Did you know that on L.A. Metro’s A Line, formerly known to a generation as “The Gold Line,” the dilapidated, creaky building you can see from the Chinatown to Lincoln Heights/Cypress station, is actually the former Lincoln Heights jail?
In 2016, the L.A. Times noted that: “In the early years of the jail, which opened in 1931, some people were hauled to the building along the concrete-lined L.A. River because they were gay, leading to the creation of a separate wing, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. Many of those arrested during the 1943 Zoot Suit riots, in which [white] servicemen targeted young Mexican Americans, were taken to the Lincoln Heights Jail on North Avenue 19.”
The jail was also used for the federal government’s efforts against labor-organizing across the nation during the 1930s. One prisoner, E. Yagamuchi, was taken by authorities from the Imperial Valley and jailed for two years there, presumably for involvement with local labor organizing. Yagamuchi faced deportation to Japan before the International Labor Defense (ILD) organization rallied to his defense. In August 1932, the ILD’s efforts won him and another Japanese-American, Tetsui Horiyuchi, a “voluntary departure” to the U.S.S.R. instead.
The Lincoln Heights jail was officially closed in 1965, including because of overcrowding conditions that became well too apparent when residents taken from the Watts neighborhood were booked there during the Watts Rebellion in August 1965.
Now, 58 years after the fact, the youngest member of L.A. City Council, who also just completed her first year in office, is looking to transform the former jail into social housing for the Lincoln Heights community. Think it can’t be done? Hear about it and more through our latest podcast with Council Member for L.A.’s 1st District, Eunisses Hernandez.
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J.T.
