Jewish Histories in Multiethnic Boyle Heights

"A Delightful Suburb": Boyle Heights in the 19th Century


In 1858, an Irish immigrant named Andrew Boyle became the first Anglo to settle east of the Los Angeles River after purchasing a 22-acre tract and vineyard from the Rubio family, one of two Mexican landowning families in the area. In 1865, the Los Angeles City Council sold the remaining public lands in the area at auction, dividing it into 35-acre lots, most of which were sold to investors for between five and ten dollars an acre. Boyle expanded his holdings to some 385 acres, and other plots were purchased by prominent investors, including Isaias Hellman, a Bavarian Jewish banker, John Downey, who later served as Governor of California, and William A. Workman, Boyle’s son-in-law.

Because of its limited access to downtown and lack of water supply, most of these plots remained undeveloped and unoccupied until the 1870s, when, anticipating the growth that would follow the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, landowners began pushing for municipal improvements in the area that would enhance their investments. Workman, who inherited his father-in-law’s holdings after Boyle’s death, played a leading role in these efforts, demanding that the City Council develop a sustainable water supply in the area, and running for City Council himself when they rejected his proposal. By the end of the decade, the City Council authorized the first bridge across the river at Macy Street (later Brooklyn Avenue) and the area’s first water pipelines and sewers, which were followed by its first horse-car transit lines and street pavings. These crucial infrastructure developments enabled landowners and to subdivide their acreages into smaller holdings and sell them to individuals and real estate speculators.

Workman's efforts were supported by another landowner in the area, George Cummings, who was married to Maria del Sacramento Lopez, daughter of Francisco Lopez, one of the area's prominent landowner. In 1889, Cummings hired architect W. R. Norton to design a fine new hotel on his property adjacent to the new streetcar lines on First Street, an area known as the Cummings Block. The Queen Anne style building, known as the Boyle Hotel, featured decorative brickwork, cast iron columns, and a corner turret with an open balcony and quickly became a hub of social and political activity in the neighborhood. To learn more about the Boyle Hotel and its 2007 designation as a Historic-Cultural Monument, visit the Los Angeles Conservancy. 

Marketed as an upscale development with picturesque views, beautiful parks, and a convenient location, Boyle Heights was home to approximately 2,000 residents by 1890, most of whom were affluent, white Protestants who lived on large estates in the western-most portion of the neighborhood. In an 1889 article, the Los Angeles Times described it as a "delightful suburb" where the "choicest residence sites are located," citing its "magnificent" views and "climate that cannot be improved upon." Alongside sketches of their large estates and "princely mansions," the article included profiles of the "men who pioneered and built it up," including William H. Workman, George Cummings, Samuel Rees, R.B. Young, and W. H. Perry, noting that "it is not at all surprising that a section so favorably situated...should have attracted wealth and culture." And, describing the improvements and street work underway - including on North Soto Street which, the author predicted, "will be by odds the finest drive as well as the finest residence portion in the city" - owed to the initiative of its upstanding citizens, the Times declared that "the Heights" was destined to become "the Nob Hill of the City of Angels."1

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