Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California

Boyle Heights is a neighborhood east of Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...

on the East Side

East Los Angeles (region)

East Los Angeles is the portion of the City of Los Angeles that lies east of Downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles River and the unincorporated areas of Lincoln Heights, west of the San Gabriel Valley, East Los Angeles and City Terrace, south of Cypress Park, and north of Vernon, California and...

of Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. For much of the twentieth century, Boyle Heights was a gateway for new immigrants. This resulted in diverse demographics, including Jewish American, Japanese American

Japanese American

are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...

and Mexican American

Mexican American

Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...

populations, as well as Russian American

Russian American

Russian Americans are primarily Americans who traces their ancestry to Russia. The definition can be applied to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to settlers of 19th century Russian settlements in northwestern America which includes today's California, Alaska and...

and Yugoslav

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

populations. Today, the neighborhood is populated mostly by working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

Latino

The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...

Paredon Blanco, The Boyle/Workman families, and the origins of Boyle Heights

The Boyle Heights area was known in the Spanish and Mexican era as "Paredon Blanco" or "White Bluffs." While within the four-league limits established for Los Angeles under Spanish dominion in 1781, this area east of the river was sparsely populated. Among those who resided in the Paredon Blanco area were the Lopez and Rubio families, each of which had adobe houses and vineyards and continued to live there for many decades.

One of the more notable early documented events in Paredon Blanco occurred during the American invasion of Mexican California in Fall 1846. After a group of Americans loyal to the invaders gathered for mutual defense at the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino

Rancho Santa Ana del Chino

Rancho Santa Ana del Chino was a Mexican land grant in the Chino Hills of present day San Bernardino County, California given to Antonio Maria Lugo in 1841 by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado...

home of Isaac Williams at today's Boys' Republic institution in modern Chino Hills, native Californios defending their land secured the surrender of the Americans. The prisoners were then marched to Paredon Blanco and kept there under strict watch for several months, though it is not known whether they were held at a residence of the Lopez or Rubio families. The intercession of ranchers William Workman, of La Puente, and Ignacio Palomares, of San Jose [modern Pomona], led to the peaceful release of the men who were nearly executed by the enraged Californio defenders.

In 1858, Irish-born Andrew A. Boyle (1818–1871) came to Los Angeles from San Francisco (having also previously lived in New Orleans and Texas after his 1832 migration to America.) Boyle, a widower who had a daughter named Maria (1847–1933) purchased land in Paredon Blanco from the Lopez family. He built the first brick house east of the river and cultivated the Lopez vineyards, manufacturing and selling wine under the Paredon Blanco name. He also operated a shoe store in Los Angeles and was a member of the city council.

After Andrew Boyle's death in early 1871, his property passed to his daughter and her husband, William Henry Workman (1839–1918), a saddler and rising politician in town. As the first growth boom was underway in the Los Angeles area, Workman decided to subdivide part of Paredon Blanco. In Spring 1875, he partnered with banker and real estate speculator Isaias W. Hellman and John Lazzarovich, who was married to a member of the Lopez family, and announced the creation of the new neighborhood of Boyle Heights. Before long, however, the boom ended, largely because of the failure of the bank co-owned by Workman's uncle, William Workman (1799–1876), owner of the Rancho La Puente in the eastern San Gabriel Valley. It was not until the next development boom, which took place during Workman's tenure as mayor in the 1887-88 period, that Boyle Heights grew rapidly and became a desirable residential area for middle and upper middle class Angelenos. Some large Victorian-era homes still survive in Boyle Heights as testament to the late nineteenth-century status the neighborhood possessed.

By the 1920s, however, well-heeled Los Angeles residents migrated west from downtown and the proximity of Boyle Heights to the railroad switch and freight yards and the industrial area of the city next to the Los Angeles River led to a significant change in the demographics of the community. Another developing factor was the nefarious spread of "restrictive covenants," in which residential property deeds limited ownership to whites in almost all areas of Los Angeles, excepting places such as south Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. Consequently, disenfranchised persons from ethnic and racial groups of all types moved to Boyle Heights, making it one of the most diverse areas in the United States.

Boyle Heights remained one of the most heterogeneous neighborhoods in the city for decades and it was a center of Jewish, Mexican

Mexican American

and Japanese

Japanese American

immigrant life in the early 20th century, and also hosted large Yugoslav

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

and Russian

Russian American

populations. Canter's Deli, one of Los Angeles' culinary landmarks and a beloved fixture in the city's Jewish community, was originally located in Boyle Heights before it followed its customer base to the Fairfax District

Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California

The Fairfax District is an area of neighborhoods in the Mid-City West area of Los Angeles, California.- Geography :It is roughly bordered by West Hollywood on the north, Highland Avenue on the east, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills on the west and Wilshire Boulevard on the south...

in the 1940s. For a time both Cantor's Delis were open and operating simultaneously. However, during and after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, most of its non-Latino

Latino

population left for Mid-Wilshire

Mid-Wilshire

Mid-Wilshire is a district in the City of Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Wilshire region.It mostly encompasses the area bounded by La Cienega Boulevard to the west, Melrose Avenue to the north, Hoover Street to the east and the Santa Monica Freeway to the south, although some...

, the San Gabriel

San Gabriel Valley

The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, United States. It lies to the east of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and west of the Inland Empire. It derives its name from the San Gabriel River that flows...

and San Fernando

San Fernando Valley

The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...

valleys, and the West Side

West Los Angeles (region)

The Los Angeles Westside is an urban region in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. It has no official definition, but, according to the Los Angeles Times, it comprises , encompassing 18 districts in the city of Los Angeles and two unincorporated neighborhoods, plus the cities of...

. Boyle Heights' Japanese population was interned in relocation camps

Japanese American internment

Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...

such as Manzanar

Manzanar

Manzanar is most widely known as the site of one of ten camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in California's Owens Valley between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, it is...

during World War II and did not return after the war. This evolution is evidenced, among many other ways, by the name of the district's main thoroughfare: once Brooklyn Avenue, it was rechristened Cesar E. Chavez Avenue in 1994.

Breed Street Shul

Opened in 1923, the Breed Street Shul

Breed Street Shul

Breed Street Shul, also known as Congregation Talmud Torah of Los Angeles or Breed Street Synagogue, is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, California...

, located at 247 North Breed Street, was one of the oldest synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

s on West Coast of the United States. Boyle Heights was a predominantly Jewish community for many years, but slowly the demographic changed to a large Latino

Latino

community, and the synagogue steadily lost congregation members.

Breed Street Shul was finally abandoned in 1996, with the building becoming ramshackle. Shortly afterward, an effort was made to renovate the synagogue, and to preserve the site for posterity. In 1999, the nonprofit Breed Street Shul Project, Inc., a subsidiary of the Jewish Historical Society of Southern California (JHS), officially undertook the restoration project. The project has been completed, and Breed Street Shul is now considered a national historic landmark.

The Flats

Unlike the middle- and lower-middle-class neighborhoods on the bluffs, "The Flats" was one of the most impoverished areas of the city, and by the 1930s was considered one of the last remaining slums in the United States. Those living in the "Heights" did not consider the flats part of Boyle Heights. The City of Los Angeles had separate neighborhood signs to mark the areas in the flats.

Reformer Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis

Jacob August Riis was a Danish American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific...

had visited The Flats in the early 1910s and declared them worse than anything in New York; a survey conducted by the city in the 1937 deemed 20% of the city's dwellings "unfit for human habitation," including most of The Flats. During World War II

World War II

, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles

Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles

The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles is the public housing agency for Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1938. There are more than 60 public housing locations in Los Angeles.-History:...

(HACLA) razed The Flats and built housing projects in their place, resulting in Aliso Village

Aliso Village

Aliso Village was a housing project in Los Angeles, California. It was built in 1942 and demolished 1999. The parcel was replaced by Pueblo del Sol.The complex was owned and managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles....

and Pico Gardens. Like most of HACLA's 1940s projects, Aliso Village and Pico Gardens were hailed at the time of their construction as some of the finest examples of the principles espoused by the garden city movement

Garden city movement

The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...

, and were racially integrated

Racial integration

Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...

to boot.

Soon after the end the war, Aliso Village and Pico Gardens lost most of their non-Latino populations, and were increasingly populated by Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

immigrants. With the river on one side and a massive rail yard

Rail yard

A rail yard, or railroad yard, is a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives. Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic....

on another, the construction of the East Los Angeles Interchange further isolated them from the rest of the city, and the closure of the Pacific Electric Railway

Pacific Electric Railway

The Pacific Electric Railway , also known as the Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail, and buses...

dramatically reduced the mobility of many of the projects' residents. By the 1970s, overcrowding had eliminated much of Aliso Village's once-vaunted green spaces, physical deteriortion had become rampant, and gang

Gang

A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...

s were an increasing problem. In the 1980s the residents of Aliso Village and Pico Gardens began to organize with the support of Dolores Mission Church and its community Organization UNO and began to address these problems. By the late eighties the residents of the two housing projects had developed a network of community groups that pushed for better services and began negotiating truces between the different gangs, thus reducing the level of violence. In 1996, HACLA wrote off both projects, against the residents desires; Pico Gardens was razed and rebuilt eliminating half of the units in the development. Aliso Village was demolished and replaced with the New Urbanist

New urbanism

New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually continued to reform many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use...

, Pueblo del Sol

Pueblo del Sol, Los Angeles, California

Pueblo del Sol is a housing project in the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles, California. It is operated by the McCormack Baron Ragan Corporation....

"workforce housing" project. In the process two-thirds of the residents of the two housing projects were displaced.

Geography and transportation

Boyle Heights lies on the east bank of the Los Angeles River

Los Angeles River

The Los Angeles River is a river that starts in the San Fernando Valley, in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and flows through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the western end of the San Fernando Valley, nearly southeast to its mouth in Long Beach...

. It comprises the bluffs for which the district is named and the muddy flats ("The Flats") below them. The district's boundaries are roughly Mission Road on the north, the Los Angeles city limits on the east and south, and the river on the west. Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...

lies to the west, Lincoln Heights

Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, California

-Geography and transportation:Lincoln Heights is bounded by the Los Angeles River on the west, the San Bernardino Freeway on the south, and Indiana Street on the east; the district's Eastern border is unclear due to the area's uneven terrain...

lies to the north, City Terrace

City Terrace, California

City Terrace is an unincorporated community in Los Angeles County, California. It is considered part of the East Los Angeles region. The U.S. census numbers are included with East Los Angeles.-Geography and transportation:...

and East Los Angeles

East Los Angeles, California

East Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...

are to the east, Commerce

Commerce, California

Commerce is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 12,823 at the 2010 census, up from 12,568 at the 2000 census. It is bordered by Vernon on the west, Los Angeles on the northwest, East Los Angeles on the north, Montebello on the east, Downey...

is to the southeast, and Vernon

Vernon, California

Vernon is a city five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, California. The population was 112 at the 2010 United States Census, the smallest of any incorporated city in the state....

is to the south. Major thoroughfares include Whittier Boulevard

California State Route 72

State Route 72 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. The route runs from Puente Street in Brea to Atlantic Boulevard in East Los Angeles. It forms part of El Camino Real.-Route description:...

; Cesar E. Chavez Avenue (known as Brooklyn Avenue prior to 1994); and State, Soto

Soto Street

Soto Street is a major north-south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, connecting the southernmost neighborhoods of the East Side, as well as the southeastern suburbs of Vernon and Huntington Park. It was first designated and paved as an arterial road in 1927...

, Lorena, 1st

1st Street (Los Angeles)

1st Street is an east-west thoroughfare in Los Angeles and East Los Angeles, California. It serves as a postal divider between north and south and is one of a few streets to run from West Los Angeles to East Los Angeles...

, and 4th Streets.

"All roads lead to Boyle Heights"

Boyle Heights was once called Paredon Blanco (White Bluffs) when California was part of Mexico. Boyle Heights has long been a destination for newcomers to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

. Andrew A. Boyle

Boyle-Workman family

The Boyle-Workman family relates to the pioneer interconnected Boyle and Workman families that were prominent in: the history of colonial Pueblo de Los Angeles and American Los Angeles; the Los Angeles Basin and San Gabriel Valley regions; and Southern California — from 1830 to 1930 in Mexican Alta...

, for whom the area is named, was an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

immigrant who established his home in the area in 1858. His son-in-law, William H. Workman

William H. Workman

William Henry Workman was an American politician, banker and businessman. He served two terms as the 18th Mayor of Los Angeles, California.-Early life:...

, served as mayor and city councilman and helped build the water lines, bridges, and public transportation that connected Boyle Heights across the river to the city center and made it a viable place to live. By the end of the 19th century, many well-to-do residents and civic leaders resided in Boyle Heights.

As Los Angeles expanded into an industrializing city, the population of Boyle Heights both grew and diversified. Many people moved east of the Los Angeles River due to downtown development, rising real estate values, and racially discriminatory housing restrictions in other parts of the city.

Throughout the past century, people moved to Boyle Heights in search of new opportunities. Some came after being driven out of their countries of origin by wars, persecution, and adverse economic circumstances. All of these people, old and new residents alike, impacted the neighborhood they shared as they created homes and communities supporting their diverse talents, interests, and needs.Mexican families started to move in around the 1930s

The massive East Los Angeles Interchange

East Los Angeles Interchange

The East Los Angeles Interchange complex is the busiest freeway interchange in the world, with its southern portion handling over 550,000 vehicles per day . The northern portion, called the San Bernardino Split, is often considered a separate interchange. The interchange was named the Eugene A....

is located in Boyle Heights on the eastern bank of the Los Angeles River, allowing access to the Golden State (I-5), Hollywood (U.S. Route 101), Pomona (SR 60

California State Route 60

State Route 60 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It runs from Interstate 10 near the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles east to I-10 in Riverside County, with overlaps at State Route 57 and Interstate 215.-Route description:...

), San Bernardino

San Bernardino Freeway

The San Bernardino Freeway, formerly known as the Ramona Freeway is a freeway in Los Angeles and Orange Counties in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It refers to the following two segments:...

(I-10), Santa Ana

Santa Ana Freeway

The Santa Ana Freeway is one of the principal freeways in Southern California, connecting Los Angeles and its southeastern suburbs including the freeway's namesake, the city of Santa Ana. The freeway begins at the Four Level Interchange in downtown Los Angeles, signed as U.S. Route 101...

(I-5), and Santa Monica (I-10) freeways.

The Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension

In 2004, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the California state-chartered regional transportation planning agency and public transportation operating agency for the County of Los Angeles formed in 1993 out of a merger of the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the...

(MTA) began work on the "Edward R. Roybal

Edward R. Roybal

Edward Ross "Ed" Roybal was a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council for thirteen years and of the U.S. House of Representatives for thirty years.-Biography:...

Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension" of its Gold Line through Boyle Heights. MTA had planned to run the line at grade level along 1st Street, but community opposition concerned for the potential loss of affordable housing led it to instead route the line through the district as a subway

Rapid transit

A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

before it emerges as a standard grade-level light rail

Light rail

Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...

line in East Los Angeles. (Ironically, this route was planned as part of the Red Line

LACMTA Red Line

The Red Line is a subway line running between Downtown Los Angeles via the districts of Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire to North Hollywood within Los Angeles where it connects with the Metroliner Orange line service for stations to the Warner Center in Woodland Hills.The red line, which is one of five...

subway before 1998, when county voters passed a proposition banning use of existing sales tax revenues for subway construction.) The Eastside Extension opened on November 15, 2009 with a total of four stations in Boyle Heights.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 92,785 people in the neighborhood. The racial identification of the neighborhood is 94.0% Latino

Latino

, 2.3% Asian, 2.0% White

White people

White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

(Nonhispanic), 0.9% African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

, and 0.8% other races. The household median income is $33,235, low in comparison to the rest of the city. Its population is also one of the youngest in the city, with a median age of just 25.

Government and infrastructure

Los Angeles Fire Department

The Los Angeles Fire Department is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Los Angeles....

Station 2 (Boyle Heights) and Station 25 (South Boyle Heights) are in Boyle Heights.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services

Los Angeles County Department of Health Services

Health services to over 10 million residents in the Los Angeles County are provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Mental health services are provided by the County Department of Mental Health...

operates the Central Health Center in Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...

, serving Boyle Heights.

The United States Postal Service

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

Boyle Heights Post Office is located at 2016 East 1st Street.

Elementary

Los Angeles Unified School District

Los Angeles Unified School District is the largest public school system in California. It is the 2nd largest public school district in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population...

operates Boyle Heights' public schools.

Sheridan Street Elementary School
2nd Street Elementary School
Utah Street Elementary School
Breed Street Elementary School
Dena Elementary School
First Street Elementary School
Euclid Elementary School

Soto Street Elementary
Bridge Street Elementary School
Evergreen Elementary School
Lorena Street Elementary
Malabar Elementary
Sunrise Elementary

Middle schools

High schools

Roosevelt High School
Theodore Roosevelt High School (Los Angeles)
See also Roosevelt High School for schools of the same nameTheodore Roosevelt High School is a high school located in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, California named for the 26th president of the United States....
Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School
Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School
Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School is a magnet senior high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District with a focus on serving students who plan to study in the healthcare field...
Boyle Heights Continuation High School
Ramona Opportunity High School
Oscar de la Hoya Animo Charter High School
Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center
Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center
Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center is a public high school in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States....

Private schools

Dolores Mission School
Santa Isabel School
Santa Teresita Elementary School
Saint Mary's Elementary School
Our Lady of Talpa Elementary School
White Memorial Adventist School
Resurrection Elementary School
Assumption Parish School

College, universities and trade schools

East Los Angeles Occupational Center
East Los Angeles Adult Skill Center
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Keck School of Medicine of USC
The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California is a major center of medical research, education and patient care. Founded in 1885, the Keck School of Medicine is the oldest medical school in Southern California.Located on the university’s Health Sciences campus three miles ...

Landmarks

Variety Boys and Girls Club
Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center/Keck School of Medicine of USC
Keck School of Medicine of USC
The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California is a major center of medical research, education and patient care. Founded in 1885, the Keck School of Medicine is the oldest medical school in Southern California.Located on the university’s Health Sciences campus three miles ...
Los Angeles County Department of Coroner
Estrada Courts Murals
Evergreen Cemetery
White Memorial Hospital
Breed Street Shul
Breed Street Shul
Breed Street Shul, also known as Congregation Talmud Torah of Los Angeles or Breed Street Synagogue, is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, California...
Hazard Park
Hazard Park
Hazard Park is a city park in Los Angeles, California, USA. The park was named after Henry T. Hazard, the 20th mayor of Los Angeles.The park is abutted by County+USC Medical Center and the Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School.-History:...
Historic Brooklyn Avenue Corridor now Cesar E. Chavez Avenue
Mariachi Plaza
Mariachi Plaza
Mariachi Plaza is a small square bounded by E. 1st street to the south, N. Boyle Avenue to the West and a small residential street named Pleasant Avenue to its North. The Square is located in the Boyle Heights district of the city of Los Angeles, East of Downtown....
Hollenbeck Park
Hollenbeck Park
Hollenbeck Park is located on the corner of Saint Louis and Fourth Streets in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California. Some of the Park's features include a lake, picinic areas and even a skateboard park....
Hollenbeck Home for the Aged
Linda Vista Community Hospital (former Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital)
Sears Building, Olympic Boulevard
Olympic Boulevard
Olympic Boulevard is a major arterial road in Los Angeles, California. It stretches from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles—farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets....

and Soto St.
El Corrido de Boyle Heights, Brooklyn Ave. & Soto St - East Los Streetscrapers
International Institute of Los Angeles, Boyle Ave.
Malabar Public Library
Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library system serves the residents of Los Angeles, California, United States. With over 6 million volumes, LAPL is one of the largest publicly funded library systems in the world. The system is overseen by a Board of Library Commissioners with five members appointed by the...
Robert L. Stevenson Public Library
Benjamin Franklin Public Library
St. Mary's Catholic church (4th and Chicago Streets)
Rewind Headquarters
Wyvernwood Garden Apartments

Demolished landmarks

Soto-Michigan Jewish Community Center
Aliso Village
Aliso Village
Aliso Village was a housing project in Los Angeles, California. It was built in 1942 and demolished 1999. The parcel was replaced by Pueblo del Sol.The complex was owned and managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles....
Pico Gardens
No.54 Historic 6th Street Wooden Bridge - Hollenbeck Park, Los Angeles, demolished 1968
Benjamin Franklin Library
Brooklyn Theatre
Johnson's Market (now a Vallarta Supermarkets location)
Big Buy Market

Politics

Sheldon Andelson
Sheldon Andelson
Sheldon Andelson was a higher education administrator and a political fund-raiser.-Biography:Sheldon Andelson was born in Boyle Heights. He was the first openly gay University of California Regent. Andelson was appointed to the Board of Regents by Governor Jerry Brown in 1980, and served until...

, first openly gay person to be appointed to the University of California Regents or any high position in state government
Paul Bannai
Paul Bannai
Paul T. Bannai is an American politician who was the first Japanese American to ever serve in the California State Legislature...

, first Japanese American
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...

to serve in the California State Legislature
Howard E. Dorsey
Howard E. Dorsey
Howard E. Dorsey was a hydraulic engineer who was a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council in 1937. He was the only City Council member since at least 1925 to die in office from accidental death — in his case, a traffic mishap — and the member to have served the fewest number of days...

, City Council member, 1937
Jose Huizar
José Huizar
José Luis Huizar is an American elected official and a member of the Los Angeles City Council representing District 14. He was elected on November 8, 2005 in a special election to fill the seat vacated by current Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and was reelected to a full four-year term in...

, Democratic politician
Nativo Lopez
Nativo Lopez
Nativo Lopez-Vigil is a Chicano political leader and immigrant rights activist in Southern California. Lopez is the president of the Mexican American Political Association and the national director of the Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana , a community service and advocacy organization for...

, immigrant rights activist
George Nakano
George Nakano
George Nakano served as a California State Assemblyman from 1998 until 2004. During his time in the Assembly, Nakano was chosen to serve as the chairman of the Democratic caucus. In 2006, Nakano sought the State Senate seat of his Assembly predecessor, Debra Bowen, who was running for the...

, California State Assemblyman, First Japanese to serve in the City of Torrance City Council
Julian Nava
Julian Nava
Julian Nava is an American educator and diplomat.Nava was born to Mexican immigrants in 1927 and is one of 8 children in Los Angeles, California. Nava grew up in the barrio of East L.A. In 1945, he volunteered for the Air Corps of the United States Navy...

, first Mexican-American to serve in the L.A.U.S.D
Eugene A. Obregon
Eugene A. Obregon
Eugene Arnold Obregon was a United States Marine who was posthumously awarded the United States' highest military decoration for valor — the Medal of Honor — for sacrificing his life to save that of a wounded comrade during the Second Battle of Seoul...

, Korean War Medal of Honor recipient

Nick Pacheco
Nick Pacheco
Lauro "Nick" Pacheco, Jr. is an American attorney, politician, and a member of the Democratic Party. Pacheco served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council . Prior to serving on the Los Angeles City Council, Nick Pacheco served as an Elected Charter Reform Commissioner for the same district...

, Democratic politician
Judge Harry Pregerson
Harry Pregerson
Harry Pregerson serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He was appointed to the Ninth Circuit in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter...

, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Edward R. Roybal
Edward R. Roybal
Edward Ross "Ed" Roybal was a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council for thirteen years and of the U.S. House of Representatives for thirty years.-Biography:...

, Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives for the 30th District and later for the 25th District of California; member of the Los Angeles City Council
Lucille Roybal-Allard, United States House of Representatives, 34th District.
Winfred J. Sanborn
Winfred J. Sanborn
Winfred Joseph Sanborn. known as Winfred J. Sanborn, was on the Los Angeles City Council under an at-large election system from 1919 until a new city charter was adopted in 1925, when representation was changed to a fifteen-district system. Sanborn served the new Ninth District from 1925 until...

, City Council member, 1925–29
Catherine Sandoval
Catherine Sandoval
Catherine J.K. Sandoval is the first Hispanic commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission. Sandoval is a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law...

, first Latina Rhodes scholar, professor of law, California Public Utilities Commissioner
Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa , born Antonio Ramón Villar, Jr., is the 41st and current Mayor of Los Angeles, California, the third Mexican American to have ever held office in the city of Los Angeles and the first in over 130 years. He is also the current president of the United States Conference of...

, Mayor of Los Angeles
Zev Yaroslavsky
Zev Yaroslavsky
Zev Yaroslavsky is a Los Angeles County politician. He served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 until 1994, when he was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He was preceded in both offices by Edmund D...

, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 3rd District

Sports

Art Aragon
Art Aragon
Arthur Benjamin Aragon was an Mexican-American boxer in the lightweight from New Mexico.-Early and later life:...

, lightweight boxer
Sam Balter
Sam Balter
Samuel "Sam" Balter, Jr. was an American basketball player.-Career:He competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics...

, 1936 Olympic Gold Medal in basketball
Willie Davis, "Fastest Man in Baseball," Dodgers
Mike Garrett
Mike Garrett
Michael Lockett Garrett is a former American collegiate and professional football player who won the 1965 Heisman Trophy as a tailback for the University of Southern California Trojans. Garrett also played professional football for eight seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers...

, Two-time All-American for USC and Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...

winner, 1965
Joe Gold
Joe Gold
Joe Gold was the founder of Gold's Gym and World Gym...

, bodybuilder and founder of Gold's Gym
Gold's Gym
Gold's Gym International, Inc. is an international chain of co-ed fitness centers originally started in California by Joe Gold. Each gym features a wide array of exercise equipment, group exercise classes and personal trainers to assist clients...
Paul Gonzales
Paul Gonzales
Paul Garza Gonzales was a Mexican American boxer, who won the light flyweight gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics.-Amateur career:...

, first Mexican American to win a Gold Medal, in the 1984 Olympics, in boxing
Pancho Gonzales
Pancho Gonzales
Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...

, first Mexican American to win 1940s World Tennis Championship
Ricky Romero, baseball player, Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball 's American League ....
Donald Sterling
Donald Sterling
Donald T. Sterling is an American real estate mogul, attorney, and the owner of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Clippers. Sterling acquired the Clippers in 1981 for $12.5 million, and as of the 2008 rankings, the team is valued at $297 million by Forbes magazine, ranking them...

, Los Angeles Clippers owner (he lived in the neighborhood as a child)

Entertainment

Josefina Lopez
Josefina Lopez
Josefina Lopez is a Chicana playwright, perhaps best known as the author of the play Real Women Have Curves.-Early life:...

, writer (Real Women Have Curves
Real Women Have Curves
Real Women Have Curves is a 2002 American movie starring America Ferrera. Directed by Patricia Cardoso and produced by George LaVoo from a screenplay by LaVoo and Josefina Lopez , it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award in addition to Special Jury Prizes for both...

)
Lew Wasserman
Lew Wasserman
Lewis Robert "Lew" Wasserman was an American talent agent and studio executive, sometimes credited with creating and later taking apart the studio system in a career spanning more than six decades...

, Hollywood agent and studio executive
Don Tosti
Don Tosti
DonTosti was an American musician and composer.Born in El Paso, Texas, Tosti forged a career spanning several decades and styles, from classical to jazz and rhythm and blues. He was best remembered for his Pachuco-style compositions like the hit "Pachuco Boogie"...

, musician and composer
Lou Adler
Lou Adler
Lou Adler is an American record producer, manager, and director.-Life and career:Adler was born in Chicago, Illinois in December 1933, and raised in East Los Angeles. In 1964, Adler founded and co-owned Dunhill Records. He was President of the label as well as the chief record producer from 1964...

, record company owner, producer, manager, and director
will.i.am
Will.i.am
William James Adams, Jr. , better known by his stage name will.i.am and occasionally by his other stage name Zuper Blahq, is an American rapper, musician, songwriter, singer, actor and producer...

, Grammy-winning producer and member of the Black Eyed Peas
Taboo (rapper)
Taboo (rapper)
Jaime Luis Gómez , better known by his stage name Taboo, is an American singer, actor, and rapper best known as a member of the group The Black Eyed Peas.-Personal life:...

, member of The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...

Arts and literature

Rodolfo Acuña
Rodolfo Acuña
Rodolfo Francisco Acuña, Ph.D., is an historian, professor emeritus, and one of various scholars of Chicano studies, which he teaches at California State University, Northridge. He is the author of Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, which approaches the history of the Southwestern United...

historian, writer, professor
Jack Chick
Jack Chick
Jack Thomas Chick is an American publisher, writer, and comic book artist of fundamentalist Christian tracts and comic books...

, religious cartoonist
Fabian Debora aka Spade
Spade
A spade is a tool designed primarily for the purpose of digging or removing earth. Early spades were made of riven wood. After the art of metalworking was discovered, spades were made with sharper tips of metal. Before the advent of metal spades manual labor was less efficient at moving earth,...

, artist
Jack Chick
Jack Chick
Jack Thomas Chick is an American publisher, writer, and comic book artist of fundamentalist Christian tracts and comic books...

, religious cartoonist
Isamu Noguchi
Isamu Noguchi
was a prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public works, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces,...

, landscape architect
Harry Gamboa, Jr.
Harry Gamboa, Jr.
Harry Gamboa Jr. is a Chicano essayist, photographer, director and performance artist. He was a founding member of the influential Chicano performance art collective ASCO.-Biography:...

, artist
Daniel Ramos
Daniel Ramos
Daniel "Chaka" Ramos in Los Angeles, California was one of the most prolific Graffiti Taggers of the late 20th century. CHAKA tags were widespread, from Orange County on up to San Francisco....

aka "CHAKA", graffiti tagger

History

Father Greg Boyle, S.J. founder of Homeboy Industries
Homeboy Industries
Homeboy Industries is a youth program founded in 1992 by Father Greg Boyle, S.J. following the work of the Christian base communities at Dolores Mission Church...
Julius Shulman
Julius Shulman
Julius Shulman was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as The Stahl House. Shulman's photography spread California Mid-century modern around the world...

, architectural photographer
Architectural photographers
Early architectural photographers include Roger Fenton, Francis Frith , Samuel Bourne and Albert Levy . They paved the way for the modern speciality of architectural photography. Later architectural photography had practitioners such as Ezra Stoller and Julius Shulman...
Harold M. Williams
Harold M. Williams
Harold Marvin Williams served as chairman of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission between 1977 and 1981. Attorney, Business Executive, Educator, Government Administrator, visionary, builder only begin to describe Harold Williams...

, dean emeritus of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and creator of the Getty Center
Getty Center
The Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, is a campus for cultural institutions founded by oilman J. Paul Getty. The $1.3 billion center, which opened on December 16, 1997, is also well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles...
Fred Okrand (attorney) First Legal Director of American Civil Liberities Union - Southern California

External links

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Paredon Blanco, The Boyle/Workman families, and the origins of Boyle Heights

Breed Street Shul

The Flats

Geography and transportation

"All roads lead to Boyle Heights"

The Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension

Demographics

Government and infrastructure

Elementary

Middle schools

High schools

Private schools

College, universities and trade schools

Landmarks

Demolished landmarks

Politics

Sports

Entertainment

Arts and literature

History

See also

External links