Oakwood and the “Racing of Space” in Venice
Trudi Sandmeier 0:00
Today on Save As, join us as we explore a Black enclave in one of LA’s trendiest and most controversial neighborhood in Venice, California.
Cindy Olnick 0:17
Hello, and welcome to Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation. I’m Cindy Olnick.
Trudi Sandmeier 0:24
And I’m Trudi Sandmeier.
Cindy Olnick 0:26
And we are delighted that you are with us here today for a very interesting conversation with a repeat guest.
Trudi Sandmeier 0:34
We’ve been on the air long enough to have someone who has come back. That’s amazing.
Cindy Olnick 0:40
Yeah, we’re talking with Rita Cofield about her thesis that she recently completed on the neighborhood of Oakwood in Venice.
Trudi Sandmeier 0:50
Rita took her time and really dug into the stories of the neighborhood. She did interviews with folks from Oakwood, current residents and local historians to try to really understand the story of this place.
Cindy Olnick 1:05
Venice is one of those places that has so many images and perceptions and stereotypes around it, that there’s a lot of overlooked stories. And I think this is a great chance to sort of get the real story behind a really, really important part of the area’s history. And, you know, going back to, to the founding families, and you know, all the development that happened and what these families went through, just to build a home.
Trudi Sandmeier 1:37
I think if you didn’t know that much about Venice, which certainly was the case for me until relatively recently, your impression might be about the boardwalk or about Muscle Beach or the canals; you know, the sort of glamorous postcard history of Venice. But it’s a place that has this really complicated and complex history. That includes issues of environmental justice, and issues of social justice and economic disparity, and all kinds of things that are tied up into the history of this community that go back to its very founding.
Cindy Olnick 2:13
Alright, well, let’s take a listen to producer Willa Seidenberg talking with Rita Cofield.
Rita Cofield 2:22
My name is Rita Cofield, and the title of my thesis is Oakwood: Exploring the Tangible and Intangible Resources of a Black Ethnic Enclave in Venice, California, early 1900s through the 1960s.
Willa Seidenberg 2:36
Thank you, Rita for being here, and welcome to the Save As podcast again.
Rita Cofield 2:42
Thank you for having me.
Willa Seidenberg 2:44
What drew you to doing your thesis on the Oakwood section of Venice?
Rita Cofield 2:48
A huge influence in the direction of my thesis came from my chair at the time Professor Kevin Starr. He told me to relax and just read up on things that I enjoyed and a thesis topic would kind of reveal itself. And I went through at least a half a dozen topics before landing on Oakwood, but I knew I wanted to do something on the African American community. So there’s this quote, in a book that was called invitation to vernacular architecture. The quote went something like, “the larger landscape is often organized by race and ethnicity through self or legislated segregation.” I was like, huh. And I found out that California had enacted like 17 Jim Crow laws, after the era of reconstruction, that were specifically designed to separate the different races in matters of marriage, employment and housing. And so that led me down a path of trying to answer what, like overt physical evidences existed in Southern California, particularly in Los Angeles, that told the story of this self or legislated segregation. When I learned that restrictive covenants on property deeds burden about, I think, is that 80% of the property in Chicago and Los Angeles in the 1940s, I was like, yeah, I’m sticking with this topic. So I wanted to find out what the remaining 20% of those properties, where they were and what they look like. So I read about a couple of Black enclaves in Southern California that grew tucked away with an all white communities. There was a Black community of servants that served the wealthy suburb of Pasadena. There’s a Black community in Santa Monica that was established before Oakwood was established that had separate markets, barber shops, their own Black businesses. But I decided to focus on Oakwood as sort of a case study because there was already some information about its original Black residents. And it was also experiencing this wave of gentrification that was threatening it not just Oakwood, but all of Venice’s culture. And it was also the last remaining Black ethnic enclave along the Southern California coast.
Willa Seidenberg 4:57
So the three enclaves that were along the coast were Oakwood, Belmar and also Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach.
Rita Cofield 5:09
There would have been a fourth one. It was called the Pacific Beach Club in Huntington Beach, built in 1926. And it burned down weeks before it opened.
Willa Seidenberg 5:19
So this area of Oakwood is on the northern side of Venice. And I think if people know anything about the history of Venice, the name Abbot Kinney comes up. Can you talk a little bit about who he was and how he went about trying to establish this grand idea that he had.
Rita Cofield 5:44
He was a tobacco tycoon or magnet, his family was wealthy. And he was just this adventurous person. So Venice was founded in 1904. And Venice of America opened July 4 1905. And so he needed workers to feverishly get this thing open by the Fourth of July of the next year. So he hired workers, and some of those workers happen to be Black workers. Black people already coming into Los Angeles to work, because in 1903, the Southern Pacific Railroad had brought in almost like 2,000 black workers to break a strike, and it doubled the Black population in Los Angeles. And by 1910, Los Angeles had the the largest Black population in the West. There were a lot of Black folks in Los Angeles looking for work. And Abbot Kinney, he didn’t care what color your skin was, he was trying to get his Venice of America built. But those Black folks couldn’t find anywhere to live or to stay while digging these canals. So it was said that Abbot Kinney built his first house along the canals, and housed the Black workers because they couldn’t find anywhere to live.
Willa Seidenberg 7:08
And at that time, there were no racial covenants in that area?
Rita Cofield 7:12
There were no racial covenants in Venice. But there were racial covenants in the Santa Monica area, the Culver City area, so in the surrounding areas. That’s the interesting thing, that these ethnic enclaves did not have racial covenants in the communities, but they had them in the surrounding communities. And people used these de facto tactics to dictate where people of color or people who weren’t who were not white, where they lived. Some people did get a foothold. And with those people, like Arthur Reese, JB Fant, Arthur Reese’s cousin, like, that’s kind of how the story goes, one Black person or one person of color gets a foothold in the community. And then they sort of bring their cousins, their family, and the color starts to spread along the blocks. And that’s how it happened in Venice.
Willa Seidenberg 8:10
This might be a good time to explain a couple of the terms you use in your thesis. One is ethnic enclave.
Rita Cofield 8:18
Sure, when I use the term Black ethnic enclave, I distinguish it from immigrant enclaves. I distinguish it from all-Black enclaves or communities of colors. I use Black ethnic enclaves, to define Black communities that were created because they were hemmed in by segregation. And immigrant enclaves, these types of communities involved choice. They chose to be there so that they could get stronger, enhance their economic and social and political cultural development, and support their ethnic infrastructure. I say that Blacks in the early 20th century did not form this kind of enclave because it wasn’t a choice for them. And ethnic communities are communities that are self segregated to resist assimilation. So sort of the opposite of immigrant enclaves. And communities of color are mixed neighborhoods.
Willa Seidenberg 9:17
Another term that you use in the thesis is racing of space.
Rita Cofield 9:21
The racing of space is just a system that prevented people of color from living in establish all white or majority white communities. So the racing of space in Venice happen arbitrarily. In homeownership, you can see the racing of space in our security maps of the 1930s, the redlining. In Oakwood, you could see the pattern that folks did not want Black folks living along the canals. And so you have Black families moving north of the train tracks. There were tactics such as racial zoning, which became illegal In 1917, there were tactics like the racially restrictive covenants, and those became illegal in 1948. Still, some of the tactics that were de facto in Venice, were intimidation. There’s instances where crosses were burned on some of the Black families lawns. They used force. They used these accepted social mechanisms. Folks just knew that you weren’t supposed to cross certain streets in Oakwood. And the older people would tell the younger people do not go across Lincoln Boulevard.
Willa Seidenberg 10:36
Nobody necessarily had to say, oh, you can’t be in this neighborhood. But these tactics of intimidation, meant that the community understood where they couldn’t couldn’t go. You mentioned Arthur Reese, tell us a little bit about him, where he came from and how he got a foothold into the Venice community.
Rita Cofield 10:59
Arthur Reese, he was a Pullman Porter, and he was living in Los Angeles in 1902. And he was also operating a shoeshine stand. And Ocean Park, when he heard about this Venice of America that everyone was talking about. And Arthur Reese, he was from New Orleans, Louisiana. Arthur Reese was a businessman himself, and he was an entrepreneur and he was just sort of getting things done. So he came over to check Venice of America out because there was some potential there. Especially all this talk about, you know, the amusement pier, and the concession stands that were going to happen, and you know, people were coming in, vacationers, and a lot of opportunity to make money. So he started shining shoes and running a towel concession business on the pier, and Abbott Kinney noticed Arthur Reese, and I consider Arthur Reese and his family, like a part of the Talented Tenth that W.E.B. Du Bois talks about. And the Talented Tenth, you know, are these groups of African Americans that have these social ideals that are to boost the Black race, and Arthur Reese and his family were definitely a part of that Talented Tenth. And so Kinney was just impressed with Arthur Reese and Arthur Reese became the head of maintenance. Arthur Reese also saw that Abbot Kinney needed to hire workers for, you know, all the things that were happening in Venice. It was said that he convinced Abbot Kinney to hire the men for the janitorial work and the women to work in the hotels. Arthur Reese couldn’t convince Blacks to take advantage of this opportunity because they couldn’t find housing in Venice. Nobody would rent to them or sell to them. So that’s when Arthur Reese brought in his family, the Tabors, his cousins. And the Tabors, they all moved to Venice by 1920. So Arthur Reese’s first house he paid cash for was on Westminster Avenue, because of the help of a Jewish proxy in 1910, because nobody, again nobody would sell to him, even in Oakwood. And then once he did that, he invited his cousins. His cousins built a little small bungalow on the back of his house until they could purchase the house.
Willa Seidenberg 13:24
What struck me reading your profiles of the Reese family and the Tabor family is how much they contributed ideas and business. These were skilled craftsmen and artisans. They weren’t just laborers who were giving, you know, grunt labor to the projects.
Rita Cofield 13:47
Reese was considered the town decorator. He actually built and designed a gondola for the canals. And that was just recently almost destroyed because people forgot about it. And I believe it’s currently being restored. Reese’s granddaughter is helping to restore or making sure that that boat is restored. Reese came up with the idea of a Mardi Gras, creating floats and these papier mâché heads. So he brought culture from where he lived. Sometimes that’s one of the signs of ethnic enclaves as they bring their culture into a community and start to graft their culture into where they’re living now and with the Tabor and the Reese families, they were Louisianans. So they brought the Mardi Gras festivals to this Venice of America.
Willa Seidenberg 14:43
Tell us a little bit about the Tabor family.
Rita Cofield 14:47
The Tabor family, they were cousins of the Reeses. They purchased property for themselves and also for their families. The Tabors were more carpenters, I believe they built a few of their properties there in Venice. There is 605 through 607 Westminster Avenue are the Tabor Courts that no longer belong to the Tabor family. But I believe that Irving Tabor built one or two of those bungalow courts. They are very expensive now.
Willa Seidenberg 15:28
As is everything in Venice, yes. We often associate the ability to generate wealth to homeownership. That’s sort of been a backbone in this country for quite a while. And as your thesis makes clear, a lot of the early founding residents of the Oakwood section were able to buy property, and those got passed down to their families. And even today, we see that there are residents who have benefited from these properties that have been handed down to them.
Rita Cofield 16:06
Yeah, they’re, they’re like third and fourth generation of homeowners in Venice now. There’s a gentleman, Chester Powell, I interviewed him. His family didn’t tell me how many properties that he owned. But by the look on his face and the look on their face when they said this isn’t his only property when we were sitting in his home, I knew that he had a lot of properties. He not only put his kids through college, he put his grandkids through college. They have a lot of pride in owning and passing down their legacy of homeownership in Venice. Not all of them did, because some of them that pass down those home legacies, they are valuable, so some of them chose to sell them. And also the home prices were going up even at a time when Venice was there was drugs and gangs in Venice, and the home prices were still going up.
Willa Seidenberg 17:06
Was there anything that was unexpected for you in doing the research for this thesis?
Rita Cofield 17:14
The statistic of 20% of properties were not associated with covenants. I was like, what? This is California, how is that possible? And the underlining effects of segregation. And now we’re starting to talk more about, you know, racial equity, and how the imbalance has affected the Black homeownership and their legacy and economic stability, and all those things are affected by where you live, and by what opportunities that you’re given. And I wasn’t shocked, but I was pleasantly surprised that the early Black community and Oakwood did not take their work with Abbot Kinney for granted. And they didn’t take their skills for granted. And they did not worry about those arbitrarily racist attitudes and confinements. They just did what they needed to do. But to see such a concentration of that from those two families, and other people in Oakwood, it’s like, Oakwood was like a magnet for these amazing men and women to come live there.
Willa Seidenberg 18:36
Your thesis technically stops in the 1960s. But you know, you do write about what was happening after the 1960s. But Abbott Kenny’s dream doesn’t really come to fruition. And then it starts being seen as a slum by the sea.
Rita Cofield 18:57
After Abbot Kinney died, it sort of declined. Abbot Kinney died in 1920, and then Venice was annexed to Los Angeles. In 1925, the canals were filled in, oil wells popped up. In 1930 I think they’re like 300, and something. oil wells, all over Venice, closer to the canals. There were squatters, abandoned cottages, and the pier closed down in 1946. So it was a lack of investment on the part of the city. You could still afford a place even though this was, you know, along the beach, it was still pretty cheap to live there. So I think it was 1957 that the urban renewal agency in Los Angeles announced federal funds that would be available to redevelop Venice. And they had this idea that they wanted to create a new coastal identity to renew Venice, because of, you know, it looked terrible. So they voted against these urban renewal funds even though, you know, this idea was to clean up the coast and, you know, to redefine or to renew Venice Beach.
Willa Seidenberg 20:09
Well, in fact, as you write in your thesis in 1964, this was shocking to read for me, that the city demolished more than 500 buildings in Venice.
Rita Cofield 20:22
Yeah, in the name of progress.
Willa Seidenberg 20:23
In the name of progress. What kind of structures did we lose in that wholesale demolition?
Rita Cofield 20:31
So if you didn’t meet building codes, building codes, according to okay, you have a window that’s broken, like it could be as minor as that, that determined if you had to pay a lot of money to fix it, or it would just be demolished. So the first historic buildings that were demolished were, it was called a gas house, and St. Mark’s Hotel. And so in 1965, this organization called Shoreline and Landmark Society, formed to help prevent or help slow some of these buildings from being demolished because of these new building codes. And it was usually along the beachfront and the canals in the boardwalk. Other targeted areas were the poor areas because of the dilapidated housing. And honestly, the housing that Abbot Kinney had along the canals, some of them were not meant to be permanent. They were vacation bungalows, but you know, Beatniks moved in, artists. So those were also slated to be demolished. But any area where older, poor and crime ridden areas were, that’s where the dilapidated housing were. And that’s the urban renewal going after those, instead of in my opinion about you help them fix them up instead of demolishing them.
Willa Seidenberg 21:59
Exactly, that wasn’t the mentality. You mentioned that Beatniks started moving in. And Venice did start to get into that kind of artists counterculture…
Rita Cofield 22:11
Hippies.
Willa Seidenberg 22:13
Hippies. It became sort of known as that sort of quirky kind of area. But also immigrants were moving in. You know, it definitely was a cheaper area to live. And that started attracting, you know, some other kind of middle class residents. So it kind of kept that character, really, until the 90s when the developers descended.
Rita Cofield 22:43
I would take it back to like the 1970s, this transformation of Venice, into this tourist destination again. And these hip cafes started to appear, rollerblading along the boardwalk that was constructed in 1972. So I think it sort of started there to transform. So tech moguls started to come in, these modest bungalows are being taken over by actors, you know, and the tech moguls with their tech organizations, they bring their employees. So their employees move in, you know, and it just sort of starts to transform into this really hip place, leaving out the community that started there, starting to push them out, gentrification, you know. Gentrification isn’t all bad, but, you know, when you start to sort of leave out other communities or push them out, that’s when it becomes not so good of a thing. And so that’s, you know, starting to happen now in the 90s. You know, they’re taking over these homes, and some of them are being demolished, but others of them are being, you know, transformed to like these, you know, these million dollar places that you don’t recognize, like this was a bungalow before. Or they’re combining, you know, bungalows, and then you know, fences go up and it’s starting to not look like Venice, you know, and so you have these small alleyways with these huge, huge houses on them.
Willa Seidenberg 24:22
Can you talk a little bit about what the Oakwood section is like today?
Rita Cofield 24:27
The separation from the Oakwood section is no longer like a racial separation. There’s an economic separation. I mean, you have prime real estate that’s along the canals. So that’s also a part of these sort of really expensive places to eat, and to buy clothes that are south of the train tracks. But again, that’s sort of expanding into the Oakwood and Belmar triangle area and it’s a pretty good mix of ethnicities. Now, I think the community of Oakwood and other smaller communities and all of Venice. All of Venice is trying to fight to maintain their historic character. It’s even built into the city plan to help preserve just, it’s just not being taken as seriously because developers come in, you know, with money to build, and then they get the support of the mayor.
Willa Seidenberg 25:28
Well, one of the resources that you talk about in your thesis that was and is important to the Black community in Oakwood is the First Baptist Church. Can you talk about what happened with that?
Rita Cofield 25:43
Yeah, the church that’s there now is the second church that was built in 1967. The first church, located on the same site, was designed by Paul Williams in 1927. And, Arthur Reese was actually the head of the building committee that helped to hire Mr. Williams. And that building was moved to Vermont Avenue. And the original site, the second First Baptist Church was built in 1967. And it served both the Black and the Latinx. community. Survey LA, didn’t really give it as much attention as they should have. And I think they know that, because during the time of their survey, it wasn’t 50 years old. I think the integrity was terrible. The pews were missing. The stained glass windows, I think we’re out of it. So it just really looks like a really sad, not very good example of pretty architecture. So it got bypassed by Survey LA. So the pastor sold the church to a gentleman that’s connected with Penske, like Penske oil, his son. The pastor should not have sold it.
Willa Seidenberg 26:57
And a judge found that he sold it fraudulently, right?
Rita Cofield 27:01
Yep, it was sold, there was nothing that could be done about it. Penske initially said that he was going to demolish the church, build his family home. And he also bought the lot across the street and I think the lot next door. And mind you, like he’s talking about a mansion home. The character of that neighborhood is nowhere near, I mean, this is like in the heart of Oakwood. This is where, you know, one of the Black churches, this is how they established their community, by building this church to build community. And then, you know, with all the uproar, Penske said, okay, well, I’m not going to demolish it, I’m going to save it, but it’s still going to be my home. And that still wasn’t good enough for some of the parishioners. Because they were like, you know, we want it back. And we want it to be a part of our community, it doesn’t seem right. And it didn’t seem right, to the Cultural Heritage Commission, either. Or to the council member of that district. The nomination was written again, but this time with the support of the Cultural Heritage Commission, because they realize, wait a minute, we need to look at a little bit more than just the integrity, but what this church means to this community. And I also argue that it was built in 1967, it was at the height of the Black community in Venice. You know, so that church was important, not just during that time, but it continues to be important. It still tells the story of this community’s resilience. At a time when people of color were struggling with issues of racial equality.
Willa Seidenberg 28:42
That sort of brings me to some of the conclusions that you made in your thesis about, you know, how we can go forward to protect communities like the Oakwood section. Can you tell us some of your recommendations for doing that?
Rita Cofield 28:59
Sure, one of the recommendations is to get more community involved. I think that’s one of my most important recommendations, because there’s still stories that have yet to be told. You know, we as preservationists, or conservationists need to talk to community because we can only get so much from books and so much from, and Survey LA just as a cursory view, you know, they don’t go into the communities and talk to them, they go and they look with their eyes. So if you’re looking with your eyes, and your own established culture, you’re not going to see some of the rich history that’s there in communities. So I encourage you to have no more dialogue with communities of color.
Willa Seidenberg 29:47
Okay, within this podcast, let’s put out a call — anyone out there wants to start mobilizing to capture these stories in a listening party we’re all ears.
Rita Cofield 29:57
Yes, please. I will be happy to be a part of that.
Willa Seidenberg 30:02
Do you think that there’s a consciousness among people who are the descendants of the original settlers in Oakwood that they need to do some work to preserve this history?
Rita Cofield 30:15
Yes, the granddaughter of Arthur Reese, Sonya Reese, is definitely, definitely doing that. These descendants are all about continuing to learn about their ancestors and what they did. Sonya Reese didn’t know about, it was only until recently that she knew about the gondola that her grandfather designed and built with his own hands. Their homes are their legacy, but their homes are attached to you know, this story of resilience and, and community. If you walk by and you see the Tabor Reese Courts, you’re like, Huh, okay, who are those people? They could be better attached to the rich history of that local community.
Willa Seidenberg 31:01
Thank you, Rita, so much for enlightening us about this important history of this part of Venice. I know I am excited to maybe try to get some of those stories from the people who are still there. So thank you so much.
Rita Cofield 31:20
Thank you.
Trudi Sandmeier 31:25
It’s really fun to hear our students talk about their research.
Cindy Olnick 31:29
Yeah, I learned so much. I honestly, I had no idea. I mean, I knew about the First Baptist Church, but I didn’t know the backstory and you know, the whole sort of evolution. So learn something new every day here on Save As. But something that didn’t come up in that conversation, which we have to mention is Rita’s advocacy work with the Mafundi Institute in Watts, which just received an advocacy citation from Docomomo US as part of its modernism and America award. So go Rita.
Trudi Sandmeier 32:06
If you’ve not yet heard the episode where Rita talks about her work on the Mafundi Institute, take a listen on saveas.place to Season one, Episode 15.
Cindy Olnick 32:19
Do yourself a favor, listen to it right now before you forget.
Trudi Sandmeier 32:23
We’ll put a link in the show notes. But it’s totally worth a listen.
Cindy Olnick 32:27
You won’t regret it. You’ll thank us for it.
Trudi Sandmeier 32:30
So our next episode is a special Where Are They Now episode. I had a chance to talk to alumna Katie Horak, who was one of our early grads and talk to her about both her thesis but also about her career since then. Her thesis topic, even though she wrote it a long time ago, is super relevant to the conversations we’re having in the field today.
Katie Horak 32:55
Losing the place where these things happen, is the real loss. And the buildings are these sort of receptacles of memory and interaction, and community. But it’s really more about what happens within the walls of those buildings and the buildings themselves.
Trudi Sandmeier 33:23
But wait, there’s more photos and links related to today’s episode, go to Save As.place. Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. This episode was produced by Willa Seidenberg and our original theme music was composed by Steven Conley. Save As is a production of the Heritage Conservation program in the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California.
