Lincoln Heights: LA's Oldest Suburb
Lincoln Park, one of Los Angeles' first parks
LINCOLN HEIGHTS’ RICH HISTORY MIRRORS THE DYNAMIC SPIRIT AND DIVERSITY OF LOS ANGELES
Lincoln Heights is one of Los Angeles’ oldest communities and its first suburb. Its earliest inhabitants were the indigenous Tongva and Hokan-speaking peoples, who called the land home before the arrival of the Spanish in 1769. Over the course of the following century, the region would evolve with the founding of Los Angeles (1781), Mexico’s declaration of independence (1821), and California officially becoming a part of the United States (1848).
Luna Park Zoo, via Homestead Museum
El Milagro Market, via Curbed LA
The current Lincoln Heights neighborhood was founded in 1873 by Dr. John Strother Griffin, the city’s health inspector and county coroner who’d purchased the 2,000 acre parcel in 1863. The Smallpox-beleaguered city had offered it to him at the reduced price of fifty cents an acre in lieu of his $3000 a year salary.
Griffin saw an opportunity. He and his nephew, Hancock Johnston, devised a plan to divide up the former cattle and sheep ranch into inviting lots appropriate for single family homes that would attract the middle and working class citizens who toiled at the growing industries along the Los Angeles River. They piped in water and founded one of the region’s first horse-drawn streetcar lines. This history survives in the streets named after them: Johnston Street, Griffin Avenue, and Hancock Street. Originally christened East Los Angeles, in 1917 the area’s residents voted to change the name to Lincoln Heights.
In its earliest years many of the residents were of English and Irish descent. German immigrants, many of whom worked as bakers — Mrs. Cubbison’s is one remnant of their stay — followed in the 1890s. French and Italian immigrants brought winemaking here; The San Antonio Winery, founded in 1917, still stands today. Mexicans, fleeing the violence of the Mexican Revolution, joined them.
Though originally conceived of as a bedroom community, the neighborhood soon boasted plenty of local work and industry. Los Angeles County General Hospital opened its doors in 1878 (many of its staff came from the nearby Keck School of Medicine of USC founded in 1885). The Southern Pacific Railroad relocated its rail yards here in 1902 (the Albion Cottages and El Milagro Market were built in 1875 to house the line’s construction workers), setting aside a portion of the land as a park. Originally named East Los Angeles Park, it was later rechristened East Lake Park before being renamed Lincoln Park in 1917. The Los Angeles Ostrich Farm opened here in 1906; the Los Angeles Alligator Farm opened next door in 1907. These animals formed the exotic backdrop to the films made by The Selig Polyscope Co., which brought the nascent movie industry here in 1914. (Film director Frank Capra, born Francesco Rosario Capra, grew up on South 18th Avenue). Al Capone was also a resident of the Lincoln Heights Jail, which was constructed in 1927.
Lincoln Heights Jail via Curbed LA
In 1968, Lincoln High School would become a significant focal point for the East Los Angeles Walkouts, the largest mobilization of Chicano youth leaders in Los Angeles history, and "the first major mass protest against racism undertaken by Mexican-Americans in the history of the United States” (Erika Suderberg). Also known as the "Blowouts," the movement for civil rights and educational reform addressed the prejudice and bigotry by the LAUSD administration, faculty, staff, and curriculum towards the Latinx community. On March 1, 1968, thousands of students, faculty, and staff walked out of local high schools to demand an equal, qualitative, and culturally relevant education. Their efforts resulted in the hiring of more Latinx teachers, the passing of Proposition 227 (which introduced a Structured English Immersion model), and empowerment of the East LA community.
Photo Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library
Photo Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library
Photo Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library
Today, Lincoln Heights is a quintessential LA neighborhood whose diversity and eclectic character reflects all the things that makes Los Angeles such an incredible city. From grand Victorian-style homes built by early residents to simple clapboard cottages, industrial warehouses, factories, and even some backyard farms, Lincoln Heights is an urban neighborhood that is constantly changing and redefining itself with the times.
That includes an increased focus on parks, gardens and outdoor recreational areas designed to address the area’s environmental hazards and the health of its residents as part of the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan and the LA River Revitalization Plan. The 10.5 acre Albion Riverside Park adjacent to the Downey Park and Recreation Center, which opened in the spring of 2019, is one result of these efforts. Future projects include “Bending The River Back Into the City”, a functional water wheel, conceived by environmental artist Lauren Bon of Metabolic Studio, with the purpose of rendering the LA River’s water fit for irrigation and recreation.
Lincoln Heights is bordered on the north by Cypress Park and Montecito Heights, on the east by El Sereno, on the south by Boyle Heights, and on the west by the LA River, Chinatown, and Elysian Park.