Rodger Young Village was a

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

project, established to provide temporary housing for veterans returning to the

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

area following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The village was named for Rodger Wilton Young, an American

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

man in the U.S. Army during

. He was killed on the island of

New Georgia New Georgia, with an area of , is the largest of the islands in Western Province (Solomon Islands), Western Province, Solomon Islands, and the List of islands by area, 203rd-largest island in the world. Since July 1978, the island has been par ...

while helping his

platoon A platoon is a Military organization, military unit typically composed of two to four squads, Section (military unit), sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the Military branch, branch, but a platoon can ...

withdraw under enemy fire. For his actions, he posthumously received the United States' highest military decoration, the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

History

Built on the site of Griffith Park Aerodrome, in Griffith Park,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, the Village consisted of 750

Quonset hut A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel with a semi-circular cross-section. The design was developed in the United States based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War I. Hund ...

s, temporary buildings made of corrugated steel, which were intended to house 1,500 families. At peak residence, over 5,000 persons lived there.Cuff, Dana (2000)
''The Provisional City: Los Angeles Stories of Architecture and Urbanism''
pp. 186-202. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Built in approximately two months (and over the objections of the Griffith family, who had donated the park to the city), the Village was dedicated on 27 April 1946 and closed in the mid-1950s. The Quonset camp met a desperate need for living space. Thousands of Californians had left the area for military duty. When these men and women returned from the war, they found that housing had been taken by the thousands who had come to work in plants producing war material. As the veterans were discharged from the service, they found themselves with no place to live. Rodger Young Village, named for Private Rodger Wilton Young, was one of several such projects under the control of the Los Angeles City Housing Authority. Veterans and their families were able to rent living space at reasonable rates, while waiting for the post-war housing "boom" to counter the post-war housing "crunch". Other veterans' housing projects used military barracks and trailers, as did a settlement in Burbank which provided travel trailers to house some of the Japanese and Japanese Americans who had been taken from their Southern California homes and sent to

internment camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...

in other parts of the country. Image:Rodger Young Village 2.jpg, Life at the Village 1948 Image:Rodger Young Village 3.jpg, Life in the Village 1948

Living conditions

Nearly all residents were young families with children (including many war brides). Each family had one half of a

, built on concrete slab floors. Their living space consisted of two bedrooms, a bath, kitchen with icebox (not a refrigerator), and den. The few unmarried residents, and some married couples without children, had a bedroom to themselves but shared the remaining family area. "RYV," as it was known, had a market, hardware store, milk and diaper delivery, drug store, theater and other amenities commonly found in small towns, and children enjoyed the adjacent Griffith Park and climbing the tower which still held the airport beacon. The Helms Bakery trucks and Fuller Brush salesmen made the rounds, as they did in the other neighborhoods in the area. Residents planted lawns and gardens, and were encouraged to make their surroundings as homelike as possible. Few families had telephones, relying instead on phone booths located about 100 feet apart. When a phone call would come, whoever was closest at the moment would answer, while the neighborhood children would run to see who the call was for, then pass the word to that person. Rodger Young Village was, for a time, the most diverse community in Southern California, as veterans of all races and all branches of the military lived there. This caused problems in some nearby restaurants, which were practicing '' de facto''

racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...

, as next-hut neighbors went to dine together. The influence of RYV residents helped end these practices in a number of establishments.

Current site use

After Rodger Young Village was razed in 1954, the Aerodrome was not reopened; instead, the Griffith Park Zoo (now the

Los Angeles Zoo The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The city of Los Angeles owns the zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals. History Eastlake Zoo, opened in Eastlak ...

) relocated, taking over most of the land which had been occupied by RYV. The remaining portion is now covered by the interchange linking Interstate Highway 5 (the Golden State Freeway) to State Route 134 (the

Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California, United States, that runs from the Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara/Ventura county line to Pasadena in Los Angeles County. It is the principal east–west route (designate ...

). No trace remains of Rodger Young Village.

References

External links

Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles Photograph Collection map of Rodger Young Village

Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles Photograph Collection Photo of Merl Horn and Mr. Householder at Rodger Young Village

{{coord, 34.1536, -118.2825, display=title History of Los Angeles Public housing in Los Angeles Demolished buildings and structures in Los Angeles Buildings and structures demolished in 1954 Quonset huts