Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, California
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Baldwin Hills is a district in southwestern Los Angeles, California, in South Los Angeles. It is located on the central hills overlooking the Los Angeles Basin, and in the flats immediately to their north. Baldwin Hills and other surrounding geography are named for the famous 19th century horse racing pioneer, Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin.
Sub-divisions of Baldwin Hills include Baldwin Hills Estates (east of La Brea, southwest of Santo Tomas Drive, south of the Jim Gilliam Recreation Center and north of Stocker Street. It includes the so-called Dons, winding streets with "modernistic" homes, panoramic views of the city, and such names as "Don Luis", "Don Felipe", etc. The area is characterized by hillside houses with swimming pools, and some condominiums, (the latter often jut out from steep hillsides, perched on stilts). The southern portion of Baldwin Hills is actually outside the Los Angeles City limits; it resides in the unincorporated Los Angeles County area that also shares its space with View Park-Windsor Hills and Ladera Heights. Stocker Street divides Baldwin Hills from View Park. The northeast face of the former overlooks the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Mall.
West of the major thoroughfare, La Brea, is Baldwin Vista, with slightly smaller homes, but a more secluded ambience.[1] North of Coliseum Street, Baldwin Vista consists largely of the Village Green, a "garden city" housing development, which was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2001. The units seldom have more than two bedrooms, and tend to attract seniors and younger professionals as residents.
The flats consist largely of two-storey, apartment buildings of ten or more units, often originally surrounding a swimming pool, built in the late 1950s. Called "The Jungle" because of its lush landscaping, since the mid-1980s the city has promoted use of the name "Baldwin Village". Originally occupied mostly by adults, young families not yet able to afford home purchase began to move in around the same time that de-segregation evoked white flight in the early 1960s. In the 1970s, black gangs took up illicit drug trade in the vicinity. "Sherm Alley", near Coliseum Street and Santa Barbara (now Martin Luther King, Jr.) Boulevard became a notorious drive-through drug market (a "Sherm" is a PCP-laced cigar in U.S. slang). By the 1990s the area had become a low-income, predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhood, its glass entryways gated, and its swimming pools filled in.[2]
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[edit] Geography
Baldwin Hills is bordered on the southwest by Inglewood, on the south by View Park-Windsor Hills, on the west by Culver City, on the north by Mid-City, and on the east by the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles. The district's ZIP code is 90008.
The hills that are the namesake of the neighborhood have long been drilled for petroleum. As the oil companies leave, some of their properties are being taken over by public agencies. One section has been designated the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area.
[edit] Demographics
African Americans make up approximately 78.5% of Baldwin Hills' population, the largest predominantly white section being Village Green. It is one of the wealthiest majority-black areas in the United States. Prior to 1965, it was known as "Pill Hill" because a large number of doctors were believed to live there. After African Americans began moving into the area, especially musicians and film actors still excluded from upscale westside neighborhoods, it was given nicknames such as the Golden Ghetto and the Black Beverly Hills. It has been home to such celebrities as Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Nancy Wilson (singer), and the late Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. Like nearby Ladera Heights and View Park -Windsor Hills, it has seen a recent small influx of white, Asian, and Latino families drawn to its relatively affordable yet high-quality housing.
[edit] Disasters
Baldwin Hills has experienced several natural and human-caused disasters. A few days before Christmas in 1963, the Baldwin Hills Reservoir (in what is now Kenneth Hahn State Park), situated in the hills above many expensive homes, began to crack. Within a few hours, the leak from the small crack had expanded to a torrent of water that cascaded through a growing gaping hole down the canyon along Cloverdale Avenue. Many homes were washed away and destroyed. Most of Baldwin Village, including the historic Village Green community, was flooded as well. The crack in the dam was ultimately attributed to subsidence caused by overexploitation of the Inglewood oil field. The disaster caused the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to phase out small local reservoirs such as Baldwin Hills and Silver Lake, opting instead to store water in groundwater basins and behind the Hansen Dam in Lake View Terrace.
During the summer of 1985, an arsonist started a brush fire along La Brea Avenue. The fire spread up the canyon towards the expensive homes along Don Carlos Drive in the Baldwin Hills Estates tract. Many homes were destroyed despite the efforts of the Los Angeles fire department to suppress the flames. The fire killed three people and destroyed 53 homes[1]; the arsonist was never caught.
[edit] Education
The neighborhood is zoned to Los Angeles USD schools [1].
The schools include:
- Baldwin Hills Elementary School
- Audubon Middle School
- Susan Miller Dorsey High School
The area is served by several other schools, including Windsor Math/Science/Aerospace Magnet (K-5, zoned only for Kindergarten) and Hillcrest Drive Elementary School.
The Marlton School and the New Designs Charter School are also in the area.
Los Angeles Public Library operates the Baldwin Hills Branch.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Pollard-Terry, Gayle, "Neighborly Advice: [Baldwin Hills Estates:] Years Later, The Pitch Still Delivers," Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct 2006, p. K2.
- ^ Hayasaki, Erika (2006-09-30). "Gang Violence Fuels Racial Tensions". Los Angeles Times.
[edit] External links
- Friends of the Baldwin Hills
- The Baldwin Hills Conservancy
- Article on Village Green
- Village Green Web site
- Kenneth Hahn State Park
- Baldwin Hills dam
