Watts Towers

A sculpture of seventeen interconnected steel-rebar towers, the tallest 30 metres high, encrusted with broken bottle, ceramic, shell, and tile mosaic. The whole compound was built by hand by one man, the Italian immigrant Sabato Rodia, over more than three decades in the Watts neighbourhood of south LA.

The towers can be admired from the surrounding fence at any time; guided tours inside the compound run Thursdays through Sundays from the small visitor centre. The neighbourhood is recovering, but visitors are advised to use ride-share or to drive during the day.

things to do sight
A story
Sabato "Simon" Rodia, an Italian immigrant tile-setter, built the towers single-handed in his Watts backyard from 1921 to 1954 with no plans, no scaffolding, and no professional training. He gave the property away in 1955 and walked off; the city declared the structures unsafe and tried to demolish them, but a stress test with a tractor pulled the testing rig over without moving the steel frame.