Tag Archives: town planning

This map, a copy of Col. Edward Ord’s map of 1850, is etched on stone as a part of the remarkable Biddy Mason Memorial on Spring Street downtown.

Col. Ord, newly posted to Monterey, was apparently paid by the U.S. Army sporadically. So he hired out his surveying skills to the newly-Americanized state, and got several good job offers. The best was the re-laying out of the Ciudad de Los Angeles, restoring the intention of the Felipe de Neve arrangement. Note the faint saltire directional cross converging on the Plaza; also, note how everything east of the River is farm lots. Pobladores lived in town, and walked across the River out to their fields.

As a bustling farm town and provincial capital, LA was full of squatters, drifters, smugglers and “entertainers”. LA had let its streets meander, and ramshackle adobe construction had grown up, stretching and sprawling just anyplace. So in 1850 the Los Angeles ayuntamiento, relaxing a bit after the tension of the Mexican War, were slowly groping towards an understanding that their grants and lots, guaranteed to them by the Capitulation, could actually be turned into real estate on Yankee terms. But this could happen only if the town was properly squared, official boundaries marked, and the streets graded and surveyed. So they hired a Yankee to do the job. 

The city offered Col. Ord his choice: several fine, central Los Angeles blocks, or a lump payment of $3,000. Considering his need for immediate income, it’s not surprising that he took the cash. But imagine what his empty downtown blocks would have been worth after just a few years…

A prominent street in Chinatown was named after the Colonel – Ord Street.

Link

Los Angeles is not mentioned in this article, but it also is a great city that was planned during the age of the Bourbon Reforms. In founding LA, Felipe de Neve utilized this plan of cuadriculae grouped around the Plaza Mayor. 

It is fun to compare the map of colonial Bogata, for instance, with old maps of LA.

The “cuadricula” : Mexico History

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Great new mural (2017) in the heart of Culpeper. VA, commemorating George Washington’s first job, at age 17: surveyor of Culpeper County.

From Wikipedia: “Washington began his career as a professional surveyor in 1749 at the age of 17. He received a commission and surveyor’s license from the College of William & Mary[d] and became the official surveyor for the newly formed Culpeper County. He was appointed to this well-paid official position thanks to his brother Lawrence’s connection to the prominent Fairfax family. He completed his first survey in less than two days, plotting a 400-acre parcel of land, and was well on his way to a promising career. He was subsequently able to purchase land in the Shenandoah Valley, the first of his many land acquisitions in western Virginia.”

Unsurprisingly, Washington did a splendid job. Look at Culpeper’s neat county seat. Set along a high ridge, with views across a fertile valley to the Blue Ridge horizon, the downtown business area gives marketers a sun-drenched, sky-domed streetscape. And the ante-bellum residential neighborhoods huddle in shady groves strung along the gentle slopes below downtown. 

Look carefully at the last picture: it’s a Merle Norman cosmetics store, a surprising outpost of the San Fernando Valley’s cosmetics dynasty family, who created San Sylmar. And thereby, hangs a tale…