Something Big

“I had it in my mind to do something big, and I did.” –Simon Rodia

After 34 years in a small house on a triangular lot in the Los Angeles community of Watts, 75-year-old Simon Rodia handed the property’s deed to a neighbor and walked away. What he left behind is a remarkable gift for the rest of us – a lofty monument to imagination, creativity and determination. Working in his spare time from his job as a tile-setter with only the most basic tools, Rodia single-handedly built Nuestro Pueblo, the awe-inspiring spires known to us as Watts Towers.

For anyone visiting LA, or for those of you who live here but haven’t made the effort, Watts Towers should be at the top of your bucket list. If you can’t get there in person, Bud Goldstone and Arloa Paquin Goldstone’s The Los Angeles Watts Towers,  is a great way to experience the towers and learn Rodia’s story. The book is richly illustrated with more than 100 color and b&w photos, including historic images of Rodia working on the towers.

Rodia built the towers without plans or training from bent steel wrapped in chicken wire and covered with his own cement recipe. He adorned them with ceramics, stones, seashells, and bits of blue and green bottles; he poured mortar into molds, including a corn bread baking pan in the shape of an ear of corn and added them; he made lively designs by imprinting the cement with faucet handles, wrought iron curlicues, rug beaters, heating registers, cooking utensils and other decorative elements, including his own tools.

To come face-to-face with Rodia’s free-flowing, non-stop creativity and industry is a humbling and inspirational experience.

When Rodia walked away from the towers in 1955 he handed the deed to his neighbor Louis Sauceda. Sauceda sold the property for less than $500 to another neighbor, Joseph Montoya, who thought it would make a nice taco stand. The taco stand idea never materialized and by 1957 the City of Los Angeles had issued an order to demolish the “dangerous” towers along with the remains of Rodia’s house which had by then burned to the ground. Lucky for us, the order was never served because the city couldn’t find Montoya.

In 1959 two young men came to see the towers. When they saw the neglect and damage that the towers had suffered since Rodia left, they immediately bought the towers from Montoya for $20 in cash, with a promise of several thousands to come. But when they went to pull a permit to build a caretaker’s cabin on the property, they ran head-long into the demolition order.

By this time the towers had become famous and there was wide-spread opposition to demolition. A group was formed, the Committee for Simon Rodia’s Towers in Watts, to fight the demolition.  The Committee was able to negotiate a deal with the city to allow for a stress test to see if the towers were strong enough to stand. The test was stopped when a steel beam that attached a hydraulic cylinder to the tower for the test began to bend. The towers were stronger than steel. My favorite photo in the book is a small black and white one of the committee members celebrating with raised arms in the Gazebo.

For this, and much, much more, please click.

Click here to purchase The Los Angeles Watts Towers on Amazon.com