Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw is a neighborhood in the

south region Southern Region or South Region may refer to: * Southern Nigeria * Southern Region (Boy Scouts of America) * Southern Region, Bauchi, Nigeria * South Region, Brazil, an official grouping of states for economic and statistical purposes * Southern R ...

of the

city of Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. It is divided between the upscale, principally home-owning

Baldwin Hills Baldwin Hills may refer to: Places * Baldwin Hills (mountain range), Los Angeles County, California, U.S. * Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California, U.S. * Baldwin Village, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in South Lo ...

residential district to the south and a more concentrated apartment area to the north, just south of

Jefferson Boulevard Jefferson Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles and Culver City, California. Its eastern terminus is at Central Avenue east of Exposition Park. At its entrance to Culver City, it splits with National Boulevard. North of Sawtelle Boulevard, it ...

. A commercial corridor along

Crenshaw Boulevard Crenshaw Boulevard is a north-south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, that runs through Crenshaw and other neighborhoods along a 23-mile (37.76 km) route in the west-central part of the city. The street extends between Wilshire Bouleva ...

includes Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza,

Marlton Square Marlton Square is a one-block medical facility, retail and residential portion of Marlton Ave, located in the Baldwin Village neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California. It is bordered by Martin Luther King Jr Blvd on the north, Marlt ...

and Crenshaw Boulevard.

History

19th century

Timeline

*"Lucky" Baldwin: Baldwin Hills and other surrounding geography are named for the noted 19th-century horse racing and land development pioneer, Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin. * Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera: historic early-19th-century eastern hills Rancho land grant. **Sanchez Adobe de Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera. The

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...

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. *

Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes Rancho or Ranchos may refer to: Settlements and communities * Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad *Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California ** List of California Ranchos * Ranchos, Buenos ...

: original early-19th-century western section Rancho land grant. *Olympic Village: The Baldwin Hills were the site of the very first

Olympic Village An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials and athletic trainers. Aft ...

ever built, for the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. Built for male athletes only, the village consisted of several hundred buildings, including

post offices A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional servic ...

and

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

offices, an amphitheater, a hospital, a

fire department A fire department (American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in th ...

, and a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becau ...

. Female athletes were housed at the

Chapman Park Hotel Chapman may refer to: Businesses * Chapman Entertainment, a former British television production company * Chapman Guitars, a guitar company established in 2009 by Rob Chapman * Chapman's, a Canadian ice cream and ice water products manufacturer ...

on Wilshire Boulevard. The Olympic Village was demolished after the Summer Olympic Games.

Geography

Description

According to the

Mapping L.A. Mapping L.A. is a project of the ''Los Angeles Times'', beginning in 2009, to draw boundary lines for 158 cities and unincorporated places within Los Angeles County, California. It identified 114 neighborhoods within the City of Los Angeles and 42 ...

project of the ''Los Angeles Times'', Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw is bounded by

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

, Jefferson Park, Ladera Heights, View Park-Windsor Hills and

West Adams West Adams is a historic neighborhood in the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California. The area is known for its large number of historic buildings, structures and notable houses and mansions throughout Los Angeles. It is a yout ...

. Areas within it are Baldwin Village, Baldwin Vista, The Dons and

Village Green A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for gathering cattle t ...

.
"Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw," Mapping LA, ''Los Angeles Times'' The neighborhood limits, according to Mapping L.A, are

on the north,

Ballona Creek Ballona Creek (pronunciation: “Bah-yo-nuh” or “Buy-yo-nah” ) is an channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a “year-round river lined with sycamores and willows.” Ballona Cree ...

, Jefferson Boulevard and La Brea Avenue on the west, the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area and Stocker Street on the south and

on the east.

Neighborhoods

Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw contains several neighborhoods:
"South L.A.," Mapping L.A., ''Los Angeles Times'' *

** Baldwin Hills Estates ("The Dons") ** Baldwin Vista ***

** An unincorporated portion outside Los Angeles city limits * Baldwin Village * Crenshaw, Los Angeles, Crenshaw * Crenshaw Manor - Crenshaw Manor is bordered by Crenshaw Blvd to the east, W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd to the south, W. Exposition Blvd to the north, and Farmdale Avenue/Chesapeake Ave/Coliseum St. to the West.

Population

The 2000 U.S census counted 30,123 residents in Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw and its area of 2.88 square miles gave it a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

of 10,446 people per square mile, about average for Los Angeles and

the county ''The County'' ( is, Héraðið) is a 2019 Icelandic melodrama directed by Grímur Hákonarson. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Cast * Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir as In ...

as a whole. In 2008 the city estimated that 32,234 people lived there. The median age was 36, older than the city as a whole. The percentage of residents aged 65 and older was among the county's highest.

Ethnic composition

The neighborhood was considered "moderately diverse" in 2000, with 71.3% of residents being of black or African-American ancestry, 17.3% Latino, 4.7% Asian, 3.3% white and 3.4% of other backgrounds. The neighborhood had the fifth-highest concentration of black residents in the city.
"Black," Mapping L.A., ''Los Angeles Times'' The average household size was 2.3 people, low compared to the city as a whole. Almost 32% of the 2,400 families living in Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw were headed by single parents, the third-highest rate in the city, after Watts, Los Angeles, Watts and Vermont Knolls."Single Parents," Mapping L.A., ''Los Angeles Times''
/ref> The median household income at $37,948 in 2008 dollars was low compared with both city and county populations. The percentage of households earning $20,000 or less a year was high for the county. The percentage of residents 25 and older with a high school education and some college was high for the county, Those with a college degree were about the same as the rest of the city and county. The large number of veterans, 2,272 or 10.2% of the population, was high for both the city and the county. The percentage of veterans who served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

or the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...

was among the county's highest. Only 16.6% of the residents were foreign born, a low figure for both the city and the county. Mexico (31%) and El Salvador (16.8%) were the most common foreign places of birth.

Disasters

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 pm. Although the area had been evacuated after the crack had been discovered, several homes were destroyed, 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 Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term ap ...

of the

Inglewood Inglewood may refer to: Places Australia *Inglewood, Queensland * Shire of Inglewood, Queensland, a former local government area *Inglewood, South Australia *Inglewood, Victoria * Inglewood, Western Australia Canada * Inglewood, Ontario *Inglewo ...

Oil field. The dam's failure prompted the

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021-2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of water per day to more ...

to close and drain other small local reservoirs with similar designs, such as the

Silver Lake Reservoir The Silver Lake Reservoir Complex comprises two concrete-lined basins, Ivanhoe Reservoir and Silver Lake, divided by a spillway, in the Silver Lake community of Los Angeles, California. History The lower body of water was named in 1906 for Wat ...

. 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, an arsonist started a brush fire along

La Brea Avenue La Brea Avenue is a prominent north-south thoroughfare in the City of Los Angeles and in Los Angeles County, California. La Brea is known for having diverse ethnic communities, and many shops and restaurants along its route. History ''La Br ...

. The fire spread up the canyon towards the expensive homes along Don Carlos Drive in the Baldwin Hills Estates tract. Many homes were destroyed despite the efforts of the

Los Angeles Fire Department The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD or LA City Fire) provides emergency medical services, fire cause determination, fire prevention, fire suppression, hazardous materials mitigation, and technical rescue services to the city of Los Angel ...

to suppress the flames. The fire killed three people and destroyed 69 homes;Pollard-Terry, Gayle (October 29, 2006)
"Years later, the pitch still delivers"
Neighborly Advice. ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

''. p. K2. the arsonist was never caught.

Parks and recreation

* Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook: The park is open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset. The Visitor Center is open Thursday–Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The park includes an amphitheater, drinking water, the Evan Frankel Discovery Center, gardening boxes, picnic tables, a permeable parking lot ($6), toilets, and walking paths with a central feature known as the Culver City Stairs. The Visitor Center has a guide to the native plants of the area and history of Culver City. * Kenneth Hahn State Regional Park: recreation and sports areas, and preservation of the open-space lands and native

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s: ''entrance on South La Cienega Boulevard''. * Norman O. Houston Park *

Jim Gilliam Recreation Center Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James (given name), James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy (given name), Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * Jim (comics), ...

Government

The

Station 94 serves the neighborhood.

Library

The

Los Angeles Public Library The Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, it serves the larg ...

operates the Baldwin Hills Branch Library.

Notable people

Richard Elfman Richard Elfman (born March 6, 1949) is an American actor, musician, director, producer, screenwriter, journalist, author and magazine publisher. Early life Richard Elfman was born in the Watts district of inner-city Los Angeles. His mother, ...

and

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, Elfman has garnered internatio ...

, musicians *

Nipsey Hussle Airmiess Joseph Asghedom (August 15, 1985 – March 31, 2019), known professionally as Nipsey Hussle (often stylized as Nipsey Hu$$le), was an American rapper, entrepreneur, and activist. Emerging from the West Coast hip hop scene in the mid- ...

, rapper, entrepreneur and community activist * Ice-T, rapper and actor * Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, actress and wife of

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger son of Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. He is fifth in the line of succ ...

Darryl Strawberry Darryl Eugene Strawberry (born March 12, 1962) is an American former professional baseball right fielder and author who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Throughout his career, Strawberry was one of the most feared sluggers in t ...

, professional baseball player * De'Anthony Thomas, professional football player

References

External links

Los Angeles Times: Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw area crime map and statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin Hills Crenshaw, Los Angeles * Baldwin Hills (mountain range) Neighborhoods in Los Angeles South Los Angeles