Boyle Heights Historical Society Advisory Board member and frequent contributor to this blog, Rudy Martinez, put together a fascinating multi-part post a little over two years ago on the 1920s silent film Lotus Blossom, the first Chinese-American movie and which was filmed in Boyle Heights. After Rudy’s post was published, contact was made by Dr.…
All posts by Paul Spitzzeri
Boris Deutsch: Modernist Artist in Boyle Heights in the 1920s
Here are excerpts from a Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum blog post about Boris Deutsch, an artist in Los Angeles, who was best known during the 1930s and 1940s. From his arrival in the city in 1919 until the early 1930s, he lived in Boyle Heights. S. Boris Deutsch (1892-1978) was a modernist artist…
A January 1923 issue of “The Siren” from Boyle Heights Junior High
Here are excerpts from a post on the blog of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, which has several issues of The Siren, the school newspaper of Boyle Heights Junior High, soon renamed Hollenbeck Junior High, from the 1922-23 school year. A couple of issues of the paper have been highlighted on the Boyle…
Historic Photos of Boyle Heights: Fleishman’s Cafe, ca. 1920s
The third photo purchased from Roger LeRoque, a local collectibles dealer, of rare Boyle Heights images is this one of a cafe, identified as Fleishmans, located on Brooklyn (now César Chávez) Avenue at Soto Street. This simple place has about fifteen stools along an L-shaped counter and a very compact cooking space. Three employees, two…
Historic Photos of Boyle Heights: A Store and Soda Fountain, 1916
This is the second in a series of historic photographs of Boyle Heights purchased from Roger LeRoque, a local collectibles dealer whose family resided in the neighborhood in the early to mid 1900s. Today’s image is a real photo postcard of what is described on inscriptions on the reverse as Klingenstein’s, a store that sold…
Historic Photos of Boyle Heights: Neuman Brothers Saloon, ca. 1910s
It’s been far too long since the last post, but here’s a great old photo of what was described in an inscription on the back as the Neuman Brothers saloon in Boyle Heights. Update, 25 August: The reverse of the card lists an address of 1248 E. 4th Street at or near State Street, though…
“The Siren”: Boyle Heights Junior High School Newspaper, Issue #2
A previous post covered the first issue of The Siren, the school newspaper of Boyle Heights Junior High, soon renamed Hollenbeck Junior High. The second issue, published on 26 October 1922, had a number of interesting components, some of which might be found in a similar publication today. One was a short front-age commentary by student…
Historic Photos of Boyle Heights: Los Angeles Cable Railway Construction, 1889
Here are a couple of really cool photographs showing the construction of the Los Angeles Cable Railway along First Street in Boyle Heights sometime in 1889.
Fred Sands and Daniel Thompson: Boyle Heights Figures Who Made History
This week the Los Angeles Times included an obituary of Fred C. Sands, who was one of the most successful real estate tycoons in Los Angeles (another more colorful figure in that word also from Boyle Heights is Donald Sterling.) Sands, who was born in New York, moved to Boyle Heights at age 7 in 1945 and…
The Forsyth Memorial School for Girls/Evergreen Hostel
Sitting at the corner of Evergreen and Folsom streets in Boyle Heights is a 1914 Mission Revival structure that has recently been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. The facility was originally the Forsyth Memorial School for Girls, an institution established by the local Presbyterian Church as a facility to “Americanize” Latinas. The…