View source for Watts Station

{{Short description|Railway station in Los Angeles, California, United States}}
{{About|the former Pacific Electric station|the modern Metro Rail station|103rd Street/Watts Towers station}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox station
 | name   = Watts
 | style               = Pacific Electric 
 | image = Watts Station, Los Angeles.JPG
 | caption = Watts Station, May 2008
 | address= 1686 E. 103rd Street<br />[[Watts, Los Angeles, California]]
 | opened = 1904
 | closed = 1961
 | tracks = 4
 | services = 
{{Adjacent stations
|system=Pacific Electric
|line=Long Beach|left=Abila|right=Latin
|line2=Balboa|left2=Abila|right2=Latin
|line3=San Pedro via Dominguez|left3=Abila|right3=Latin
|line4=San Pedro via Gardena|left4=Abila|right4=Latin
|line5=Santa Ana|left5=Palomar|right5=Latin|to-left5=Santa Ana SP Depot|to-right5=Pacific Electric Building
|line6=Redondo via Gardena|left6=Centralia|right6=Latin
|line7=Hawthorne–El Segundo|left7=Centralia|right7=Latin
|line8=Watts|right8=Elcoat
}}
 | nrhp =
{{Infobox NRHP | embed=yes
 | name = Watts Station
 | nrhp_type = 
 | designated_other1 = LAHCM
 | designated_other1_number = 36
 | coordinates = {{coord|33|56|35|N|118|14|34.80|W|display=inline,title}}
 | locmapin = USA Los Angeles Metropolitan Area#California#USA
 | area =
 | built = 1904
 | architect =
 | architecture = Late Victorian
 | added = March 15, 1974<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2008a}}</ref>
 | refnum = 74000523
}}
}}

'''Watts Station''' is a train station built in 1904 in [[Watts, Los Angeles, California]]. It was one of the first buildings in Watts, and for many years, it was a major stop for the [[Pacific Electric Railway]]'s "Red Car" service between Los Angeles and [[Long Beach, California|Long Beach]]. It was the only structure that remained intact when stores along 103rd Street in Watts were burned in the 1965 [[Watts riots]]. Remaining untouched in the middle of the stretch of street that came to be known as "Charcoal Alley", the station became a symbol of continuity, hope, and renewal for the Watts community.  It has since been declared a [[Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument]] and is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].

==Construction and operation as a Pacific Electric station==
[[Image:Watts Station Ticket Windows.JPG|left|200px|thumb|Ticket windows at Watts Station]]
Watts was built on the old Rancho La Tajauta.  In 1902, the family of Charles H. Watts, for whom the community was later named, sought to spur development of the rancho by donating a {{convert|10|acre|m2|adj=on}} site to the Pacific Electric Railway.  Watts Station was built on the site in 1904, serving for more than 50 years as a major railway depot and stop for the Pacific Electric's "Red Car" service between Los Angeles and Long Beach.  It was located at a major junction, where lines to San Pedro and Santa Ana branched off from the main line to Long Beach.  The station is a single-story, {{convert|2200|sqft|m2|sing=on}}, wood-frame structure divided into three rooms.<ref name="Sentinel">{{Cite news |date=1965-12-09 |title=Watts Station Declared: 'Of Historic Significance' |publisher=Los Angeles Sentinel |url=http://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/documents/12/521491.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Train">{{Cite news |date=1986-11-09 |title=Historic Train Depot in Watts Set For $310,000 Restoration |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>  It was one of the first buildings erected in Watts and is one of the few remaining from its early years.<ref name=Sentinel/>  It also served as a model for later depots built in [[La Habra, California|La Habra]], [[Covina, California|Covina]] and [[Glendora, California|Glendora]].<ref name=Train/>

With the Watts junction connecting the [[Long Beach, California|Long Beach]]–[[Santa Ana, California|Santa Ana]] line to the [[San Pedro, Los Angeles|San Pedro]]–[[Redondo Beach, California|Redondo]] line, Watts was able to secure a working-class population who depended on the service for travel.<ref>{{harvnb|Avila|2004|p=35}}</ref> This service helped the Watts community to continue to grow, with many of its population traveling outside the [[Downtown Los Angeles|Downtown]] area for work opportunities. <ref>{{harvnb|Avila|2004|p=165}}</ref>

The service in Watts Station also allowed for leisure and enjoyment. The population in Watts were not confined to the boundaries of their neighborhoods but free to enjoy the entertainment offered by distant communities, with many using the system to attend nightclubs and dance halls within the larger urban region.<ref>{{harvnb|Avila|2004|p=166}}</ref>
<!-- Dead links
A vintage 1906 photograph of the station from the USC Digital Archives can be viewed [http://digarc.usc.edu/assetserver/controller/view/chs-m20403/CHS-14592 here].  Another classic image of the station from the collections of the [[Los Angeles Public Library]] can be seen [http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics14/00006740.jpg here]. -->

The building remained an active depot until passenger rail service was discontinued in 1961.

== Effects of discontinuation ==
The end of streetcar service in Watts brought about change in the community. With its closing, Watts Station lost a key form of mass transportation. Many of Watts' low-income residents could also not afford to own automobiles, which were becoming the norm. The spread of employment across Los Angeles and lack of transportation resulted in less employment opportunities and more traveling expenses for the people in Watts.<ref>{{harvnb|Elkind|2014|p=6}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Watts c1906.jpg|thumb|Watts station, {{circa|1906}}]]
Incidents occurring around Watts Station in its early years including the following:
* In 1904, shortly after the station opened, a woman described as "an illiterate Mexican woman" was killed trying to save her six-year-old son who had wandered onto the tracks.<ref name="Awful">{{Cite news |date=1904-05-19 |title=Dies Awful Death To Save Her Child |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>  She was the first person to die in a train accident at Watts Station, and the ''Los Angeles Times'' proclaimed her a heroine who "dashed upon the track" and threw her son out of the path of an oncoming train.<ref name=Awful/>  The paper also noted: "Children are numerous among the Mexican families who live in the vicinity of Watts Station, and with that childish disregard for danger that marks the age of indiscretion these children play on the tracks of the electric railroad."<ref name=Awful/>
* In December 1904, a 40-year-old "maiden lady" living at Watts Station deliberately stepped in front of a rapidly approaching Long Beach "flyer."  The ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that "when the body was finally removed from under the wheels it was so badly crushed and torn that it could hardly be recognized as that of a human being."<ref>{{Cite news |date=1904-12-28 |title=Ground To Death: Miss Mary Ryan Steps Before Pacific Electric Flyer to Shocking Fate |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>
* In May 1905, according to a contemporary account in the ''Los Angeles Times,'' a man known as the "Duke of Watts" had been hired by the Pacific Electric to watch over the "village of child-like laborers" at Watts station and protect them from "the ways of a wicked gringo world."<ref name="Duke">{{Cite news |date=1905-05-14 |title=Duke of Watts Was 'Pinched': Scared Italian Grocers Had No Passports; Terrance Mulligan Ordered Them Out of His Dominions, and They Flew to the City to 'Get the Law on Him' - War Busted Loose on the Pacific Electric |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>  The "Duke" became angered when wagons driven by "some of thim [sic] damn dagoes" rolled into the right of way raising a cloud of dust.  When confronted by the "Duke," who the ''Times'' described as "a beneficent sovereign," the paper reported that "one of the Italians went up in the air, the way they do" and the other Italians "jumped down from their wagons and began gesticulating like crazy men, ringing their arms and howling like agitated monkey."<ref name=Duke/>  The Italians claimed the Duke pulled a large pistol on them and forced them to leave Watts.<ref name=Duke/>
* In July 1905, Jose Bustos, "a Mexican employed by the Pacific Electric railway" was struck and almost instantly killed by a Long Beach car at Watts station.  After exiting a train, "intending to go to the Mexican camp," he was struck while crossing the south bound tracks.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1905-07-30 |title=Stepped to His Death: Laborer Employed by Pacific Electric Killed by Long Beach Car at Watts Station |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>  Another Mexican laborer, C. Medal, sustained fatal injuries after being struck by a train at Watts Station six months later.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1906-02-19 |title=Cannot Recover: Mexican Struck by Car Near Watts Station Sustains Injuries Which Will Prove Fatal |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>  And in December 1906, a motorman, Charles Vaughn, was pinched between two cars at Watts Station, suffering possibly fatal injuries.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1906-12-09 |title=Motorman May Die: He Is Pinched Between Two Cars of Work Train at Watts Station; Taken to Hospital |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>
* In January 1906, a shooting at Watts Station shocked passengers.  A woman named Mrs. Henry Welsh, while in the midst of divorce proceedings, drew a revolver and shot at her husband, who was waiting for the train.  When her husband grabbed the gun, Mrs. Welsh walked to her husband's pool room near the station where she "smashed in the windows and generally demolished things."<ref name="Shoots">{{Cite news |date=1906-01-27 |title=Shoots Into Car Window: Woman's Bad Aim Endangers Many Passengers; Mrs. Welsh Fires on Mate at Watts Station; Climax to Numerous Stormy Domestic Quarrels |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>  She then secured another revolver and returned to the station, firing two more shots at her husband.  Both shots missed her husband and went into a waiting car, sending passengers into a panic.<ref name=Shoots/>
* In August 1919, a group of ex-employees of Pacific Electric attacked a train car at the Watts Station, breaking windows and throwing stones.  When A. W. Moon, a Pacific Electric guard, tried to defend the derailed car, he was arrested and charged with "fighting and threatening to fight."<ref name=Trial/>  The crowd followed the guard to the Watts jail, jeering at him, "calling him opprobrious names," and threatening him.  At his trial, it was alleged that the crowd cried, "String them up," prompting Mr. Moon's attorney to request that the case be moved to a venue out of Watts.<ref name="Trial">{{Cite news |date=1919-09-16 |title=Says He Can't Get Fair Trial: Trolley Car Guard Wants a Change of Venue; Declares Gangsters Menace City Court at Watts; Faces Disturbing of Peace Charge for Doing 'Duty' |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

==Symbol of hope along "Charcoal Alley"==
[[File:Watts Station, May 2008.jpg|left|225px|thumb|View of Watts Station from tracks]]

In August 1965, the [[Watts Riots]] resulted in the destruction of buildings up and down 103rd Street—the main commercial thoroughfare in Watts.  Watts Station was situated in the center of the one-mile (1.6&nbsp;km) stretch of 103rd Street between Compton and Wilmington Avenue that came to be known as "Charcoal Alley" due to the widespread destruction.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hebert |first=Ray |date=1966-02-27 |title=Hope Brightens for Riot Areas: Action Promises Revitalization of Forgotten Slum |work=Los Angeles Times |quote=In Watts, for example, a mall is being discussed for a stretch of 103rd Street -- the riot's infamous 'charcoal' alley between Compton and Wilmington Ave.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Landsberg |first=Mitchell |last2=Reitman |first2=Valerie |date=2005-08-11 |title=Watts Riots, 40 Years Later |work=Los Angeles Times |quote=They had just secured one of the hardest-hit areas of Watts, a stretch of 103rd Street that had been dubbed 'Charcoal Alley.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Berman |first=Art |date=1965-12-06 |title=Watts Scars Heal Slowly: Businessman's New Store Looted |work=Los Angeles Times |quote=Along a mile of 103rd Street  in Watts -- dubbed 'Charcoal Alley' after 41 commercial buildings were destroyed by fire during the riot -- block after block is dotted with bare or rubble-filled lots or blackened shells.}}</ref> One observer recalled: "Both sides of 103rd Street were ablaze now. The thoroughfare was a sea of flames that emitted heat so unbearable that I believed my skin was being seared off."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Betty Pleasant |date=2005-08-03 |title=Eyewitness Account of the Watts Riots |publisher=The Wave Newspapers |url=http://www.wavenewspapers.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=71&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=4048&wpage=1&s%20keyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=%20&subname=}}</ref>  Another account of the riots along "Charcoal Alley" states: "On the third day of the Watts Riots, 103rd St. was burned to the ground."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charcoal Alley |url=http://www.communitywalk.com/location/charcoal_alley/watts_riots/910695 |publisher=Community Walk}}</ref> In the middle of the rubble and widespread destruction along "Charcoal Alley", the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' reported that "the train station was the only structure that remained intact when stores along 103rd Street burned during the Watts riots."<ref name="DWP">{{Cite news |last=Feldman |first=Paul |date=1989-03-17 |title=Watts New? Reopening of Historic Red Car Station as Museum and DWP Office Seen as Symbol of Hope, Renewal |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> The survival of the old wood-framed Watts Station, whether an intentional omission or a mere coincidence, resulted in the station becoming, as the ''Los Angeles Times'' put it, "a symbol of continuity, hope and renewal" for the Watts community.<ref name=DWP/>

==Historic designation and restoration==
Four months after the riots, the station was declared a Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM #36) by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.<ref name=Sentinel/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Los Angeles Department of City Planning |date=2007-09-07 |title=Historic - Cultural Monuments (HCM) Listing: City Declared Monuments |url=http://www.cityprojectca.org/ourwork/documents/HCMDatabase090707.pdf |publisher=City of Los Angeles |access-date=2008-07-08}}</ref>  It was also listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1974. In the 1980s, after the station had been vacant for many years, the Community Redevelopment Agency spent $700,000 to restore the structure to its original exterior design.  The station was re-opened in 1989 as a customer service office for the [[Los Angeles Department of Water and Power]] and a small museum of Watts history.<ref name=Train/><ref name=DWP/>  Mayor [[Tom Bradley (American politician)|Tom Bradley]] attended the dedication ceremony and said: "Those days of glory are going to return, and we are going to be at the heart of the action right here at the Watts train station."<ref name=DWP/>

In 1990, the [[A Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Metro Blue Line]] resumed train service from Los Angeles to Long Beach along the old Pacific Electric right of way.  Though the old Watts Station does not serve as a passenger platform or ticket booth for the new Blue Line,<ref name=DWP/> the trains do stop at the [[103rd Street/Watts Towers station|103rd Street/Watts Towers Metro Rail station]], on 103rd Street, at a location next to the old station.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1999-06-25 |title=Blue Line Train Kills Pedestrian at Watts Station |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

== Watts Station in popular culture ==

* The 1978 film ''[[Killer of Sheep]]'' briefly shows small children playing around the Watts Station and abandoned railways.
* Artist [[Roberto Salas]] paid tribute to the Red Cars in Watts Station in his public art piece ''[[Blue Line Totems in Red]].''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Artwork {{!}} Blue Line Totems in Red |url=https://www.metro.net/about/art/artworks/103rd-station/ |access-date=2018-12-05 |website=www.metro.net |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in South Los Angeles]]
*[[List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Avila |first=Eric |title=Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780520939714}}
* {{Cite book |last=Elkind |first=Ethan |title=Railtown: The Fight for the Los Angeles Metro Rail and the Future of the City |publisher=University of California Press |year=2014 |isbn=9780520957206}}
{{refend}}

{{LAHMC}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in California}}
{{PE Watts Stations}}

[[Category:Pacific Electric stations]]
[[Category:Railway stations in Los Angeles County, California]]
[[Category:Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments]]
[[Category:Railway stations in the United States opened in 1904]]
[[Category:1904 establishments in California]]
[[Category:1961 disestablishments in California]]
[[Category:Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Watts, Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Railway stations in the United States closed in 1961]]