\u201cI saw these beautiful mansions being torn down,\u201d Politi told an interviewer at KCET in 1987, \u201cand I says, \u2018I just got to start drawing them and recording them,\u2019 so I did a lot of studies up there, and when I finished, I did the book.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791661460_708_.jpeg\")
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“The Veranda” by Leo Politi in “Bunker Hill, Los Angeles: Reminiscences of Bygone Days”. The drawing features Ruby and Julie.<\/p>\n
In 1964, he published a selection of what he captured in a book, Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Reminiscences of Bygone Days. The beloved childhood home of Vicki and her family was featured in those paintings.<\/p>\n
Watching Mr. Politi at work<\/p>\n
Vicki, her sister Ruby Besing, and their cousin Julie Lendt remember playing outside the house they all lived in at 221 S. Bunker Hill Avenue and watching Politi sketch.<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t know then that the friendly man with an easel and paints was a lauded artist. When they saw the finished product, they were thrilled to find that Politi called them \u201cthe last children on Bunker Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Photo taken in 1960 of 221 S. Bunker Hill Ave., where the Bruce family lived. <\/p>\n
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Historic American Buildings Survey<\/p>\n
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Courtesy Library of Congress<\/p>\n
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How Politi’s art ended up at the library<\/p>\n
In 1965, after displaying some of Politi\u2019s paintings from the book, Central Library acquired 44 of his sketches and drawings for $3,000.<\/a> Though collecting art isn\u2019t typically part of the library\u2019s mandate, librarians deemed the pictures of the now-leveled neighborhood to be of important historical value.<\/p>\n Vicki and her family \u2014 who relocated to Echo Park after being forced to move \u2014 learned a few years ago that several of the artworks had been put on display in the library\u2019s children\u2019s section.<\/p>\n But the picture of their family home at 221 S. Bunker Hill Avenue wasn\u2019t one of them. It was housed in the library\u2019s Special Collections.<\/p>\n The Bruce family has had a copy of Leo Politi’s book on Bunker Hill for decades.<\/p>\n A copy of Politi\u2019s book signed to Vicki and Ruby\u2019s family is a prized possession.<\/p>\n How the Bruce family came to Bunker Hill<\/p>\n Though Politi refers to the house in the book as belonging to their grandmother, it actually belonged to Vicki\u2019s parents, Byron and Vaden Bruce, who\u2019d grown up poor in Kentucky and moved west in the mid-1940s to Los Angeles in search of a better life.<\/p>\n Byron\u2019s aunt, a preacher named Stasia Mobley who ran a mission on Skid Row, married the couple in May 1946. They celebrated their wedding with a dinner at Clifton\u2019s Cafeteria, a special treat that they indulged in on their anniversary each year after.<\/p>\n Vaden and Byron Bruce on their wedding day at Clifton\u2019s Cafeteria in May 1946.<\/p>\n Byron Bruce was a musician whose sight was limited. Since he couldn\u2019t drive, Bunker Hill was the perfect launch point from which he could walk to the many bars and clubs that dotted the downtown landscape. He was also a smart businessperson who cobbled together the money to buy a few homes around the neighborhood, sliced into apartments, which he maintained for his tenants. Vaden worked for over 30 years in the administrative office at the Sears in Boyle Heights.<\/p>\n Vicki, Ruby and Julie all walked down the hill each day and through the 2nd Street tunnel to Fremont Elementary School.<\/p>\n Leaving Bunker Hill<\/p>\n As they played in the streets while Politi worked to capture them, they had no idea about the yearslong battle to level their neighborhood. The Bruces never troubled their children with the unfolding drama over its purchase by eminent domain. (Those who didn\u2019t own their home \u2014 the majority of the people evicted from Bunker Hill \u2014 were forced out without any assistance.)<\/p>\n When they finally had to leave in the summer of 1963, their childhood on the hill became a cherished memory.<\/p>\n Vicki Rodriguez, Ruby Besing and Julie Lendt pose with a sketch they\u2019d never seen from the Leo Politi Collection at Central Library<\/p>\n For 30 years now, Vicki, who lives with her husband in Tujunga, has been a longtime secretary of my neighbor on the modern Bunker Hill \u2014 directly across the street from where the Bruce family once lived.<\/p>\n When he told me about Vicki\u2019s roots in the neighborhood, I helped her connect with the library.<\/p>\n What the family found in the library’s collection<\/p>\n Ruby Besing, librarian Ani Boyadjian, Julie Lendt and Vicki Rodriguez.<\/p>\n In September, Vicki, Betsy, Julie, and Vicki\u2019s son, Jeffrey, huddled around boxes of art as librarian Ani Boyadjian carefully opened the first. The very first piece she pulled out was one depicting their Bunker Hill Avenue home. But it wasn\u2019t the picture Politi used in the book \u2014 it was another one that the family hadn\u2019t known about.<\/p>\n Looking at paintings and sketches they didn\u2019t know existed, these last children on Bunker Hill, now in their 60s and 70s, found themselves transported back in time to their beloved neighborhood \u2014 and flabbergasted to see how much attention Politi had paid them, even Ruby\u2019s beloved childhood pet cat, Poncho.<\/p>\n \u201cTo our knowledge, there were only the two paintings in the book. And then at the library, we see there are something like 15 sketches and paintings, renderings of the house we\u2019d never seen before,\u201d Vicki said after the visit. \u201cIt blew me away. Seeing this artwork was a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n The story continues<\/p>\n A few days after their visit, Vicki, Ruby and Julie returned to the library so that librarian Boyadjian could record their oral histories. Listen to what they told her here.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791661462_601_.jpeg\")
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