LOS ANGELES CITY NERD: More Trees!

Friday, July 28, 2006

More Trees!

With all the talk of trees in the City, the Bureau of Street Services Urban Forestry Division Launched their new Website.

Interesting to note, they list all the of the "Landmark" trees in the City. Out of the 9 listed, one is dead & since removed (#24), only one grouping is the official City Tree, the Coral Tree (#148), and over half of the locations are in the Valley.

(Interesting note: it is said that the Olive trees on Lassen (#49) are said to be trees from original clippings from the San Fernando Mission.)

4 comments:

Sahra Bogado said...: There is one tree that, though no longer standing, should be recognized as historically important to the citizens of the City of Los Angeles.

I am refering to a 60' high and 200' diameter sycamore tree that served as a meeting point for the Tongva people adjacent to Yangna (the site of the Tongva's main settlement).

The tree died in 1897 (according to the article "From Site of Ancient Tribal Tree, the City of Angels Grew" by Cecilia Rasmussen, Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1997, pgs. B1 & B8) as buildings encroached on it's root base. The tree is said to have been located near the site of the "Philadelphia Brewery".

L.A. City Nerd: do you know where this brewery is/was?

There oughta be a plaque!; 6:09 AM
Sahra Bogado said...: After searching around the internet, I have found some evidence that the Philadelphia Brewery was located on Aliso Street, and was included in the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps kept at the Central Library in Downtown L.A. That should help locate the site of this brewery, but the report that the massive tree was adjacent to the brewery (from the above cited L.A. Times article) needs to be confirmed.

Anyone else want to help find out where this massive tree once stood, and try to get some sort of official recognition for it?; 7:47 AM
Sahra Bogado said...: The location I've gotten from an MTA Draft EIR that is floating around the internet for the Gold Line Extension states that the "Maier & Zobelein Brewery [...] was located at the northwest corner of Commercial and Vignes Streets"

There is also a forum discussion about two men getting killed while digging for old beer cans when the MTA was doing some grading/shoring work on the site of the former brewery.

I really think that this tree should be acknowledged in some way. It stood for 400 years (according to things I've read on the net), and it seems very symbolic (almost mythic) when viewed in the context of the history of this City and the story of the native people of the area.

Funny that the MTA deemed the brewery site as historically insignificant. Not an unexpected finding coming from the same agency that didn't know an old graveyard was waiting for them in Boyle Heights.; 3:03 PM
Anonymous said...: Oh, you know I am ON this one.; 5:53 PM