Leimert Plaza Park

Leimert Plaza Park. . , Leimert Park’s Front Door , This small one-acre park at Crenshaw and Vernon was originally a plaza that was part of the design of Leimert Park, the planned residential community built in 1927 by the architectural firm Olmsted and Olmsted (two brothers whose father had designed Central Park in New York). Developer Walter H. Leimert donated the plaza to the City of Los Angeles in 1928 when the new community was completed. The city made it into a park and named it Leimert Plaza Park. Though tiny by city standards, this park is significant as the gateway to Leimert Park, its "front door," as one contemporary architect put it. The plaza's original layout is Mediterranean Revival style, symmetrical and built around a central fountain. , A Cultural Revolution , Though the park's look hasn't changed since the 1920s, the culture associated with Leimert Plaza Park has certainly changed. Once a neighborhood amenity for an affluent, insulated, bedroom community that barred blacks and other ethnic groups from moving in, Leimert Park has transformed over the last forty years into a hub of black cultural arts and social/political activity that draws people of all colors from all over the city. The park has been the site of just about every major festival and event with an African American focus, from the annual Martin Luther King Jr Day events and the Malcom X Festival, to Kwanzaa and Juneteenth. Drum circles are held around the fountain on many Sundays, and an art walk championed by longtime Leimert Park Village business owner Ben Caldwell claims the park one Sunday a month. In 2015 the street in front of the Vision Theatre was closed off permanently to car traffic at 43rd Place to create a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere and to help preserve the cultural and community identity that's made Leimert Park what it is today. , Coming Home to Leimert , In the 1990s, it was Richard Fulton, the proprietor of the enormously popular jazz coffeehouse 5th Street Dick's, who revived the park as a community living space , a front room behind the front door, if you will. By setting speakers on the sidewalk in front of his business on 43rd Place so that jazz played continually in the park, Fulton encouraged a lively scene of chess players, domino players, jazz lovers, and others who might otherwise have been considered drifters. The coffeehouse and the growing reputation of Leimert Park Village, augmented by the happenings at the park, helped to change the feel of the whole area. , The park is also an informational hub that regularly serves as an impromptu public square for rallies, discussions, performances, debuts, and public remembrances of all kinds. When a major black figure dies, or when a tragic event galvanizes black communities, it's almost certain that a public meeting or candlelight vigil will be held in Leimert Plaza Park. When Michael Jackson died suddenly in 2009, people showed up at the park to sing, dance, share testimony - and almost no advertising was necessary. Similarly, when Prince died in 2016, dozens of fans and mourners gathered in the park to pay tribute and celebrate the artist's contributions and impact on their lives.