Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
18
which 34 people w ere killed and mor e
than 1,000 w ere injured. Today, a visit to
the
Watts Towers & Art Center
is a lesson
in inner-city life. Watts is a high-density
land of gray strip malls, w ell-guarded
check-cashing shops, and fast-food restau-
rants; but it 's also a neighborhood of
hardworking families struggling to survive
in the midst of gangland. Although there's
not much for the casual tourist her e, the
Watts Towers are truly a unique attraction,
and the adjoining art gallery illustrates the
fierce determination of ar ea r esidents to
maintain cultural integrity.
The Towers—the largest piece of folk
art created by a single person—ar e color-
ful, 99-foot-tall cement and steel sculp-
tures ornamented with mosaics of bottles,
seashells, cups, plates, pottery, and ceramic
tiles. They were completed in 1955 by folk
artist Simon Rodia, an immigrant I talian
tile-setter who wor ked on them for 33
years in his spare time. Closed in 1994 due
to ear thquake damage, the to wers w ere
reopened in 2001 and no w attract mor e
than 20,000 visitors annually. Tours are by
request.
PASADENA & ENVIRONS
The two-
story
Gamble House,
built in 1908 as a
California vacation home for the w ealthy
family of P rocter & G amble fame, is a
sublime example of Ar ts and Crafts archi-
tecture. The interior , designed b y the
famous Pasadena-based Greene & Greene
architectural team, abounds with hand-
craftsmanship, including intricately carved
teak cornices, custom-designed furnish-
ings, elaborate carpets, and a fantastic
Tiffany glass door.
Additional elegant G reene & G reene
houses (still priv ately o wned) abound 2
blocks away along
Arroyo Terrace,
includ-
ing nos.
368, 370, 400, 408, 424,
and
440.
The G amble H ouse bookstor e can
give y ou a walking-tour map and also
conducts guided neighborhood tours b
In the late 18th centur y, F ranciscan
missionaries established 21 missions up
the California coast, fr om S an D iego to
Sonoma. Each uniquely beautiful mission
was built 1 day's trek from the next, along
a path kno wn as E l Camino R eal (“ the
Royal R oad”), r emnants of which still
exist. The missions' constr uction mar ked
the beginning of E uropean settlement of
California and the displacement of the
Native American population. The two
L.A.-area missions ar e located in the v al-
leys that took their names: the S an F er-
nando Valley and the San Gabriel Valley. A
third mission, S an J uan Capistrano, is
located in Orange County.
Established in 1797,
Mission San Fer-
nando
once contr olled mor e than 1
1
/
2
million acr es, emplo yed 1,500 N ative
Americans, and boasted more than 22,000
head of cattle and extensiv e orchards. The
fragile adobe mission complex was
2
destroyed sev eral times but was always
faithfully r ebuilt with lo w buildings sur-
rounding grassy cour tyards. The aging
church was r eplaced in the 1940s and
again in the 1970s after an ear thquake.
The
Convento,
a 250-foot-long colon-
naded str ucture dating fr om 1810, is the
compound's oldest r emaining building.
Some of the mission 's r ooms, including
the old library and the private salon of the
first bishop of California, hav e been
restored to their late-18th-century appear-
ance. A half-dozen padres and many hun-
dreds of S hoshone I ndians ar e buried in
the adjacent cemetery.
Founded in 1771,
Mission San Gabriel
Arcangel
retains its original facade, nota-
ble for its high oblong windo ws and large
capped buttresses said to hav e been influ-
enced by the cathedral in Cordova, Spain.
The mission 's self-contained compound
encompasses an aqueduct, a cemeter y, a
tannery, and a working winery. Within the
church stands a copper font with the dis-
tinction of being the first one used to
y
appointment.
