Augustus F. Hawkins Park
Habitat in South L.A., California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Augustus F. Hawkins Park is a 8.5-acre (3.4 ha) public park in South Los Angeles, just south of downtown Los Angeles.[1] The park includes a nature center and plantings donated by the Huntington Gardens in San Marino.[2] Full-size oak trees were trucked to the site from Ramona, and mud from a Malibu mudslide created some of the hills.[3] Plantings native to California are prioritized, including sycamores and willows adjacent to the constructed wetland.[4]
| Augustus F. Hawkins Park | |
|---|---|
| |
 Interactive map of Augustus F. Hawkins Park | |
| Location | 5790 Compton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90011 |
| Coordinates | 33°59′25″N 118°14′48″W |
| Area | 8.5 acres |
| Created | 2000 |
| Operated by | L.A. City Parks, SM Mountains Conservancy |
| Public transit access |  Slauson station |
The park attracts up to 5,000 visitors a week from the surrounding highly diverse neighborhood.[5] Community and educational programs are hosted in the nature center.[5] A park ranger lives on site.[6]
The park was built in 2000 at a cost of $4.5 million.[7] The location had previously been a municipal storage yard classified as a brownfield.[7][8] The land was formerly fenced off with barbed wire, which has been replaced by stone walls and hand-made artistic metal gates.[6] The land is on long-term lease from the LADWP.[7]
August F. Haw, California
August F. Haw [sic] is the shortened placename designated by the United States Postal Service for a South Los Angeles area associated with ZIP codes 90002, 90044, 90051, 90059, and 90061.[9]
It is a corruption of the name of the Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park, which was recently built in a highly urbanized area of south LA.[10] The park itself is named after former Congressman Augustus Freeman "Gus" Hawkins.[11]
This corrupted name is recognized on an information pass-through basis by a variety of government agencies, including state agencies such as the Southern California Air Quality Management District[12] and the Medical Board of California,[13] and the federal government.[14]
The name is also widely used in commercial databases.[15]