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THE BOB TAYLOR NETWORK OF INFORMATION RICH BLOGS AND WEBSITES Bob Taylor Properties, Inc.
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The Arroyo SecoArroyo Seco Foundation Web Site
The Arroyo Seco, which is dry most of the year, served
as a primitive hunting ground for the area's earliest residents.
In the early 1800s, the wilderness area became a hideout for outlaws, where they rendezvoused, divided and buried their loot, and established bases from which they emerged for raids on travelers and settlers. In the 1850s the Arroyo became identified with a herd of camels imported for the U.S. Army Camel Corps, at the instigation of Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war. The idea was to use the dromedaries for Army transportation in the arid Southwest. The camel drivers brought the animals to the Arroyo for water and pasture. The camels could often be seen tethered beneath the giant sycamores. In in the early 1900s the lowland Arroyo became a center of artistic and intellectual activity, a home to the Arts and Crafts Movement. Revolting against industrialization, followers of the Arts and Crafts Movement built their own houses and handcrafted as much of their environment as possible.
The rich legacy of The Arts and Crafts Movement can
be seen throughout Northeast Los Angeles: Shingled
craftsman homes, walls and fireplaces of Arroyo boulders,
and a creative, independant attitude that is still
evident in many of the area's residents.
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Geographically, the Arroyo Seco, literally "dry creek"
is the most prominent feature of the northeast Los Angeles
landscape. The great, long canyon of the Arroyo Seco
extends from the foot of the San Gabriel mountains north
of Pasadena, southward along the western edge of South
Pasadena. It skirts the Garvanza district, and continues
south through Highland Park until it joins the Los Angeles
river not far from Elysian Park.
Wild animals, especially bears and coyotes, roamed among the
live oaks, sycamores and lush grasses that lined the course
of the canyon.