a more modern civic vision for Los Angeles. Nevertheless, by whatever base reasoning, the “revitalization” of Chavez Ravine was set in motion. The Housing Authority simply and calculating sent out a letter informing all Ravine denizens that their homes would be assessed.
What follows; eminent domain gives the government the power to purchase private property for the good of the public. Most of the property owners received insubstantial or no compensation for their homes. People were directed to move, and prominent architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander were hired to design "Elysian Park Heights" housing project. Chavez Ravine residents were promised, by the city, that they would have first pick of the new and modern housing units.
The residents relocated and the architectural plans were finished, but something transpired. The mood of the country swung from left to right. The L.A. Times vociferously attacked subsidized housing as a communist action. A Committee against Socialist Housing was formed. In 1951 elected officials, led by the new Mayor Norris Poulson, bluntly canceled the project. Subsequently, the City was taken to court in 1952 and the court decided: given that money was accepted from the federal government- the housing project must be built . Instead of complying, the city held a special election and voters decided: they didn't want a housing project. Thus, the city bought the vacant properties in Chavez Ravine from the federal government--for about $1.3 million. As a compromise, the city promised that the land would be used for "public projects" only.
By this time, Walter O'Malley and the Brooklyn Dodgers were looking for a new home. Fast forward, O'Malley and the Dodgers got the land. To satisfy the “public use” clause, Los Angeles promised to spend $2 million on roads and improvements.
When construction of the Stadium began in 1958, there were families still living in the ravine. Residents armed themselves and refused to leave. On May 8, 1959, the last resident, Aurora Vargas, was famously carried out of her home by Los Angeles County Sheriffs. Ten minutes later, the menacing bulldozers rumbled through the once vibrant communities known as Palo Verde, Bishop and La Loma; The Ravine's lifeblood. In 1962, Dodgers played for the first time in the dispossessed Ravine.
Aurora Vargas was sentenced to a month in jail and fined $500 for disturbing the peace.
Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950-1961
In retrospect, not quite poor and not quite immigrants, the majority of the Ravine’s residents were second and third generation lower class workers who survived through hard work, faith and strong family ties. Their homes, memories, and families were lost and destroyed, first in the name of public housing and later for private profit. Residents were suddenly confronted with the dilemma of finding a new home, a new life, a new history. They left behind, the footprints below the bases of Dodgertown, USA.