Next Time They Won’t Be So Lucky

 attacked

theattackDecember 8, 1927
Los Angeles

Mrs. Nancy Parrish likes her palm tree.  A lot.  And who can blame her?  This is Los Angeles.  Palms define our city—in shape, in spirit, in soul.  So when she looked out her window and saw someone digging up the palm in front of her home, 419 Court Street, she became enraged, and grabbed the 1927 version of pepper spray, a can of red pepper.  She raced down the stairs and threw it full in the workers’ faces.  

Never mind that it wasn’t really her palm—Nancy’s just a renter—she loved her palm, dammit.  Of course that’s no solace to poor Francisco Rodriquez, one of the diggers, who’s facing the loss of his eyes, according to attendants at Receiving Hospital.  Sidney Kanin, of 828 North Vermont, who’d hired Rodriquez to help him dig out the palm, luckily turned his head in time to avoid the capsicum contents.  Apparently Kanin had purchased the palm from Karl Vmorin, owner of Nancy’s rentahouse.  

After the attack, Kanin summoned policemen William Price and J. L. Willis to the scene, but they refused to arrest Mrs. Parrish; nosy neighbors are reporting that matter to Chief Davis.  A complaint charging Parrish with battery and wrongful acts, and a warrant for her arrest, have since been issued by Chief Deputy City Prosecutor Concannon.

treekillazOn a related note—here in the future—I like my palm tree.  A lot.  And who can blame me?  So when I looked out my window and saw someone chainsawing  up the palm in front of my home, I was close to grabbing something a lot stronger than a can of seasoning.  (Never mind that it wasn’t really my palm—but on an embankment in front of my house—I loved my palm, dammit.)  When the overscale condo development went up across the street from me, they stretched high-tension wires across to it.  And then the DWP decided that the decades-old Canary Island Date Palm had to go; it was too close to the new wires (it wasn’t, but that’s just a matter of opinion).  What’s not a matter of opinion is this:  that was a mature $30,000 tree, and, in the world of palms, the Phoenix canariensis is among the easiest to transplant.  I’m not necessarily saying that the wires should have, could have been moved—that’s perfect world stuff—but the workers could have spent two hours moving the tree five feet to the left instead of spending one hour chopping it down.  I’m deep in the Highland Park HPOZ and cutting down my tree, replete as it was with historic and cultural value, means I’m reaching for my can o’ pepper.  Ed Reyes, I’m gunning for a new tree, and the fact that the “Million Tree March” hates palms makes no never mind!  The palm was the tree of choice for the Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries, Lucky Baldwin, Henry Huntington, and every builder of this city committed to its unique elan…certainly you are in that league, Councilman?  Will he commit to Highland Park’s streetscape heritage, reader?  We’ll keep you posted.

The Historic Brick Streets and Curbs of NE LA

Nick Santangelo saw my post about the historic cobblestones exposed when Lincoln Heights was getting its roads repaved, and wanted to share photos of some of the brick streets and gutters in Highland Park and near Union Station. Some of these have already been covered over by insensitive city workers.

Nick says: The brick gutters on Avenues 41 and 45 (on North Figueroa) reminded me of Kim’s post. I have tried to get public works to stop paving over them as they are unique and historic but have not had any luck. I even sent some pics to the Highland Park Historical people but I never got a response. The new Homeboy Industries building near Phillipes sits next to a cobblestone street (Bruno, I think).

Sure, on a well travelled street it’s probably unreasonable to ask that archaic building materials bear the brunt of multi-ton SUVs… but can’t we somehow save the brick gutters in places where they’re still holding up so nicely?

Salvation in the Round

October 21, 1907odd2
Highland Park

First there was Dr. Widney’s Bethel, built into the notch of a hill in the form of a letter “A,” and now the tony downtown suburb of Highland Park is up for another piece of religious architectural eccentricity.

The seceders from the First Presbyterian Church of Highland Park, under the leadership of Dr. F. P. Berry, have purchased an unusually triangular piece of ground, 134 by 135 feet at the corner of Avenue 56 and Ash.  Architect George Howard was given the task of designing a new church, and his solution to this awkward parcel problem for the good people of the newly formed Olivet Presbyterian Church?  Build in the form of a complete circle, fifty-eight feet in diameter, with a circular auditorium that seats 650.

Don’t know as to whether this unique structure was ever built, but do know that it isn’t there now.
odd

Mad Mama?

May 13, 1907
Highland Park

15-year-old William McCormick visited the police to make a panicked plea for the salvation of his mother Janette, removed yesteday from 228 South Avenue 66 to the lunatics’ ward of the County Hospital. His mother is, William swears, quite sane, and her confinement the result of a family plot to steal her inheritance.

Mrs. McCormick is the primary beneficiary of a million dollar estate based in Denver, although much of the family lives on the west coast, including cousin Arthur Randall, in whose home the McCormicks had been staying.

Although no warrant for the woman’s arrest was ever produced, Superintendant Barber of the County Hospital accepted the word of the deputy sherrifs who brought the shrieking woman into his ward that such a warrant was in the hands of the Sheriff, and he refuses to release his captive until the case is investigated today.

Young McCormick explains, "After the death of my grandmother, mother and I came to the Coast. When our relatives learned that the greater portion of the property was left to mother and me, they began to plot. While we were in San Diego, Mrs. Belle M. Auston, who now lives in Black River Falls, Wis, and is my aunt, tried to kidnap me and was unsuccessful."

After this shock, the pair moved on to stay with a lady cousin in Ocean Park, then moved in with cousin Arthur. "He is the one who is making this trouble for mother. She is sane and has never been troubled with any symptoms of insanity. I believe that my uncles N.M. Phelps and A.D. Merrill of Denver have hired Randall to try to get mother in an asylum, so as to get her fortune! Phelps was left only $5000 by my grandmother’s will and Merrill was not mentioned. I am not very old, but I don’t want to see them harm mother."

The police sargeant told the youngster to contact the District Attorney.