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Who was Simon Rodia?
- Simon was born in a smalltown in Southern Italy in 1879 and sailed from Naples to America as a young teenager.
- It was the first time Simon viewed constructions using glass and steel.
- In early 1920, Simon Rodia settled on a wedge shaped plot of land in an area of Los Angeles known as Watts.
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He lived @ 1765 East 107th Street in Watts
- From 1921 until 1954 he worked on the Towers with no drawing board designs, scaffolding, bolts or welding.
- "...I want to do something BIG, BIG, BIG..."
- He would ultimately complete the largest single work of art ever created by one man using a tile-setter's simple tools!
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Front Entryway
- He worked a full time job as a tile-setter and mason. Malibu Tile Company in Santa Monica, Caifornia was one of his employers.
- A few weeks before the Watts Riots of 1965, Simon Rodia died.
- In all the devastation and violence of that time and in that space, the Towers of Simon Rodia were left untouched.
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