Azusa Street

Aerial view of the JACCC Noguchi Plaza and
Azusa Street upper end of photo

The Azusa Street SpiritWalk Project will become one of the greatest spiritual tourists destinations for Los Angeles, and Little Tokyo will be known as the “Spiritual Door to the World” for the City of the Angels. As the city grew from a little pueblo in the desert, churches were established around the civic center area. The Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Jewish, and Pentecostals were all part of the spiritual birth of this emerging young city and today, it is part of a megapolis with over 10 million people living and working in the “Jewel of the Pacific.”

312 Azusa Street Mission and Pastor Seymour
and members of the Pentecostal Church
(Image courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library)

Of historical significance is the 312 Azusa Street Mission address. It is the Birthplace of the Pentecostal Movement, founded by William Seymour, a humble, uneducated son of former slaves, on April 14, 1906. Today, the Movement embraces over 600 million followers throughout the world and is one of the fastest growing religious organizations in the history of mankind, according to “The Life Millennium: The 100 Most Important Events & People of the Past 1,000 Years.” On April 25-29, 2006, over 100,000 members will come to Los Angeles to celebrate the Azusa Street Centennial, “The Spiritual Experience of a Lifetime.”

Today, Azusa Street is used as a service alley for delivery and trash removal trucks. The 312 Azusa Street address is a blank gray concrete wall. Except for a modest sign, very few worshippers are able to find the street where the Azusa Street Mission Revival occurred. The Little Tokyo Azusa Street Memorial Committee is proposing to develop an Azusa Street SpiritWalk Promenade to commemorate the importance of the street to Little Tokyo and Los Angeles. Under the leadership of Bill Watanabe, Executive Director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, the committee has been meeting for over 10 years to create an appropriate memorial for this historical site as well as help Little Tokyo capitalize on the potential tourists trade. The Azusa Street Centennial 2006 is crucial for solidifying the Azusa Street as “The Mecca for the Pentecostal Movement.”

Request for $25,000 Feasibility Study

The $25,000 grant from the Tom Bradley Foundation will be used to hire a development consultant to prepare a specific plan for the redevelopment of Azusa Street. Additional funds are being raised from the Pentecostal Church, the Community Redevelopment Agency, Block 8 development, and an in-kind contribution from the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

Mayor Bradley’s Involvement in the Azusa Street project and the Isamu Noguchi Plaza Development

Isamu Noguchi explaining to Mayor Tom Bradley about the development of the plaza (Image courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library)

In 1980, Isamu Noguchi proposed to Mayor Bradley the development of a plaza rather than a theatre on the historical 312 Azusa Street Mission site. The knowledge or the significance of the site as the birthplace of the Pentecostal Movement was never known, mentioned, nor discussed in any of the deliberations. At the urging of Isamu Noguchi to create a plaza, Bradley provided the leadership in convincing the Japanese American community leaders to consider Isamu Noguchi’s proposal. Thanks to Mayor Bradley’s commitment of a million dollars, Isamu Noguchi’s vision was realized. Thanks to Noguchi, 312 Azusa Street can have an appropriate monument in order to acknowledge the Birthplace of the Pentecostal Movement.

Site plan of the JACCC Campus and the Azusa Street location 

Photo of the Noguchi Sculptures “To the Issei” and the Japan America Theatre

By Mark Kendall, MARK KENDALL is a freelance writer based in Ontario.
May 2, 2007. Los Angeles Times

NEVER-LOOK-BACK Los Angeles managed to brick over one of the nation’s key religious historical sites without even realizing it. And somehow that turned out to be a good thing — maybe even a miracle.

It was in downtown just over a century ago that the hands-raising, tongues-speaking form of Christian faith now known as Pentecostalism ignited into a global movement. From a bare-bones church on Azusa Street, a black preacher named William J. Seymour led multiracial crowds in an ecstatic revival that began in April 1906. Today, this movement stressing the need for believers to receive the “baptism in the Spirit” booms far beyond the U.S., in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia.

But when Pentecostal pilgrims find their way to Azusa Street these days, they discover no soaring memorial or grand cathedral. The movement’s holiest site outside of the Holy Land is today just another downtown L.A. plaza, this one in what is now Little Tokyo. The street was long ago reduced to an alley.

For more than a decade, a group of Pentecostal and community leaders have worked to memorialize the site. Bill Watanabe, executive director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, knew nothing of Pentecostalism but became intrigued after being repeatedly asked by visitors for directions to Azusa Street — which he knew only as an unremarkable alley. After learning the story behind it, he helped launch the Azusa Street Memorial Committee in the 1990s.

But formal recognition of the site’s importance remains understated at best. The location where the church — torn down in 1931 — stood is covered over by a brick plaza created by renowned sculptor Isamu Noguchi in the early 1980s as part of the larger Japanese American Cultural and Community Center complex.

The memorial committee’s efforts have yielded only a city sign marking the alleyway as the “Cradle of the Worldwide Pentecostal Movement” and two plaques at the actual church site. And those plaques are decidedly hard to spot so as not to alter the appearance of the plaza — the entire space is considered a work of art.

Advocates of a grander memorial stepped up their campaign last year during the buildup to the Azusa Street Centennial Celebration, which drew thousands of Pentecostals to Los Angeles in April 2006. They touted a proposal for a “SpiritWalk” depicting the famous revival and the neighborhood’s multicultural history through a mural and promenade along the alleyway. But the JACCC has objected to the use of the back side of its wall separating the plaza from the alleyway for a mural. The center is planning renovations to the property and the wall may not stay, according to Executive Director Chris Aihara. Last week, memorial advocates were touting a simpler plan for an obelisk to be located on city property deeper into the alleyway, next to where the church once stood.

But whether or not a fitting memorial materializes, I can’t help but wonder if something more significant than markers or murals has been missed. In the decades after the revival, this prime piece of land in downtown Los Angeles could easily have been overtaken by another sterile steel-and-glass high rise, a concrete-bunker parking structure or a dumpy little hot dog stand.

The site, then a parking lot, narrowly escaped being overtaken by a theater when the redevelopment plans for Little Tokyo unfolded in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The theater was to be built as part of a larger JACCC complex, and nobody involved seems to have understood the place’s history. The Times’ stories at the time made no mention of it. “We did not know the significance of the location,” said Les Hamasaki, a former urban planner for the city who has become part of the Azusa Street memorial effort.

But when Noguchi saw the plans for the complex, he balked, insisting that the project needed a larger plaza. He literally picked up the model of the theater and moved it, according to Hamasaki. The artist got his way, and the sacred site was inadvertently spared, “just by happenstance,” Hamasaki said.

Or was it?

Today, the stark plaza where the church once stood offers an open space where Pentecostals are still able gather to worship and seek something more lasting than a memorial. There’s the miracle — one of the harder-to-spot kind that I’m certain happens all the time in the City of Angels.

A hundred years ago, a seed was planted by a son of former slaves to create a multicultural Los Angeles. In 1906, the establishment of a multiracial mission on Azusa Street by Pastor William Joseph Seymour turned everything upside down in Los Angeles. “All the major churches were trying to figure out how to relate to it,” according to Cecil M Robeck, Jr., professor of church history at Fuller Theological seminary and an authority on the Pentecostal Movement. Today, the seed that Pastor Seymour planted has created a multiracial movement throughout America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Pentecostal Church is the fastest growing religious movement in the world with over 500 million members.

312 Azusa Street Mission and Pastor Seymour
and members of the Pentecostal Church
(Image courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library)

A Multicultural River of Renewal will be flowing through Los Angeles in April 2006 to commemorate Pastor William Seymour and the birthplace of the Pentecostal Movement. Seymour is one of the 100 most important people, and the Movement is one of the most important events in the history of the millennium, according to the “Life Millennium Collector’s Edition.” Yet the amazing story of Pastor Seymour is hardly known outside of Pentecostal circles. The breadth of his impact on the world has not been fully appreciated, up to now, but the power of this river of faith, the historical and cultural impact of this centennial celebration will empower the dream of a multicultural Los Angeles and a world community. The international impact of this Centennial pilgrimage to Los Angeles will combine with a number of other efforts to put Los Angeles in the enviable position as one of the prime cultural tourist destinations of the world.

Importance to America

The Pentecostal Movement is important to Los Angeles and America because it was founded in Los Angeles and it is an American Multicultural Religious Movement with world impact. In this regard, William Seymour stands shoulder to shoulder with Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and other great leaders of African descent in the 20th century.

The site of the Azusa Street Mission involves another notable person of African American ancestry – Ms. Biddy Mason. Biddy Mason, a former slave, who became a wealthy businesswoman in Los Angeles, founded the First AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church at 312 Azusa Street in Little Tokyo. She sold the property to William Seymour that became the Azusa Street Mission.

Knowing neither its existence nor its historical significance, Isamu Noguchi, a world renowned sculptor, convinced Mayor Bradley, the first African American Mayor of Los Angeles, to build a plaza on the site of the Azusa Street Mission. A theatre had been planned for the site. In 1980, Tom Bradley was able to convince the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center Board of Directors to create a plaza on the Azusa Street Mission site and locate the planned theater at its present location.

Isamu Noguchi explaining to Mayor Tom Bradley about the development of the plaza (Image courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library)

Tom Bradley believed that the strength of Los Angeles was the diversity of all of its people. He provided the leadership to create a multicultural Los Angeles by generating an inclusive political foundation and framework for the City. He brought the 1984 Olympics to Los Angeles, one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world where Olympians from over 85 countries were welcomed by Angelinos from those countries. Mayor Bradley provided the leadership to create a multicultural city by empowering ethnic minorities to become part of the City’s workforce through an aggressive Affirmative Action Program. Together with Gilbert Lindsey, the first African American councilman in the City of Los Angeles, they provided the leadership for the redevelopment of Little Tokyo.

Currently, Jan Perry, Councilwoman for the Little Tokyo District, provides the leadership to recapture the Spirit of Multiculturalism and has endorsed the Azusa Street SpiritWalk Promenade as an important historical cultural tourism venue for the City of Los Angeles.

Little Tokyo is “The Spiritual Door to the World” with the Buddhist and Christian churches providing the moral leadership and the soul to this multicultural community. With the arrival of the pilgrims in April, the Azusa Street Mission will become one of the greatest cultural tourist attractions in Los Angeles. Over a half billion followers, worldwide, have been inspired by the amazing events that took place a century ago that closely parallel the Biblical story of Pentecost. Positioning for this economic boom for the downtown district of the City of Los Angeles, the Azusa Street Memorial Committee and the Tom Bradley Legacy Foundation are working with the community to envision and implement the Azusa Street SpiritWalk Promenade to provide the soul to the growing downtown urban center.

Azusa Street

Little Tokyo will again become a living experiment in multiculturalism where all religions and ethnic groups can live and work towards inspiring the spirit of brotherhood still emanating from this historical site. After his experience at the Azusa Street Mission, Simon Rodia, went on to build the Watts Towers, another cultural treasure imbued with the “Spirit and Power of the Dream.” At a local Pentecostal Church in Memphis, Tennessee, Elvis Presley experienced and was inspired by the gospel music performed by the Black musicians that originated from the Movement. Elvis help spark a new music movement-Rock and Roll—that changed the music world and profoundly influenced a generation.

Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers inspired by the Azusa Street Mission Experience.

One hundred years after Rev. William Seymour, a legendary “big dreamer” inspired a multicultural world movement in the city of 250,000 people, Mayor Villaraigosa, the first elected Latino Mayor in the City of 3.5 million people, is inspiring Angelinos to “dream big” to create a renewed city of Angels.

We are of one race–the human race-living in a multicultural city. The strength of Los Angeles is rooted in the dreams of all those diverse cultural heritages from all countries. The City of Angels is the “Birthplace of Multiculturalism” and we are coming home to Azusa Street Mission a hundred years later to renew our commitment to make the Multicultural Dream in the city of Angels a reality.

“Los Angeles: Birthplace of Multiculturalism,”  written by Les Hamasaki