Reform School for Juvenile Offenders (Fred C. Nelles School)

California's first reform school opened here on July 1, 1891, and under superintendent Fred C. Nelles, from 1912 to 1927, it became the state's laboratory for the science of delinquency. Researchers gave the boys intelligence tests, sent fieldworkers to their families, and classified Mexican, Mexican American and Black children as feebleminded. Those labels moved children into state institutions where they were sterilized, without a court hearing, into the 1950s. Benny Moreno died in the isolation unit in 1939, Edward Leiva in 1940. The state closed the school in 2004; housing opened on the ground in 2020.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 8.9 mi
  The fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.
• Colorado Street Bridge — 13 mi
  Beaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.
• Santa Monica Pier — 26 mi
  Where the Mother Road runs out of continent, and where the End of the Trail sign gives the drive somewhere to finish.

More markers nearby

• Paradox Hybrid Walnut Tree — 0.3 mi
• Grave of George Caralambo (Greek George) — 0.7 mi
• Casa de Governor Pío Pico — 1.7 mi
• Rio San Gabriel Battlefield — 3.7 mi