History of site where Walt Disney Concert Hall currently sits
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vjhahn
Jul 23, 2009, 2:35:51 PM7/23/09
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Does anyone know if the site where Walt Disney Concert Hall currently
sits is or was once considered part of Bunker Hill? Or, does anyone
know what this site was prior to LA County donating for the concert
hall? Any info is appreciated!
sits is or was once considered part of Bunker Hill? Or, does anyone
know what this site was prior to LA County donating for the concert
hall? Any info is appreciated!
Nathan Marsak
Jul 23, 2009, 3:27:35 PM7/23/09
to offbun...@googlegroups.com
The site of the Disney Concert Hall is absolutely Bunker Hill, it's right there in the former thick of it, so to speak, though a bit to its north end. Bounded by Grand, 2nd, Hope and 1st, it was once full of Victorian houses and Edwardian apartment buildings. Bunker Hill Avenue, noted for many of the Hill's most elaborate private homes, ran through the middle of the block.
I'm attaching an early 20s jpeg to get you oriented -- First runs horizontally on top, Hope is on the left and Grand on the right and Bunker Hill Ave is bisecting vertically down the middle -- we covered a couple of stories in the 100 block of Bunker Hill Ave, and you'll note some neighbors...the Minnewaska (aka Dome), Melrose (and its neighbor, the Richelieu), and the Majestic (aka Rossmere Apts) surrounding...
...as to what happened to the site, well, that's the story of the whole Hill in general. In a nutshell: in '48 the City resolves they need a redevelopment agency and they eventually look at Bunker Hill as Central Redevelopment Area 1. It's blighted, they say, full of substandard buildings and poor/old/brown folks and drugs and so on, and by 1955 they have a "plan," and in October 1959 the City Council issues the Community Redevelopment Agency 20million dollars in bonds to buy up Bunker Hill and make it go bye-bye. 1961 was the first year of the tear-downs but they continued drip by drip into the late 60s. The Disney site was probably cleared around '64.
The whole 136 acres of BH was initially supposed to have been developed by 1970. Of course, things don't ever go as quickly as you'd think!
Thanks for the question and hope my answer suits your needs,
Yours,
Nathan Marsak
I'm attaching an early 20s jpeg to get you oriented -- First runs horizontally on top, Hope is on the left and Grand on the right and Bunker Hill Ave is bisecting vertically down the middle -- we covered a couple of stories in the 100 block of Bunker Hill Ave, and you'll note some neighbors...the Minnewaska (aka Dome), Melrose (and its neighbor, the Richelieu), and the Majestic (aka Rossmere Apts) surrounding...
...as to what happened to the site, well, that's the story of the whole Hill in general. In a nutshell: in '48 the City resolves they need a redevelopment agency and they eventually look at Bunker Hill as Central Redevelopment Area 1. It's blighted, they say, full of substandard buildings and poor/old/brown folks and drugs and so on, and by 1955 they have a "plan," and in October 1959 the City Council issues the Community Redevelopment Agency 20million dollars in bonds to buy up Bunker Hill and make it go bye-bye. 1961 was the first year of the tear-downs but they continued drip by drip into the late 60s. The Disney site was probably cleared around '64.
The whole 136 acres of BH was initially supposed to have been developed by 1970. Of course, things don't ever go as quickly as you'd think!
Thanks for the question and hope my answer suits your needs,
Yours,
Nathan Marsak
Robert B. Powers Jr.
Jul 23, 2009, 4:11:37 PM7/23/09
to offbun...@googlegroups.com
My (biological) mother was living at 116 S. Hope Street in 1934 when I was born. I was adopted by the Powers family of Bakersfield, California in 1935. I recently found a picture of the building at the Los Angeles Public Library site from info provided by a blogger to the Bunker Hill Sight. So, my history is definitely tied to this block.
> Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:35:51 -0700
> Subject: History of site where Walt Disney Concert Hall currently sits
> From: vjh...@gmail.com
> To: offbun...@googlegroups.com
> Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:35:51 -0700
> Subject: History of site where Walt Disney Concert Hall currently sits
> From: vjh...@gmail.com
> To: offbun...@googlegroups.com
vjhahn
Jul 23, 2009, 4:30:03 PM7/23/09
to offbun...@googlegroups.com
Thanks, for the information. It is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I had a difficult time locating anything like this in the searching I've done thus far. To clarify, you're saying the site that WDCH currently sits on basically sat empty from around 1970 until Los Angeles donated it for the building of the concert hall? Wow.
Nathan Marsak
Jul 23, 2009, 4:53:58 PM7/23/09
to offbun...@googlegroups.com
Robert, that's awesome -- always great when Bunker Hill can be tied in to the present.
I'm revising my earlier thought that that block lingered as long as '64. I think it was demolished much earlier, a la the Melrose and everything the other side of First, because of land needed for the DWP/Chandler/Hall of Administration et al. Although the blocks bounded between Olive, First, Hope and Second were not part of those plans specifically, early aerials show them as graded when the rest of BH is still extant -- the Melrose, for example, went in '57.
I'm attaching some pix that have all been taken from City Hall tower. In the first one the intersection of Hill and First is lower right, intersection of Olive and First above that, Grand and First barely visible upper right, which would make the white house, upper right, probably 109 S Grand. The two big rectangular structures are the backends of the Melrose. Note the Dome over at Grand and Second.
Later, clearance, the 1969 "tinker toy" garage has gone in on land once occupied by the Melrose, and our site in question is going to remain a parking lot for thirty years or so (the Dome is still a deep pit, 45 years and counting!)...
I'd say the site sat empty from about 1958 til whenever they sank the first Disney pilings...1998 or so. So about 40 years, total. And to clarify, it's not so much that the City "donated" the land to a works -- they would have willingly built a bank high-rise there (or anything else, had anybody approached with the financing in hand) in the 80s before the building downturn. It was Lillian Disney who sauntered up to the City and said "hey, would you like me to give you an enormous sum of money to build something?" And of course they jumped at the chance. Of course, I think more people think of it as Gehry Hall than Disney Hall, but whattaya gonna do?
Glad to be of service,
Nathan
I'm revising my earlier thought that that block lingered as long as '64. I think it was demolished much earlier, a la the Melrose and everything the other side of First, because of land needed for the DWP/Chandler/Hall of Administration et al. Although the blocks bounded between Olive, First, Hope and Second were not part of those plans specifically, early aerials show them as graded when the rest of BH is still extant -- the Melrose, for example, went in '57.
I'm attaching some pix that have all been taken from City Hall tower. In the first one the intersection of Hill and First is lower right, intersection of Olive and First above that, Grand and First barely visible upper right, which would make the white house, upper right, probably 109 S Grand. The two big rectangular structures are the backends of the Melrose. Note the Dome over at Grand and Second.
Later, clearance, the 1969 "tinker toy" garage has gone in on land once occupied by the Melrose, and our site in question is going to remain a parking lot for thirty years or so (the Dome is still a deep pit, 45 years and counting!)...
I'd say the site sat empty from about 1958 til whenever they sank the first Disney pilings...1998 or so. So about 40 years, total. And to clarify, it's not so much that the City "donated" the land to a works -- they would have willingly built a bank high-rise there (or anything else, had anybody approached with the financing in hand) in the 80s before the building downturn. It was Lillian Disney who sauntered up to the City and said "hey, would you like me to give you an enormous sum of money to build something?" And of course they jumped at the chance. Of course, I think more people think of it as Gehry Hall than Disney Hall, but whattaya gonna do?
Glad to be of service,
Nathan
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