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“I Wanted To Do Something Big.” - Sabato Rodia

Watts Towers is an assemblage of interconnected sculptures built between 1921 and 1954 by an Italian immigrant, Sabato (Simon) Rodia, in the backyard of his residential property in what is now the City of Watts in South Central Los Angeles. Though Rodia referred to his creation as Nuestro Pueblo (Our Town), today it is known as the Watts Towers due to the three tall towers – two of which are nearly 100 feet high – which dominate the site. Often incorrectly described as reinforced concrete, Rodia’s sculptures are simple, steel framed structures covered with cement mortar decorated with an array of found materials including bottle glass, tile, pottery, and seashells. For reinforcement Rodia used whatever scrap metal he could find including pipe, channel iron, rods, and even bed frames. Rodia built the towers by himself using only simple, handheld tools without the aid of scaffolding or modern machinery and with no architectural plans or drawings to guide him. It may well be the tallest structure ever built by a single individual. In 1954 at the age of 75 Rodia deeded his property to a neighbor and moved to Martinez, California, never to return to Watts. Over the years Watts Towers has experienced periods of vandalism and neglect punctuated by major conservation campaigns that significantly altered the original appearance of the sculptures. Though it has lost some of its original luster over the past 100 years, Watts Towers remains a marvel of structural engineering and architecture and is widely recognized as one of the finest examples of “outsider art” in the United States, and an iconic symbol of Los Angeles.