Sanchez Adobe de
Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera. The
adobe 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]
1950s
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]
1960s
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.
1980s
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 Estates is locally known as "
The Dons", because all but one street begins with the formal title of the city's original land holders.[11] The oldest two streets in the neighborhood are Don Luis Drive and Don Mariano Drive. Old maps show those streets with the names Sprague Drive and Maryann Drive.
Susan Miller Dorsey High School has called its school mascot The Dorsey Dons and Donnas after this neighborhood. The neighborhood is east of La Brea, southwest of Santo Tomas Drive, south of the Jim Gilliam Recreation Center and north of
Stocker Street). It is sometimes called "the Black
Beverly Hills".[12] The neighborhood is characterized by hillside houses with
swimming pools, and modern
condominiums (the latter often jut out from steep hillsides, perched on stilts).
Baldwin Village - In 1988, Baldwin Village became be a distinct community in the city's General Plan, and signs were to be posted to identify the area. It is bounded by La Brea Avenue, Marlton Avenue,
Obama Boulevard, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Santo Thomas Drive.[13]
Baldwin Vista is bounded by La Cienega Boulevard to the West, La Brea Avenue to the East, Coliseum Street to the North, and Kenneth Hahn Park to the South.[14]
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is located at 6300 Hetzler Road in Culver City, CA.[16][17] The 8.5-acre (3.4 ha) park is open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset. The Visitor Center is not currently open. 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 comprehensive guide to the native plants of the area and history of Culver City. On a clear day the Overlook's platform offers exceptional views spanning the
Pacific Ocean to the west, the
Hollywood Sign to the north, and downtown Los Angeles to the east.[18]
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.[24]
In popular culture
Television
From 2007 to 2009,
BET aired Baldwin Hills, a program featuring several African-American teenagers and their lives in the upper-class
Los Angeles community.[25][26]
The show is very similar in nature to such
MTV programs as Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, The Hills, and the online series The Suburbs, as it features African-Americans of upper-middle-class families who divide their time between attending school, playing sports, shopping at high-end stores, and driving expensive cars. The series lasted for three seasons.
University Park Family—a collaborative online community: focused on University Park, Expo Park and the surrounding areas.
Leimert Park Beat—a collaborative online community focused on Leimert Park: "The Soul of Los Angeles and the African American cultural center of the city."