Not long after it opened in 1925, the three-story Cooperative Center at Brooklyn Avenue and Mott Street in Boyle Heights was often described by both the Los Angeles Police Department and the city’s dailies as a “bastion,” or “stronghold” for local communist organizers and “labor agitators.” The inflated rhetoric referred to the fact that during…
RED BOYLE HEIGHTS
Organizing and Redlining This blog post is the first in a series of posts that I’ve titled Red Boyle Heights. The series will focus on people and events in and around the community from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s. The Red refers to two unique aspects related to Boyle Heights during that era. In…
Talkin’ Hadda
On January 31st 2023, KCRW Public Radio was kind enough to invite me on for a brief 9-minute segment to talk about Hadda Brooks, as someone had told the producer of the show of my series of blog posts about her. Hadda had a long, eventful, and interesting life, so it was challenge to convey…
The Kaspare Cohn Hospital and the Mt. Sinai Hospital and Clinic, Part Five
Editor’s Note: We come to the end of this very interesting and informative post by Boyle Heights Historical Society Advisory Board member Rudy Martinez on the eastside origins of one of the signal medical care facilities in Los Angeles, including a fascinating politicized issue over a fresco mural at the Mount Sinai Home for the…
The Kaspare Cohn Hospital and the Mt. Sinai Hospital and Clinic, Part Four
Editor’s note: Sorry for the delay in getting this fourth part of this great post by Boyle Heights Historical Society Advisory Board member Rudy Martinez published. This part involves the later ownership of the former Kaspare Cohn Hospital property and introduces us to the early history of Mt. Sinai Hospital. The fifth and final part…
The Kaspare Cohn Hospital and the Mt. Sinai Hospital and Clinic, Part Three
Editor’s note: This third part of this excellent post by Boyle Heights Historical Society Advisory Board member Rudy Martinez takes us into the move and renaming of Kaspare Cohn Hospital to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in East Hollywood, as well as the fascinating and timely controversy involving a purported cancer treatment trial supported by cereal…
The Kaspare Cohn Hospital and the Mt. Sinai Hospital and Clinic, Part Two
Editor’s note: The second part of this post by Boyle Heights Historical Society Advisory Board member Rudy Martinez takes us to the move of the Kaspare Cohn Hospital from Angelino Heights to what was later called East Los Angeles [Lincoln Heights was the original East Los Angeles.] This part covers about a decade during the early…
The Kaspare Cohn Hospital and the Mt. Sinai Hospital and Clinic, Part One
Editor’s note: Boyle Heights Historical Society Advisory Board member Rudy Martinez returns again with another multi-part post on the fascinating history of Boyle Heights and the east side, covering the development of what evolved into today’s Cedar-Sinai Medical Center. We start with this first installment about the East Los Angeles location of the Kaspare Cohn…
Sam Haskins (1846-1895): He Answered His Last Alarm, Part Three
This third and final part of Boyle Heights Historical Society Advisory Board Member Rudy Martinez’ post on Samuel (Sam) Haskins, the first black member of the Los Angeles Fire Department, takes us to the long-overdue recognition of Haskins, who died in line of duty in an 1895 accident, being the first department member to do…
Sam Haskins (1846-1895): He Answered His Last Alarm, Part Two
The first part of this post by Boyle Heights Historical Society Advisory Board member Rudy Martinez introduced us to Samuel (Sam) Haskins, a native of Virginia who came to Los Angeles in the early 1880s and became involved in the political world of the city’s small but active black community. In June 1892, Haskins became…