page_title: Watts Towers
section_title: California Historic Landmark marker
hierarchical_section_title: Watts Towers / Preservation after Rodia / California Historic Landmark marker
caption_attribution_description: English: Photographed and uploaded by user:Geographer. Close-up of the mosaic decoration, circa 2002 winter.
context_page_description: The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or Nuestro Pueblo are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artist's original residential property in Watts, Los Angeles. The entire site of towers, structures, sculptures, pavement and walls were designed and built solely by Sabato Rodia, an Italian immigrant construction worker and tile mason, over a period of 33 years from 1921 to 1954. The tallest of the towers is 99.5 feet. The work is an example of outsider art and Italian-American naïve art.
  The Watts Towers were designated a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark in 1990. They are also a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, and one of nine folk art sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles. The Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park encompasses the Watts Towers site.
  The Watts Towers are one-half mile from the 103rd Street/Watts Towers station of the Los Angeles Metro A Line.
context_section_description: California Historic Landmark Marker on the site reads:
  NO. 993 WATTS TOWERS OF SIMON RODIA - The Watts Towers are perhaps the nation's best known work of folk art sculpture. Using simple hand tools, cast off materials (glass, shell, pottery pieces and broken tile) Italian immigrant Simon Rodia spent 30 years building a tribute to his adopted country and a monument to the spirit of individuals who make their dreams tangible. Rodia's Towers inspired many to rally and preserve his work and protect it for the future.
caption: Wall detail, with mosaic
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