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L.A. Stories: Community Spotlight

Civil War Powder Magazine, Wilmington, California

Built in 1862, the powder magazine is a 20-by-20-foot brick and stone structure that was used to store gunpowder during the Civil War. It was originally part of Camp Drum, a Union camp built between 1862 and 1863, and was the home base for the California Column, commanded by Colonel James Henry Carleton. During the 1920s, a grocery store was built around the magazine, and it was used as a meat locker. Later, a house was built around it and the structure was used as a bedroom. In 1982, the powder magazine was rediscovered during a demolition project, and declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM #249). Aside from Civil War enthusiasts and die-hard Los Angeles history buffs, most people are not aware that a Union Army camp existed in Los Angeles. The Wilmington Civil War powder magazine was hidden from view for over 110 years.

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Although Los Angeles is ever-evolving and shifting the world around it, sites, landmarks, photos and postcards remind us of what the city used to be. Sometimes they are all that remain. Whether a site was once a bee ranch, a homestead, sanitorium, or the Port of Los Angeles, the places shared here set the stage for the eventual growth, change, and expansion documenting the passage of time. Before the Santa Monica Pier was developed, Angelenos enjoyed the seaside at Pacific Ocean Park, built to rival Disneyland. After falling into disrepair, it was demolished. Generations of Angelenos traversed the iconic Sixth Street Bridge linking separate parts of the city. Once a major engineering feat but now demolished due to structural weaknesses, we can still see it on screen in movies and TV shows. The LA region was a military outpost long before it was a metropolis, as seen in the remains of Fort Drum from the Civil War era and Fort Moore from the Mexican-American War. And the old Pueblo de Los Angeles reminds us of the many people who have called this city home - Native American communities, Mexican peoples and Spanish colonial settlers. Despite the renewal and change inherent in the region, there is also room for remembering and honoring the past.
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1. Nicholsons Canyon, Lincolns Bee ranch Stereograph by Henry T. Payne depicting elevated view of farmhouse and buildings at Lincoln's Bee Ranch in Nicholson Canyon, Los Angeles County. In today’s Los Angeles, backyard beekeeping is all the rage, spurred by an increasing interest in local food and by the City itself, which overturned a late-19th-century ban to legalize urban beekeeping in 2015. But while many associate Los Angeles with agriculture and even viniculture, fewer likely think of the early California industry of “bee ranching” or of the region’s beekeeping past. First imported to California in 1853 by Christopher A. Shelton, introduced to the Southland in 1854 by O. W. Childs, and popularized by John Stewart Harbison, the European Honeybee thrived in Los Angeles’ mild climate, feeding on nectar from bountiful white sage. Hives became common in the Los Angeles Basin, often at sites such as Lincoln’s Bee Ranch in Nicholsons Canyon, as depicted in this photo.
2. Apiary at Sierra Madre Villa, San Gabriel Stereograph depicting an apiary at Sierra Madre Villa hotel, San Gabriel, ca. 1887. Though an 1871 surveyor general’s report deemed LA County the Southland’s greatest honey producer, the industry only truly took off after an 1876 drought killed many cattle herds. Many saw honeybees as a get-rich-quick scheme, and beekeeping became so popular that by 1880, in his pamphlet, “Homes in Los Angeles County,” W. McPherson would claim that there were “fully one hundred thousand colonies in Los Angeles County today.” Though the City of Los Angeles banned beekeeping within city limits in 1879, arguing that bees attacked fruit and destroyed crops (an argument soon to be debunked), in the 1870s and 1880s, beekeeping thrived especially in the Sierra Madre foothills, as seen in this stereograph. And, indeed, as late as 1911, beekeeping was still going strong in Los Angeles (though by that point bees were more typically deployed to gather nectar from orange blossoms than from white sage).
3. Port of Los Angeles 1913-1917 The panoramic photograph, Port of Los Angeles 1913-1917, highlights historic features of Los Angeles Harbor, some that still exist, some that were transformed, and some lost to progress. Deadman's Island in the center of the photo denotes the entrance to Los Angeles Harbor. Looking left, the Wilmington breakwater connects to the Pacific Wharf and Storage Co. warehouse. The bow of the S.S. William Chatham is somewhat obscured by flatcars receiving a shipment of lumber. To the right of Deadman's Island, two dredgers work away. To the right, the rolling slopes of Point Fermin and San Pedro sprout new homes and streets.
4. View of Hancock ranch house, lake pit in foreground and extended landscape the distance. (RLB-30-3)
  This hand colored glass plate negative from 1912 shows George Allan Hancock’s ranch house at La Brea. The Santa Monica mountains are visible in the background and oil derricks are beginning to dot the landscape. Hancock purchased the property believing that it would eventually be immensely valuable. Instead, the discovery of fossil deposits contributed to learning about Los Angeles during the Pleistocene which continues today at the La Brea Tar Pits Museum.
  For over a century, the world-famous La Brea Tar Pits have captured popular imagination and excited both scientists and the public. This unique view of the last ice age is preserved in asphalt and studied to this day the La Brea Tar Pits Museum, located near the center of Los Angeles.
5. Bliss Ranch Bliss Ranch was located in Glendale near the base of the Verdugo Mountains on what is now the Rossmoyne and Verdugo Woodlands area. The property was once part of the Rancho Santa Rafael Spanish land grant owned by Jose Maria Verdugo. Brothers John and Robert Bliss, originally from Philadelphia, purchased the land in 1894 from Reverend George Baugh. John and his family lived there for a short time, selling the property to J.S. McMillan, general manager of the Pacific Electric Railway Co. Bliss Ranch is one of the missing links between the first acquisition of this area as a Spanish land grant and the subsequent development of it by the Pacific Electric Co. and developer Leslie C. Brand.
6. Bliss family farmhouse John Bliss built this Victorian farmhouse on Bliss Ranch. He and his family bred horses and cultivated citrus trees. They lived here for a short time before selling the property to the Pacific Electric Railway Company who would make Bliss Ranch the northern terminus of the rail line that ran along Brand Boulevard. The Bliss family moved to Santa Monica where they established a grocery store. John Bliss dies in 1934 at the age of 68.
7. Casa Verdugo To make the northern terminus of their streetcar system a destination, Pacific Electric turned the Sepulveda Adobe and the surrounding property into “Casa Verdugo,” which opened in 1905 and included a popular restaurant and garden. The Adobe was the residence of Rafaela Verdugo de Sepulveda, granddaughter of Jose Maria Verdugo, owner of the original Rancho Santa. The restaurant was owned by Mrs. Piedad Yorba de Sowl who, according to advertisements, served genuine Spanish meals.
8. Photograph of Olive View Sanatorium shortly after its opening Occupying the site of what is today the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, the Olive View Sanatorium opened in 1920 as a residential treatment facility for tuberculosis at a time when the disease was widespread and many came to Southern California seeking healing in the warm, dry climate. Olive View grew rapidly into the largest tuberculosis sanatorium in the western United States, and the sanatorium’s records at USC include many fascinating items about life, treatments, and research at Olive View.
9. Postcard of the Women’s Wards at Olive View Sanatorium Occupying the site of what is today the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, the Olive View Sanatorium opened in 1920 as a residential treatment facility for tuberculosis at a time when the disease was widespread and many came to Southern California seeking healing in the warm, dry climate. Olive View grew rapidly into the largest tuberculosis sanatorium in the western United States, and the sanatorium’s records at USC include many fascinating items about life, treatments, and research at Olive View.
10. January 1940 issue of the Olive View patient newsletter Olive View Points Occupying the site of what is today the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, the Olive View Sanatorium opened in 1920 as a residential treatment facility for tuberculosis at a time when the disease was widespread and many came to Southern California seeking healing in the warm, dry climate. Olive View grew rapidly into the largest tuberculosis sanatorium in the western United States, and the sanatorium’s records at USC include many fascinating items about life, treatments, and research at Olive View.
11. The Sixth Street Bridge Series #0050
  The Los Angeles River has been the heart, and the bane, of Los Angeles communities since the city was established in 1850. The historic downtown bridges that cross the river --the 1st, 4th, 6th, and 7th Street viaducts, as well as the Cesar Chavez (formerly Macy Street) Bridge-- connect the vastly different urban districts of downtown Los Angeles with East Los Angeles, with its long history of various ethnic enclaves through the years. The need to replace the rapidly deteriorating, historic 6th Street Bridge coincides with the gentrification of the riverfront warehouse districts on the west bank of the river and gentrifications' encroachment on East L.A. neighborhoods, a process that is occurring throughout the city.
  Demolition of the historic Sixth Street Viaduct crossing the Los Angeles River, constructed in 1932 and the longest of 14 bridges built, was necessitated by deterioration of the concrete used during construction. A heavy duty hydraulic jack hammer on tractor treads is pictured here demolishing a decorative column near the east end of the bridge, while a worker in a cherry picker hoses down the dust with water pumped from water trucks.
12. The Sixth Street Bridge Series #0569 The construction of this massive, 3,500 foot long bridge connecting the Los Angeles Arts District to Boyle Heights requires the expertise of hundreds of skilled workers from a number of trade unions. In this image, iron workers, known as rod busters, fit an intricately constructed steel rebar frame into a concrete mold to reinforce the concrete bridge support casting to withstand the great weight of the bridge and the vehicles crossing it.
13. The Sixth Street Bridge Series #1008 This image shows the massive undertaking of constructing a large-scale bridge that will function for at least 100 years, and withstand powerful earthquakes. Against the downtown skyline at dusk, concrete workers are guiding a concrete pour into forms for braces that will support the roadbed. Rebar reinforcements are visible in the forms. The Design team for the Sixth Street Viaduct project includes Michael Maltzan Architecture, HNTB, Hargreaves Associates, and AC Martin.
14. "View From the Fort (Moore)" A stereoview image of El Pueblo, Los Angeles, taken from Fort Moore, on North Broadway, whose "view" of El Pueblo is largely obscured by the prominent positioning of a mule. We all have images of our home and how we want it remembered: Here we have a purported "View of Los Angeles" where the photographer J. D. Westervelt has intentionally obscured most of our view of El Pueblo by centering a mule. What story/opinion of LA is this intended to convey?
15. View of Pacific Ocean Park under construction from the west end of Ocean Park Pier
  When Pacific Ocean Park (POP) opened in 1958, the nautical-themed amusement park rivaled Disneyland in popularity. Over the next several years, POP attracted millions of visitors and was a favorite for television show locations. Forty years after its demolition, POP continues to evoke the heyday of beachside family fun.
  This photograph illustrates the built environment with construction workers before it became one of Southern California's most popular attractions. While images of Pacific Ocean Park abound, a lesser known story is its construction. The photo of the Park under construction (and built on the site of the old Ocean Park Pier) gives us a sense of the scale of the work.
16. Civil War Powder Magazine, Wilmington, California Built in 1862, the powder magazine is a 20-by-20-foot brick and stone structure that was used to store gunpowder during the Civil War. It was originally part of Camp Drum, a Union camp built between 1862 and 1863, and was the home base for the California Column, commanded by Colonel James Henry Carleton. During the 1920s, a grocery store was built around the magazine, and it was used as a meat locker. Later, a house was built around it and the structure was used as a bedroom. In 1982, the powder magazine was rediscovered during a demolition project, and declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM #249). Aside from Civil War enthusiasts and die-hard Los Angeles history buffs, most people are not aware that a Union Army camp existed in Los Angeles. The Wilmington Civil War powder magazine was hidden from view for over 110 years.
17. "On Rather Hard Terms" - Letter from F.P.F. Temple to William Workman, 20 November 1875.
  By the late nineteenth century, Los Angeles and its business sector were experiencing a prosperous era. In the 1860s and first half of the 1870s, Los Angeles underwent its first sustained period of population and economic growth. For the Workman and Temple families, however, it proved to be a period of dual extremes, from financial abundance to a devastating failure. F.P.F. Temple and his father-in-law, William Workman, after first operating with Isaias W. Hellman in Hellman, Temple and Company, opened the Temple and Workman Bank in November 1871. The bank was in one of the several buildings known as the Temple Block, located at Spring, Main and Temple streets, now the site of the City Hall. While initially popular, this poorly managed and unregulated private venture became, in a statewide panic in 1875-1876, the first major business failure in the city and a shattering loss for the Workman and Temple families, resulting in financial ruin and the loss of most of their substantial landholdings. The narrative of extreme highs and lows on both personal and business levels is reflected through these artifacts from the Homestead Museum's collection, including a letter from Temple to Workman about securing a loan for the institution, a stereoscopic photograph of the location of the bank, and William Workman's bankbook.
  The letter concerns Temple's arrangement of a loan with San Francisco capitalist Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin for the Temple and Workman bank, but "on rather hard terms." Temple describes the unpleasantness of his task, the tight control of money in the economic downturn, and the expectation that all would turn out well in the end. Within weeks, however, the borrowed funds were withdrawn by depositors and the bank closed permanently in the mid-January 1876.
18. "On Rather Hard Terms" - A stereoscopic photograph of the Temple Block, ca. 1870 Taken by Henry T. Payne, this view of the three-story building was captured from the junction of Spring, Main and Temple streets, the center of the growing business section of town. The bank occupied the first floor quarters at the right and the structure housed Adolph Portugal's store and offices for many lawyers, doctors and other professionals in its upper levels. The block was razed in the 1920s for the construction of City Hall.
19. "On Rather Hard Terms" - William Workman's passbook The book contains entries for the account of the "silent partner" in Temple and Workman, who was elderly and mainly ran his nearly 25,000-acre half of the Rancho La Puente in the eastern San Gabriel Valley. Because Temple was responsible for managing the bank, its collapse was an enormous shock to Workman and the red line at the end starkly reflects the institution's demise, tragically followed by Workman's suicide in mid-May 1876.

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1. Civil War Powder Magazine, Wilmington, California Built in 1862, the powder magazine is a 20-by-20-foot brick and stone structure that was used to store gunpowder during the Civil War. It was originally part of Camp Drum, a Union camp built between 1862 and 1863, and was the home base for the California Column, commanded by Colonel James Henry Carleton. During the 1920s, a grocery store was built around the magazine, and it was used as a meat locker. Later, a house was built around it and the structure was used as a bedroom. In 1982, the powder magazine was rediscovered during a demolition project, and declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM #249). Aside from Civil War enthusiasts and die-hard Los Angeles history buffs, most people are not aware that a Union Army camp existed in Los Angeles. The Wilmington Civil War powder magazine was hidden from view for over 110 years.