Search

While the role of the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) has been cited by many as a major force in the establishment of racially encoded housing markets, and by extension, increasing segregation in American cities, much of the existing debate has centered on its presence in older manufacturing cities. This focus situates the debate over housing and segregation in the context of African-Americans in a white dominated housing market, although there is also ample evidence from the maps and files prepared by HOLC in the 1930s that ethnic identity and stereotypes were also common. This paper is the beginning of an examination of the activities of HOLC in Los Angeles during a period of rapid urban growth. Our focus here is on the narratives that were attached to the neighborhood-by-neighborhood assessment done for the city in the late 1930s. While these narratives provide insights into the operation of racial codes in the marketing of housing in a multi-racial context, they also suggest that the locational context of cities and their attendant development histories create major differences in the ways that "standardized" real estate appraisal emerged. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]