Hermon Car Wall

Hermon Car Wall
Hermon Car Wall, photo by Charles J. Fisher, 2006

Hermon Car Wall, Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #944

Built: 1932  Declared: 01/28/2009

The Hermon Car Wall was constructed between about 1932 and the beginning of World War II by Albert Emmanuel Sederquist, who was a clerk for the LA Traffic Bureau and later a shipping clerk for the Carmichael Traffic Corporation on Main Street. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1926 after living at various locations including his native Iowa, as well as Oakland and Chicago. A life-long bachelor, he lived at the Cadillac Hotel on South Main Street of many years. In the early 1930s, he purchased some land West of Monterey Road in the Hermon area of Los Angeles, along the edge of what is now Debs Park. Sederquist, who had several old cars and more parts, decided to build a retaining wall to protect his property and proceeded to do so with the aid of three young nephews, who helped him to build the wall, using old car parts as a decorative element in the face of the wall. The wall also contained bricks from a school demolished after the Long Beach earthquake and other items that he collected on trips to the desert and other locations. The wall took about ten years to build. He used the land that he owned for camping and as a getaway.