Architecture + Advocacy in L.A.’s Sugar Hill
Trudi Sandmeier 0:00
Today on Save As …
Kianna Armstrong 0:01
It was powerful to know that in the past there were people that looked like me that were living in these spaces and they were also very involved in the community and advocating for their community.
Trudi Sandmeier 0:22
Welcome to season four of Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation, an award-winning podcast that glimpses the future of the field through the work of graduate students at the University of Southern California. I’m Trudi Sandmeier, director of heritage conservation programs at USC.
Cindy Olnick 0:38
And I’m Cindy Olnick, associate director of heritage conservation programs at USC, and a communications pro with a passion for historic places and the people who care for them. So, Trudi …
Trudi Sandmeier 0:50
Yes, Cindy?
Cindy Olnick 0:52
I can’t believe it’s season four. Whaaat?? So today, we are kicking off the season with producer Willa Seidenberg who is talking with some students in Architecture + Advocacy, which is a student-run nonprofit in the USC School of Architecture, about a community engagement project they did in the Sugar Hill area of the West Adams neighborhood here in Los Angeles. And Sugar Hill, as you may know, is yet another example of structural racism, shaping and reshaping the built environment. It’s also a great story about how architecture can engage with the community in ways we might not think about.
Trudi Sandmeier 1:33
So this is a really fun example of student-led activism in the neighborhood. And it’s close to USC, so I think, a discovery for them that there was this really interesting history and interesting place that was just walking distance from campus. And this neighborhood event that they did, it got, you know, got engaged with the community, got all kinds of people involved in different ways. They did interviews with people who live in the neighborhood, they were out walking the streets, and it sort of wrapped up with this event in the spring. So then they actually did a project with this community organization to help them with something they needed. And so it was not only an exploration of a place, but then it was an intervention. And so that’s amazing and exciting that our students are out there doing this.
Cindy Olnick 2:22
Yes.
Trudi Sandmeier 2:23
What’s also really cool about this is that this is really about the kind of work we do in heritage conservation. But it’s people who don’t actually know that that’s what they’re doing to some degree. They’re getting involved in doing this kind of work that engages with history. They’re sort of like accidental conservationists. But slowly, we’re kind of turning that corner and getting people to understand that this is the kind of work that we do in conservation.
Cindy Olnick 2:49
Yeah. Because so many people don’t even know what heritage conservation is. And once they get it, they’re like, Oh, you mean I could do that? It can be so many different things. It’s hard. You can’t really put it in a box. All right. And before we hand it over to Willa for her interview with Reiley Gibson and Kianna Armstrong. I just want to mention that the music you’ll hear in the episode is by Sugar Hill resident and Academy Award winner Hattie McDaniel. Take it away, Willa.
Willa Seidenberg 3:20
I’m here with Reiley Gibson in back of the First AME Church that was designed by Paul R. Williams. And it’s a beautiful afternoon in California. Welcome, Reiley.
Reily Gibson 3:38
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Willa Seidenberg 3:40
So, introduce yourself for our listeners.
Reily Gibson 3:44
My name is Reily Gibson, and I am a Master of Architecture student at the University of Southern California. I am originally from Jackson, Wyoming, but I moved to L.A. for school.
Willa Seidenberg 3:59
So tell us, what is Sugar Hill? Tell us about it.
Reily Gibson 4:03
The history of Sugar Hill starts back in the early 1900s. This was a large tract of land that was bought by Frederick H. Rindge, the man who owned all of Malibu at the time and he was looking for new real estate acquisitions. So at the time when he purchased it, there wasn’t much between here and downtown. But as you can still see there was this unobstructed view. He purchased this land in 1902 and actually decided to build his family’s residence at the top of the hill. He had a business partner though, who he purchased this tract with and that was George Cochran whose house is right next door. And the houses that they built on this hill are immense.
So they bought this land and developed it kind of as this elite, high end extremely wealthy neighborhood. They convinced the railroad to add a stop and that was the beginning of what they called West Adams Heights. And then in the 1940s, a lot of the Black community was becoming more affluent in L.A. and this became an area where they began to purchase homes here. We had first Norman O. Houston. At that time, Hattie McDaniel had also purchased a home.
Willa Seidenberg 5:34
And why do we know Hattie McDaniel?
Reily Gibson 5:36
Well, Hattie McDaniel is a very famous Black actress and civil rights activist. She is probably most well known for her role in Gone With The Wind where she plays Mammy. But she is also well known for activism. She fought for African American rights both in Hollywood and in the acting world, as well as home ownership rights, which that fight really happened here. And she was also known to kind of push back against the stereotypical roles that Black actresses were pushed into in the acting world at that time.
Willa Seidenberg 6:16
And when they moved in, was it known as Sugar Hill then?
Reily Gibson 6:20
It became known as Sugar Hill because of them. They renamed this place Sugar Hill as a tribute to the legendary Sugar Hill neighborhood in Harlem. And while they were all moving here, they were simultaneously fighting for their right to live here.
Willa Seidenberg 6:37
There were already covenants in L.A. at that time.
Reily Gibson 6:41
So as white homeowners purchased property in this area, with their purchase of the land came this covenant that said that they could not sell to people of color. Those covenants, though, began to expire in the 1930s. However, most wealthy neighborhoods in L.A. and across the U.S. readopted them through homeowners associations, and West Adams Heights was one of those homeowners associations.
Willa Seidenberg 7:11
So how were they able to buy homes here, if the West Adams Heights Association had reintroduced the covenants?
Reily Gibson 7:20
Neighborhoods such as Beverly Hills and other neighborhoods, kind of west of here, were beginning to be developed. And so a lot of the wealthy elite that was living here moved there. At the same time, I think some white homeowners were willing to disobey the covenants for the purpose of getting a higher price. And there were people in the Black community, specifically affluent business people like Norman O. Houston, who were willing to pay a higher price in order to purchase a home in this neighborhood. Norman O. Houston was building the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company and was accruing enough wealth to purchase a very beautiful home in what was at the time West Adams Heights.
Willa Seidenberg 8:08
So just a few blocks from where his he was building the insurance building, which is right around the corner on the corner of Western and West Adams if you’re ever driving by.
Reily Gibson 8:20
And that building was also designed by Paul R. Williams.
Willa Seidenberg 8:24
So, Norman O. Houston, Hattie McDaniel, and others are moving in. But it’s not a smooth path.
Reily Gibson 8:33
No, the West Adams Heights Homeowners Association was not happy about having Black homeowners in their neighborhood. And it got all the way to the point that there was a lawsuit where the white homeowners association sued Black homeowners in the area. That court case is called Tolhurst versus Venerable. And it was first heard by the Los Angeles Superior Court and then heard by the California Supreme Court in 1945. And both cases were fought by Loren Miller, and there were eight defendants who were all homeowners in Sugar Hill. So the judge both times sided with the eight Black defendants to protect their right to remain owning land in this neighborhood. Years later, I think in 1948, the Supreme Court heard a similar case called Shelly versus Kraemer and Loren Miller, the lawyer who had successfully argued the Tolhurst versus Venerable case was at the Supreme Court and argued along with Thurgood Marshall, and wrote the brief for the successful Supreme Court case that eventually abolished all racial covenants.
Willa Seidenberg 10:20
Well, how about if we take a walk and take a look at it? Right in front of us was Rindge’s home. Can you give us a little description of this huge, huge place?
Reily Gibson 10:35
Right now it’s just inhabited by, I believe, two people. And it looks like a castle.
Willa Seidenberg 10:43
It really does.
Reily Gibson 10:45
And it was actually built to look a bit like a baronial chateau. I had read somewhere that it has over 25 rooms in the home, and that’s not including any of the circulation or closets or anything like that.
Willa Seidenberg 11:04
Okay, and then right next door, is the home of Rindge’s buddy.
Reily Gibson 11:10
Yes, George Cochrane. So George Cochran was Rindge’s business partner in developing this neighborhood. And he was the second homeowner in this area. His home was built in 1903. It is also quite large.
Willa Seidenberg 11:29
Quite large, but very different. It almost has some craftsman touches to it.
Reily Gibson 11:37
It does. He also owned the home directly behind his house we’re standing at now. And then his brother-in-law and his sister lived in the home, that’s just up the street from that home. So they had this three-house compound that extended street to street. In front of this house, there are some large trees that are standing which are beautiful and quite old.
Willa Seidenberg 12:05
Majestic really. All right, so let’s keep going. We’re gonna walk up Harvard toward the freeway.
Reily Gibson 12:12
As you can see that one has nothing going on in it except for an advertisement for…
Willa Seidenberg 12:18
Filming. And so this looks like it’s straight out of classic Greek. A lot of these homes, there’s no one particular style really.
Reily Gibson 12:31
You’re right. It feels as though each of the homes is from a totally different place in the world.
Willa Seidenberg 12:38
This house across the street is also for filming.
Reily Gibson 12:42
I believe this is the home where several horror films have been produced.
Willa Seidenberg 12:46
Uh huh. Okay.
Reily Gibson 12:49
One of the Halloween films was here.
Willa Seidenberg 12:53
So as we keep walking toward 22nd Street, we’re coming up to Hattie McDaniel’s place. And it’s hard to see a lot of it because a lot of these properties have iron fences in front and a lot of foliage.
Reily Gibson 13:12
Hattie McDaniel was kind of known to host parties. So there’s kind of these stories of people coming here and having a great time in the neighborhood. And not just the Black Hollywood community, but the Hollywood community at large. So she really did kind of begin to bridge some of the gaps.
Willa Seidenberg 13:32
This home doesn’t look quite as big as some of these other ones. But it looks kind of cozy.
Reily Gibson 13:39
It’s a little understated.
Willa Seidenberg 13:40
That’s a really good word. It is.
Reily Gibson 13:42
I’m watching the birds in the yard right now. This yard and this garden has been maintained.
Willa Seidenberg 13:48
The entrance has this big archway and there are birds just going back and forth from one side of the walkway leading up to the house to the other.
Reily Gibson 13:57
And I like to imagine that she kind of sat on this corner with all of her friends and community around her, which is partly what makes what we’re going to see next so intense.
Willa Seidenberg 14:09
Okay, so we keep walking north.
Reily Gibson 14:11
We look across, we see the other part of Sugar Hill. It’s pretty easy to imagine that at some point, it was very simple to just keep walking down the street to be over there.
Willa Seidenberg 14:22
Exactly. But as you can hear as we get closer and closer, the traffic gets louder and louder. It’s about five o’clock and it’s a Wednesday afternoon and there’s a lot of traffic on the freeway. It was in the 50s that the federal government started increasing interstate construction throughout the country and of course, L.A., being the car-centric place that it has been for quite a long time, wanted to put a freeway right from the beach out to the desert. So tell us what happened?
Reily Gibson 15:06
Yes. Well, there were inklings and rumors of this freeway being built as early as the early 1950s. And for a while, it was actually supposed to go north of here, along Pico, I believe. But I think that, honestly, because there were a lot of Black homeowners here, and there had concurrently been disinvestment in the neighborhood, which is something that has often been a trend in neighborhoods of color, the freeway and design was moved to cut directly through Sugar Hill. The neighborhood did fight back, but in the end, that didn’t stop the freeway. Not only did it cut through the neighborhood, it demolished several beautiful, quite large homes. And it also cut pretty scaringly into the earth. And on both sides, there’s these amazing homes and beautiful trees, but there’s this embankment, that goes up quite a bit where this freeway just cut Sugar Hill right in half.
Willa Seidenberg 16:17
And now as we go along 22nd we see this side of Hattie McDaniel’s house and now we see how big it is.
Reily Gibson 16:27
Yeah, it definitely extends.
Willa Seidenberg 16:29
Yes. So you don’t get that sense from the front. But the side, definitely you see it.
Reily Gibson 16:35
And it has these really nice porticoes.
Willa Seidenberg 16:38
Yes. Right up ahead, there’s a huge billboard, we can see the side of it beckoning the people getting on and off the freeway.
Reily Gibson 16:50
So we’re kind of coming up on the corner of Hobart and 22nd Street. To our left here, we have what was once the Caribbean American Credit Union. So after several other Black families had moved into this neighborhood, there was a couple from New York. And they realized that out west, it was extremely difficult for people of color, specifically people of Caribbean heritage, to access loans. Either they couldn’t access them at all, or they were only provided rates that were much higher than the rates being offered to white communities. So they founded the Caribbean American Credit Union, and it ran out of this house for several years. What’s really cool about being in this neighborhood, and having done the walk, is that we got to meet the current residents of this home. They told us that there was a room that they couldn’t unlock for several years, and then they discovered this hidden room that must have been some sort of bank vault. And that’s kind of like for me the part of this project that’s been really cool is how many people are willing to share their stories. For me, this research is about the past, but it’s also so much about the present.
And here we are at another home, Norman O. Houston’s home. He was the first homeowner and he also was one of the defendants in the Tolhurst versus Venerable case. And he actually did not live in his home for the first year because he was concerned that his family would face serious backlash from the community and he didn’t want to subject his family to that. So while he purchased the home in 1941, I believe he didn’t move in until 1942.
Willa Seidenberg 18:47
So he really paved the way for the neighborhood.
Reily Gibson 18:50
He did. And then next door is Louise Beaver’s home.
Willa Seidenberg 18:54
That’s a beautiful home.
Reily Gibson 18:56
It is beautiful. It’s just a really lovely yellow. It’s really different than the one next door.
Willa Seidenberg 19:01
Yeah.
Reily Gibson 19:02
This is the back of Rindge’s home.
Willa Seidenberg 19:04
Oh, this is the back of the Rindge.
Reily Gibson 19:07
So you can see how much it extends and kind of takes up this whole corner as we kind of curve along 23rd.
Willa Seidenberg 19:17
Some old twisted trees here.
Reily Gibson 19:22
The current resident of this home, one thing he told me is that he has really spent some time trying to keep the garden as a native garden. So he was really proud of the work that they’ve done in this garden. And you can feel it right here as we walk around the corner.
Willa Seidenberg 19:39
Yes, yes. Lush. So now as we walk around this curved sidewalk, we come to the First AME Church. So let’s talk about that.
Reily Gibson 19:53
So the First AME Church was founded by Biddy Mason who was an enslaved woman when she moved to L.A., who won her freedom here, and then started the church. The First AME Church had its first location on Eighth and Town. But in 1968, this church was built here, and it became the central hub for the First AME congregation, and also a hub for Sugar Hill. Today, a lot of the Black community doesn’t live in this neighborhood anymore. However, they come to this neighborhood for the church. And First AME is kind of single-handedly keeping the spirit of Sugar Hill alive in a sense. It is this landmark in the Black community.
Willa Seidenberg 20:55
It is kind of interesting, because as you drive from West Adams, and you come up the little hill, off of LaSalle, the church is the first thing you see, and it sort of anchors the neighborhood in a way, and then you look across the street, and you see the big castle, that was owned by Rindge. So the church really is the focal point.
Reily Gibson 21:21
It physically acts as this focal point. But I think also, socially, it is this focal point or this landmark for the community. It was designed by Paul R. Williams, who was a prominent Black architect. He has thousands of projects that he built across L.A. and some extending beyond L.A. But this church is one of those projects. And it’s famous both for its architecture, and also for the role it has played in the Black community, in L.A., and in this neighborhood.
Willa Seidenberg 22:33
So you’re involved with this organization called Architecture and Advocacy. Can you explain what the organization does?
Reily Gibson 22:40
Architecture + Advocacy is a student-run startup nonprofit. The idea was to create these design and creativity workshops to allow neighborhoods to themselves design their neighborhoods, not just to get students interested in architecture, but also just to empower students from underprivileged neighborhoods in L.A. to think about how they can change their neighborhoods. And we have about 60 student volunteers from USC, who helped with those programs.
Willa Seidenberg 23:16
What do you think the role of architects and architecture is in neighborhoods and communities?
Reily Gibson 23:25
I think Architecture + Advocacy really started, in part, from a desire within this group of students to change the way that architects think about neighborhoods. We like to say that we undesigned spatial injustice. And that really starts with asking the community to design and undesigned what they would like, rather than having an architect just step in and decide for them. So the organization is about architecture and the power of architecture, but it’s also about reversing that power and sharing that power.
Willa Seidenberg 24:06
How do you feel like, thinking about this different way of approaching design and architecture has affected you, you know, from when you came into the program, wanting to be an architect to design and now?
Reily Gibson 24:23
Often in architecture studios were really pushed to have a personal intention about a project or present an idea that’s brand new and innovative. And that can be really exciting. But so often, it felt like that was not attached to the actual ground or the earth or the people who would eventually inhabit that space. And for me, it’s become really important to think about all of the other things that go on, both inside of a building and then also between the buildings.
Willa Seidenberg 25:03
Tell me how the Sugar Hill project came about.
Reily Gibson 25:07
This project kind of emerged through a class called Asymmetries of Access. And through the class, we were really encouraged to plan and then implement community engagement activities. One of the students in the class, she met the Amazing Grace Conservatory, which was a local nonprofit theater that’s on Washington Boulevard. And they teach theater programs, some art programs too, and spoken word programs to underprivileged students. And their theater is in desperate need of a lot of design work. They are bursting at the seams. And they started talking about Sugar Hill. It became very clear that this nonprofit theater that really does cultivate a sense of place in their community, which is primarily the Black community in L.A., was really valuable to them. This project kind of emerged from that. But then to be honest, it also just emerged through these engagement activities that we were doing for this class; we kept having these conversations about Sugar Hill.
Willa Seidenberg 26:14
Well, thank you, Reily. This has been a really, really fun time to be here on this beautiful afternoon. I really appreciate you coming.
Thanks for the invite.
Now that we’ve heard from Reily about the Sugar Hill project, we’re going to turn to Kianna Armstrong, who was also involved in the project. Kianna, introduce yourself.
Kianna Armstrong 26:52
Hi, I’m Kianna Armstrong. I am a student at USC and the executive director of Architecture and Advocacy.
Willa Seidenberg 27:01
And how did you find your way to the Architecture and Advocacy program?
Kianna Armstrong 27:07
My reasoning for coming to architecture school was to find ways to impact communities through architecture and design. And in Architecture and Advocacy, I found a lot of like-minded people with amazing ideas, doing amazing things. So I knew I just needed to be part of that group.
Willa Seidenberg 27:27
Where did you grow up?
Kianna Armstrong 27:28
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.
Willa Seidenberg 27:31
Okay. Okay, and came all the way out here to Los Angeles.
Kianna Armstrong 27:35
Yeah, I wanted to go far from home.
Willa Seidenberg 27:38
And you manage to do that? How did you get interested in architecture?
Kianna Armstrong 27:44
I went to a summer camp in eighth grade. And after that, I was like, I want to be an architect like, this is what I want to do. But it was really just my parents also telling me, hey, like this is something you can do. And they were always so supportive when I wanted to do something that was design-related or do something that was architecture-related, and just finding resources for me to do that. But they were not easy to find. The architecture camp that I did was four hours away from my house, and I had to go stay with a family friend. So it’s exciting to be in school and still working towards that dream.
Willa Seidenberg 28:22
What did you think when you first went to Sugar Hill neighborhood?
Kianna Armstrong 28:26
I just thought it was beautiful. The houses are amazing. And I’d already done some research on the history. So it was cool to connect the dots between the things I’ve been reading about and then going to the locations and being there in person.
Willa Seidenberg 28:42
What did it feel like to you, as a Black woman experiencing that history?
Kianna Armstrong 28:48
It was extremely powerful. It was powerful to know that in the past, there were people that looked like me that were living in these spaces, and they were also very involved in the community and advocating for their community. I know at the Sugar Hill event, we talked about the racially restrictive covenants and how important Sugar Hill was to getting those removed. So it’s just powerful to be there and to know the history of the space and just how Black people have really left their mark on that space.
Willa Seidenberg 29:20
Do you have a favorite property?
Kianna Armstrong 29:23
Yeah, my favorite property in the neighborhood is the Rindge mansion. It’s one of the first places that I saw when I visited the neighborhood. And it’s just so beautiful. And like all the details on the outside of the house and the way it’s set out. I even love the mailbox. Like every part of it, I just, I really, really love that property.
Willa Seidenberg 29:49
What would you like to see happen in that neighborhood and calling attention to that neighborhood from the work that you all are doing in Architecture and Advocacy?
Kianna Armstrong 30:02
Just a recognition of the history. That could be in the form of plaques that are just saying like this is the history of this space, I think could do so much. Because there are a lot of people on the street, a lot of people that are just like walking through the neighborhood because it is a beautiful place to be. And it would be nice to have those little pieces along the way. So as someone’s walking down the street, they can also look and be like, this is like the history behind the space and not just look at it as a beautiful space.
Willa Seidenberg 30:39
I think it’s also interesting that right there is the Paul R. Williams First AME Church. How does his work and the work of other Black architects inspire you in terms of what you want to do in the future?
Kianna Armstrong 30:55
Going into architecture, I didn’t know very many Black architects at all. It probably took me until getting to college to be like, okay, there are actually Black architects and finding the National Organization of Minority Architects, even more than building spaces, just also being representation for Black people and being able to go to other Black women and say, Hey, like, I’m an architect and this is a possibility and an option as a career path. And then I just want to continue advocating for Black communities, especially when it comes to what goes into their neighborhoods.
Willa Seidenberg 31:41
Does the Architecture and Advocacy program have more plans of what it wants to do with the Sugar Hill neighborhood,
Kianna Armstrong 31:49
The Sugar Hill neighborhood is our first community that we’ve done a design-build in. We were working with Amazing Grace Conservatory to build a space for their students to place all of their things. In their space, they didn’t have anywhere for students to put their things when they got there in the morning. And their things would kind of lay on the ground. And they shared with us that they wanted storage so that the students can put their stuff in places and possibly having tables or chairs so students can like sit in the space and on the floor. So what we created was a cubby space where students can put all of their items when they get there in the morning. And then there’s also different panels that slide out and turn into tables and chairs. So if they need to, they can also use it as seating, use it as something to write on.
Willa Seidenberg 32:50
So kind of adaptable.
Kianna Armstrong 32:51
Very adaptable, and the students were part of the design process. We had them share what they wanted to see. We told them, okay, this is what we’re thinking for a cubby design. And then they’re like, Okay, you should add this, we should add, like name tags that are dry erase boards for people to write their names on in the morning, or you should add, outlets for our phone chargers. And they just had so many ideas to bring to the table. And that’s why we love having our workshops, because, of course, there’s so many ideas there in the space every single day. They know exactly what they need.
Willa Seidenberg 32:52
That’s fantastic. And was that cubby space built?
Kianna Armstrong 33:05
Yes. This week, we delivered it to Amazing Grace Conservatory and it was really exciting to see it in the space.
Willa Seidenberg 33:27
Okay, so we’ll feature some of the photographs of that cubby that you guys designed and built on the website and in our show notes. Thank you. Big congratulations to all of you for the work that you’ve been doing. Thank you so much for joining us today on Save As.
Kianna Armstrong 34:01
Thank you for having me.
