Chastina Rix (1881–1963), later known as Christine Sterling, was born in Oakland,
California. Her most notable works were as a preservationist who helped save the
Avila Adobe and created
Olvera Street
Olvera Street, commonly known by its Spanish language, Spanish name Calle Olvera, is a historic pedestrian street in El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument, El Pueblo de Los Ángeles, the historic center of Los Angeles. The street is loc ...
in Los Angeles. She also helped create
China City.
"The booklets and folders I read about Los Angeles were painted in colors of Spanish-Mexican romance,...They were appealing with old missions, palm trees, sunshine and the ‘click of the castanets.’"— Christine Sterling, journal
Early life
Christine Sterling was born Chastina Rix in Oakland, Alameda County, California
on 5 November 1881, one of four children of Edward Austin Rix and Kate Elizabeth Kiteridge.
Her father was a mining engineer via
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
(
Zeta Psi) and inventor of the "Rix Rock Drill",
later a vineyard planter.
He was born to Chastina Walbridge Rix and Alfred Stevens Rix (1822-1904), a
San Francisco Committee of Vigilance leading member and San Francisco justice of the peace
from New Hampshire. He left for the gold fields of California in 1852 and married Chastina Walbridge in 1849 in Vermont. Later in 1858 he married Margaret Arabella Tuite in California.
Chastina changed her name to Christine as a teenager, and briefly studied art and design at
Mills College
Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...
in Oakland. After a brief first marriage, she married attorney Jerome Hough. They had two children, June (?) and Peter in 1915, later moving to Hollywood for his film industry work.
By 1920 the family was living on Bonnie Brae Street near downtown Los Angeles. Hough abandoned the family and soon died from a stroke
leaving Christine a widow without means.
"At last Los Angeles was home, The sunshine, mountains, beaches, palm trees were here, but where was the romance of the past?" — Christine Sterling, journal
By 1928 she had changed her last name to Sterling.
Work
"I closed my eyes and thought of the Plaza as a Spanish-American social and commercial center, a spot of beauty as a gesture of appreciation to México and Spain for our historical past." — Christine Sterling, 1933 booklet
Her explorations of the city led to her discovery of the decrepit
Avila Adobe, which she later went on to preserve.
Olvera Street opened to the public on
Easter
Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
Sunday 1930.
"It might be well to take our Mexican population seriously and allow them to put a little of the romance and picturesque into our city which we so freely advertise ourselves as possessing. The plaza should be converted into a social and commercial Latin American center." — Christine Sterling
Death
Sterling lived in
Chavez Ravine
Chavez Ravine is a shallow canyon in Los Angeles, California. It sits in a large promontory of hills north of downtown Los Angeles, next to Major League Baseball's Dodger Stadium. Chavez Ravine was named for a 19th-century Los Angeles councilm ...
from 1938 to May 9, 1959, when the city began evicting residents for
Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium is a ballpark in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a ...
. Sterling moved into the
Avila Adobe, where she died, at age 82, in 1963.
Bibliography
* Christine Sterling. ''Olvera Street, Its history and restoration'' 1933.
* Christine Sterling, June Sterling Park ''Olvera Street : El Pueblo De Nuestra Senora La Reina De Los Angeles : Its history and Restoration'' and ''The Life Story of Christine Sterling By Her Daughter'' 1947.
* Lynn A. Bonfield, New England to Gold Rush California: The Journal of Alfred and Chastina W. Rix, 1849-1854. Arthur H. Clark Co., Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2011.
* ''Daily Journal of Alfred and Chastina W. Rix'' July 1849-May 1857
* Chastina W. Rix, ''Journal of My Journey to California'', Peacham, Vt. 1853
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sterling, Christine
1881 births
1963 deaths
People from Oakland, California