Pershing Square's Lost Memorial to Love

    Thanks Kim for the invitation to post a blog about some long forgotten park history.  Did you know about this memorial to love?  I sure didn't and it was a bit of a surprise.  Pershing Square is named in honor of General "Blackjack" Pershing and several memorials have a clear war theme.  And there’s the statute of Beethoven, and let's not forget the missing tribute to Benny, the squirrel, but a memorial to love?  Yup!

    My story begins at the City of Los Angeles archive.  They have a massive collection of sketches from the WPA that were used to create the model of 1940 downtown Los Angeles that's on display at the Natural History Museum.  (Well, a small portion of the model is on display but that's another story).  Buried in the collection is a partial planting plan for Pershing Square from 1954.  I'm not sure why it's in the 1940 WPA collection other than it might have been tossed into the box by some city planner when they archived the files.

    Luckily for us, this drawing was tossed into the box since it identifies a very special memorial now lost to time.  The partial plan shows a square fountain surrounded by lawn with some simple planters along the perimeter.  I soon learned that this fountain had a twin, located on the other side of the square.  If you zoom in on the drawing, the fountain is labeled Mrs. Nelly Roth Memorial fountain.  Who?  Who is Mrs. Nelly Roth, you say?  That was my initial reaction too.  But, to properly set the stage for this memorial, I must digress back to 1949.

    The year 1949 is the year that the Parks Department got serious about destroying Pershing Square for the sake of installing underground parking.  Plans for underground parking had been circulating since the early 1920's, but prior Commissions always rejected those plans.  One major reason for rejection is that a sub-surface structure would provide minimal topsoil and prevent tree growth.  Pershing Square is a public park, parks must have trees, and the Commissioners saw it as their civic duty to protect the public assets entrusted to their care.

    But, the 1950's were not about protecting public assets.  Big business in the downtown area wanted parking, a lot of parking, and they didn't care about park users.  After all, the majority of park users were retired pensioners living on Bunker Hill, and their days were numbered too.  So, out went the Pershing Square everyone loved, and in went a flat barren hardscape that most everyone hated.  Pershing Square was reduced in area and the "park" was nothing more than a field of grass.  But, with every cloud comes a silver lining, and this is where Mr. Kelly Roth enters the picture.

    Kelly Roth was a 17-year-old Hungarian immigrant who came to Los Angeles in the late 1890's.  He married Texas born Nelly Arons in 1899 and for 30 years he ran a cigar store in the heart of the city.  He started work with his brothers at their store at 1st and Main.  He later opened his own store at 5th and Spring.  Nelly's father ran the Famous Shoe store on 4th near Spring.  They had two sons.  The cigar business was profitable, and Kelly made some wise investments in real estate.  Overall, life was good.

    Then, Nelly's health began to slowly fail.  They travelled to New York, to Hawaii, and British Columbia but she did not improve.  Nelly died in 1940 and Kelly was stricken by very deep grief.  His small apartment became a shrine, the walls adorned with her pictures.  According to an article in the LA Times "When Roth visited the Sphinx and the Pyramids in 1951, he had a group photograph enlarged and superimposed two facial pictures of his wife on it, to show how she might have looked with him."

    Kelly now wanted to erect a memorial for her so she would be remembered forever.  He donated $30,000 to the city for a pair of reflecting pool fountains to be installed in the newly rebuilt Pershing Square.  He made the donation in cold hard cash, a move that ex-Councilman Jose Huizar would love.  Pershing Square, with the memorial fountains, would take him back to his early days in Los Angeles with Nelly, riding past the Square on a mule car.  He also wanted to honor the city that had given this immigrant so much.

    Architect Stiles Clements donated his services in drawing up the plans for the Mrs. Nelly Roth Memorial Fountains.  Each reflecting pool fountain sat on top of a concrete column that supported the parking structure below.  The two fountains were placed 216 feet apart at opposite ends of the Square.   Each fountain had a 21-minute display cycle in which 126 different combinations of color lights and water blending took place.  The fountains were dedicated on 21 Dec 1954 and they drew big crowds to the park at night.

    Kelly Roth passed away 4 months after the dedication ceremony.  Large red poinsettias were planted around the fountains in Dec 1955 and that seems to be the last official mention of any activity.  More than 30 years will pass until a letter to the editor of the Times will lament about this now neglected and forgotten memorial.  Neil Roth, one of Kelly’s grandsons, writes to the Times to thank the letter writer for caring and remembering.  As fitting ending to this blog, I’ll let Neil Roth have the final words.  “The loss of the fountains will be more than the loss of a concrete structure.  It will be the loss of an important piece of history – one that tells of an individual man who, like so many others, loved his wife and loved Los Angeles.”