Quote:
Originally Posted by tovangar2
I am still perplexed by our palm trees,starting with this photo:
http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal1a.html
Our trees are clearly on the left (west), behind their brick wall (Block 53 on the map above) between 2nd and 3rd. The Woodworth home is to the north across 2nd.
No Woodworths or Hammels are listed as living on Block 53, although, one supposes John Woodworth could have owned the property (at least at one time) and Sheriff Hammel could have lived there later. There is an exotic plant nursery listed, which is kind of funny as California Fan Palms are our only native palm.
John and Wallace Woodworth (father and son) were here early enough for our palms:
WALLACE WOODWORTH,
one of the pioneers of Los Angeles, was the son of John D. Woodworth, also a
pioneer; and he was born at Johnstown, Licking County, Ohio, July 28, 1832. He
came to California in 1850, at the age of eighteen, with his father. After
staying a year they returned East; but Wallace soon came back and went to
Oregon, where he stayed three years, when he came to Los Angeles County, and
became the superintendent of "El Chino Rancho," for his uncle, Colonel Isaac
Williams, the owner of that princely domain, Colonel Williams having gone East.
Afterward Mr. Woodworth engaged in the purchase of cattle on a large scale,
disposing of them in Northern markets and in the mines at good profits. Later he
entered into a partnership with W. H. Perry, which endured nearly thirty years,
or till Mr. Woodworth's death. The firm of Perry & Woodworth was long a familiar
one to all our older citizens. At first it engaged in the cabinet and furniture
business on Main street, near the Pico House; but ultimately it changed to the
lumber and milling business and moved to Commercial street, where the firm and
its successor, the Perry Lumber Company, did an immense business. Mr. J. D.
Woodworth, the father, returned with his family to Los Angeles in 1857, and
resided here till his death, with the exception of a few years' residence at his
ranch near San Gabriel, which he sold to Mr. Titus. Mr. Woodworth, Sr., was a
man of sterling character and of considerable prominence, being for a number of
years justice of the peace, and also postmaster of this city under President
Buchanan.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ca...th-wallace.txt
It may be John Woodworth we have to thank for bringing the trees from a desert canyon to LA.
As to the change in the building facing on San Pedro:
USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/14500/rec/13
I think this was taken after our palm was moved. The reason the palm was moved to begin with was to build a warehouse (this according to Nathan Masters http://www.lamag.com/citythink/cityt...dest-palm-tree), which is what appears to be going on in the photo below. The single story pitched roof building seems to be in the process of being remodeled into the two-story structure with a pediment pictured above:
LAPL -- http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068408.jpg
The photo of the large mansion in your post, identified as Woodworth's, does not appear to bear any relation to the Woodworth home on San Pedro. The smaller structure, in the same photo,looks to be its carriage house.
It does seem extraordinary that these trees, such landmarks and so famous that cabinet cards were being sold picturing them:
And our particular tree rated a granite and bronze monument commemorating its 25 years of faithful service outside the Arcade Depot:
http://books.google.com/books?id=yFq...20tree&f=false
Yet I could find no photos of the replanting at Exposition Park or the placing of the monument. The tree is not mentioned in any of the histories of Agricultural/Exposition Park I've seen. Maybe its anonymity has protected it. I would enjoy seeing its little circle of fence restored.
P.S.
The "Pierce" in the Pierce and McConnell name on the cabinet card was CC Pierce: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark...8vx0hb8/admin/ |
Thanks for explaining why that brick building on San Pedro Street next to the palm trees sprouted an extra story!
Hey, that's a great photo from the CSLB website looking north on San Pedro at one of the palms and and the Woodward house catty-corner across 2nd Street. Are there any palm trees around the Woodward house? Hard to tell.
The very next photo on the same CSLB webpage is the c. 1895 (though likely several years earlier) photo from my earlier post (
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=14486), which CSLB has captioned, "Continuing south on San Pedro Street, we see its west side, between 2nd and 3rd Sts. We faintly see the tower of St. Vibiana's on Main St. in the distance in a break between some trees. The handsome palm trees were planted in the 1880s by William A. Hammel at his home. Hammel was Sheriff 1899-1902 and 1907-1914. One of the palms he planted was subsequently moved to the Southern Pacific Arcade Depot, and we'll see it shortly..."
CA State Library --
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...EXHX78F14R.jpg
We've already seen that the trees were likely planted in the late 1850s, not the 1880s. This source (
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ca...ard-george.txt) says Dr. William A. Hammel came to Los Angeles County in 1856 and, as we have also seen, Dr. Hammel had one of the first red brick homes in Los Angeles -- at 2nd and San Pedro -- which also puts him here in the mid-1850s, in the right place and in plenty of time to plant those palms. His son William A. Hammel, the future Sheriff, was born in 1865 (
http://www.badgehistory.com/page_two.html) and thus seems an unlikely candidate for having originally transplanted the palms, one of which was moved to the Arcade station in 1888. Perhaps the fact that the Sheriff apparently wasn't a Jr. has confused historians.
Although the Woodworth home seems to be in the right place on the LA Times 1881 map/model at the NE corner of 2nd and San Pedro, perhaps the map/model's placement of the Hammel home on the NW corner, instead of the SW corner, is wrong -- just as LAPL has likely miscaptioned the c. 1880 photo in my earlier post allegedly showing the Woodworth home at 2nd and San Pedro ("Exterior view of the Woodworth residence, located at 2nd and San Pedro Streets"). BTW, it would be interesting to know where that big old house was.
Or, it could be that the land Hammel owned straddled both sides of 2nd Street, once it was put through. That seems to be what happened with the Woodworth property -- the yellow property in the middle of the map -- on the east side of San Pedro. Hammel is not on this map:
1884 Stevenson's Cadastral Survey
Big Map Blog --
http://www.bigmapblog.com/2012/steve...-angeles-1884/
1886 Woodworth Tract subdivision
Huntington Digital Library --
http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/c...id/12131/rec/2
1888 Sanborns at LAPL:
Look again at the photo at the top of the post looking north on San Pedro at 2nd. Given the location of the Woodworth home, where would the brick building and palm on the left side of that photo correspond to on the 1888 maps? Do we also see Old Second/Azusa on the right of that photo? The palm that got moved to the Arcade Station in 1888 -- apparently the one in the photo above with a ladder leaning up against it, and a guy halfway up the ladder -- was adjacent to that brick building and palm.
Here's the 1894 Sanborn map of the area; perhaps the "VACANT WARE HO" is the warehouse that was built where the palm trees -- and the Hammel home -- were?
1894 Sanborn Map @ LAPL
Is the house marked with an arrow . . .
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/13914/rec/11
. . . the same as the house in this picture, which is captioned, "c. 1886 Photograph of 2 large fan palm trees at the residence of Sheriff Hammel on San Pedro Street near Second Street, Los Angeles. A well is situated between them"? Could be.
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si.../id/8915/rec/9
I think the case for the palms being Dr. William A. Hammel's is clearly much stronger than the case for their being Wallace Woodworth's, which as far as I can tell is based on a solitary photograph's caption that has its east and west mixed up.
Here's another shot of the Arcade Depot palm . . . still can't read that dang sign, though:
CA State Library -- httpcatalog.library.ca.govexlibrisalepha19_1apache_mediaRRX95HAJNKYTQNU5KC63QXCRGQX8RP.jpg
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