There's something about Going West, all the way to the edge of the continent—running from the Old World, from personal tragedy, from the profound engagement with ourselves and others otherwise known as being in a family. In the 1890s, Sabato Rodia arrived in the country as a teenage immigrant from southern Italy to work construction. He eventually made his way to Los Angeles, where, in 1921, he bought a small triangular lot in a working-class neighborhood, and began to build.

For over 30 years, without scaffolding, without assistance, using rebar, homemade concrete, and bits of tile and glass, he built elegant, spindly, organic-looking structures that reached for the sky, the tallest nearly 100 feet. And then in 1954 he walked away forever, deeding the property to his neighbor.

It’s tempting to observe this was a person who lived without attachment, except: look what he built! How many evenings did he spend contemplating spatial relationships, the interplay between forms, working without patronage or any guarantee of recognition? What thoughts occupy such a person—and are they different from our own when we suddenly ponder: what am I doing with my life?

In 1959 the City of Los Angeles tried to demolish the towers as unsafe; they survived neglect, the 1965 Watts riots, and eventually became a beloved landmark. Would Rodia have imagined they would survive? That, however strange and lonely his path may have seemed, what he was doing was enough—more than enough—filling millions of people with wonder?

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Links:

• Excellent essay: “Something Big: The legend of the Watts Towers,” by Geoff Dyer, Harpers, April 2016

  
  

• Watts Towers official website

  
  

• Watts Towers - California State Parks

  
  

• “How Conservators Stabilized Los Angeles’ Monumental Watts Towers,” by Richard Selden, Preservation Magazine, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Summer 2023.

  
  

• “Watts Towers at 100: Junk turned into art still casts a spell,” by Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2021

  
  

• I Build the Tower, 2006 documentary film about Sabato Rodia - Wikipedia

This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country's 250th anniversary. 250 words on 250 works, from January 1 to December 31, 2026.

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