{"id":11025,"date":"2025-09-20T02:08:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T02:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/?p=11025"},"modified":"2025-09-20T02:08:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T02:08:20","slug":"watts-towers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/misc\/watts-towers\/","title":{"rendered":"Watts Towers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I first learned about the Watts Towers as a kid when I randomly came across a TV movie called Daniel and the Towers<\/a> on PBS. The movie tells a fictional story about a boy who slowly befriends a cantankerous oddball named Simon Rodia as he builds a set of towers and decorates them with colorful found objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time I’d wanted to see the towers and take the tour in person, but for various reasons the stars never aligned during my previous visits to LA. Today I was finally<\/em> able to take the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In real life, Sabato Rodia — also known as Sam or Simon — was quite the character. After immigrating to the US from Italy in the late 19th century he moved around a lot, settling down in Los Angeles for to build the towers starting in the 1920’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The towers are built out of metal wire and mesh covered in concrete, with found objects like bottles and tiles embedded in them. Rodia allegedly stole some of the tiles from his employer. The concrete also contains impressions of various tools, plumbing fixtures, and iron vents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The property that the towers are on at one point contained a house, but it was lost due to a fire. The lot is triangular in shape. The towers form a line along the middle of the triangle like the masts on a sailing ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the “captain” of the ship Rodia oversaw weddings in a small Pentecostal church he built into the structure. (In typical Pentecostal fashion, Rodia himself had been through several divorces.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to declining health in his later years, Rodia gave the property away to his neighbor and moved to Martinez, California. Despite living another decade he never returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the Watts Towers are a California State Park and is in the National Park Service’s Register of Historic Places. Due to the somewhat fragile nature of the structures ongoing maintenance is required, with the current restoration overseen by LACMA<\/a>. Rust due to water seeping in through the cracks is a major concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My recommendation:<\/strong> If you’re into outsider art, it doesn’t get much more outsider than the Watts Towers. Though they can be seen from a block or two away, the only way to see them up close is on a guided tour. More information about the tours can be found on the official website.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first learned about the Watts Towers as a kid when I randomly came across a TV movie called Daniel and the Towers on PBS. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","slim_seo":{"title":"Watts Towers - MrEricSir.com","description":"I first learned about the Watts Towers as a kid when I randomly came across a TV movie called Daniel and the Towers on PBS. The movie tells a fictional story ab"},"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[190,1250,38,222],"class_list":["post-11025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-art","tag-los-angeles","tag-photos","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11025"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11033,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11025\/revisions\/11033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}