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Neighborhood of Los Angeles in California, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baldwin Hills is a neighborhood within the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California.
Baldwin Hills | |
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Coordinates: 34°00′47″N 118°21′25″W | |
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State | ![]() |
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City | ![]() |
Time zone | Pacific |
ZIP Code | 90008 |
Area code | 323 |
Often referred to as the "Black Beverly Hills", Baldwin Hills is home to Kenneth Hahn State Regional Park and to Village Green, a National Historic Landmark.
Baldwin Hills and surrounding areas were part of Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera and later owned by the 19th century L.A. pioneer Elias “Lucky” Baldwin.[1][2][3] The Sanchez Adobe de Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera was once the center of the rancho. In the 1920s, an addition was built linking the structures and the building was converted into a larger clubhouse for the Sunset Golf Course.[2]
The 1932 Los Angeles Olympics housed athletes at the Olympic Village in Baldwin Hills.[4] It was the site of the very first Olympic Village ever built, for the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games.[5] Built for male athletes only, the village consisted of several hundred buildings, including post and telegraph offices, an amphitheater, a hospital, a fire department, and a bank. Female athletes were housed at the Chapman Park Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard. The Olympic Village was demolished after the Summer Olympic Games.[6]
In 1950, new homes in Baldwin Hills were designed by Paul W. Trousdale & Associates (of Trousdale Estates fame) and advertised as being near the "$30 million Crenshaw-Santa Barbara Shopping Center.[7]
On December 14, 1963, a crack appeared in the Baldwin Hills Dam impounding the Baldwin Hills Reservoir. Within a few hours, water rushing through the crack eroded the earthen dam, gradually widening the crack until the dam failed catastrophically at 3:38 p.m. When the crack was discovered, police with bullhorns urged the evacuation of the area, but six people were killed.[8] Two hundred homes were completely wiped out, and an additional 1500 to 2000 houses and apartment buildings were damaged,[8] and most of Baldwin Vista and the historic Village Green community were flooded. The dam's failure was ultimately determined to be the result of subsidence, caused by overexploitation of the Inglewood Oil Field. The dam's failure prompted the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to close and drain other small local reservoirs with similar designs, such as the Silver Lake Reservoir. The Baldwin Hills Dam was not rebuilt—instead, the empty reservoir was demolished, filled with earth, landscaped, and converted to Kenneth Hahn Regional Park.
During the summer of 1985, a brush fire along La Brea Avenue spread up the canyon towards the homes along Don Carlos Drive in Baldwin Hills Estates. Many homes were destroyed despite the efforts of the Los Angeles Fire Department to suppress the flames. The fire killed three people and destroyed 69 homes;[9] the arsonist was never caught.
In 1985, the Los Angeles Times noted that Baldwin Hills is "now often called the Black Beverly Hills".[10]
Baldwin Hills is bounded by La Cienega Boulevard to the west, Crenshaw Boulevard to the east, Stocker Street to the south and Obama Boulevard to the north with Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard forming the northeast dividing line between Baldwin Hills and Crenshaw Manor. It is bordered on the west by Culver City and it shares the eastern border of Crenshaw Boulevard with Leimert Park.[5]
The namesake mountain range is part of the neighborhood.
Neighborhoods within Baldwin Hills include:
Climate data for Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 68 (20) |
69 (21) |
70 (21) |
72 (22) |
73 (23) |
77 (25) |
81 (27) |
82 (28) |
81 (27) |
77 (25) |
72 (22) |
68 (20) |
74 (23) |
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 47 (8) |
49 (9) |
51 (11) |
53 (12) |
57 (14) |
60 (16) |
63 (17) |
64 (18) |
63 (17) |
59 (15) |
52 (11) |
47 (8) |
55 (13) |
Average precipitation inches (mm) | 3.26 (83) |
3.50 (89) |
2.85 (72) |
0.67 (17) |
0.27 (6.9) |
0.07 (1.8) |
0.02 (0.51) |
0.11 (2.8) |
0.21 (5.3) |
0.39 (9.9) |
1.10 (28) |
1.88 (48) |
14.32 (364) |
Source: [15] |
Baldwin Hills is served by Los Angeles Unified School District. Baldwin Hills also has a charter school.[9] The schools operating within Baldwin Hills borders are:
New LA Elementary School, a charter school, is on the grounds of Baldwin Hills Elementary. A California law called Proposition 39 allows New LA to occupy space on the grounds of Baldwin Hills Elementary. In 2022 there were area community members that advocated for the charter school to move to another location since they believed that it meant there would not be enough space for the public elementary to operate efficiently.[26]
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2017) |