One thing that makes L.A. so fascinating is that every pocket area you visit is unique in its diversity and culture. Highland Park is one of the oldest communities in L.A. It was developed as a subdivision around the turn of the 20th century. The area attracted a collection of Bohemian artists and intellectual types who embraced the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Find things to do and where to stay in the Highland Park here
Whites began leaving the area in the 1940s for new digs in other parts of the city or tract homes in the once-agricultural San Fernando Valley developed after WWII. By the 1960s, Highland Park was mostly Hispanic and dealing with serious gang problems.
Gentrification brings a hip crowd
Highland Park experienced a reversal of white flight in the early 2000s when a younger population, who wanted easy access to downtown, began moving in when housing options became more affordable. Some renovated the once-worn Craftsman and Victorian homes that dot the hillsides.
York Blvd
Gentrification brought artists, bohemian types, and young families to the neighborhood, who started businesses.
York Blvd. off Avenue 50 in Highland Park is now a “trendy” place to hang out with its quirky boutiques, galleries, ethnic restaurants, and coffeehouses.
It is the location of the Bob Baker Marionette Theatre which has been entertaining children with puppet shows for over 60 years. I went there when I was a child and later took my kids.
North Figueroa Street
If you take the L.A. Metro Azuza train from Union Station, you can get off in Highland Park near North Figueroa Street.
The Highland Park Bowl is a perfectly restored 1930s-era bowling alley. Its steampunk-style décor takes you back in time where you can enjoy pizza, vintage soda, and craft cocktails.
You will find a variety of pubs and eateries as well as old theatres, shops, and vintage shops on Figueroa Street.
If Echo Park or Silver Lake is your vibe, visit Highland Park. You will love it too.
What a delight, Rebecca!
So much fun getting tips from such a aficionado of Los Angeles. You know the city so well!
I love wandering neighborhoods not on the usual tourist routes when visiting towns and cities. Love to get a real feel for an area, the people, history, architecture. Interesting post!
Thanks, Meryl. I do too. You never know what you’ll find.
It’s fun getting to walk around and know different neighborhoods. Sounds so much better than when you lived there in the 70s. And if you ever want to travel the world again, your pet-sitting skills would take you far. I know of a blogger and her husband who traveled the world as petsitters–pre-Covid. They would get month-long assignments and really get to sightsee the area that they were living in.
My grandparents had friends in the early 1950s that lived in a home on Mount Washington. Their name was Elsie and Jim but I don’t know their last name. We would go there to visit and run up and down the steps of the Hill that they had perfectly landscaped with little elves and dwarfs along the way. Do you have any information on these people or their home.
Hi Sue, I lived in Mount Washington in the mid-70s but was only there recently to cat-sit for a friend. I don’t know anything about your grandparents. Sorry. Sounds like it was fun for you there when you were a child.
i lived on the mountain – loved on the mountain
wrapped up in it`s loving arms . . .
that was back in the 80`s
when all was wild flowers . . .
I remember it back then. I lived up there in the ’70s and visited a friend up there in the ’80s. It was gorgeous!