Place
Maravilla Handball Court and El Centro Grocery
Built brick-by-brick by East L.A. residents, the handball court is the oldest of its kind in L.A. and remains an important community space for residents.
Saved
This site of layered history in East L.A. was successfully listed on the California Register of Historical Resources in 2012 by the Conservancy in partnership with the Maravilla Historical Society.
Place Details
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Overview
After many months of effort by the Conservancy and the Maravilla Historical Society, in 2012 the State Historical Resources Commission voted to list the Maravilla Handball Court and El Centro Grocery in the California Register of Historical Resources.
About This Place
About This Place
The handball court was built brick-by-brick by East L.A. residents and completed 1928, with the El Centro Grocery and attached residence added in 1946. As the oldest remaining handball court in the Los Angeles region, the site has a rich, layered history and continues to serve as an important community space for youth and families.
From 1928 to 2007, the court was home to the men’s-only Maravilla Handball Club. Michi and Tommy Nishiyama began operating the property in the mid-1950s following Michi’s post-WWII release from Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho.
The family opened El Centro grocery store next to the court; the store and court together became an important historic and cultural landmark to East Los Angeles residents.
Maravilla was also the only court in East Los Angeles where players still played bola basca, also known as Basque pelota. This court sport, played with one’s hand or a racket, is commonly seen in Basque communities throughout Oregon and Idaho.
In 2006, Michi passed away; Tommy followed a year later, and the court and store were closed. The site was boarded up for a year, until local advocate Amanda Perez and the Maravilla Historical Society began efforts in 2008 to restore the court and store for community residents to appreciate, use, and learn about an important part of their neighborhood’s history.
Residents and handball veterans who remembered the legacy of the court took up the cause to save the building. “It is my passion to save the legacy of my people, my community, and our Chicano culture,” said Maravilla Historical Society President Amanda Perez, who grew up in the Maravilla neighborhood and garnered broad support on this preservation issue. “We want this place to be a beacon for all to come and step into the past, present, and future.”
In December 2009, the Maravilla Historical Society organized the court’s first-ever co-ed youth handball tournament. Attended by over twenty-five local boys and girls, the event helped introduce the sport and the historic court to a new generation of players. Veteran players attended to mentor participants, including young girls eager to learn the sport.
As of 2017, a new owner leases the property to residential and commercial tenants.
Our Position
The property was successfully listed on the California Register of Historical Resources by the Conservancy in partnership with the Maravilla Historical Society in 2012. The nomination had the formal support of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Listing in the California Register offers protection for the building by making certain changes to it subject to public review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Since the building is located in unincorporated East Los Angeles, which did not have a preservation ordinance at the time of the nomination, state-level designation offered the strongest protection. Los Angeles County has since adopted a preservation ordinance for the unincorporated areas.
The effort to preserve the Maravilla Handball Court was part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s This Place Matters campaign, spearheaded locally by the Conservancy, which identifies important historic sites that merit national attention. The Maravilla Handball Court was profiled in the Spring 2010 edition of the National Trust’s Forum Journal.
