Griffith Park: CCC Camps (former) – Los Angeles CA

City:
Los Angeles, CA

Site Type:
CCC Camps, Federal Facilities

New Deal Agencies:
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Work Relief Programs

Started:
1933

Quality of Information:
Moderate

Marked:
Unknown

Site Survival:
No Longer Extant

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed three camps at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, CA, where they were stationed to carry out extensive improvements.

The three camps, journalist Carren Jao writes, were “SP-13, which eventually was never used; SP-21, more commonly known as Camp Griffith Park and was visited by President and First Lady Roosevelt; and SP-40, which would eventually be occupied by Travel Town. All three sites would disappear from the park. The first was destroyed by fire of October 3, 1933. The latter two were dismantled as soon as CCC work in Griffith Park was deemed complete or near enough completion to turn over to park personnel.”

Camp Griffith Park/SP-21, the WWI Veterans Camp, was the site of Federal Art Project artist John Palo-Kangas’ sculpture “Spirit of the CCC” (1935).

Glendale and Burbank prohibited the CCC from stationing an African American company in Griffith Park, citing sundown town ordinances (Loewen, pp. 239-40).

Source notes

Carren Jao, "Riots, Love Fests, Buried Secrets: Griffith Park's Hidden Histories" (KCET)

James W. Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (New York: The New Press, 2005).

Site originally submitted by Natalie McDonald on January 29, 2023.

Location Info


4730 Crystal Springs Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Los Angeles County

Coordinates: 34.1356, -118.2996

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