Ed Clampitt's Westlake Oil Wells Capped For Affordable Housing

Allenco Energy is sealing up abandoned oil wells from the old Los Angeles City Oil Field, LA's first, to make way for 45 affordable housing units at Glendale Blvd. and Rockwood St. in Westlake. The developers, LTSC Community Development Corp. (which is working with the Filipino Workers Center), will begin construction on the $20.5 million project in April and finish up in about 18 months. The city has already issued demolition and grading permits, allowing last week's plugging to begin, reports the LA Times. But lets move on to the esoteric history of oil extraction on the east-ish side of Los Angeles: the wells were once part of a large network that extracted sweet, sweet petroleum from the Los Angeles City Oil Field, which spread three and a half miles from Chinatown in the east to Berendo Street in East Hollywood in the west. The five wells that Allenco is capping are listed as having belonged to Edward A. Clampitt, who came to LA in 1888 and is believed to have served as the inspiration for another oil-striking Clampett, the formerly-poor mountaineer of The Beverly Hillbillies.
· Capping an era of L.A. oil exploration [LA Times]