Watts Towers in Los Angeles: Revolutionary Vision

So my Nana and my Nina have this story of how, as young adults, they would wake up to the sounds of a hammer hitting metal. Imagine that one day a neighbor down the street starts hammering away on some personal project of his. The hammering goes on for years, all the day long, day in and day out. Clanging metal becomes part of the regular sounds of the neighborhood along with farm animals, kids playing in the street, and the occasional car horn. Preferring to work alone, the guy seems a bit "out there", but friendly, 'cause he collects a number of items from the local community and integrates them into his little pet project, which he liked to call, "Nuestro Pueblo" ("Our Town"). My Nana and Nina were two of the townspeople that exchanged bottles, plates, and other items with the man, sometimes for a penny or more. They'd use this extra income to go to the "show." And while the shows are long gone, and the community has changed, this guys art--and items my family gave him--remain part of his project to this day.

So yea, one day the hammering came to a halt. And there in this residential neighborhood of the 1950's stood 17 interconnected structures, two of which are taller than seven stories. That is the story of how the Watts Towers in Los Angeles, California, affected people like my Grandma and my Godmother, the people of "Nuestro Pueblo".


Simon Rodia built the Watts Towers between 1921 and 1954, and--withstanding the pressures of change and time--they have stood there ever since. The structures were made with such materials as steel pipes and rods, wire mesh, mortar, porcelain, tile, and glass. The structures are decorated with items that children and the local community brought to Rodia and also with items he found in the neighborhood and surrounding areas such as bed frames, recognizable soft-drink bottles (some bearing the logos of 7up, Squirt, and Canada Dry), ceramic tiles, scrap metal and sea shells.


The story goes that Rodia built the towers with no predetermined design and only used hand tools like hammers and window-washers' equipment. The towers are on the National Register of Historic Places, and are designated as a National Historic Landmark. Not only are some of my family's dishes part of this nationally recognized historic structure, but--more importantly to me--this structure, the time period it was created, and the community of the time is just another piece of LA that makes up part of my family's history.