California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Longwood Highlands – a Neighborhood of Pride

Pendersleigh & Sons‘ Official Map of Midtown

Pendersleigh & Sons‘ Official Map of Longwood Highlands

As with the rest of the Midtown area, what’s now Longwood Highlands was for centuries Tongva land until the arrival of the Spaniards. After the area passed from Mexico to the US, it remained primarily farmland until the 1890s, when surrounding areas began to develop. It wasn’t until after the opening of the Port of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Aqueduct (in 1907 and 1913 respectively) that the formerly pastoral region was rapidly developed.

Most of the homes in the neighborhood were built in the 1920s in a variety of styles, often in the mock-Tudor and Spanish Colonial styles. The homes tend sit back fairly far from the streets on relatively large lots. Longwood Highlands is still a primarily a quiet, gently hilly residential neighborhood surrounded by loud, busy commercial corridors.

It’s a rather lush, green neighborhood, the streets of which are lined with mature magnolias, oaks and sycamores. The stately residences suggest that the neighborhood’s residents are rather well off. However, as I strolled along the quiet streets I was confronted with many greetings and smiles from the mostly black, Latino and white residents — a dead giveaway that a neighborhood isn’t as posh as it first seems. [Clarification: I meant this as a good thing. Upper-class neighborhoods are rarely diverse and not neighborhoods in which I aspire to live]. In fact, closer examination reveals that nearly every home in the neighborhood is a duplex or, in fewer cases, a quadraplex. The varied and asymmetrical designs, however, give the impression that the multi-residence homes are single-family mansions. Thankfully, and in contrast to most of Los Angeles, there are no dingbats to be found.

There aren’t a lot in the way of mom and pop eateries in the area… two donut places [Lee’s (aka Bee’s) and Magee’s], El Burrito Jr, I Love Teriyaki and a BBQ place whose name I couldn’t sort out. Rosemead‘s El Chato Taco Truck frequently posts up there too. Otherwise, mega-chains like Burger King, KFC and Starbucks are located along the neighborhood’s edge. Nearby to the west is Little Ethiopia, which is full of good eats. Along the southern edge of the neighborhood are a goodly number of auto shops.

Given the age, location and charm of the neighborhood, undoubtedly some early Hollywood figures lived in the neighborhood although my research turned up nothing. Raymond Chandler (creator of Philip Marlowe) lived in the area (among many others in the city) in 1929 somewhere along Highland.

UPDATE: The late, great Leonard Cohen lived at 1031 South Tremaine Avenue.