Nickerson Gardens
Nickerson Gardens is a 1,066-unit public housing apartment complex at 1590 East 114th Street in Watts, Los Angeles, California.
Nickerson Gardens consists of 156 buildings with townhouse style units made up on single bedroom units. It was completed in the year 1955, and the original architect was Paul Revere Williams. It was named after William Nickerson, Jr., the founder and former CEO of Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company. The complex is owned and managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. Nickerson Gardens is the largest public housing development west of the Mississippi River.
The complex occupies the blocks northeast of the corner of Imperial Highway and Central Avenue, and southwest of 111th St and Compton Avenue. It is on the border of both Watts and the Census Designated Place of Willowbrook.
In the mid-1970s, Nickerson Gardens was 95% African American, by 2004 the African American population had decreased to 75% and continues to drop to this day.
Nickerson Gardens was occasionally known as the recognized birthplace of the Bounty Hunter Bloods gang. A Los Angeles Times article on November 17, 2007 detailed that they were gangs which had patrolled in and around Nickerson Gardens.
The complex was one of the many locations featured in the action-thriller film To Live and Die in L.A..Location
Nickerson Gardens is assigned to the following Los Angeles Unified School District schools:
*
