30. Watts Towers
What thoughts occupy such a person?
There’s something about Going West, all the way to the edge of the continent—running from the Old World, from personal tragedy, from the profound engagement with ourselves and others otherwise known as being in a family. In the 1890s, Sabato Rodia arrived in the country as a teenage immigrant from southern Italy to work construction. He eventually made his way to Los Angeles, where, in 1921, he bought a small triangular lot in a working-class neighborhood, and began to build.
For over 30 years, without scaffolding, without assistance, using rebar, homemade concrete, and bits of tile and glass, he built elegant, spindly, organic-looking structures that reached for the sky, the tallest nearly 100 feet. And then in 1954 he walked away forever, deeding the property to his neighbor.
It’s tempting to observe this was a person who lived without attachment, except: look what he built! How many evenings did he spend contemplating spatial relationships, the interplay between forms, working without patronage or any guarantee of recognition? What thoughts occupy such a person—and are they different from our own when we suddenly ponder: what am I doing with my life?
In 1959 the City of Los Angeles tried to demolish the towers as unsafe; they survived neglect, the 1965 Watts riots, and eventually became a beloved landmark. Would Rodia have imagined they would survive? That, however strange and lonely his path may have seemed, what he was doing was enough—more than enough—filling millions of people with wonder?
Links:
Excellent essay: “Something Big: The legend of the Watts Towers,” by Geoff Dyer, Harpers, April 2016
“How Conservators Stabilized Los Angeles’ Monumental Watts Towers,” by Richard Selden, Preservation Magazine, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Summer 2023.
“Watts Towers at 100: Junk turned into art still casts a spell,” by Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2021
I Build the Tower, 2006 documentary film about Sabato Rodia - Wikipedia
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This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 words on 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary. Through December 31, 2026.
I’m looking for ideas for this series — have something you’d like me to consider for inclusion? Please feel free to leave a comment!
This is such a wonderful series. Thank you. And this history is amazing as all of them have been. I don't think I've ever heard of Watts Towers, and I certainly have admiration for an Italian immigrant who discovered the American spirit and dreamed it into being....thank you....
Jeff Davis McKissack started working on the Orange Show Monument in 1956. Did Sabato Rodia somehow pass the baton from LA to Houston? And then did the baton travel across Houston to John Milkovisch to inspire the Beer Can House? And what would you call this baton? An impulse to create? An impulse to feather one's nest in a unique and personal way? Is is part of the zeitgeist? And does it still exist?