Speaker 1: All right, it is time for your way black history fact.
Speaker 1: In today's way black history fact comes from the LA Times,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to be reading the words of the author,
Speaker 1: Grace Adams. This is opinion Paul Revere Williams, a case
Speaker 1: study on the importance of preservation. Discovering Paul Revere Williams's
Speaker 1: story as an architect and the failure to ensure that
Speaker 1: his work has been safeguarded, revealed to me the undeniable
Speaker 1: importance of preservation. Countless books scattered across my room. I
Speaker 1: was in the midst of research for my senior independent
Speaker 1: study project, but I did not know what I was
Speaker 1: searching for. Yet, I was delving into the architectural history
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles with an interest in investigating the topic
Speaker 1: of preservation. After perusing various outlets, I stumbled upon a
Speaker 1: note in the LA Times Archives published on April fourth,
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen. Marcia Sells, the former president of Holmbye Hills
Speaker 1: Homeowners Association, wrote the article describing the work of Los
Speaker 1: Angeles architect Paul Williams was bittersweet. Williams is known for
Speaker 1: his significant contributions to our city's landscape, yet his work
Speaker 1: faces the threat of destruction. Surely Harvard Westlake School can
Speaker 1: find a preservation solution to keep the morris Landell residents
Speaker 1: in its historic location. Williams overcame enormous obstacles to achieve success.
Speaker 1: We should not have to remember his visionary work from pictures.
Speaker 1: As La residents. We should show respect for our history
Speaker 1: and speak up for the preservation of Williams's buildings. I
Speaker 1: was captivated. Not only had I never heard of Paul
Speaker 1: Revere Williams, but the building being discussed had once been
Speaker 1: located on my middle school campus. I started investigating the
Speaker 1: morris Landeu building, admiring the black and white photos of
Speaker 1: the home. What's more, was the impression of the architect
Speaker 1: behind the treasure made on me. Paul Revere Williams, who
Speaker 1: was black, was born in eighteen ninety four at a
Speaker 1: time when Los Angeles real estate was still deeply segregated.
Speaker 1: When Paul Williams first began his career, much of the
Speaker 1: demographic layout of Los Angeles was bleak, dirt roads, connected
Speaker 1: oil fields and vast farms and agrarian reality that starkly
Speaker 1: contrasts the urban, vibrant, bustling city of Lascas Angelus. We
Speaker 1: know today. Nonetheless, by nineteen twenty, the greater area of
Speaker 1: southern California underwent a massive boom in the real estate market,
Speaker 1: creating high demands for homes, which created opportunities for well
Speaker 1: trained architects. The population of Los Angeles reached one million
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty, and the city was booming with residents
Speaker 1: who had money and wanted to carve out their slice
Speaker 1: of land. As author Jana Ireland explained in her book
Speaker 1: regarding Paul R. Williams, a photographer's view, there were numerous
Speaker 1: white people liberal or desperate enough to hire a black
Speaker 1: architect for their projects, since they wanted them to be
Speaker 1: executed quickly and had the finances to spare. It was
Speaker 1: then that Paul Revere Williams started his prolific career as
Speaker 1: an architect of both personal and commercial spaces, achieving outstanding
Speaker 1: notoriety with his elegant and refined work that appealed to
Speaker 1: people with money, notwithstanding celebrities. Magnetized by his resilience and
Speaker 1: indefatigable insistence on success despite racial injustice, I learned that
Speaker 1: he had to develop the ability to sketch buildings upside
Speaker 1: down to appease white clients who were uncomfortable sitting next
Speaker 1: to him. I also discovered that when he visited construction sites,
Speaker 1: he walked with his hands behind his back to be
Speaker 1: amenable to white people who would not want to shake
Speaker 1: his hand. Most astonishing to me was that many of
Speaker 1: the places where his homes were built were exclusively white.
Speaker 1: Los Angeles was fraught with restrictive covenance that barred people
Speaker 1: of color from spending the night in particular neighborhoods or
Speaker 1: owning land deeds. With all this in mind, I look
Speaker 1: at Paul Revere Williams as an individual whose work not
Speaker 1: only contributed significantly to the development of the visual landscape
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, but also as an important figure who
Speaker 1: represents the vastly ignored, overlooked, or undermined contributions of the
Speaker 1: black community. For these reasons, his work is important to
Speaker 1: preserve in the specific locations it was created to honor
Speaker 1: his legacy and perseverance. Preservation is a challenging topic. It
Speaker 1: forces us to re imagine the relationship between the past
Speaker 1: and the future. It allows us to celebrate astounding achievements,
Speaker 1: but also drives us to reconcile with the shadow of injustice.
Speaker 1: For this reason, while it may not be easy to
Speaker 1: explore preservation, learning about Paul Revere Williams taught me that
Speaker 1: is an important issue to consider. Her