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- Do you have information about A C Bilbrew, after whom the Library is named?
- Do you have information about Vincent Proby, the architect of the A C Bilbrew Library?
- What Indians lived in this area?
- Do you have general information about the history of the Willowbrook area?
- What can you tell me about past Black History Month celebrations at the Library?
- What can you tell me about the history of jazz on Central Avenue?
1. Do you have information about A C Bilbrew, after whom the Library is named?
Madame A C Bilbrew (1888-1992) was a community leader and a former deputy to
Los Angeles County Supervisor, Kenneth Hahn. She was also known world-wide for
her versatility as a musician and poet. She was a producer of pageants and
dramas, an outstanding dramatic reader, and a choral director. She received
national and international recognition for her performances on the stage and
in film. Despite her busy schedule, Madame Bilbrew gave freely of her time and
talents to the Willowbrook community, particularly in efforts directed toward
better understanding among youth.
Madame Bilbrew was born in Washington, Arkansas in 1888, as the seventh of ten
children of the Reverend S. L. and Rebecca Harris. She attended Texas College
in Tyler, Texas and studied piano at the University of Southern California
School of Music. She later married A. C. Bilbrew and became the mother of
three daughters.
In 1923, Madame Bilbrew was the first Black soloist to appear on radio. In
1940 to 1942, she directed and announced the "Gold Hour" which aired over Radio
Station KGFJ. In 1960, she was a delegate to the Women's Convention in
Copenhagen, Denmark, and was chosen by the "Women of the Soviet Union" to visit
Russia. In 1961, she was elected Chairman of the Fine Arts Department of the
National Council of Negro Women and founded the "Opportunity Workshop" for
cultural development of youths and adults for the Willowbrook community in
1963. Madame Bilbrew directed the Senior Choir of Phillips Temple C.M.E.
Church for a number of years, became director of the Radio Choir of Peoples
Independent Church of Christ, and directed the Radio Choir of Hamilton
Methodist Church. When the present library building was opened in November
of 1974, it was named in her honor.
Images:
- Madame A C Bilbrew, after whom the A C Bilbrew Library is named
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
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2. Do you have information about Vincent Proby, the architect of the A C Bilbrew Library?
Vincent Proby, the architect of the A C Bilbrew Library and numerous other
public and private buildings, was born in Wichita, Texas. He moved with his
family to Los Angeles at a very early age and attended Los Angeles Public
schools, Los Angeles Junior College, and the University of Southern California,
where he majored in architecture.
In the first years of his architectural career, he served as project manager
for many prominent buildings, among which were the Los Angeles Sports Arena
and the Las Vegas Airport, eventually founding his own firm. He designed many
projects in the state of California, including several buildings for the Los
Angeles Unified School District, several on the UCLA campus, and Los Angeles
City College, Pierce College, and Scripps Institute. His projects also
included banks, libraries, museums, medical buildings, churches, mortuaries,
private residences, children's centers, shopping centers, and military
buildings.
Proby was the first member of a minority group ever appointed to the State
Board of Architectural Examiners, where he served for eight years. During
that period, he was elected and served the organization as Secretary,
Vice-President, and President. He also served on a number of different
committees for the National Board of Architectural Examiners and assisted in
writing the National and California architectural examinations. He served as
an examination grader for ten years. In addition to his distinguished
architectural career, he also held the California Teaching Credential and
served for many years as a guest teacher for several state and private
universities.
Images:
- Vincent J. Proby, the architect who designed the A C Bilbrew Library
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
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3. What Indians lived in this area?
Native Americans who lived in the Los Angeles area spoke a language distinct
from their neighbors to the North and South of them. They have come to be
known as Gabrielinos, because many of those who survived European diseases and
the disruption of their normal trade patterns and culture went to the Mission
San Gabriel, some voluntarily, others only when confronted by force. The
Gabrielino lived in domed, circular structures with thatched exteriors. Both
men and women wore their hair long and used a vegetable charcoal dye and thorns
of flint slivers to tattoo their bodies. They required very few clothes,
though women usually donned deerskin or bark aprons, and all might wear animal
skin capes in cold or wet weather. Like most California Indians, the
Gabrielino of the South Gate area ate roots and berries, rabbits, antelope,
squirrels, crows, and other birds.
The first European to visit the future home of South Gate discovered many
Indian villages between the Pacific Ocean and the San Gabriel mountains. Two
villages, probably known as Tibahag-Na and Ahau, are thought to have been
located within the boundaries of the present community. Passing through during
the mid 1700s as part of Spaniard Gaspar de Portola's famous expedition from
San Diego to Monterey, Padre Juan Crespi observed that the Indians in the area
were very friendly. Nevertheless, during the late 1700s and early 1800s, after
dominating the Los Angeles basin area for hundreds of years, those Gabrielino
who did not flee were gradually moved to Spanish missions. Many became
laborers for local landowners. Most eventually adopted a new, more European
lifestyle. By the twentieth century, few traces of Gabrielino culture remained.
Website Links:
Print Sources:
- McCawley, William. The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles. Banning, CA: Malki Museum Press; Novato, CA: Ballena Press, 1996.
- The Historical volume and reference works: Los Angeles County, vol. 4. Arlington, CA: Historical Publishers, 1962-65.
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4. Do you have general information about the history of the Willowbrook area?
Willows and a slow, shallow brook distinguished this portion of the Los Angeles
plain long before it was given the name "Willowbrook." A lone-standing
streamside willow tree near the present intersection of 125th Street and Mona
Boulevard was an original rancho boundary marker in the 1840s.
Willowbrook was rich in springs in the early days and winter rains would bring
up fine stands of rye grass between gravelly ridges left by long-ago floods of
the Los Angeles River. As early as 1820, Don Anastacio Abila was grazing
cattle on the land and by 1843, the Mexican governor had granted him 4,500
acres. This grant was named the Rancho Tajauta and it extended from the
marshes along present Alameda Street westward to approximately the present
line of the Harbor Freeway. All of present-day Willowbrook is within the area
covered by Rancho Tajauta.
The first subdivisions in the Willowbrook area were filed in 1894 and 1895 on
land along what is now Rosecrans Boulevard. The first official use of the
name Willowbrook came in 1903, when the Willowbrook Tract was recorded with
the County Recorder. The tract straddled the newly opened Pacific Electric
railway line to Long Beach. There is no evidence that a townsite was
envisioned and street patterns were not coordinated with adjacent tracts. The
name Willowbrook came into use for the whole area, because the Big Red Cars of
the Pacific Electric Railroad Company stopped at 126th Street in Willowbrook.
Lot buyers in Willowbrook expected to live a definitely suburban life. The
deep lots (up to 300 feet deep in many cases) attracted working-class families,
especially newcomers to Southern California. The Big Red Cars provided fast,
reasonable transportation to department stores in downtown Los Angeles and to
jobs in the Long Beach and San Pedro harbor areas. During the Depression
years, residents used the land behind their homes to grow fruits and
vegetables, run hogs, and raise chickens. These land uses, together with the
vacant lots covered with mustard plants, intensified the area's rural
appearance. After the end of the Depression and World War II, increasing
suburban development occurred in Willowbrook, but not to the extent that it
substantially altered the area's rural character. Even the 1965 Watts Riots
did not change that, although Willowbrook suffered damage to a number of its
buildings, including Willowbrook's community library.
The mixture of suburban and rural land uses continued in Willowbrook into the
early 1980s, when the area began to lose its rural character due to a
redevelopment plan drafted by the Watts Labor Community Action Committee
(WLCAC) under the leadership of Ted Watkins and supported by Los Angeles
County. Under this plan, 365 acres of Willowbrook land was redeveloped to
provide new commercial and residential facilities. As a result, present-day
Willowbrook appears similar to other communities in the South Central section
of Los Angeles.
Website Links:
Images:
- Willowbrook Library, c. 1913
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
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5. What can you tell me about past Black History Month celebrations at the Library?
Since 1980, the A C Bilbrew library has hosted the County Library's African
American History Month Celebration. Eubie Blake was the first honoree of the
"Living Black History Tribute" (later the "African-American Living Legend"
series), a focus of the Library's celebration. Other honorees have included
Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, Coretta Scott King, and
Ray Charles. For more information about Black History Month, see the
following sources:
Website Links:
Images:
- Coretta Scott King at A C Bilbrew Library Black History Month Celebration, c. 1980s
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Library program for Black History Month celebration with Cab Calloway, 1981
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Count Basie at A C Bilbrew Library Black History Month Celebration, c. 1980s
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Ray Charles at A C Bilbrew Library Black History Month Celebration, c. 1990s
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
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6. What can you tell me about the history of jazz on Central Avenue?
Prior to the 1950s, when deed restrictions and zoning codes limited where
African-Americans could live or operate businesses, Central Avenue to the
south of downtown Los Angeles served as the focus of the African-American
community's residential, economic, and cultural development. Jazz found a
particular home here from the 1920s to the 1950s. The Hotel Dunbar was the
area's best known venue for Black jazz performers, including Count Basie, Ella
Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. For more information on
Central Avenue's jazz scene, see the following sources:
Website Links:
Print Sources:
- Bryant, Clora, ed., et al. Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
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