![]() Griffith's plan for the observatory would include an astronomical telescope open to free viewing, a Hall of Science designed to bring the public into contact with exhibits about the physical sciences, and a motion picture theater which would show educational films about science and other subjects. On December 12, 1912, he offered the City of Los Angeles $100,000 for an observatory to be built on the top of Mount Hollywood to be fully owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles. Griffith's experience on Mount Wilson focused his desire to make science more accessible to the public. If all mankind could look through that telescope, it would change the world!" His reaction after looking through the 60-inch telescope at Mount Wilson - then the largest in the world - was described by John Anson Ford: "The experience moved him profoundly - a distant, heavenly body suddenly being brought so close and made so real!" Ford quotes Griffith as saying "Man's sense of values ought to be revised. He believed that an individual gained an enlightened perspective when looking at the skies. ![]() He was also impressed by his visits to the new research observatory established at Mount Wilson in 1904. Griffith was introduced to astronomy through the Astronomical Section of the Southern California Academy of Sciences. Keck Foundation Central Rotunda inside Griffith Observatory. The City Council proclamation accepting Griffith's gift hangs (along with a portrait commissioned after his death) in the W.M. I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered." Griffith Park became the largest urban park in the U.S. "I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happy, cleaner, and finer city. "It must be made a place of rest and relaxation for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people," Griffith said on that occasion. On December 16, 1896, he donated 3,015 acres of Rancho Los Felis to the City of Los Angeles in order to create a public park in his name. Griffith enjoyed being referred to as "Colonel" Griffith, though it seems he was never officially commissioned as an officer (nor is it clear that he even served in the military).ĭuring a tour abroad, Griffith had discovered the great public parks of Europe and decided that his home, Los Angeles, would need a "Great Park" for the public in order to become a great city. He moved to Los Angeles after purchasing the rancho and spent the rest of his life there. He worked as a journalist and mining advisor before making his fortune in Mexican silver mines and, subsequently, southern California real estate. Griffith was born in Wales in 1850 and came to America as a teenager. The land stayed in the Felis family for over a century, being subdivided through generations, until Griffith, a wealthy mining speculator, purchased what remained of the rancho in 1882. ![]() The Spanish Governor of California bequeathed it to Corporal Vincente Felis in the 1770s. The land on which Griffith Observatory sits was once a part of a Spanish settlement known as Rancho Los Felis. ![]()
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