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| downtown salvage, mary cummins, arts district, 7th st, anderson, los angeles, california, el salvador, industrial, warehouse, real estate, 2251 e 7th st, leonard rubin, construction salvage |
Los Angeles has really changed especially the industrial area in downtown Los Angeles' Arts District. Industrial, manufacturing buildings have been converted into residential lofts and "creative spaces." The old 6th Street bridge was demolished and the new Ribbon of Light bridge replaced it. A new park is being finished under the bridge. There are fancy cafes and restaurants and million dollar loft conversions nearby.
As an example of the many changes in the area is the story of an old salvage yard. My family used to own Downtown Salvage at 2251 E 7th Street in Los Angeles, California. It was where the 5, 10, 101 freeways met. It encompassed almost the entire block of lots including all the ones facing 7th Street and half of the ones facing Anderson near the new 6th St bridge, see plat map below. We later owned the Mexican restaurant pool hall on the corner I believe or maybe we were thinking of buying it. We took over the alley and the railroad tracks that ran through the property by prescription and adverse possession. We owned it during the '80's then sold it to File Savers which stored paper records for businesses. It's since changed hands a few times.
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| downtown salvage, mary cummins, arts district, 7th st, anderson, los angeles, california, el salvador, industrial, warehouse, real estate, 2251 e 7th st, leonard rubin, construction salvage |
The salvage business was run by Leonard "Lenny" S. Rubin and my family. Lenny used to own three separate salvage yard lots with various names, i.e. SALVAGE MASTERS INCORPORATED, L & S LAND CLEARING, INC, DOWNTOWN SALVAGE INC and EASTSIDE SALVAGE, INC. I think he was being evicted from one lot and wanted to combine the lots into one location which is how my family was involved.
My grandmother Mary R Cummins aka Maria Rivera Cummins bought and owned the property. Lenny moved his yards to the site paying rent. At the time there was a two story newer office building on the corner of 7th and Anderson, a Mexican restaurant pool hall on the corner of 7th and Rio, vacant lots in between them and huge warehouses behind them for half of a long warehouse block.
Back in the 1980's we'd get the demolition permits to tear down homes and buildings in Los Angeles especially Beverly Hills. We tore down Bela Lugosi's house and kept the hand painted Mexican beam ceiling for our own home. We also kept this antique hand painted Mexican fold out bar. We tore down Ships restaurant and all the apartment buildings at 10877 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood. We found a mint condition Packard car on the lot which we were going to auction off after proper legal notice but the workmen came and stripped it clean one night. We tore down a famous Ribs restaurant RJ's The Rib Joint at 252 N Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. We ended up keeping the gaudy huge long wood and brass bar with mirrored slats in our house.
The salvage yard had stacks of used solid wood doors, wrought iron railings, old bathtubs, old toilets, old sinks, lots of used bricks, copper tubing, marble slabs, ornate fireplace mantles... We saved absolutely everything from every demolition job. It was recycling at its best. There were lots of antique door fixtures, wood windows, built-in cabinets, chandeliers, marble tiles... some really beautiful items. Everything was organized by section, lined up in easy to find rows and categorized on an overhead hanging map because the place was so huge. People also left personal items which we sold after proper notice.
Most of the workers on the site were young men from El Salvador. My grandmother, myself and Lenny all spoke English and Spanish. The kids aged 18 plus used to show me photos of them in their military uniforms from El Salvador holding machine guns during mandatory military service. Most couldn't speak or read English but they did read Mexican comic books. Some of them lived out of need in the top floor of the office building or another area of the site.
The workers would get their paychecks on Friday and we'd cash them for them. Then they'd get dressed up in their fancy cowboy boots, big belt buckles, hats, nice shirts and go have a few drinks or more at the local bars including the Mexican restaurant pool hall on the corner. For some reason there were multiple gun shootouts at the office building on the lot. I'm not really sure the cause but some was gang activity and some were late night drunken fights. I just remember the police complaints and bullet holes in the building.
We were open from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. Then we had issues with people living on the lot selling items off the lot before and after work hours. We changed the work hours to 6:00 am to 8:00 pm. There were also guard dogs and locked gates that had car or truck access.
One time we had a huge electrical bill and tried to figure out the cause. We finally figured out that one of the El Salvadorian security guys would leave the lights on all night in the warehouses because he got scared doing his rounds. He told me he thought he saw the vision of the Virgin Mary a few times and thought it was an omen that something bad would happen to him. We replaced him with someone else who was not so superstitious though it was a common theme among some workers. Most of the workers were very Catholic and very superstitious.
For some reason there were a lot of immigrant Latino men who would dress in wild drag and offer themselves on the sidewalks next to the Mexican restaurant late at night. They were regular looking El Salvadoran men wearing very short skirts, tube tops and high heels. They didn't try to look like women so no one was fooled. I continued to see those men there at night until at least 2000.
We sold the property in the late 1980's to File Savers and moved the salvage business to another location. They since sold the property and groups of lots separately. We never legally combined all the lots into one parcel because of the alley, railroad tracks and the time and expense involved. It also made sense to keep them separate for value. They were worth more individually than combined.
Today there are a few different businesses there. The office building was torn down. There's a "State of the Art Cannabis Dispensary & Grow Facility" on the front portion facing 7th Street at 2235 7th St. The corner restaurant pool hall is now a "Creative Building" at 2231 7th St. The long row of industrial buildings facing Anderson at 679-691 S Anderson is now Quasar Science which sells lighting. They rebuilt the building over the old railroad tracks which we took by prescriptive easement.
I'm glad to see the changes in this area. It used to be very rough when I'd go to the lot in the '80's. I lived in downtown Los Angeles for a while around 2008 and used to go to the Toy Factory lofts and the Edwardian-goth pub Royal Clayton's which is now the Little Bear at 1855 Industrial. That was about it at the time. Now there are a lot of nice little restaurants in the area, much less crime and it's a lot cleaner. There's even a pricey market in the area. I'm pretty sure the male street walkers near the old restaurant pool hall are gone as well.
Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate is a certified residential licensed appraiser in Los Angeles, California. Mary Cummins is licensed by the California Bureau of Real Estate appraisers and has over 35 years of experience.
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