Miracle Mile, Los Angeles
The Miracle Mile is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California. It contains a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard known as Museum Row, it contains two Historic Preservation Overlay Zones: The Miracle Mile HPOZ and the Miracle Mile North HPOZ. The Miracle Mile's boundaries are 3rd Street on the north, Highland Avenue on the east, San Vicente Boulevard on the south, Fairfax Avenue on the west. Major thoroughfares include Wilshire and Olympic Boulevards, La Brea and Fairfax Avenues, 6th Street. Google Maps identifies an irregularly shaped area labeled “Miracle Mile” that runs from Ogden Drive on the west to Citrus Avenue and La Brea Avenue on the east; the north is bordered by 4th Street and on the south is 12th Street. In the early 1920s, Wilshire Boulevard west of Western Avenue was an unpaved farm road, extending through dairy farms and bean fields. Developer A. W. Ross saw potential for the area and developed Wilshire as a commercial district to rival downtown Los Angeles; the Miracle Mile development was anchored by the May Company Department Store with its landmark 1939 Streamline Moderne building on the west and the E. Clem Wilson Building on the east Los Angeles's tallest commercial building.
The Wilson Building had a dirigible mast on top and was home to a number of businesses and professionals relocating from downtown. The success of the new alternative commercial and shopping district negatively affected downtown real estate values and triggered development of the multiple downtowns which characterize contemporary Los Angeles. Ross's insight was that the form and scale of his Wilshire strip should attract and serve automobile traffic rather than pedestrian shoppers, he applied this design both to the buildings lining it. Ross gave Wilshire various "firsts," including dedicated left-turn lanes and timed traffic lights, the first in the United States, he required merchants to provide automobile parking lots, all to aid traffic flow. Major retailers such as Desmond's, Silverwood's, May Co. Coulter's, Mullen & Bluett, Myer Siegel, Seibu spread down Wilshire Boulevard from Fairfax to La Brea. Ross ordered that all building facades along Wilshire be engineered so as to be best seen through a windshield.
This meant larger, simpler signage and longer buildings in a larger scale. They had to be oriented toward the boulevard and architectural ornamentation and massing must be perceptible at 30 MPH instead of at walking speed; these building forms were driven by practical requirements but contributed to the stylistic language of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne. Ross's moves were unprecedented, a huge commercial success, proved influential. Ross had invented the car-oriented urban form — what Reyner Banham called "the linear downtown" model adopted across the United States; the moves contributed to Los Angeles's reputation as a city dominated by the car. A sculptural bust of Ross stands at 5800 Wilshire, with the inscription, "A. W. Ross and developer of the Miracle Mile. Vision to see, wisdom to know, courage to do." As wealth and newcomers poured into the fast-growing city, Ross's parcel became one of Los Angeles's most desirable areas. Acclaimed as "America's Champs-Élysées," this stretch of Wilshire near the La Brea Tar Pits was named "Miracle Mile" for its improbable rise to prominence.
Although the preponderance of shopping malls and the development in the 1960s of financial and business districts in downtown and Century City lessened the Miracle Mile's importance as a retail and business center, the area has retained its vitality thanks to the addition of several museums and commercial high-rises. An Art Deco style bank at 5209 Wilshire was built in 1929, joined a select other Miracle Mile buildings when listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was designed by the architecture firm of Morgan, Walls & Clements, which designed the Wiltern Theatre, the El Capitan Theatre, other notable buildings in Los Angeles. Note: According to historian David Leighton, of the Arizona Daily Star newspaper the Miracle Mile in Tucson, Arizona derives its name from Los Angeles' Miracle Mile; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Petersen Automotive Museum, A+D Museum and Folk Art Museum, George C. Page Museum, La Brea Tar Pits pavilions, among others, create "Museum Row" on the Miracle Mile.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, designed by Renzo Piano, will be located in the former May Company Department Store on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. A new contemporary structure for the museum's theaters will be located behind the building. Miracle Mile contains two Historic Preservation Overlay Zones; the Miracle Mile HPOZ comprises 1,347 properties. Its boundaries are Wilshire Boulevard to the north, San Vicente Boulevard to the south, La Brea Avenue to the east, Orange Grove Avenue to the west, it is located in the Mid-Wilshire community. The Miracle Mile North HPOZ consists of single-family residences which are uniform in scale and setbacks, the majority of which were built from 1924 to 1941, its boundaries are Detroit Streets, between Beverly Boulevard and Third Street. It is located in the Beverly-Fairfax community; the Miracle Mile District is one of the city's more densely populated areas. To alleviate problems and provide an alternative to automobiles for commuters, Los Angeles Metro's Purple Line subway is being extended along Wilshire Boulevard to the Veterans Affairs Hospital, from its current terminus at Western Avenue in Koreatown.
However, a federal ban on tunneling operations in the area was passed at the behest of the district's Congressional representative Henry Waxman af
West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood referred to as WeHo, is a city in Los Angeles County, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip; as of the 2010 U. S. Census, its population was 34,399, it is considered one of the most prominent gay villages in the United States. West Hollywood is bounded by the city of Beverly Hills on the west, on other sides by neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles: Hollywood Hills on the north, Hollywood on the east, the Fairfax District on the southeast, Beverly Grove on the southwest; the city's irregular boundary is featured in its logo. West Hollywood benefits from a dense, compact urban form with small lots, mixed land use, a walkable street grid. According to Walkscore, a website that ranks cities based on walkability, West Hollywood is the most walkable city in California with a Walkscore of 89. Commercial corridors include the nightlife and dining focused on the Sunset Strip, along Santa Monica Boulevard, the Avenues of Art and Design along Robertson and Beverly Boulevard.
Residential neighborhoods in West Hollywood include the Norma Triangle, West Hollywood North, West Hollywood West, West Hollywood East, West Hollywood Heights, all of which are only a few blocks long or wide. Major intersecting streets provide amenities within walking distance of adjacent neighborhoods. West Hollywood has a Subtropical-semi-arid climate with year-round warm weather; the record high temperature of 111 °F was recorded September 26, 1963, while the record low of 24 °F was recorded on January 4, 1949. Snow is rare in West Hollywood, with the last accumulation occurring in 1949. Rainfall is sparse, falls during the winter months. Most historical writings about West Hollywood began in the late-18th century with European colonization when the Portuguese explorer João Rodrigues Cabrilho arrived offshore and claimed the inhabited region for Spain. Around 5,000 of the indigenous inhabitants from the Tongva Indian tribe canoed out to greet Juan Cabrillo; the Tongva tribe was a nation of hunter-gatherers known for their reverence of courage.
By 1771, these native people had been ravaged by diseases brought in by the Europeans from across wide oceans. The Spanish mission system changed the tribal name to "Gabrielinos", in reference to the Mission de San Gabriel. Early in 1770 Gaspar de Portola's Mexican expeditionary force stopped just south of the Santa Monica Mountains near what would become West Hollywood to draw pitch from tar pits to waterproof their belongings and to say mass; the Gabrielinos are believed to have burned the pitch for fuel. By 1780, what became the "Sunset Strip" was the major connecting road for El Pueblo de Los Angeles, all ranches westward to the Pacific Ocean; this land passed through the hands of various owners during the next one hundred years, it was called names such as "La Brea" and "Plummer" that are listed in historical records. Most of this area was part of the Rancho La Brea, it came to be owned by the Henry Hancock family. During the final decade years of the nineteenth century, the first large land development in what would become West Hollywood—the town of "Sherman"—was established by Moses Sherman and his partners of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, an interurban railroad line which became part of the Pacific Electric Railway system.
Sherman became the location of the railroad's main shops, railroad yards, "car barns". Many working-class employees of the railroad settled in this town, it was during this time that the city began to earn its reputation as a loosely regulated, liquor-friendly place for eccentric people wary of government interference. Despite several annexation attempts, the town elected not to become part of the City of Los Angeles. In a controversial decision, in 1925 Sherman adopted "West Hollywood", "...a moniker pioneered earlier in the decade by the West Hollywood Realty Board" as its informal name, though it remained under the governance of Los Angeles County. For many years, the area, now the city of West Hollywood was an unincorporated area in the midst of Los Angeles; because gambling was illegal in the city of Los Angeles, but still legal in Los Angeles County, the 1920s saw the proliferation of many casinos, night clubs, etc. along Sunset Boulevard. These businesses were immune from the sometimes heavy-handed law-enforcement of the L.
A. Police Department; some people connected with movie-making were attracted to this less-restricted area of the County, a number of architecturally distinctive apartment buildings and apartment hotels were built. Many interior designers, decorators and "to the trade" furnishing showrooms located in West Hollywood date back to the middle of the century; the area and its extravagant nightclubs fell out of favor. However, the Sunset Strip and its restaurants and nightclubs continued to be an attraction for out-of-town tourists. During the late 1960s, the Sunset Strip was transformed again during the hippie movement which brought a thriving music publishing industry coupled with "hippie" culture; some young people from all over the country flocked to West Hollywood. The most recent migration to West Hollywood came about after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when thousands of Russian Jews immigrated to the city. A majority of the 5,000 to 6,000 Russian Jews settled in two major immigration waves, 1978–79 and 1988–92.
Other than New York, West Hollywood's Russian-speaking community is the most concentrated single Russian-speaking region in United States. In 1984, resid
Gilmore Field
Gilmore Field was a minor league baseball park in Los Angeles, that served as home to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League from 1939–57 when they, along with their intra-city rivals, the Los Angeles Angels, were displaced by the transplanted Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. Gilmore Field opened on May 2, 1939 and was the home of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League until September 5, 1957; the stadium had a seating capacity of 12,987 people. It was there on September 23, 1948, that Ronald Reagan introduced President Harry S. Truman at a campaign rally, the first time that Reagan met a U. S President; the ballpark was located on the south side of Beverly Boulevard between Genesee Avenue and The Grove Drive, just east of where CBS Television City is located. A couple hundred meters to the west was Gilmore Stadium, an oval-shaped venue built several years earlier, used for football games and midget auto racing. To the east was the famous Pan-Pacific Auditorium. Both facilities were built by Earl Gilmore, son of Arthur F. Gilmore and president of A. F. Gilmore Oil, a California-based petroleum company, developed after Arthur struck oil on the family property.
The area was rich in petroleum, the source of the "tar" in the nearby La Brea Tar Pits. The Gilmore Drive-In Theater was built, just south of the ballpark and east of the Farmers Market; the field had intimate quarters from the spectator standpoint – first and third bases were 7.2 meters from the first row of seats. Home plate was 10.2 meters from the stands. The outfield gave the pitchers more of a break with foul lines 101 meters long, power alleys about 116 meters, 123 meters to center field; the power alleys were thus 12 meters deeper than in Wrigley Field. The diamond was situated in the northwest corner of the field. In 1938 Herbert Fleishaker, owner of the Mission Reds moved his team to Los Angeles, took the name of the Hollywood Stars after the city's previous PCL franchise. After but one season, the team was sold to new owners, among them Bob Cobb of Brown Derby Restaurant fame and the inventor of the California Cobb Salad. In their salad days, as it were, the Stars attracted glamorous actors and other celebrities or anyone else who wanted to be "seen", much as Dodger Stadium would later.
One of the L. A. Angels players, Chuck Connors, made a successful move from one side of the box seat railing to the other, becoming the star in The Rifleman, a popular 1950's TV show; the Stars would play at Gilmore Field through the 1957 season. In 1948, Gilmore Field became the spring training location for the Pittsburgh Pirates; the Hollywood Bears football team of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League played at the stadium in 1940–1942 and 1945. Although L. A.'s Wrigley Field seemed to get the lion's share of Hollywood screen time, Gilmore Field had its moments on celluloid. It was featured in a 1949 movie called The Stratton Story, starring James Stewart and June Allyson, the true story of a promising pitcher whose career was curtailed due to a hunting accident that left him with an artificial leg. Stratton's major league baseball career was over; the scenes at the end of the movie were filmed at Gilmore Field. The layout of the outfield, the exceptionally high left and right field corners, help to identify it.
In The Atomic City, Gilmore Field plays the site of a "Communist spy drop" during a game, with the still-new televising of the game providing the FBI agents with close-ups. Gilmore Field was seen in the movie 711 Ocean Drive. Half of the neon art deco "Hollywood Stars" sign, above the stadium entrance, is visible; the ballpark site was abandoned after 1957. Gilmore Field was razed in 1958, beginning soon after an announcement in the Los Angeles Times of January 17. Much of the site is now occupied by a parking lot near the Farmers Market. In September 1997, the Pacific Coast League Historical Society, CBS, the A. F. Gilmore Company dedicated a bronze plaque in commemoration of Gilmore Field on a wall outside CBS Studio 46. "The Ferris Wheel", one of the episodes of "Rescue 8", a syndicated United States television series broadcast in September 1958, was filmed at the demolition of Gilmore Field and includes many views of the stadium as it was being razed. "Lost Ballparks" by Lawrence Ritter. Colorized postcard of Gilmore Stadium, Gilmore Field, Pan Pacific Auditorium and Farmers Market Gilmore Field Model
Gilmore Stadium
Gilmore Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Los Angeles, California. It was opened in May 1934 and demolished in 1952, when the land was used to build CBS Television City; the stadium held 18,000. It was located next to Gilmore Field; the stadium was located west of Curson Avenue, surrounded by Beverly Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue and Third Street. The stadium was built by Earl Gilmore, son of Arthur F. Gilmore and president of A. F. Gilmore Oil, a California-based petroleum company, developed after Arthur struck oil on the family property; the area was rich in petroleum, the source of the "tar" in the nearby La Brea Tar Pits. It was used for American football games at both the collegiate level; the stadium was the home of the Los Angeles Bulldogs, the first professional football team in Los Angeles. The Bulldogs competed as an independent team before joining the second American Football League in 1937 and winning its championship with a perfect 8–0–0 record, the first professional football team to win its championship with an unblemished record.
After the collapse of the league, the Bulldogs returned to being an independent team before joining the American Professional Football Association in 1939. The Bulldogs became charter members of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League in 1940 and played in Gilmore Stadium until 1948, when the team moved to Long Beach, for its final season; the stadium was home to another professional football teams, the Los Angeles Mustangs of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League. Gilmore Stadium was the site of two 1940 National Football League Pro Bowls; the stadium was home to the collegiate Loyola Marymount Lions football team and Pepperdine Waves football team. On January 14, 1940, the 1939 NFL champion Green Bay Packers met an All-Star team consisting of players from the nine other NFL clubs in the second NFL All-Star game in history; the Packers won 16–7. Extra seating was added to accommodate 21,000 fans for the Pro Bowl for the 1940 NFL season; the crowd set a record as the largest to view a Los Angeles pro game.
The event was held on December 29, 1940. The game pitted the 1940 NFL Champion Chicago Bears against an All-Star team from the other NFL clubs in the third NFL All-Star game; the Bears won 28–14. The Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League played here early in the in 1939 season, while awaiting completion of Gilmore Field's construction; the diamond was situated in the southwest "corner" of the stadium, with right field so close that baseballs hit over the fence in that area were ground-rule doubles. While the first modern-day midget car racing program took place at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, California in June 1933, Loyola Stadium became the starting point in Southern California in August 1933, Gilmore Stadium is billed as the first track purposely built for the new style of racing; the track hosted midget car racing from the track's debut in May 1934 to 1950. The 1939 Turkey Night Grand Prix was held at the track. Rodger Ward drove Vic Edelbrock's midget car in a famous August 1950 event at Gilmore Stadium.
Ward shocked the racing world by breaking Offenhauser engine's winning streak by sweeping the events at Gilmore Stadium that night. Notable drivers that raced at the track include Bill Betteridge, Fred Friday, Walt Faulkner, Perry Grimm, Sam Hanks, Curly Mills, Danny Oakes, Roy Russing, Bob Swanson, Bill Vukovich, Rodger Ward, Karl Young. Drivers that were killed at the track include Ed Haddad, Swede Lindskog, Speedy Lockwood, Frankie Lyons, Chet Mortemore. In the sixteen years of the stadium's existence, over 5 million fans attended races at the track; the stadium drew crowds over 18,000 people each race. Attendance dropped to below 9,000 at normal weekly races by the late 1940s; the attendance drop and increased demand for property in West Hollywood led to the track's sale in 1950. It was torn down in 1951; some of its grandstand was installed at Saugus Speedway. It hosted donkey baseball, dog shows, at least one cricket match. Esther Williams performed in a water ballet performance. A temporary above ground pool was constructed for the event.
Several professional boxing title matches. U. S. President Harry S. Truman delivered his "stiff upper lip" speech in the stadium. Gilmore Stadium was featured in a 1934 Three Stooges short featuring a football game, fittingly titled Three Little Pigskins; the scoreboard, with the name of the stadium, appears prominently in several shots, as does a billboard advertising Gilmore products. A sign for the nearby Fairfax Theater, across Beverly Boulevard at the north end of the stadium, is visible in the background a couple of times. On May 19, 1947, Gilmore Stadium was packed with people waiting to hear a speech by Progressive Party candidate for President Henry A. Wallace. Wallace served as vice president under FDR and was the Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of Commerce. Speaking at the event was actress Katharine Hepburn, whose speech stole the show. Colorized postcard of Gilmore Stadium, Gilmore Field, Pan Pacific Auditorium and Farmers Market A collection of pictures of Gilmore Stadiums various usages
Mexican Cession
The Mexican Cession is the region in the modern-day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U. S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. This region had not been part of the areas east of the Rio Grande, claimed by the Republic of Texas, though the Texas annexation resolution two years earlier had not specified the southern and western boundary of the new State of Texas; the Mexican Cession was the third largest acquisition of territory in US history. The largest was the Louisiana Purchase, with some 827,000 sq. miles, followed by the acquisition of Alaska. Most of the area had been the Mexican territory of Alta California, while a southeastern strip on the Rio Grande had been part of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico, most of whose area and population were east of the Rio Grande on land, claimed by the Republic of Texas since 1835, but never controlled or approached aside from the Texan Santa Fe Expedition. Mexico controlled the territory known as the Mexican Cession, with considerable local autonomy punctuated by several revolts and few troops sent from central Mexico, in the period from 1821–22 after independence from Spain up through 1846 when U.
S. military forces seized control of California and New Mexico on the outbreak of the Mexican–American War. The northern boundary of the 42nd parallel north was set by the Adams–Onís Treaty signed by the United States and Spain in 1821 and ratified by Mexico in 1831 in the Treaty of Limits; the eastern boundary of the Mexican Cession was the Texas claim at the Rio Grande and extending north from the headwaters of the Rio Grande, not corresponding to Mexican territorial boundaries. The southern boundary was set by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which followed the Mexican boundaries between Alta California and Baja California and Sonora; the United States paid Mexico $15 million for the land. Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico were captured soon after the start of the war and the last resistance there was subdued in January 1847, but Mexico would not accept the loss of territory. Therefore, during 1847, troops from the United States invaded central Mexico and occupied the Mexican capital of Mexico City, but still no Mexican government was willing to ratify transfer of the northern territories to the U.
S. It was uncertain. There was an All of Mexico Movement proposing complete annexation of Mexico among Eastern Democrats, but opposed by Southerners like John C. Calhoun who wanted additional territory for their crops but not the large population of central Mexico. Nicholas Trist forced the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, explicitly redefining the border between Mexico and the United States in early 1848 after President Polk had attempted to recall him from Mexico as a failure. Although Mexico did not overtly cede any land under the treaty, the redefined border had the effect of transferring Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico to the control of the United States. Important, the new border acknowledged Mexico's loss of Texas, both the core eastern portion and the western claims, neither of, formally recognized by Mexico until that time; the U. S. Senate approved the treaty, rejecting amendments from both Jefferson Davis to annex most of northeastern Mexico and Daniel Webster not to take Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico.
The United States paid $15,000,000 for the land, agreed to assume $3.25 million in debts to US citizens. While technically the territory was purchased by the United States, the $15 million payment was credited against Mexico's debt to the U. S. at that time. The Mexican Cession as ordinarily understood amounted to 525,000 square miles, or 14.9% of the total area of the current United States. If the disputed western Texas claims are included, that amounts to a total of 750,000 square miles. If all of Texas had been seized, since Mexico had not acknowledged the loss of any part of Texas, the total area ceded under this treaty comes to 915,000 square miles. Considering the seizures, including all of Texas, Mexico lost 54% of its pre-1836 territory in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. For only fifteen years from 1821 and the Texan Revolt in 1836, the Mexican Cession formed 42% of the country of Mexico. Beginning in the early seventeenth century, a chain of Roman Catholic missions and settlements extended into the New Mexico region following the course of the Rio Grande from the El Paso area to Santa Fe.
Soon after the war started and long before negotiation of the new Mexico–United States border, the question of slavery in the territories to be acquired polarized the Northern and Southern United States in the bitterest sectional conflict up to this time, which lasted for a deadlock of four years during which the Second Party System broke up, Mormon pioneers settled Utah, the California Gold Rush settled California, New Mexico under a federal military U. S government turned back Texas's attempt to assert control over territory Texas claimed as far west as the Rio Grande; the Compromise of 1850 preserved the Union, but only for another decade. Proposals included: The Wilmot Proviso, created by Congressman David Wilmot, banning slavery in any new territory to be acquired from Mexico, no
Juan Bautista Alvarado
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo was a Californio and Governor of Las Californias from 1837 to 1842. In 1836, he led a coup that seized Monterey and declared himself governor, backed by other northern Californios, with help from Capt. Isaac Graham and his "Tennessee Rifles". Alvarado declared independence for California but, after negotiations with the territorial Diputación, was persuaded to rejoin Mexico peacefully in exchange for more local autonomy; as part of the agreement, in 1837 he was appointed governor of Las Californias, served until 1842. Alvarado was born in Alta California, to Jose Francisco Alvarado and María Josefa Vallejo, his grandfather Juan Bautista Alvarado accompanied Gaspar de Portolà as an enlisted man in the Spanish Army in 1769. His father died a few months after his birth and his mother remarried three years leaving Juan Bautista in the care of his grandparents on the Vallejo side, where he and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo grew up together, they were both taught by an English merchant living in Monterey.
In 1827 the eighteen-year-old Alvarado was hired as secretary to the territorial legislature. In 1829 he was arrested along with Vallejo and another friend, José Castro, by soldiers involved in the military revolt led by Joaquín Solis. In 1831 he built a house in Monterey for his mistress, Juliana Francisca Ramona y Castillo, whom he called "Raymunda", to live in. Over the years, the pair had a total of at least two illegitimate daughters whom he recognized and several more he did not recognize, but he never married their mother. During this period Alvarado began drinking heavily. One of his daughters claimed that Raymunda had refused to marry Alvarado because of his excessive drinking. Alvarado supported secularization of the Spanish missions in California, he was appointed by José María de Echeandía to oversee the turn over of Mission San Miguel though Echeandía was no longer governor. The new governor Manuel Victoria rescinded the order and sought to have Alvarado and Castro arrested; the pair fled and were hidden by their old friend Vallejo, who had become adjutant at the Presidio of San Francisco.
However, Victoria was unpopular and Echeandía overthrew his rule and replaced him with Pío de Jesús Pico near the end of 1831. Secularization of the missions resumed in 1833. In 1834 Alvarado was elected to the legislature as a delegate and appointed customs inspector in Monterey. Governor José Figueroa granted Rancho El Sur, two square leagues of land, or about 9,000 acres, south of Monterey, to Alvarado on October 30, 1834. After Figueroa's death in September 1835, Nicolás Gutiérrez was appointed as interim governor in January 1836, he was replaced by Mariano Chico in April, but Chico was unpopular. His intelligence agents told him that yet another Californio revolt was brewing, so he fled back to Mexico, claiming he planned to gather troops against the independent Californios. Instead, Mexico reprimanded him for abandoning his post. Gutierrez, the military commandant, re-assumed the governorship, but like the Mexican governors before him, the Californios forced him, too, to flee; as senior members of the legislature and Castro, with political support from Vallejo and backing from a group of Tennesseans led by Capt.
Isaac Graham, forced Gutierrez out of the country. Alvarado's Californio coup wrote a constitution and adopted a new flag—a single red star on a white background, but neither were used after Alvarado made peace with Mexico. Alvarado, at age 27, was appointed governor, but the city council of Los Angeles protested. Alvarado and Graham went south and negotiated a compromise after three months, avoiding a civil war. However, the city council of San Diego voiced its disagreement with Alvarado's revolt; this time, the Mexican government was involved and there were rumors that the Mexican Army was ready to step in. Alvarado was able to negotiate another compromise to keep the peace. Mexico reneged on the agreement and appointed Carlos Antonio Carrillo, popular among the southerners, governor on December 6, 1837; this time, civil war broke out and after several battles, Carrillo was forced out. Mexico relented and recognized Alvarado as governor. Alvarado married Doña Martina Castro on August 24, 1839 in Santa Clara, but didn't attend his own wedding having his half-brother, Jose Antonio Estrada, stand in for him.
Though he claimed to be detained in Monterey on official business, it was rumored he was drunk and unable to function. After the wedding, Alvarado lived with his bride in Monterey, but continued on with mistress, who lived nearby; the process of secularization of the missions was in its final stages, it was at this time that Alvarado parceled out much of their land to prominent Californios via land grants. Though he took no land for himself, he did however, trade his Rancho El Sur to John B. R. Cooper in exchange for Rancho Bolsa del Potrero which he subsequently sold back to Cooper, he purchased Rancho El Alisal near Salinas in 1841 from his former tutor William Hartnell. In April 1840 a report of a planned revolt against Alvarado by a group of foreigners, led by former ally Isaac Graham, caused the governor to order their arrest and deportation to Mexico City for trial, they were however, acquitted of all charges in June 1841. In 1841, political leaders in the United States were declaring their doctrine of Manifest Destiny, Californios grew concerned over their intentions.
Vallejo conferred with Castro and
Spanish missions in California
The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in today's U. S. State of California. Founded by Catholic priests of the Franciscan order to evangelize the Native Americans, the missions led to the creation of the New Spain province of Alta California and were part of the expansion of the Spanish Empire into the most northern and western parts of Spanish North America. Following long-term secular and religious policy of Spain in Spanish America, the missionaries forced the native Californians to live in settlements called reductions, disrupting their traditional way of life; the missionaries introduced European fruits, cattle, horses and technology. The missions have been accused by critics and now, of various abuses and oppression. In the end, the missions had mixed results in their objectives: to convert and transform the natives into Spanish colonial citizens. By 1810, Spain's king had been imprisoned by the French, financing for military payroll and missions in California ceased.
In 1821, Mexico achieved independence from Spain, although Mexico did not send a governor to California until 1824, only a portion of payroll was reinstated. The 21,000 Mission Indians produced hide and tallow and wool and textiles at this time, the leather products were exported to Boston, South America, Asia which sustained the colonial economy from 1810 until 1830, but tended to give British or New England merchant captains importance; the missions began to lose control over land in the 1820s, as unpaid military men unofficially encroached, but missions maintained authority over native neophytes and control of land holdings until the 1830s. At the peak of its development in 1832, the coastal mission system controlled an area equal to one-sixth of Alta California; the Alta California government secularized the missions after the passage of the Mexican secularization act of 1833. This divided the mission lands into land grants, in effect legitimizing and completing the transfer of Indian congregation lands to military commanders and their most loyal men.
The surviving mission buildings are the state's oldest structures and its most-visited historic monuments. They have become a symbol of California, appearing in many movies and television shows, are an inspiration for Mission Revival architecture; the oldest cities of California formed around or near Spanish missions, including the four largest: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco. Prior to 1754, grants of mission lands were made directly by the Spanish Crown. But, given the remote locations and the inherent difficulties in communicating with the territorial governments, power was transferred to the viceroys of New Spain to grant lands and establish missions in North America. Plans for the Alta California missions were laid out under the reign of King Charles III, came at least in part as a response to recent sightings of Russian fur traders along the California coast in the mid 1700s; the missions were to be interconnected by an overland route which became known as the Camino Real.
The detailed planning and direction of the missions was to be carried out by Friar Junípero Serra, O. F. M.. The Rev. Fermín Francisco de Lasuén took up Serra's work and established nine more mission sites, from 1786 through 1798. Work on the coastal mission chain was concluded in 1823, completed after Serra's death in 1784. Plans to build a twenty-second mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 were canceled; the Rev. Pedro Estévan Tápis proposed establishing a mission on one of the Channel Islands in the Pacific Ocean off San Pedro Harbor in 1784, with either Santa Catalina or Santa Cruz being the most locations, the reasoning being that an offshore mission might have attracted potential people to convert who were not living on the mainland, could have been an effective measure to restrict smuggling operations. Governor José Joaquín de Arrillaga approved the plan the following year, however an outbreak of sarampion killing some 200 Tongva people coupled with a scarcity of land for agriculture and potable water left the success of such a venture in doubt, so no effort to found an island mission was made.
In September 1821,the Rev. Mariano Payeras, "Comisario Prefecto" of the California missions, visited Cañada de Santa Ysabel east of Mission San Diego de Alcalá as part of a plan to establish an entire chain of inland missions; the Santa Ysabel Asistencia had been founded in 1818 as a "mother" mission, the plan's expanding beyond never came to fruition. In addition to the presidio and pueblo, the misión was one of the three major agencies employed by the Spanish sovereign to extend its borders and consolidate its colonial territories. Asistencias were small-scale missions that conducted Mass on days of obligation but lacked a resident priest; the Spanish Californians had never strayed from the coast. Each frontier station was forced to be self-supporting, as existing means of supply were inadequate to maintain a
