The Watts Towers

  

click photo to enlarge		 The Watts Towers are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural structures within the Simon Rodia State Historic Park in the Watts community of Los Angeles. The tallest of the towers reaches almost 100 ft. The towers were built by Sabata (Simon) Rodia, an immigrant from Italy. He was a construction worker and tile mason and he spent about 33 years building the towers. The towers are decorated with found objects; bottle, sea shells and objects neighborhood children would bring to him. Overall, the art work is arranged like a boat and the second picture down from the top is a miniature version he built that kind of shows the shape. Rodia's bungalow house structure inside was burned down as the result of a 4th of July accident and  the city condemned it to be demolished.

click photo to enlarge		 A coalition was formed to save the structures and they arranged to have testing done to measure the structural integrity and with the results of that testing were able to convince the city not to demolish it. The Watts Towers or "Nuestro Pueblo" are considered one of Southern California's most culturally significant public artworks and it is listed on the National Register of Historic place for Folk Art. We have been to visit a number of Folk Art installations over the years and just love that these people devoted a significant part of their lives doing what they wanted to do.

click photo to enlarge
               click photo to enlarge