James Laird - "Lark Ellen Home for Boys 1930s History and Descriptions for Boys" - Page 2

The outside grounds were divided into two areas. The small kid's dorm was over the dining, room kitchen so that side of the grounds was made for them to play on with huge sand boxes and swings shaded by some of the biggest avocado trees I ever saw. There was also a grape arbor which grew lots of good grapes in season. A forbidden fruit for us kids. On the other side of the (T) formed by two sides of the building was a large concrete area where you could roller skate and we did morning calisthenics when we had a coach. It was usually someone doing graduate work at UCLA's teacher's college for free board and room. Next to the concrete was a very large jungle gym.

A large two story bungalow with a sort of queen Ann look sat just off the other end of the concrete. This may have been the first building used for the newsboys' home until the home was expanded to include boys from broken families when the big building was built. It was now just used for storage and a residence for the coach and a room to do hobbies in.

From the front hedge to a driveway along Purdue Ave. for about a third of the block was our football field. Not full size but big enough to have some good games on. Spanning about half the width of the block crosswise was our baseball field. No grass just decomposed granite. We often had players from the Los Angeles (Coast League) come out and show us the finer points of playing. There were a couple of empty lots just across the street from center field for extra long balls.