Page 17 - lareina1929

LA REINA LOS ANGELES IN THREE CENTURIES 13

Plaza, Church of Our Lady of the Angels, and Sonora Town in 1869 The cover
design of this book is taken from this ,picture.

Present Plaza and Original Plaza Touch Only at One
Point
HERE is no trace of the buildings erected by the original colonists or of their
T lot stakes, so nothing remains today to show exactly where the homes stood.
However it is generally believed that one corner of the plaza was anchored across
Sunset Boulevard from the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, that its boundary
continued along the east side of North Main Street to the line of Bellevue, thence
across to New High, south to Sunset, and thence back to the point of anchorage.
When North Main was cut through it is said to have gone directly through the old
guard-house of the Pueblo site. The old and new plazas thus touch only at one
point, the northwest corner of the present Plaza.
According to De Neve's "Instruction para la Fundacion de los Angeles," the
old plaza lay square with the compass, with streets all running square with the plaza;
so that "no street would be swept by the wind," as the matter was put. House-lots
faced the plaza on the nprth, west and south; the east side being given over to public
buildings-a town hall, granary and a guard-house.
A cattle-proof adobe wall was built about the whole pueblo, and the lands
outside the house-lots were cut up into planting fields. Then came pasture lands,
beyond which were commons, leased lands and royal lands; revenue from the last
two going into the pueblo treasury

A Corporal Takes the Governor's Place
ONORS and promotions came to De Neve in the remaining two short years of
H his life. He was made Inspector-General, then Governor General de Provincias
Internos, and the cross of the Order of San Carlos was conferred upon him. In
the same year, 1784, also passed Father Junipero Serra, whose memory is cherished
by a world growing in appreciation and is kept fresh by John S. McGroarty's Mission
Play which goes on year after year under the shadow of old Mission San Gabriel.
The double blow was a terrible one for the young and hesitating Province of Cali-
fornia. No pueblo felt the need of their guiding hands more than Los Angeles.
But for the genius of Corporal Vincente Felix, and his little band of soldiers, the
community would have been in direful straits. The versatile corporal was the gov-
ernment. Even after an alcalde had been appointed in 1788 he continued as judge,
jury and high executioner, not to mention business manager. Before his death, the
Governor had conferred upon Felix the title of "Comisinado," and Felix upheld the
dignity of the state, and maintained his guard-house as a going institution, through
the administrations of seven alcaldes.