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18-714: The east side of West Hollywood is dominated by Russian speaking immigrants, and the park is a popular gathering place for Russians. In 1874, Col. Eugenio Plummer acquired official title to 160 acres (65 ha) from Señora Francisca Perez, who had occupied this land under preemption law in 1869. Plummer Park and Plummer House were acquired by Los Angeles County from Senor Plummer in 1937 for $ 15,000. The Los Angeles Audubon Society (LAAS) has been headquartered in Plummer House since then and (in 1983) moved into another building in Plummer Park (Great Hall-Long Hall) which

36-402: A federally set minimum price; it was a right of first refusal . Usually this was conferred to male heads of households who developed the property into a farm. If he was a citizen or was taking steps to become one and he and his family developed the land (buildings, fields, fences) he had the right to then buy that land for the minimum price. Land was otherwise sold through auction, typically at

54-504: A price too high for these settlers. Preemption is similar to squatter's rights and mining claims . Preemption was politically controversial, primarily among land speculators and their allies in government. In the early history of the United States, and even to some degree during the colonial era, settlers were moving into the "virgin wilderness" and building homes and farms without regard to land title. The improvements increased

72-912: The Desert Land Act include the Salt River in Arizona, the Imperial Valley in California, the Snake River in Idaho, Gallatin , Montana, and Yakima , Washington. Many of these communities facilitated further growth through the help of the Reclamation Act of 1902 . The peak of growth of these areas can be tracked by three separate eras prior to the current era: 1877–1887, 1888–1893, and 1893–1910. The first decade after

90-677: The Desert Land Act was partly based on the Homestead Act and the Preemption Act (1841) , it did not contain a key provision of those acts, the residence requirement. While the claimant had to improve the land, the claimant did not need to live on the land while the improvements were made. In the end, that led to a significant amount of fraud, and land speculation companies acquired tens of thousands of acres of California land by hiring "dummy entrymen" to make false claims of settlement. Well known areas that began as land patented under

108-555: The Desert Land Act was passed was well known for fraudulent activity, especially by cattle producers. The era saw its end after a decline in the cattle industry. The second era of the Desert Land Act saw a significant drop in fraudulent activity after an amendment to the Act that included stricter regulations and checks for irrigation systems, however was not entirely absent of fraudulent land ownership. The settlers were then required to submit maps and plans of irrigation to prevent violation of

126-588: The Desert act which extended the Lassen County Act to cover several arid states and other regions of California. The original intent of the Desert Land Act was to instigate growth in the West by incentivizing people to move out West in the late 19th century and develop irrigation systems that would transform the land into usable space. While it encouraged growth, it also played a large role in water rights of

144-489: The Los Angeles Sunday Assembly . 34°05′35″N 118°21′04″W  /  34.0931°N 118.3511°W  / 34.0931; -118.3511 This Los Angeles County, California –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Preemption (land) Preemption was a term used in the nineteenth century to refer to a settler's right to purchase public land at

162-839: The State of California in 1956. On May 1, 2013, the California Historic Resources Commission vote to approve the nomination to place the Great Hall-Long Hall in the National Register of Historic Places, despite opposition from the City Council of West Hollywood. There is a farmers' market every Monday morning in the north parking lot. In 2001 a new community center was completed on the site designed by Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Inc. (see photograph). It currently hosts

180-510: The act. Other amendatory acts to the law included encouraging communal placement of irrigation systems, and defined the progress of reclamation in the amount spent on the systems. The time period ended with the Panic of 1893 . The last era of the Desert Land Act began as the interest in irrigation and migration increased following the prosperity after the Depression of 1893. The last year of

198-518: The building in 2012 and create underground parking as part of a controversial plan to create a modern park. A group of residents called Protect Plummer Park was organized in early 2011 to preserve the historic Plummer Park. Plummer Park and Plummer House (which was built in 1870 and moved to the Leonis Adobe grounds in Calabasas in 1983) have been designated a State Historic Landmark by

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216-522: The economic development of the arid and semiarid public lands within certain states of the Western states . Through the Act, United States citizens , or those declaring an intent to become a citizen, over the age of 21 may apply for a desert-land entry to irrigate and reclaim the land. This act amended the Homestead Act of 1862 . Originally the act offered 640 acres (2.6 km ), but that

234-461: The era. While settlers decided to move West to spread irrigation, rather than use the land solely for farming or cattle, it created a new dilemma for settlers as to how to use and share the water, be it on a communal or an individual basis. While many irrigation systems were set up communally, that eventually led to private water companies that owned large irrigation systems, which were built independently without consulting proper engineers. Although

252-616: The upper Midwest , where mill workers who lived in mill towns made a preemption claim on timber land that would then be harvested by the mill owners. Another avenue of fraud was the Desert Land Act , which did not include the residence requirement, although the preempting claimant still needed to improve the land, primarily by providing a water source. In California, tens of thousands of acres of land were claimed via false preemptors – "dummy entrymen" – on behalf of several large land speculating companies. The Preemption Act of 1841

270-415: The value of all the nearby property. Eventually the political opposition by the speculators crumbled and the Preemption Act of 1841 was passed. The Preemption Act of 1841 was abused by speculators who now operated as money lending businesses, or were able to coerce accomplices to falsely claim they were living on land that they wanted. A common example of the latter practice was in the logging industry in

288-624: Was originally constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1937. In 2005, a Russian Veterans Memorial was built in the park. While supported by many local residents, it was criticized as being inappropriate given that some might interpret it as honoring the USSR under Joseph Stalin . In May 2011 the Audubon Society was given notice to leave by the city of West Hollywood who are planning to demolish

306-477: Was pivotal, but was neither the beginning nor the end of the issue of preemption. The Land Act of 1804 , the Homestead Act , the aforementioned Desert Land Act, and other similar land acts addressed the issue of preemption. Desert Land Act The Desert Land Act is a United States federal law which was passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1877, to encourage and promote

324-506: Was subsequently limited to 320. A precursor act in 1875, called the Lassen County Act, was pushed by Representative John K. Luttrell of the northeastern district of California , who wanted to speed up privatization of land east of the Sierra. This act enlarged the maximum allowable purchase for settlers from 160 acres to 640 acres. With the backing of Land Commissioner J. A. Williamson , Luttrell and Senator Aaron A. Sargent co-sponsored

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