Echo Park, Los Angeles
Echo Park is a hilly neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and southeast of Hollywood.
History
At the end of the 19th century, when the hills were still covered with native vegetation, a horse-drawn streetcar line served the dirt road that is now Echo Park Avenue. The community of Echo Park was founded by Thomas Kelly, a carriage maker turned real estate developer. In the late 1880s Kelly teamed up with a group of local investors, selling off pieces of what they called "the Montana Tract." Legend says that the lake got its name after workers building the reservoir remarked that their voices echoed off the canyon walls.
Echo Park was named Edendale before the construction of the park itself. The original name survives through the U.S. Post Office Edendale branch and the Edendale branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.
The Los Angeles film industry was centered in Echo Park (then called Edendale) before the studios moved to Hollywood, just before World War I. Mack Sennett's studio was in Echo Park until the end of the silent era, and a large number of silent comedies were shot in the neighborhood, as were several Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Our Gang, Ben Turpin, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Charley Chase, Chester Conklin, Three Stooges shorts, and perhaps most notably: the first pie-in-the-face short. Tom Mix also built his studio just over the hill in the Silverlake area, and many Westerns were shot in hills of Echo Park, East Silverlake and the Elysian Hills. Some of the earliest screen performers, including Gloria Swanson and Tom Mix, bought homes in the Angelino Heights and surrounding neighborhoods before moving to Hollywood and other areas.
The area has continued to be used as a location for films such as Chinatown, Echo Park, Kentucky Fried Movie, Mi Vida Loca, Tending Echo Park, Quinceanera, Columbus Day and Drive. The 1960s television series Gilligan's Island was shot in the area as well as scenes in Michael Jackson's 1983 music video Thriller, as were parts of the original 1953 film version of The War of the Worlds. The Manor, a house in the television series Charmed, is also located here. The area is popular with modern filmmakers for the pre-World War II look of some districts. Several references in the NBC TV series Chuck place Chuck Bartowski's fictional apartment in Echo Park.
Before World War I, Echo Park was a middle-class neighborhood, nicknamed "Red Hill" for a concentration of political radicals living there.[2] (Itinerant folksinger Woody Guthrie lived on Preston Avenue at Ewing St. in the 1930s.) Since its earliest days, the neighborhood has been known to attract the creative, underground, independent, and iconoclastic elements of society. Postwar "white flight" to the suburbs resulted in the area becoming largely Latino, although there have been Latinos living there since the founding of the city in the late 19th century. Many working-class Chinese immigrants also settled in Echo Park due to its proximity to Chinatown, and the area overlaps the Historic Filipinotown district of Los Angeles, home to thousands of Filipinos; plus a small enclave of African-Americans were noted to live just east of Alvarado St. and west of Bonnie Brae Street, since the 1920s. Renowned 1970s beauty queen, actress and model Veronica Porsche, third wife of boxer Muhammed Ali, came from this neighborhood. The Echo Park/Silverlake Food Conspiracy, an impromptu food coop run by former college and professional radicals, offered weekly political discussion groups as well as cheap groceries from 1969 through about 1980. Since the early 2000s, artists, actors, musicians and gay couples of all races have flocked the neighborhood for its relatively affordable housing and alternative feel, making it one of the most diversified communities in the United States.
Famous artist residents have included such luminaries as writers Leo Politi, Carey McWilliams, John Fante and Ayn Rand; painters Carlos Almaraz and Philip Dike, famed muralist Kent Twitchell, and film art director Albert Nozaki; actors Shia LaBeouf, Luis Cuevas, Anthony Quinn, Steve McQueen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alessandro Nivola, Jack Webb, Ann Robinson, star of The War of the Worlds, and Charles Gemora, king of the Hollywood "gorilla men"; architect Richard Neutra and disciple Harwell Hamilton Harris; book seller and art dealer Jake Zeitlin;[3] famed wood engraver Paul Landacre;[3][4] opera singer Marilyn Horne[4] and her husband, conductor Henry Lewis;[4] jazz great Art Pepper; film director John Huston;[4] filmmaker Monica Gazzo; African-American playwright, poet and screenwriter Lemar Randle Fooks; Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Allan Ito, of O. J. Simpson trial fame (his mother was a kindergarten teacher for many years at Elysian Heights elementary school in Echo Park); as well as Edward Middleton Manigault, who organized the nation's first exhibition of modern art. The painter Jackson Pollock also made his home near here as a child.[5] The singer Elliott Smith lived in this neighborhood in the final years of his life.[6][7] Some residents during the 1960s and 70s era include J.D. Souther[4] & Glenn Frey[4] of the Eagles, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne,[4] and Frank Zappa. The writer and poet Charles Bukowski was known to frequent the local dives, as did actor and Reservoir Dogs real-life tough-guy Lawrence Tierney.
Mystery writer Roger L. Simon lived in Echo Park and set many of his Moses Wine detective stories there.
Elysian Heights Elementary school was home to "Room 8 the Cat" [1] and Echo Park lake was home to "Pete" the Pelican, a wild pelican who made the lake his home for many years during the 1920s and enjoyed a great degree of fame at the time.
Echo Park was also home to famed hot-rod and race car builder Art Ingels, who in 1956, along with neighbor Lou Borelli, built the first Go-Kart in history using a surplus McCulloch West-Bend 750 lawnmower engine. Professional baseball player Luis (Lou) Gomez, who had been an outstanding prep star at Belmont High School, and played for the Minnesota Twins, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Atlanta Braves during the 70s and 80s, resided here as well. Baseball immortal Babe Ruth himself maintained a bachelor's pad at the Crown Hill apartments in South Echo Park for much of the 1920s and 30s.
Jerry Rubin, American social activist and member of the Chicago Seven, lived here and ran a legal and civil rights office on the southwest corner of Echo Park Avenue and Sunset Blvd. for much of the 70s and 80s. In 1993, the movie Mi Vida Loca, written and directed by Echo Park resident Allison Anders, was filmed in Echo Park; detailing the Latino girl gang culture in the neighborhood at the time.[8] In 1999, the diary film Tending Echo Park by experimental filmmaker Monica Gazzo was completed and presented at the Egyptian Theatre and the Director's Guild, Hollywood. The film has also screened at the Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, numerous venues in California, including Echo Park Film Center, and at film festivals nationwide.
The commercial district along Sunset Boulevard suffered greatly in the 1950s from the condemnation of the residences in nearby Chavez Ravine. The buildings were condemned for the purpose of building low-income public housing, but after the bond funding for the project failed to be approved, the ravine property was sold for one dollar by the city of Los Angeles to Walter O'Malley as the location for Dodger Stadium.
In 1969, Keith Barbour recorded a song titled "Echo Park". In 1997, The Blue Stingrays recorded the album Surf-N-Burn, with a cut titled "Echo Park". In 1977, Linda Ronstadt recorded the Warren Zevon song "Carmelita" on the album Simple Dreams, wherein she mentions the Pioneer Chicken stand on Echo Park Avenue. In 1980 Gary Numan mentions Echo Park in his single "I die: you die" and The Eels mention Echo Park in their 1996 album Beautiful Freak. British band Echo Park Orchestra produced their first album in 1995. Ryan Cabrera wrote a song titled "Echo Park" that is part of his mainstream debut album, Take It All Away. The song "Who Would've Thought" by punk rock band Rancid off the album Life Won't Wait is about Echo Park, and the obscure Heavy Metal ballad "Echo Park, After Dark" was recorded by Alfred Corpuz and the Alleyheads in 1980. British band Feeder also named their third album Echo Park released in 2001.
Poetry and literature readings have been a tradition with Echo Park and its residents since the early 1920s. Beginning in the late 1970s, the Temple Street Poets brought many diverse groups together for spoken-word gatherings at the Travellers Cafe on Temple Street. Unfortunately,[says who?] faced with repeated attempts by Hollywood glitterati and their entourages to infiltrate the group, the Temple Street Poets disbanded by the middle 1980s rather than be co-opted. Spoken word readings, however, still continue in and around the neighborhood to this day; most specifically at the Little Joy Bar where the Echo Poets could be found reading and playing on Sunday nights until 2010, when they started meeting at nearby Silverlake Lounge. During the 1970s, the Travellers Cafe was frequented by Lawrence Tierney, Glen Frey, Tom Waits, Kent Twitchell, Carlos Almaraz, Doy Mercado, Linda Ronstadt and Charles Bukowski.
Attractions
Local attractions include Echo Park and its small lake, which at one time was said to contain the largest planting of lotuses outside Asia. The lotus plantings suffered significant die-back between 2005 and 2008, and have been completely gone since then; plans for re-planting (including solicitation of contributions) have apparently been put on hold, as of 2010-2011, pending some clearer understanding of the cause.
There is also a Cuban festival held annually on the Sunday closest to May 20,to commemorate Cuba's Independence from Spain and also to honor Cuban poet and patriot José Martí, who has a statue in the park.
Bordering the park are the cathedral of the Episcopal diocese of Los Angeles and the famous Angelus Temple, a large Foursquare Gospel church built by Canadian-born Pentecostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in 1923.
The first totally enclosed film stage and studio in history , Keystone Studios, built by Mack Sennett in 1912 at 1712 Glendale Blvd in the Edendale quarter of Echo Park, still exists in all its structural entirety, though now passes time as a public storage facility. Some of the studio's original auxiliary buildings are also still standing ( with modified facades) on both sides of Glendale Blvd. An obelisk monument and bronze plaque commemorating Sennett's studio was located for many years in the patio area behind one of the Bert-Co Paper Company's buildings on 1855 Glendale Boulevard (which was actually the site of the Selig Polyscope studio), but was demolished, along with the Bert-Co plant, in September 2007 and the plaque stolen by vandals.
Lotus Festival
Given the large number of lotus plants that used to thrive and bloom in one end of the lake up until 2007, Echo Park has been the site of the annual Lotus Festival (originally called the "Day of the Lotus Festival"), a pan-Asian celebration complete with Chinese dragon boat races. The event has been held since 1972 and it showcases a different Asian ethnicity (such as Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Bangladeshi, etc.) every year. It attracts Asian Americans as well as other local residents.
The program was "designed to create in the Southern California community an increased awareness of the contributions to our culture by Asian Americans," stated in the 1973 second annual program. Some of the masters of ceremonies during the early years included George Takei, Tritia Toyota, Sam Chu Lin, Victor Sen Yung and Mario Machado.
The festival itself came under criticism by locals in 1979, when festival directors refused to let the local garage band, The Alleyheads, which consisted of Asians, Latinos, and whites, play at the festival, yet allowed several tame white and Asian "pop" groups approved by the city, perform. The community was outraged that the festival directors did not let the Alleyheads play in favor of out-of-town performers. The Alleyheads persisted for three more years, but each time were refused by the festival committee and city managers. Complaints mounted until the city and festival committee dropped their ban on rock bands in the middle 1980s, but ironically hired only all-white rock bands at first, none of which were indigenous to Echo Park itself. This situation has since changed, however, and the festival now showcases a wide range of diverse musical acts and performers that better mirror the demographics of the City of Los Angeles and Pacific region to which it belongs.
Local organizations
Echo Park was home to the Metropolitan Street Hockey League (MSHL) from 1971 until 1977, one of the first organized street and roller hockey associations in the Los Angeles area, and which produced the Preston Avenue Sharks, winners of the Los Angeles street hockey City Championship in 1974, 1975 and 1976, the Atwater Open in 1974, the Melrose Open in 1975 and Echo Park Opens in 1973, 1975 and 1976, the Echo Park Jets, which won the City Championship in 1977 and Echo Park Open in 1974, and the Stadium Way Rangers, winners of the Atwater Open in 1975, the Melrose Open in 1976, and the City Championship in 1973. Another team from the league, the Coronado Terrace Mustangs, won the Echo Park, Melrose and Atwater Opens in 1977, becoming the only "Triple Crown" winner in history, and in 1978, won the Echo Park Open as an independent/at-large entry.
Echo Park is and continues to be home of the world famous, Echo Park Ducks, originally formed in 1967 as a loosely organized social, sports & community activist club, and which attracted many of the hippies and free spirits of the area at the time. They were immortalized when Billy Shire began selling the now famous Echo Park Ducks T-Shirt out of his Sunset Blvd store, The Soap Plant, in 1972.
Currently, Echo Park is home to many unique businesses, such as the Barragan's Restaurant, Echo Park Film Center, The Echo & The Echoplex, Machine Project, The Echo Park Time Travel Mart (see 826LA), Vlaze Media Networks, Inc. (vlaze.com), Epitaph Records, Taix French restaurant, Origami Vinyl, live music venues and art galleries including the Echo Curio Curiosity Shop & Art Gallery. Many small independent boutiques and coffee shops have blossomed along Sunset Blvd and the northern most part of Echo Park Boulevard going up into the hills. Echo Park Avenue is featured in the 2009 Train music video, "Hey Soul Sister."[9]
Echo Park is also home to community-service organizations including El Centro del Pueblo, and religious institutions including Angelus Temple, and the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles' Cathedral Center of St. Paul.
Milestones
Echo Park was named one of the Top 10 Great Neighborhoods for 2008 by The American Planning Association (APA). Echo Park was chosen due to "its historic architecture, breathtaking hillside topography, walkable and pedestrian-friendly streets, and engaged residents who have worked hard to protect and preserve their community," according to an APA release. Echo Park is a diverse community home to working class families and blossoming artists, and has had to work twice as hard as other communities to create, maintain and advocate for their great community. The community is remarkably dynamic with countless ethnic groups at all income levels. Today, Echo Park is home not only to the annual Lotus Festival, the Cuban Festival, and Historic Filipinotown but also 4-star dining alongside spectacular burrito stands. The area features perfectly preserved craftsman-style homes, as well as modern architecture, great schools, parks and libraries. APA Executive Director Paul Farmer said "the neighborhood has a long history of citizen activism that has inspired not only spirited public debate, but also committed and motivated residents who are helping to keep Echo Park a great place to live."
Boundaries and Neighborhoods
According to the Echo Park Historical Society (EPHS), there are no official boundaries for LA's Echo Park neighborhood. It is documented that the southern part of Echo Park was separated from its northern section by the construction of the 101 freeway in the 1950s. Also, the 2 Freeway cut off a large western section of the neighborhood on its most northern part. History proves, however, that there are some general boundaries:
Western Boundary (starting from Beverly Blvd going North): Benton Way to Waterloo Street then continue moving north where it hits Glendale Blvd. and up Allesandro St.
Northern Boundary: Riverside Drive, Fargo Street, California State Route 2(Glendale Blvd North exit)
Eastern Boundary: Beaudry (north of Sunset Blvd), Harbor Freeway (the area south of Sunset Blvd.)
Southern Boundary: Beverly Blvd.
Echo Park itself consists, in whole or in part, of the neighborhoods of Echo Park (the area immediately surrounding the lake and extending approximately a mile north on Echo Park Avenue), Angelino Heights, Colton Hill/Belmont Heights, Victor Heights, Edendale, Elysian Heights, Temple-Beaudry, Historic Filipinotown, and Sunset Heights.
Government and infrastructure
Local government
Los Angeles Fire Department Station 20 is in the area.
Los Angeles Police Department operates the Rampart Community Police Station at 1401 West 6th St., 90017.
County, state, and federal representation
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Central Health Center in Downtown Los Angeles, serving Echo Park.[10]
The United States Postal Service Edendale Post Office is located at 1525 North Alvarado Street.[11]
Education
Primary and secondary schools
Public schools
Echo Park is zoned into the Los Angeles Unified School District.[12]
Residents are zoned to Logan Street Elementary School, Clifford Street School, Mayberry Street Elementary School, Elysian Heights Elementary School, Betty Plasencia Elementary School, Rosemont Avenue School and Union Avenue School.
Most residents are zoned to Thomas Starr King Middle School and Belmont High School.
Others get accepted to Downtown Magnets High School which consists of 3 magnets: Business, Electronics, and Fashion.
In 2007, LAUSD used eminent domain to remove 50 homes in order to build a new school.[13]
Private schools
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles operates Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School, located at 258 North Union Avenue since 1921, and St. Teresa of Avila.
Public libraries
Los Angeles Public Library operates two branches in Echo Park: Echo Park Branch and Edendale Branch.
Notable residents
- Darwin William Tate, Los Angeles City Council member, 1933–39
- Los Angeles Derby Dolls roller derby team
- Roy Hampton Los Angeles City Council member, 1939–41
- Elliott Smith musician, singer, songwriter lived and committed suicide at his home on Lemoyne Street
- "G" Gallagher music industry executive and producer for musical group El Chicano lived on both Union Avenue and Belmont Avenue in 1960's through 80's
- Steve Folomir bass player for the band Tierra
- Art Pepper famous jazz musician
- Jackson Browne Grammy winning musician lived in the dowstairs apartment at 1020 Laguna Ave
- The Eagles mebers of the Grammy winning band lived in the upstairs apartment at 1020 Laguna Ave
- Jerry Brown Governor Jerry Brown that is lived in the Laguna Castle apartments overlooking Echo Park lake
- Jonathan Christian Knutsen famous musical instrument maker
- Henry Jay Lewis world famous musical conductor married to Marilyn Horn lived at 1565 Altivo Way
- Marilyn Horne world famous mezzo soprano opera singer married to Henry Jay Lewis lived at 1565 Altivo Way
- Frank Vincent Zappa musician and songwriter lived on Belmont Ave
- Ace Hudkins professional boxer in the 1920's and 30's lived on Burlington Ave.
- Bing Crosby lived briefly with family on first visit from Tacoma to Los Angeles in 1925 at 1307 North Coronado Street
- Minta Durfee Arbuckle, actress wife of Roscoe Arbuckle lived at 1419 North Coronado Street from 1930 till her death there in 1975
- Jack Ackroyd English born actor of the 1920's and 30's lived at 2322 Vestal Avenue
- Clara Kimball Young Once the most famous silent screen stars lived at 1515 Cerro Gordo Street
- Fred Huntley English born actor directed 25 films from 1912-1925 and acted in another 114 from 1911-1927 lived at 2017 Baxter Street
- Gordon Ray Young Country Western author and screenwriter lived at 2325 Vestal Avenue
- Jaime Bravo a Mexican matador during the 1950's and 60's. was known for death defying style and numerous relationships with Hollywood starlets, married to actress Ann Robinson lived at 1357 Elysian Park Drive
- Ann Robinson actress and stunt horse rider, perhaps best known for her work in the film, The War of the Worlds and in the 1947 to 1970 radio and television series Dragnet lives at 1357 Elysian Park Avenue
- Richard Davalos actor from 1950's, 60's and 70's appeared with James Dean in the 1955 movie East of Eden lived at 1958 Vestal Avenue
- Jack Dawn movie makeup man did the makeup for Wizard Of Oz and others lived at 419 N. Belmont Avenue
- Hank Mann one of the original Keystone Kops appeared in 237 films and starred in many Charlie Chaplin features lived at 1121 N. Lake Shore
- Bruce Chevillat producer and unit production manager for TV and film including the TV hit show Seinfeld lived at 1626 Cerro Gordo Street in the 1980's
- Charles Aber inn-keeper hired by Charlie Chaplin to appear as an extra in The Idle Class in 1921 when several scenes were filmed at his hotel at 151 Loma Drive
- John Huston Oscar winning actor, producer, director and father of actress Anjelica Huston
- Ben Affleck lived with friends at 1613 Altivo Way in 1992
- Gordon Ray Young author or country western novels adapted to screen plays including Tall In The Sadle starring John Wayne
- Busby Berkeley movie director and coreographer lived at 1583 Altivo Way
- June Harding starred with Hayley Mills in the 1966 movie The Trouble With Angels
- William Landon Jones know as Gorilla Jones was a Middleweight Boxing Champion and friend of actress Mae West
- Harvey Helm famous comedy writer for television and movies
- Steve McQueen Oscar winning world famous actor lived on Vestal Street in 1955
- Leonardo DiCaprio shared housing living with father in Echo Park and mother in Atwater when very young
- Lance Loud star of first reality type show on TV when appearing on PBS in 1973
- Charles K. French stage actor turned western movie actor appeared in 249 films from 1909-1945 lived on Duane Street
- Coy Watson Jr. an American child actor of the silent era who appeared in more than 60 films and later a news photographer lived on Morton Street
- Coy Watson Sr. father or Coy Watson Jr. actor, stuntman, and pioneer special effects artist
- Hoot Gibson an American rodeo champion and a pioneer cowboy film actor, director and producer lived on BVranden Street in 1913
- Antonio Rudolfo Oaxaca Quinn or better know as Anthony Quinn legendary actor lived at 1565 Altivo Way in his early years
- John Randolph Webb or Jack Webb who was Sargeant Joe Friday on the Dragnet television show of the 50's and 60's
- Henry Cremer architect and designer did many of the elaborate interiors of the movie studios of LA
- Harry Davenport film and stage actor appeared in many famous films from the early 1900's to the late 1940's father of actress * Dorothy Davenport lived at 1129 Mohawk Avenue
- Phyllis Rankin a Broadway actress and singer from the 1880's until the 1920's, wife of Harry Davenport lived at 1129 Mohawk Avenue in the 1920's
- George Hackathorne actor who appeared in 29 films including Gone With The Wind
- Ken Rudolph major league baseball player, played catcher in 60's and 70's with Cubs, Giants, Cadinals and Orioles
- Woody Guthrie world renowned singer, songwriter and musician wrote the song This Land Is Your Land
- Tom Waits singer, songwriter, composer and actor
- Richard Neutra world famous architect is considered one of modernism's most important architects
- Hartwell Stubby Stubblefield Indy race car driver killed in the 1935 Indianapolis 500 race lived on N. Lake Street
- "La Chula" professional roller derby star
- Robert Courtleigh a television and film actor member of the Lamb's Club and co-creator of the Actors' Equity Association lived at 3321 Landa Street
- Laurue Prange actress who appeared in many TV series and movie films since 1970 lived at 1519 Sargent Place in the 1990's
- Rodger Ward two time Indianapolis 500 winner lived at 1848 Echo Park Avenue in the 50's and 60's
- Bobby Seaman professional boxer, fought the legendary Archie Moore in 1939
- Alberto Baby Arizmendi professional boxer who also owned bars on Sunset Boulevard
- Luis Gomez major league baseball player who played shortstop for the Twins, Blue Jays and Braves in the 70's and 80's
- Art Ingels engineer and inventor, invented the go-kart at 2100 Echo Park Avenue in 1956
- Babe Ruth the legendary homerun hero maintained a Sunmmer home at the Crown Hill Apartments in South Echo Park
- Muhammad Ali married Veronica Porche in 1975 who lived on Bonnie Brae Street they had a daughter Leila Ali
- Nomar Garciaparra the major league baseball star's father Ramon lived in the area for many years on Edgeware Road
- Ayn Rand Russian-American novelist, playwrght, philosopher and screenwriter
- Alvin Wycoff early favored cameraman of Cecil B. DeMille lost favor in Hollywood when he founded a cameraman's union in 1928 lived at 1320 North Portia Street in 1920's
- Jackson Pollack abstract impressionist artist who painted the world's most expensive painting worth $140 million
- Phil Dike famous water color artist
- Paul Landacre famous for his famous art using wood engraving lived at 2006 El Moran Street
- Carey McWilliams author, editor and lawyer known for writing about social issues in California lived at 2041 Alvarado Street
- Maynard L. Parker architectural photogropher who's work appeared in Architecral Digest, Sunset House Beautiful and LA Times
- Leo Politi renowned artist and children's book illustrator lived at In 1961, the family moved to 415 and 845 Edgeware Road
- Paul Politi songwriter and music producer, son of artist Leo Politi wrote '61 hit Those Oldies But Goodies lived at 415 and 845 Edgeware Road also wrote songs with Barry White
- Barry White word famous singer and songwriter lived in an apartment complex on Temple Street near Beaudry Avenue in early 70's
- Aimee Semple McPherson Pentecostal evangelist and 20th century icon and founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel lived at 1801 Echo Park Avenue
- Mack Sennett setup a movie studio in Los Angeles in 1912 at 1712 Glendale Boulevard featuring Charlie Chaplin
- Jake Zeitlin opened an antique book shop at 1623 Landa Street and promoted the arts for years
- Lance Ito judge in the O. J. Simpson murder case
- Jerry Rubin political activist ran a legal and civil rights office on southwest corner of Echo Park Avenue and Sunset Blvd
- Mary Foy became first woman City Librarian in 1880 and Woman's Rights activist lived in Angelino Heights area
- Gloria Swanson world famous actress lived in Angelino Heights
- Mary Pickford world famous actress lived in Angelino Heights
- Tom Mix world famous cowboy actor lived in Angelino Heights
- Daniel Innes one of the city of Los Angeles' first Councilman for 2nd ward serving from 1890–94 resided at 1329 Carroll Avenue
- Larry McGrath actor in over films from 1917-1957 including The Arizona Kid, the Three Stooges' Punch Drunks, Golden Boy, and Meet John Doe lived at 2123 Elsinore Street
- William LaRock appeared in a single 1921 film The Blue Fox lived at 2139 Elsinore Street
- Kent Twitchell famous for his larger-than-life mural portraits
- Albert Nozaki an art director who worked on various films for Paramount Pictures
- Shia LaBeouf world famous actor lived in the area in his childhood
- Alessandro Nivola actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Best Laid Plans and Jurassic Park III
- Ann Robinson actress and stunt horse rider, perhaps best known for her work in the film The War of the Worlds
- Charles Gamora a Hollywood makeup artist renowned as "the King of the Gorilla Men"
- Harwell Hamilton Harris a world famous modernist American architect
- Edward Middleton Manigault an American Modernist painter.
- J.D. Souther a musician, singer-songwriter, and actor lived at 1020 Laguna Ave
- Charles Bukowski a poet, novelist and short story writer lived for a short time at 1020 Laguna Ave
- Lawrence Tierney actor, known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and hardened criminals
- Roger L. Simon a novelist and screenwriter
- Allison Anders a film and television director who has directed many independent films
- Lemar Randle Fooks an African-American playwright, poet and screenwriter
- Monica Gazzo a filmaker, videographer, trilingual linguist, film and video educator
- Edward Martindale character actor appeared in 89 films from 1915-1935 and then reappeared for a single film in 1946 lived at 719 Coronado Terrace
- Francis Boggs a stage actor and pioneer silent film director
- Thomas H. Ince a silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than 100 films
- William Nicholas Selig the first producer to expand film-making to the West Coast setting up studio in 1909 in Edendale
- Fred J. Balshofer a pioneer silent film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer.
- Carlos Almaraz a Mexican-American artist and an early proponent of the Chicano street arts movement
- Nicholette Kominos sculptor, artist and art educator
- Ralph Sepulveda, a member of the historic Sepulveda family, that owned the Los Feliz and San Vicente ranchos in the 1800s lived at 145 North Burlington Avenue
- Victoria Lynn Velasco a former "Miss Phillipines Los Angeles" lived on Burlington Avenue
- Tommy Koulax founder of Original Tommy's World Famous Hamburgers
- Isabel Piczek world famous mural and stained glass artist with a studio located at 2228 Echo Park Avenue
- Kaspare Cohn who lived at 1441 and 1443 Carroll Avenue in Angelino Heights founded Kaspare Cohn Commercial & Savings Bank that became Union Bank
- R. Stanton Avery inventor and founder of Avery Labels once lived at 1565 Altivo Way
- Eloise Klein Healy poet, wrote the book entitled "Artemis in Echo Park"
- Elizabeth Stromme author whose noir novel "Joe's Word" was released in French 7 years before it was released in English
- Mike Hillmann Deputy Chief of Police for the City of Los Angeles and Assistant Sheriff of Orange County
- Angela Davis Angela Davis who in the early 1970's while associated with the Black Panther Party went on the run from the FBI and hid out at houses in Echo Park
- William de la Torre L.A. Times syndicated cartoonist created "Lil Pedro" lived at 324 North Rosemont Avenue
- Blanca Maria Luisa Diaz Tejeda, Miss Mexico of 1979, was married at Our Lady Of Loretto Church in July 1982
- Betty Coss a devoted secretary to silent film legend Mabel Normand lived at 222 South Burlington Avenue
- Kathryn Crosby wife of famous crooner Bing Crosby attended and graduated from the famous Queen of Angels Nursing School in 1963
- Beulah Atwater and H. Gale Atwater civic activists who played an early role in the building of the Hollywood Bowl lived at 1401 Avon Park Terrace
- Estelle Lawton Lindsay newspaper columnist who in 1915 became the first woman elected to the Los Angeles City Council lived at 2414 Echo Park Avenue
- Raphael Konigsberg a political activist and communist party supporter lived at 2246 Echo Park Avenue
- William Le Moyne Wills a surgeon, school board member and prominent member of Los Angeles society, Le Moyne Street is named after him
- Cono Angona and Antonia Angona made wine at 1435 McDuff Street from 1900-1910, importing grapes from the San Fernando Valley
- Albert Nozaki Oscar nominated movie art director lived at 2123 Valentine Street
- Kenneth Anger an American underground experimental filmmaker, occasional actor and author lived at 1447 Echo Park Avenue
- Thomas Kelley, a carriage maker, was the original developer of the neighborhoods around Echo Park lived at 1467 Echo Park Avenue
- Wallace Beery and Gloria Swanson famous actor/actress couple lived on Echo Park Avenue during their short 2 year marriage
- Charley Chase an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his work in Hal Roach short film comedies lived on Echo Park Avenue in the 1920's
- Fritz Schade was a German-born American film actor of the silent era who appeared in 41 films including 6 with Charlie Chaplin lived and died at 1600 Glendale Boulevard in the 1920's
- Betty Schade a German-born American actress of the silent era, appeared in 140 films between 1913 and 1921. Wife of Fritz Schade lived at at 1600 Glendale Boulevard in the 1920's
- Freddie Allen animal handler for studio horses, ran a large boarding house filled with cowboys, horse wranglers, and studio hands at 1723 Glendale Boulevard in the 1920's
- Arthur Hall animal handler for studio horses, ran a large boarding house filled with cowboys, horse wranglers, and studio hands at 1723 Glendale Boulevard in the 1920's
- Eddie Warren animal handler for studio horses, ran a large boarding house filled with cowboys, horse wranglers, and studio hands at 1723 Glendale Boulevard in the 1920's
- William Hornbeck famous film editor on 131 films from 1924-1959 lived at 1727 Glendale Boulevard in the 1920's
- Edgar Kennedy silent film star, later Sennett Studios director lived at 1746 Glendale Boulevard between 1914 and 1916
- Ernest Crockett early special effects photographer worked on about 50 films from 1920-1933 lived at 1834 Glendale Boulevard in the 1920's
- Alice Lyndon actress had roles in Billy Bevan comedies as well as Edward G. Robinson's Bullets or Ballots and Mountain Justice lived at 1868 Glendale Boulevard in the 1920's
- Mack Swain played foil in a number of Chaplin silent films, appeared in 135 films from 1913-1935 lived at 1868 Glendale Boulevard in the 1920's
- Leo D. Maloney owned "Leo Maloney Studio" in the San Bernardino Mountains, where several early westersn were filmed, lived at 280 North Belmont Avenue in the 1920's
- Fannie Ward silent star appeared in about 30 films between 1915-1920 lived at 444 North Belmont Avenue in the 1930's
- Gwynn Wilson USC Athletic Director in 1926 persuaded Notre Dame's coach Knute Rockne to agree to the USC-Notre Dame football series that continues to this date lived at 111 South Union Avenue in the 1930's
- James Habif silent film actor who appeared as an extra in only one confirmed film, Charlie Chaplin's 1918 film A Dog's Life lived at 258 North Union Avenue in the 1920's
- Lillian Guenther stage name Janet Chandler movie actress retired in 1934 after being injured during filming of Million Dollar Haul lived at 439 South Union Avenue in 1930's
- William Neiswander early L.A. developer responsible for laying out most of Azusa and Covina valley areas lived at 676 North Bonnie Brae in 1913
- Eugenie Besserer starred in dozens of silent films including 1910 version of The Wizard of Oz, lived at 2215 Baxter Street from 1920 and died there in 1934
- Albert W. Hegger an art dealer and husband of actress Eugenie Besserer lived at 2215 Baxter Street
- J. Park Jones actor who appeared in 28 films from 1915-1929 lived at 1128 Laguna Avenue in the 1920's
- Ethel Teare actress who appeared in 74 silents from 1914-1928 including Whose Baby? with Gloria Swanson on 1917, lived at 1133 Laguna Avenue in the 1920's
- Jesse A. Winn member of Police Department "Flying Squad," murder investigator, called to the scene of the "William Desmond Taylor" murder lived at 1806 Montana Street in 1920's
- Gwen Wakeling actor in the 1920, but went on to become head costume designer at Pathe Studios in the 1930s, lived at 1212 Innes Avenus
- Billy Armstrong English born actor, appeared in 40 films between 1912 and 1923, including almost all of Charlie Chaplin's Keystone films lived at 1236 Innes Street
- Edward Charles Hickman notorious kidnapper and murderer lived at Bellevue Arms Hotel apt. #315, 1170 Bellevue Avenue at the time he kidnapped and murdered Marian Parker in 1927
- Steve Venet noteable figure in the 1960's 70's music scene co-wrote The Monkees song "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" lived at 1825 Bellevue Street
- Marion Feducha child actor appeared in several early Charlie Chaplin silent films, including A Day's Pleasure (1919) also had child roles in six other films until 1923 lived at 1319 Kellam Avenue
- Gaylord Carter a pianist/organist for numerous studios, best known as the organist on the original Amos & Andy shows lived at 2511 Beverly Boulevard in the 1930's
- Scotty Beckett an American child actor. He starred in theOur Gang, Rocky Jones and Space Ranger series died at The Royal Palms Hotel, 360 South Westlake Avenue in 1968
- Henry Peavey butler for murdered film director William Desmond Taylor lived at 1271 West 3rd Street in 1920's
- Gus Schilling an American film actor and former burlesque comedian lived at 507 South Coronado Street in the 1940's
- Nell Foltz actress who's only known roles was as extra in Charlie Chaplin's The Idle Class and Among Those Present lived at 545 South Coronado Street in 1930's
- June McKinney child actor appeared in a few 1930's films including Kid in Hollywood with Shirley Temple lived at 1201 Waterloo Street in the 1930's
Famous Streets
- Carroll Avenue of Angelino Heights (formerly known as Angeleno Heights) is one of Los Angeles' first suburbs, and bears its name well, as it brings the city many tourists and visitors. The houses, or rather Victorian manors, are now used as private homes, as they were in the 19th century. Some of the more well known residents from the Victorian era include: merchant Aaron P. Philips in 1887, real estate agent Charles C. Haskin in 1894, and warehouse operator Michael Sanders in 1887. One of Los Angeles' first City Councilmen, Daniel Innes, resided at 1329 Carroll Avenue. The street was first used for the TV series Charmed in 1998 when the exterior of the Innes house was used as the residence of the main characters. 1330 Carroll Avenue was also prominently featured in a Season 1 episode of the series. The Innes house also appeared in the film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, as as the home of a giant woman who hires Deuce. The Foy House, next door to the Innes house at 1337 Carroll Avenue, also appeared in season 2 of Charmed, and was used as the main residence in the television series Journeyman, which, like Charmed, is set in San Francisco. The house located at 1345 Carroll Avenue appeared in Michael Jackson's Thriller video. 1324 Carroll Avenue was used for exterior shots in the film Grandma's Boy. 1355 Carroll Avenue was used as the family home in McGee and Me, a children's Christian video series that was released in the early 1990s.
- Allesandro Street now part of Glendale Boulevard, a four-block stretch of Allesandro Street, between Berkeley Avenue and Duane Street, was essentially the birthplace of filmaking on the West Coast, before Hollywood. Edendale is a historical name for a district in Los Angeles, California, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, in what is known today as Echo Park, Los Feliz and Silver Lake. In the opening decades of the 20th century, in the era of silent movies, Edendale was widely known as the home of most major movie studios on the West Coast. Among its many claims, it was home to the Keystone Kops, and the site of many movie firsts, including Charlie Chaplin's first movie, the first feature-length comedy, and the first pie-in-the-face. The Edendale movie studios were mostly concentrated in a four-block stretch of Allesandro Street, between Berkeley Avenue and Duane Street. Allesandro Street was later renamed Glendale Boulevard (and a smaller nearby street took on the name Allesandro).
- Baxter Street, Fargo Street, Ewing Street and Duane Street considered the steepest streets in L.A with a 32% grade
See also
Notes and references
External links
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Silver Lake, Los Angeles |
Edendale, Los Angeles |
Elysian Park, Los Angeles |
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| East Hollywood, Los Angeles |
Echo Park, Los Angeles |
Chinatown, Los Angeles |
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| Wilshire Center, Los Angeles |
Westlake, Los Angeles |
Civic Center, Los Angeles, Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California |
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Downtown • Eastside/Northeast • Harbor Area • Greater Hollywood • Westlake & Silver Lake/Los Feliz • San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys • South Los Angeles • Westside • Wilshire
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Downtown · Eastside/Northeast · Harbor Area · Greater Hollywood · Westlake & Silver Lake/Los Feliz · San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys · South Los Angeles · Westside · Wilshire
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