"Elysian Park is their Playground": How Grace Simons Saved One of L.A. s Oldest Parks

When Grace E. Simons relocated to Los Angeles from New York in the early 1940s, she and husband Frank Glass settled into a little house on Morton Avenue, two blocks from Elysian Park. Over the next twenty years, Simons dedicated herself to a busy career as an editor and journalist, first at the Los Angeles Sentinel, and, later, the California Eagle. She spent much of her free time gardening and enjoying strolls in the nearby park, especially upon her retirement in the early 1960s.

So when in March 1965 the L.A. City Council approved a plan to build a convention center and exhibition hall on 63 acres of Elysian Park - and not just any 63 acres, but the park's most popular valley and picnic grounds near the Avenue of the Palms - Simons found it simply unacceptable that the Council viewed park space as merely [land] in storage' to be used for other purposes at the whim of city officials. [1] Although she had been a lifelong political activist, conservation was a new issue for her - but one important enough to spring her into action. To Simons, this beloved park was irreplaceable.

Photograph of Elysian Park, showing area that would have be destroyed by the convention center, including the historic Avenue of the Palms. Photo by Julius Shulman, courtesy of the USC Libraries - Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park records.

The proposal's timing seemed perverse, given that it came less than a year after the California state legislature allocated over $4 million to L.A. County for acquisition and improvement of public parks under the 1964 California Park Bond Act. In response to the legislation, the City Council's Recreation and Parks Committee outlined a strategy for creating new parks and improving older ones, a necessity in a park-poor city with a rapidly increasing population. These facts made it all the more perplexing that the City Council and Mayor Sam Yorty would endorse a proposal to destroy 63 acres of prime parkland.

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The proposed convention center's design offered very little in the way of architectural innovation. Yet a convention center would have made a stunning impact on the Elysian Park landscape. If the project had followed through with promised upgrades to the park's design and facilities, the park might have become more widely used by L.A. residents. More likely, however, is that the destruction to the park's landscaped picnic areas and increased traffic would have had a detrimental effect on park users and nearby neighbors. Any future expansion of the convention center would have further eroded parklands and exacerbated traffic congestion.

Convention Center advocate Neil Petree, architect Charles Luckman, and Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty with a model of the proposed development in 1966. Photo courtesy of the Herald-Examiner Collection - Los Angeles Public Library.

A model of the proposed Elysian Park Convention Center. Photo courtesy of the Herald-Examiner Collection - Los Angeles Public Library.

Another view of the model. Photo courtesy of the Herald-Examiner Collection - Los Angeles Public Library.

Prior to 1965, Elysian park's status as city-owned property left it vulnerable time and again to municipal officials seeking free land for specific projects.

Elysian Park is located just outside downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the 5 and 110 freeways. The park hugs Dodger Stadium on three sides, and both the 110 freeway and the Stadium Way thoroughfare run directly through the park. The park's 575 acres boast landscaped picnic and recreational spaces, steep hills, rocky terrain, deep ravines, and overgrown hiking paths, as well as stunning views of the Los Angeles basin.[2] Founded in 1886, Elysian Park was protected by the 1925 city charter, which guaranteed all designated parkland would remain in perpetual public use. [3] But the park has been plagued by neglect and underuse, aggravated by inconsistent funding and public policy that prioritized playgrounds and recreation over tranquil landscaping.[4] Prior to 1965, Elysian park's status as city-owned property left it vulnerable time and again to municipal officials seeking free land for specific projects in order to minimize fiscal impact.[5]

After World War II, encroachment on public parkland was aided by federal urban renewal policies that sanctioned condemnation if the land was needed for a public purpose such as highway construction. Elysian Park was one of many L.A. parks that lost acreage to highway construction, which brought air and noise pollution uncomfortably close active recreation areas.[6] Elysian Park also lost roughly 30 acres to Dodger Stadium, which reinforced the view that park space was merely undeveloped land that could be successfully appropriated by the city for non-park purposes. The adverse effects of the stadium's construction included damage to Elysian Park's irrigation system and the development of six-lane Stadium Way drive, which brought high-speed traffic through the park's most popular valley.[7] Despite the challenges posed by traffic and neglect, residents from nearby Latino and Asian communities continued to heavily patronize the park.

A 2009 view of Elysian Park, by the author.

Plan of proposed improvements to Elysian Park, 1966, from the Marvin Braude Papers, F: Elysian Park, Los Angeles City Archives.

Elysian Park was targeted as an attractive location for the convention center, in part, because it was seen as less expensive than other options. The City Council set a $10 million limit for the project. Because Elysian Park was municipally owned, it would save the city from land acquisition expenses and costly eminent domain proceedings needed at other potential sites.[8] Surprisingly, the city's

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