A forgotten courthouse whispers secrets. Welcome to City Terrace Park a place where history lives amongst the swings and slides. This isn’t just any park. City Terrace Park holds remnants of the 19th-century Los Angeles County Courthouse. A majestic Richardsonian Romanesque structure it once stood tall. The 1933 Long Beach earthquake deemed it unsafe. Demolition followed. But the spirit of the courthouse lives on.
The park began modestly in 1933. Workers from the Civil Works Administration created a small 3.5-acre space. It was built on a rugged hill. They carved a terrace from the barren land. Then came an unexpected transformation. In 1957 600000 cubic yards of soil arrived. This soil came from the construction of the Los Angeles Civic Center. It filled a ravine in the park. The park tripled in size becoming the 15-acre oasis we see today.
Look around you. You see reclaimed sandstone bricks. They are pieces of that old courthouse. They form a historic boulder garden. These stones bear the scars of their journey. They traveled from demolition site to park. Notice the scars of dismantling transport and reassembly. The bricks also line the northern end of City Terrace Park.
City Terrace Park is more than just stones. In 1960 a mid-century modern addition appeared. A unique sports shell was built. It’s an indoor-outdoor dome. It resembles a turtle shell or a saddle. Architects Ralph J Bowerman and Charles W Hobson designed it. The hyperbolic paraboloid design is unusual for a park. It features five beams supporting a double-curved roof. No interior columns support the structure. This design element is a radical approach to park architecture. It looks as space-age today as it did then. The design might be one of a kind.
City Terrace Park is a unique blend of old and new. It’s a place where history and modern design coexist. It’s a park that tells a story. It tells a story of resilience and reinvention. It’s a quiet reminder of a grand building’s past. And it’s a vibrant space for the community’s present. So enjoy your time here. Soak in the history and the fun. This is more than just a park. It is a living monument.