old soldiers' home

To make room for a temporary hospital during its reconstruction, the roughly 1,000 remaining residents of the Old Soldiers Home were abruptly evicted.

In years before, food giveaways were staged in poor neighborhoods, and veterans in the Old Soldiers’ Home in Sawtelle — now the VA grounds in Westwood — were fed lavishly.

Sawtelle, named for a land development company’s manager, is no more, but the modern VA hospital and remnants of the old soldiers’ home remain.

Nnamdi laughs when he recalls the night he watched a Black patron escort a tipsy White customer back to the veteran’s residence at the Old Soldiers’ Home.

One side found White visitors from the nearby Old Soldiers’ Home.