Baldwin Hills is a neighborhood within the
South Los Angeles region of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, California. It is home to
Kenneth Hahn State Regional Park and to
Village Green, a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
.
History
![St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/St._Agatha_Catholic_Church%2C_Los_Angeles.JPG)
19th century
Baldwin Hills and other surrounding geography are named for the 19th century horse racing and land developer,
Lucky Baldwin
Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin (April 3, 1828 – March 1, 1909) was "one of the greatest pioneers" of California business, an investor, and real estate speculator during the second half of the 19th century. He earned the nickname "Lucky" Baldwin d ...
.
* Ran historic early 19th century eastern hills
Rancho land grant.
** Sanchez Adobe de
Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera
Rancho or Ranchos may refer to:
Settlements and communities
*Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad
* Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California
**List of California Ranchos
*Ranchos, Buenos A ...
. The
adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
was once the center of the rancho. In the 1920s, an addition was built linking the structures and the building was converted into a larger clubhouse for the Sunset Golf Course.
*
Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes
Rancho or Ranchos may refer to:
Settlements and communities
*Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad
* Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California
**List of California Ranchos
*Ranchos, Buenos A ...
: original early 19th century western section Rancho land grant.
20th century
* The 1932 Los Angeles Olympics housed athletes at the Olympic Village in Baldwin Hills. It was the site of the very first
Olympic Village
An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials and athletic trainers. Afte ...
ever built, for the
1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. Built for male athletes only, the village consisted of several hundred buildings, including post and
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
offices, an
amphitheater
An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
, a hospital, a fire department, and a bank. Female athletes were housed at the
Chapman Park Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard. The Olympic Village was demolished after the
Summer Olympic Games
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
.
* On December 14, 1963, a crack appeared in the Baldwin Hills Dam impounding the
Baldwin Hills Reservoir
Baldwin is a Germanic name, composed of the elements ''bald'' "bold" and ''win'' "friend".
People
* Baldwin (name)
Places Canada
* Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario
* Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District
* Baldwin's Mills, Qu ...
. Within a few hours, water rushing through the crack eroded the earthen dam, gradually widening the crack until the dam failed catastrophically at 3:38 p.m. When the crack was discovered, police with bullhorns urged the evacuation of the area, but six people were killed.
Two hundred homes were completely wiped out, and an additional 1500 to 2000 houses and apartment buildings were damaged,
and most of Baldwin Vista and the historic Village Green community were flooded. The dam's failure was ultimately determined to be the result of
subsidence
Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope move ...
, caused by
overexploitation
Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term app ...
of the
Inglewood Oil Field
The Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles County, California, is the 18th-largest oil field in the state and the second-most productive in the Los Angeles Basin. Discovered in 1924 and in continuous production ever since, in 2012 it produced approxim ...
. The dam's failure prompted the
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to close and drain other small local reservoirs with similar designs, such as the
Silver Lake Reservoir. The Baldwin Hills Dam was not rebuilt—instead, the empty reservoir was demolished, filled with earth, landscaped, and converted to
Kenneth Hahn Regional Park.
* During the summer of 1985, a brush fire along
La Brea Avenue spread up the canyon towards the homes along
Don Carlos
''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Friedri ...
Drive in Baldwin Hills Estates. Many homes were destroyed despite the efforts of the
Los Angeles Fire Department to suppress the flames. The fire killed three people and destroyed 69 homes;
[Pollard-Terry, Gayle (October 29, 2006). . Neighborly Advice. '']Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''. p. K2. the arsonist was never caught.
Geography
Baldwin Hills is bounded by
La Cienega Boulevard to the west,
Crenshaw Boulevard
Crenshaw Boulevard is a north-south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, that runs through Crenshaw and other neighborhoods along a 23-mile (37.76 km) route in the west-central part of the city.
The street extends between Wilshire Boulevar ...
to the east, Stocker Street to the south and
Obama Boulevard to the north with
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard forming the northeast dividing line between Baldwin Hills and
Crenshaw Manor. It is bordered on the west by
Culver City
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...
and it shares the eastern border of Crenshaw Boulevard with
Leimert Park
Leimert Park (; ) is a neighborhood in the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California.
Developed in the 1920s as a mainly residential community, it features Spanish Colonial Revival homes and tree-lined streets. The Life Magazine/Lei ...
.
The
namesake mountain range is part of the neighborhood.
Neighborhoods
![Baldwin Hills Village, Landmark Plaque](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Baldwin_Hills_Village%2C_Landmark_Plaque.jpg)
Neighborhoods within Baldwin Hills include:
* Baldwin Hills Estates is locally known as "
The Dons", because all but one street begins with the formal title of the city’s original land holders. The oldest two streets in the neighborhood are Don Luis Drive and Don Mariano Drive. Old maps show those streets with the names Sprague Drive and Maryann Drive.
Susan Miller Dorsey High School has called its school mascot ''The Dorsey Dons and Donnas'' after this neighborhood. The neighborhood is east of La Brea, southwest of Santo Tomas Drive, south of the Jim Gilliam Recreation Center and north of
Stocker Street). It is sometimes called "the Black
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...
". The neighborhood is characterized by hillside houses with
swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...
s, and modern
condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
s (the latter often jut out from steep hillsides, perched on stilts).
*
Baldwin Vista is bounded by La Cienega Boulevard to the West, La Brea Avenue to the East, Coliseum Street to the North, and Kenneth Hahn Park to the South.
*
Village Green, originally named Baldwin Hills Village, is located north of Baldwin Vista. It is a historic
Mid-Century modern "
garden city" developed by Walter H. Leimert (1877–1970)
multi-family residential. It was designated as a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 2001. The units are now
condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
s on very spacious grounds, attracting seniors, young families, and design
professionals
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...
as residents.
*
Baldwin Village
Baldwin Village is a commercial enclave in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the west of downtown Toronto, within the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood, one block north of Dundas Street, Dundas Street West, between ...
- In 1988, Baldwin Village became be a distinct community in the city’s General Plan, and signs were to be posted to identify the area. It is bounded by La Brea Avenue, Marlton Avenue, Rodeo Road, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Santo Thomas Drive.
* The southernmost portion of Baldwin Hills is outside the
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
city limits. Along with
View Park-Windsor Hills
A view is a sight or prospect or the ability to see or be seen from a particular place.
View, views or Views may also refer to:
Common meanings
* View (Buddhism), a charged interpretation of experience which intensely shapes and affects thou ...
and
Ladera Heights
Ladera Heights is a community and unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 6,634 at the 2020 census. Culver City lies to its west, the Baldwin Hills neighborhood to its north, the View Park-Windsor Hills commu ...
, it resides in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County. Stocker Street divides Baldwin Hills from the View Park neighborhood. The northeast face of the hills overlooks the
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza shopping mall and
Marlton Square
Marlton Square is a one-block medical facility, retail and residential portion of Marlton Ave, located in the Baldwin Village neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California. It is bordered by Martin Luther King Jr Blvd on the north, Marlto ...
's
Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...
medical
office building
An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...
.
According to the
Mapping L.A. Mapping L.A. is a project of the ''Los Angeles Times'', beginning in 2009, to draw boundary lines for 158 cities and unincorporated places within Los Angeles County, California. It identified 114 neighborhoods within the City of Los Angeles and 42 ...
project, Baldwin Hills is part of the larger neighborhood of
Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw.
Climate
Parks and recreation
![Mountain view from Baldwin Hills](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Mountain_view_from_Baldwin_Hills.jpg)
* Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is located at 6300 Hetzler Road in Culver City, CA. The park is open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset. The Visitor Center is not currently open. The park includes an amphitheater, drinking water, the Evan Frankel Discovery Center, gardening boxes, picnic tables, a permeable parking lot ($6), toilets, and walking paths with a central feature known as the
Culver City Stairs
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is a California State Park is located just southwest of downtown Culver City. To some Los Angeles area residents, the site is more commonly known as the Culver City Stairs. This outdoor staircase is designed into ...
. The Visitor Center has a comprehensive guide to the native plants of the area and history of Culver City. On a clear day the Overlook's platform offers exceptional views spanning the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
to the west, the
Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign is an American landmark and cultural icon overlooking Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Originally the Hollywoodland Sign, it is situated on Mount Lee, in the Beachwood Canyon area of the Santa Monica Mountains. Spelling ...
to the north, and downtown Los Angeles to the east.
*
Kenneth Hahn State Regional Park is located at 4100 South La Cienega Boulevard. It is a 401 acre recreation and sports area.
* Norman O Houston Park: is located at 4800 South La Brea Avenue.
*
Jim Gilliam
James William "Junior" Gilliam (October 17, 1928 – October 8, 1978) was an American second baseman, third baseman, and coach in Negro league and Major League Baseball who spent his entire major league career with the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dod ...
Park & Recreation Center is located at 4000 South La Brea Avenue. It is home to the Jim Gilliam Senior Citizen Center
Library
The
Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, it serves the large ...
operates the Baldwin Hills Branch Library. It is located at 2900 La Brea Avenue.
Education
![D-House](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/D-House.jpg)
Baldwin Hills is served by
Los Angeles Unified School District
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...
. Baldwin Hills also has a charter school.
[ The schools operating within Baldwin Hills borders are:
* Baldwin Hills Elementary School
* Audubon Middle School
* Susan Miller Dorsey High School
* Windsor Math/Science/Aerospace Magnet (''K–5, zoned only for Kindergarten'')
* Hillcrest Drive Elementary School.
* ]Marlton School
Marlton School is a KG–12 public special school for the deaf and hard of hearing students in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was established in 1968 and is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
It offers a bilingual pr ...
* New Designs Charter School
In popular culture
Television
From 2007 to 2009, BET
Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...
aired ''Baldwin Hills Baldwin Hills may refer to:
Places
* Baldwin Hills (mountain range), Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
* Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California, U.S.
* Baldwin Village, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in South Lo ...
'', a program featuring several African-American teenagers and their lives in the upper-class Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
community.
The show is very similar in nature to such MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
programs as '' Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County'', '' The Hills'', and the online series ''The Suburbs'', as it features African-Americans of upper-middle-class families who divide their time between attending school, playing sports, shopping at high-end stores, and driving expensive cars. The series lasted for three seasons.
Literature
Orson Scott Card's urban fantasy novel ''Magic Street
''Magic Street'' (2005) is an urban fantasy novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. This book follows the magical events in the Baldwin Hills section of contemporary Los Angeles, including the life of protagonist Mack Street, his foster broth ...
'' is set in Baldwin Hills.
Notable residents
* Tom Bradley
* Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...
* David S. Cunningham Jr.
David Surmier Cunningham Jr. (June 24, 1935 – November 15, 2017) was a business executive who was elected to the Los Angeles City Council to replace Tom Bradley, who had been elected mayor that year. He represented the 10th district until 1987, ...
* Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, Elfman has garnered internation ...
* Allyson Felix
Allyson Michelle Felix (born November 18, 1985) is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters. She specialized in the 200 meters from 2003 to 2013, then gradually shifted to the 400 me ...
* Michael J. Fox
Michael Andrew Fox (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American retired actor. Beginning his career in the 1970s, he rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom ''Family Ties'' (1 ...
* Mike Love
Michael Edward Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal tenor and occasional bass-bari ...
* Jimmy Pardo
* Susan Rasky
Susan Rasky (June 10, 1952 – December 29, 2013) was an American university educator and political journalist for the New York Times. She won the George Polk Award for her coverage of Capitol Hill in 1991.
Early life and education
Sus ...
* John Singleton
John Daniel Singleton (January 6, 1968 April 28, 2019) was an American director, screenwriter, and producer. He made his feature film debut writing and directing ''Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...
* Bubba Smith
* Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer o ...
* Paul Williams
* Nancy Wilson
* Cal Worthington
* Jim Gilliam
James William "Junior" Gilliam (October 17, 1928 – October 8, 1978) was an American second baseman, third baseman, and coach in Negro league and Major League Baseball who spent his entire major league career with the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dod ...
* Ice Cube
An ice cube is a small piece of ice, which is typically rectangular as viewed from above and trapezoidal as viewed from the side. Ice cubes are products of mechanical refrigeration and are usually produced to cool beverages. They may be produc ...
See also
* Village Green, Los Angeles
Village Green, originally named Baldwin Hills Village, is a neighborhood at the foot of Baldwin Hills (mountain range), Baldwin Hills, within the city of Los Angeles, California. Village Green consists of a large condominium complex that is both ...
References
External links
Baldwin Hills Estates Homeowners Association website
Friends of the Baldwin Hills website
The Baldwin Hills Conservancy website
Official Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area website
lacounty.info: Kenneth Hahn Recreation Area
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook Park website
Village Green website
Village Green: historic architecture article
* ttp://www.stanford.edu/~meehan/la/baldwin.htm Baldwin Hills Dam history
University Park Family
a collaborative online community: focused on University Park, Expo Park and the surrounding areas.
Leimert Park Beat
a collaborative online community focused on Leimert Park: "The Soul of Los Angeles and the African American cultural center of the city."
{{Authority control
Neighborhoods in Los Angeles
Baldwin Hills (mountain range)
Crenshaw, Los Angeles
South Los Angeles
Venues of the 1932 Summer Olympics
Olympic Villages