Christine Sterling

[The following is excerpted from the forthcoming book A History of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument , Its People, Buildings and Site by Jean Bruce Poole, Historic Museum Director, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument.]

By the 1920s, the entire Plaza area [traditionally considered the historic "birthplace" of Los Angeles] including Olvera Street had become seedy and run down . . .  At this point Mrs. Christine Sterling (1881-1963) entered the picture.  She was a woman of immense energy who loved history.  As she walked the historic streets of Los Angeles , she was appalled to see how deteriorated they had become. She was even further distressed when she discovered that the city planned to build an enormous railway station for the three railroad companies servicing Los Angeles which would replace all of its historic buildings.  Only the old Plaza Catholic church and the buildings on the west side of Main Street were to be spared. That plan, fortunately, was to go by the boards and the decision was made in 1931 to select for the site of the station a section of land east of Alameda Street [which] . . . was found be be cheaper to acquire than those to the west.

Mrs. Sterling had years of confrontation to face. In 1926, she found a condemnation notice on the door of the Avila Adobe [the oldest remaining home in Los Angeles ] and she swung into action to save it. An agreement with the owners, the Rimpau family, descendents of the Avilas, allowed her to renovate the adobe and start a campaign to create, on Olvera Street , a place for Mexican people to sell goods and food and represent their culture. Mrs. Sterling conceived of the notion that this area should be a "Spanish-American social and commercial center, a spot of beauty as a gesture of appreciation to Mexico and Spain for our historical past." In the next couple of years she applied herself to selling this idea to civic leaders, but it resulted, as she put it: " . . . in miles of conversation but no definite results."

November 29, 1928 was the turning point. A final condemnation notice had been posted on the Avila Adobe and the building was about to be torn down. Mrs. Sterling posted an attention-getting sign in front of the adobe proclaiming the history of the 110 year-old building and asking: "If this old landmark is not worthy of preservation then there is no Sentiment, no Patriotism, no Country, no Flag.  Los Angeles will be forever marked a transient, Orphan city if she allows her roots to rot in a soil of impoverished neglect."

This stirring appeal brought out newspaper reporters and the campaign took on momentum. But Mrs. Sterling quickly found that renovating the adobe was only one step in cleaning up the area. "It was soon very apparent however that unless the street in front of the adobe could be paved and the surrounding buildings repaired," [she wrote,] "the future of the old house was very limited.  Olvera Street was not only a filthy alley, but was a crime hole of the worst description. Bootleggers, white slave operators, dope operations; all had headquarters and hiding places on the street."

Mrs. Sterling went to Harry Chandler, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, to ask for help. He was interested in the project and decided to hold a luncheon for civic dignitaries. After the meal Mrs. Sterling asked the guests for financial support to "pave and beautify the street." The Los Angeles County Sheriff arranged for prisoners to work on grading and tiling. Five other men offered to donate funds to cover the cost of materials. They included Harry Chandler himself; Henry O'Melveny, a prominent lawyer; Lucien N. Brunswig, president of Brunswig Drug Company; James R. Martin, a banker and member of the firm of Torrance, Marshall & Company; and General Moses H. Sherman, owner of the Los Angeles Electric Railway Company and Rudolfo Montes, who later started the Port Authority in New Orleans. This was the beginning of the Plaza de Los Angeles Inc., the corporation that oversaw the development of the Mexican market place in Olvera Street and made Christine Sterling its manager.

Mrs. Sterling was adept at getting people to help her. She persuaded officials of the Department of Water and Power to help with the engineering required to lower the level of Olvera Street and reduce the steepness of the slope between the Plaza and Macy Street (now Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. ) The DWP also trucked in a giant boulder (believed at the time to have been "hewn by Mission Indians") to adorn the lower end of the street. Mrs. Sterling recorded in her diary: "Every day I pray that (the Sheriff) will arrest a bricklayer and a plumber."

Reconstruction of the street started on November 7, 1929... Mrs. Sterling ordered a large wooden cross to be erected at the Plaza entrance to Olvera Street .  She also had "little awning stands, or puestos" made for the street, each of which was to be given to a family from Mexico who would sell goods from their home states.

Olvera Street opened "in a blaze of glory" on Easter, April 19, 1930. "El Paseo de Los Angeles (the Pathway of the Angels) was the name Mrs. Sterling gave to Olvera Street . She wrote: " Olvera Street holds for me all the charm and beauty which I dreamed for it, because out of the hearts of the Mexican people is spun the gold of Romance and Contentment. No sweeter, finer people live, than the men and women of Mexico and whatever evil anyone believes about them has been bred in the darkness of ignorance and prejudice."

[Mrs. Sterling would remain with the management of Olvera Street and the historic Plaza until her death on June 21, 1963.]

For further information, see: Olvera Street Website.

-- Contributed by Jean Bruce Poole, Historic District Director, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument.

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