A History of Belmont High

This is an introduction to Belmont High School.

Belmont is one of the first public schools in the city, and has educated downtown kids for nearly 100 years.  When it was founded in 1923, students nicknamed themselves "The Sentinels" due to their position atop Crown Hill with of view of the mountains on one side and the downtown skyline on the other.  

Below is an aerial photo of Belmont in 1973, right after its renovation.  My townhouse is the blue square:

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Originally this land was the site of a Native American village, but over the past 150 years it has also been home to oil wells, a hotel, and 3 different schools.  Back in 1885 it was called the Belmont Hotel:

Two years after the photo above was taken the hotel would catch fire.

The Los Angeles Fire Department had just been formed, and since this was before cars, they carried water by horse drawn wagon.  

Unfortunately, the horses couldn't pull the water up the steep hill in time to save the hotel from flames.  You can see the possessions of guests on the front lawn as the hotel burns:

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After the fire, the land was sold and turned into a girl's school called Belmont Hall:

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In the early 1920s LA Unified School District purchased the land for $100,000 to build a public school. It was designed after east coast colleges with courtyards, a bell tower, and brick walls. Belmont High opened in 1923 with 500 students and 28 faculty.

Here is an aerial view from the 20s. My house is the pink spot, and had just been constructed:

In the late 40s, downtown Los Angeles was experiencing a radical shift. The US was coming out of WWII.  The downtown area had seen an economic decline since the depression in the 1930s. Freeways and tract homes were built in the outlying areas of Los Angeles that allowed families to move to the suburbs and abandon downtown.

Above is a photo from 1949 of students and faculty rallying for better conditions at Belmont.  Below is the original Belmont bell tower.

In 1969, the old brick buildings at Belmont were demolished to build newer and more modern school, as seen in this promotional pamphlet from 1973:

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Belmont High School has been one of the most influential public schools in California.  Over the years, it has served tens of thousands of LA residents, and continues to educate many of the students who live in the downtown area.