As most of my readers know, I’ve been trying for years to wrap my head around Los Angeles by exploring and mapping the metropolis. My first maps were hand-drawn on paper, starting with a map of Elysian Park‘s trails that I drew around 2001. I also have made quite a few Google Maps. The Google Map of Los Angeles County communities has been shared by several websites and has been viewed about two million times. As I’ve broadened my explorations to Orange County, San Diego County, and ultimately, all of Southern California, the scope of the map has broadened accordingly. And I keep discovering more and more communities: quasi-private enclaves nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu, forgotten real estate scams in the Antelope Valley that somehow hang on with a few residents, forgotten ghost towns reduced to their concrete foundations by wildfire, historic ethnic enclaves, forgotten tract designations revived by real estate agents eager to disassociate with the perceived negative perceptions of a neighborhood they hope to gentrify, new-to-me neighborhoods within San Gabriel Valley suburbs, mysterious Los Angeles County place names that seemingly appear only on internal documents, and newly created micro-neighborhoods continually spinning off like fractals in Midtown and the San Fernando Valley.
At the beginning of the year, I began updating the Google Map; mainly trying to tidy up boundaries and update neighborhood descriptions. Many of the latter were written fifteen years ago when snark was, unfortunately, the lingua franca of the internet. Many entries also contain no longer relevant demographic information taken from the 2000 Census (now more than two decades ago). And, I wanted to add some pictures. All of this, naturally, is a lot of work, and so I’ve limited myself to one community a day, chosen at random, each of which I tweet about with the tag, #LACommunityOfTheDay. Twitter, with its strict character limit, keeps my propensity for exhausting exhaustiveness in check and as I compose my tweets, I do my best to keep the principles of sijo, haiku, and Soviet montage theory in my head.
So far, only patrons have had access to the growing directory but I wanted to post more often, even pieces that are incomplete because one of the advantages of online writing over printed publications is that I can keep updating it for as long as there’s an internet. That said, were you to become a patron of mine by supporting me on Patreon, I wouldn’t be mad and if enough did — I could afford to devote more time to mapping and exploring, and writing. Think about it.
ACADEMY HILL
77-acre Academy Hill was created by the Boise Cascade Building Co. The Mediterranean-style homes were designed by Richard S. Bild. A 5-year-old Palomino named Bit o’ Honey B was given away to promote the equestrian community’s opening in 1970.
ACTON
Johann Freidrich Duehren settled in Soledad Canyon in 1885 and was the first resident of Acton, named after the town in Massachusetts. Station agent Richard E. Nickel arrived in 1887, married Duehren’s daughter, and founded many of Acton’s amenities.
ADAMS SQUARE
Adams Square is dominated by Forest Lawn Memorial Park, which opened there in 1906. Development increased after the opening of the Glendale and Eagle Rock Railway in 1909. Adams Square was annexed by Glendale in 1920.
ADAMS-NORMANDIE
In the 1900s, various tracts were developed along the route of Los Angeles Railway‘s Huntington Line that collectively came, by 1944, to be known as Adams-Normandie. Today, it’s known for both its Craftsman bungalows and historic mansions.
ADDAMS
The original Jane Addams Elementary, after which the Addams neighborhood is named, was built in the 1920s. After the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake, it was rebuilt by the WPA, a program launched in 1935 (the same year that progressive Jane Addams died).
AGOURA
In 1927, the postal service insisted that residents of Picture City (home to Paramount Ranch) settle on a one-word name. They chose Agoura, after Basque shepherd, Pierre Agoure (1853-1912). In defiance of the post office, it’s often called Old Agoura.
AGOURA HILLS
Agoura was founded in the Conejo Valley in 1927. On 8 December 1982, a section of the community incorporated as Agoura Hills. In the 1990s, it was a hotbed of nü metal, giving birth to bands such as Linkin Park and Hoobastank.
AGUA DULCE
Around 450 CE, the Tataviam settled near the Santa Clara River and established the village of Mapipingna. The Spanish named the area Agua Dulce. Agua Dulce is home to the Vasquez Rocks, named after the bandit Tiburcio Vásquez, who died in 1875.
ALAMITOS BEACH
John William Bixby laid out the Alamitos Beach townsite in 1886 with both villa and farm lots. Some of it was incorporated along with Long Beach in 1897. The rest was annexed in 1904. The streetcar suburb developed around four PE streetcar lines.
ALAMITOS HEIGHTS
Rancho Los Alamitos was partitioned in 1834. The bluffs above Alamitos Bay became known as Alamitos Heights. Pacific Electric‘s Alamitos Heights Line began operation in 1903 and a streetcar suburb, the Alamitos Heights Tract, opened in 1904.
ALHAMBRA
Wilson & Shorb‘s Alhambra Tract debuted in 1875. It was named by Ruth Yorba after Washington Irving‘s Tales of the Alhambra (1832). Alhambra incorporated on 11 July 1903. Today it’s one of several local Asian majority (primarily Chinese and Vietnamese) suburbs.
ALONDRA PARK
The county purchased the land for Alondra Park in 1926 in order to halt the development of a planned black community, Gordon Manor. The park finally opened in 1946, a year before El Camino College. During the village-ification fad of the 1990s, people began promoting the area as “El Camino Village.”
THE ALPHABET STREETS
A portion of the Pacific Palisades Association‘s Tract 9300 was organized around streets consequently named after Methodist bishops (Albright, Bashford, Carey, Drummond, Embury, &c). It came to be known as The Alphabet Streets by 1980.
ALPINE
Alpine developed around Southern Pacific Railroad‘s Alpine Station in the 1880s. The station closed in ’92. Construction of the never-completed Alpine Springs Hotel and Sanitarium began in 1908. The Alpine Springs Trailer Court opened there c. 1953.
ALSACE
Alsace is the name of an unincorporated enclave surrounded by the Los Angeles city neighborhood of Playa Vista. Alsace was a stop on Pacific Electric‘s Venice–Inglewood Line (1902-1922). It was developed as Tract #10038 and mostly built out in 1953.
ALTADENA
Altadena is derived from the Spanish, “alta” and the Anishinaabemowin, “dena.” It was coined in 1885 by Byron O. Clark for his Altadena Nursery. Altadena is famous for its grand estates, Christmas Tree Lane, trailheads, and numerous odd attractions.
ANDRADE CORNER
Pedro Andrade was born 1830. In 1858, he established a stage station and Rancho Andrade. The small community that arose there was known as Talamantes, after his grandson-in-law, until about 1959, when it came to be known as Andrade Corner.
ANGELENO HEIGHTS
Stillson, Hall and McCrory subdivided Angeleño Heights in March 1886. The streetcar suburb was designed to take advantage of the new Temple Street Cable Railway. Today, it’s known for its fine Eastlake, Queen Anne, and Craftsman homes.
ANGELES CREST
ANGELES FOREST
Angeles National Forest was established in 1908. Angeles Forest is also the name of a region of Los Angeles County in the San Gabriel Mountains that’s home to a few small communities, campgrounds, ranger stations, and a ghost town.
ANGELES MESA
Fred W. Forrester founded Angeles Mesa in 1910. It was a streetcar suburb that was served by four LARy lines. It was annexed on 4 October 1922. It’s home to the Angeles Mesa Branch Library (1929) and the twelve-story Good Shepherd Manor (1971).
ANGELUS VISTA
Marshall & Stearns‘s Angelus Vista Tract opened in 1902. The streetcar suburb was served by two LARy lines and a PE line. The striking Art Deco Temple Mogen David opened there in 1933. Ray Bradbury‘s family moved there in 1938.
ANNADALE [LOS ANGELES]
Annandale was subdivided in 1886. Development took off in the 1920s. Annandale Elementary opened in 1921. Part of Annandale was annexed by Pasadena in 1917. The rest was absorbed into Highland Park in 1927, with Garvanza, Hermon, and York Valley.
ANNANDALE [PASADENA]
Part of Annandale was annexed by Pasadena in 1917. Middle portions developed as Brookmere and Cheviotdale Heights, leaving two disconnected sections. The upper is home to the Annandale Golf Club (1906), the lower, the Church of the Angels (1889).
ANTELOPE ACRES
Antelope Acres opened in 1947. It was advertised as “a fine place to raise chickens, turkeys, alfalfa, melons, fruit and vegetables” as well as “near a paved road.” Today it boasts a church, a market, a volunteer fire station, and a café.
ANTELOPE VALLEY
ARBOR VILLAGE
In 1911, a streetcar suburb named Arbor Villa Square opened in Inglewood. Its streets were named after trees (e.g. Ash, Elm, Cedar, Fir, Lime, Magnolia, Maple, Oak, Olive, Spruce, and Walnut). By the 1970s, the area was commonly known as Arbor Village.
ARCADIA
Historically, Arcadia was the site of the Tongva village of Aleupkingna. Elias J. Baldwin subdivided the Arcadia townsite in 1887. Arcadia incorporated on 5 August 1903. The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden opened there in 1947.
ARD EEVIN HIGHLANDS
Ard Eevin Highlands is an historic district composed of 87 homes mostly built between the 1920s and ’40s. It includes the mansion, Ard Eevin, built for Daniel Campbell in 1903. Daniel and his brother, Arthur, developed much of the area.
ARDEN ROAD
The Arden Road Tract opened in 1907 but development didn’t take off in earnest until the opening of the Arden Grove Tract in 1925. Arden Road is characterized by large Craftsman, Mediterranean Revival, Monterey Colonial, and Tudor Revival homes.
ARLETA
Arleta was originally part of Pacoima. The Pacoima Diversion Channel was constructed there in 1950 and it was mostly built out in the 1950s. Arleta had its own zip code from 1962-1968. It was granted official recognition as its own community in 1968.
ARLINGTON
The community of Arlington was developed as Tract 5224 circa 1923. It came to be better known as Arlington after Arlington Street. It was annexed by Long Beach in 1939 as the El Dorado Annexation. Windward Village trailer park opened there in 1977.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS
The Arlington Heights tract opened in 1887. Its suitability for vineyards and proximity to a two-horse streetcar line were among its advertised amenities. It was annexed in 1909.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS TERRACE
ARLINGTON PARK
Arlington Park was a streetcar suburb that arose in 1909 developed as a stretch of bungalows from the 1910s along Arlington Avenue between Exposition and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards. The name was largely abandoned until it was revived by the Eighth District Empowerment Congress’s “Naming Neighborhoods Project.”
ARROYO
Arroyo is the Pasadena neighborhood that follows the Arroyo Seco from Devil’s Gate into the San Gabriel Mountains. It’s dominated by Hahamongna Watershed Park (named after the village of Hahamog’na) although it’s also home to a small portion of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
ARROYO DEL MAR
Arroyo del Mar is Spanish for “sea creek.” Its name, however, is derived from the intersection of South Arroyo Parkway and Del Mar Boulevard. Joe Coulombe opened his Tiki-themed Trader Joe’s market in the neighborhood on 29 August 1967.
ARROYO TERRACE (LOWER)
ARROYO TERRACE (UPPER)
ARROYO VIEW ESTATES
William Gorham developed Arroyo View Estates, a residential neighborhood comprised entirely of ranch homes, from 1960-1964. Some homes have East Asian and Hollywood Regency architectural elements which, along with hammered glass and breeze blocks, add kitschy mid-20th century charm.
ARTCRAFT MANOR
ARTESIA
Artesia was established in 1875 and is named after the area’s many artesian wells. In the 1920s and ’30s, Artesia was dominated by Dutch and Portuguese dairy farms. Artesia incorporated on 29 May 1959. Little India arose there in the 1970s.
THE ARTS DISTRICT
Artists began to squat in the abandoned warehouses of Downtown East around 197. In ’81, the Artists-In-Residence ordinance legalized it. After the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance passed in ’99, Downtown transformed and the Arts District quickly transformed into a neighborhood in which few artists can afford to live.
ATHENS
Strong & Dickinson‘s City of Athens Tract was subdivided in 1907. The streetcar boasted service from three rail transit lines. Its central feature, Athens Park, was dedicated much later, in 1943. It was followed by Athens on the Hill and West Athens.
ATHENS ON THE HILL
ATWATER VILLAGE
Land purchased from poppy grower Harriet Atwater Paramore was subdivided as Atwater Park in 1912. Eventually, the “park” was dropped. By the mid-1960s, “village” took its place when people began to refer to it as Atwater Village.
AUBRY AT ALAMITOS RIDGE
The land on which Aubry at Alamitos Ridge is located was annexed by Long Beach in 1920. The entirely residential master-planned community of condominiums opened in 2010, when the “place at place” naming convention was popular.
THE AUTO GLASS DISTRICT
The Auto Glass District is an area of small shops and warehouses on the east bank of the Los Angeles River, hemmed in by freight rail lines and freeway interchanges. It began to emerge by the early 1980s.
AVALON
In 1887, Michigander George Shatto bought Santa Catalina Island began developing a resort there. His sister-in-law, Etta Whitney, suggested the name, Avalon. It incorporated on 26 June 1913, making it the southernmost municipality in Los Angeles County.
AVOCADO HEIGHTS
In 1911, Marco Hellman subdivided 2,066 acres into Tract 1343. By 1924, an area of the tract had come to be known as Avocado Heights. The community, to this day still largely equestrian in character, was mostly built out after World War II.
AZUSA
A Tongva village, Azucsagna, was the basis for the names of two Mexican ranches, Azusa de Dalton and Azusa de Duarte. The town of Azusa shows up in the 1860 census (population 363). Azusa incorporated on 16 December 1898.
AZUSA HIGHLANDS
BALDWIN HILLS
The Baldwin Hills landform (named after developer Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin) lends its name to the neighborhoods of Baldwin Hills Estates, Baldwin Hills Village (now Village Green), Baldwin Vista, and, paradoxically, the flat area below them.
BALDWIN HILLS ESTATES
BALDWIN PARK
Elias J. Baldwin founded Baldwin Park in 1907, the year after PE began operation of the San Bernardino Line. Baldwin died in 1909. The original In-N-Out, California’s first drive-thru restaurant, opened there in 1948 (and was demolished for a freeway). Baldwin Park incorporated on 25 January 1956.
BALDWIN VILLAGE
This area comprised of apartments built in the 1940s and ’50s was nicknamed the Jungle for the palm and banana plants that typified its landscaping. By 1988, efforts that ultimately bore fruit were underway to rename it Baldwin Village.
BALDWIN VISTA
THE BÁNH MÌ DISTRICT
Following the 2003 opening of Mr. Baguette, bánh mì chains Bánh Mì & Chè Cali and Lee’s Sandwiches opened locations nearby on Valley Boulevard. In a 2008, review, Jonathan Gold casually referred to the area as “Rosemead’s banh mi district.”
BANBURY OAKS
Sunset Reservoir was constructed in 1898 near the southern terminus of the Mount Lowe Line. Baseball player Jackie Robinson‘s family moved nearby to 123 Pepper Street in 1920. “Banbury Oaks” was coined by a neighborhood association around 2001
BASSETT
In 1895, Vermont-born Oscar Thomas Bassett established the Bassett Township in the San Gabriel Valley along Southern Pacific‘s Sunset Limited, which began operation a year earlier. It’s home to Bassett Park and homes nearly all built in 1954 and ’55.
BANDINI ISLANDS
The Bandini Islands are two unincorporated areas named after Bandini Boulevard. They are located along the Bandini Islands Watershed, which drains into the Los Angeles River. The Bandini Islands are home to a UPS employee parking lot.
BAY HARBOUR
The development of Costa del Sol was approved by Long Beach mayor Ernest Mayer Jr. in 1976 in exchange for $25,000 worth of gold coins. The gated community was rebranded “Bay Harbour” in 1986 and ads boasted “elegant Old World European ambiance.”
THE BEACH CITIES
BEACHWOOD CANYON
In 1909, the Albert H. Beach Company began promoting its Beachwood Park Tract as “a foothill gem” in the city of Hollywood, and at the base of a couloir known as Beachwood Canyon. A drugstore opened in 1925 that is now the Beachwood Cafe.
BEL AIR
Bel Air was founded in 1923 by oil tycoon and tennis champion Alphonzo Edward Bell. His father was James George Bell, after whom the working-class suburbs of Bell and Bell Gardens are named. Most street names are French or Italian but the plurality of its foreign-born are from Iran and Iranian is the most common ancestry of residents. Micro-neighborhoods within Bel-Air include East Gate Old Bel Air, West Gate Bel Air, and Upper Bel Air. It’s also home to The UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden.
BELL
Missourian James George Bell had the Victorian folk-style Bell House built for his family in 1876. In 1898, the town over which he presided as postmaster, was named Bell. Bell began to grow in the 1920s and incorporated as a city in 1927.
BELL GARDENS
What’s now Bell Gardens was historically home to the Tongva village of Chibugna. Pacific Electric Railway’s Whittier Line began operation in 1904 and a streetcar suburb developed around the Bell Tract. Bell Gardens incorporated on 1 August 1961.
BELLEFONTAINE
Development of Bellefontaine began in the 1880s and by 1904 it was served by three streetcar lines. The neighborhood today is home to Huntington Hospital, Arlington Garden, Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden, and a stub of the 710, built in 1975.
BELLFLOWER
F. E. Woodruff began selling tracts on Somerset Ranch near Somerset Station in 1906. In 1909, the post office rejected the name, Somerset. By 1911, Bellflower Acres had lent its new name, Bellflower, taken from an apple. It incorporated on 3 September 1957.
BELLEHURST PARK
Walter H. Leimert‘s Bellehurst Park opened in 1923. It was Leimert’s first subdivision in Southern California. Advertisements of the day boasted of its “restrictions” and proximity to a PE train line. It was mostly built out in the 1920s.
BELMONT HEIGHTS
The Alamitos Land Company subdivided the streetcar suburb of Belmont Heights, located along a Pacific Electric Railway line, in 1905. It incorporated as a city on 1 October 1908. It was annexed by Long Beach in 1909.
BELMONT PARK
Belmont Park is a residential community on Alamitos Bay that was subdivided in 1926 and primarily developed in the 1930s and 1940s. It’s named after the city of Belmont Heights, which incorporated in 1908 and was annexed by Long Beach in 1909.
BELMONT SHORE
McGrath & Selover began developing Belmont Shore Place in 1920 (the “Place” was dropped in the ’30s). The streetcar suburb was served by two PE lines until 1940. Domenico’s opened on 2nd Street, the neighborhood’s business district, in 1954.
BELVEDERE
In 1915, the Janss Investment Co. developed a streetcar suburb called Belvedere Heights along the Whittier Line. The same company developed Belvedere Gardens in 1921. The combined tracts and surrounding area came to be known as Belvedere.
BEVERLY CREST
BEVERLY GLEN
Cornelius Brown cut a wagon track into what became known as Brown Canyon in 1867. In 1909, it became known as Beverly Cayon and B.C. Mayo began developing the Beverly Glen tract with a team of 30 Indians. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1925.
BEVERLY HILLS
Black Mexican Maria Rita Valdez Villa settled here in 1828 and named it Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. The streetcar suburb of Beverly Hills opened in 1906. Originally whites-only, today Beverly Hills is largely Iranian, Russian, Jewish, and Korean.
BEVERLY HILLS GATEWAY
From 1907-1923, PE’s Coldwater Canyon Line served Beverly Hills’ north, which decades later was named Beverly Hills Gateway. It’s home to many of Beverly Hills’ historic estates, including the Virginia Robinson Estate & Gardens (1911).
BEVERLY PARK
F. B. Yoakum and Leon R. Conklin‘s Beverly Park Tract, in Benedict Canyon, was annexed by Los Angeles in 1923. An entirely residential neighborhood, one of the most celebrated homes in Beverly Park is Craig Ellwood‘s Hale House, built in 1951.
BEVERLYRIDGE ESTATES
The Hogan Finance & Mortgage Company opened their Beverlyridge Estates subdivision in November 1927. The residential tract was substantially built out in the 1920s, ’50s, and ’60s.
BEVERLYWOOD
BIG MOUNTAIN RIDGE
BIG PINES
In the Swarthout Valley of San Gabriel Mountains. Big Pines was developed in 1924. It’s home to Mountain High Ski Resort, the Table Mountain Observatory, and Mt Kare Campground. It’s also the highest elevated community on the San Andreas Fault.
BIG ROCK
Park & Sherman subdivided the Big Rock Mesas community in 1947. The Big Rock Cafe (now Moonshadows Malibu) opened there in 1949. Most residents eventually dropped the “Mesas” and today simply refer to the neighborhood as Big Rock.
BIG ROCK SPRINGS
BIRD STREETS
BISHOP
BIXBY HILL
BIXBY KNOLLS
Casa del los Cerritos, today a museum, was built in 1844 for Jonathan Temple near the historic site of the Tongva village of Amaungna. It was purchased by Flint, Bixby & Company in 1866 and by the 1920s, the area around it was known as Bixby Knolls.
BIXBY VILLAGE
The land on which Bixby Village was built was annexed by Long Beach in 1959. Construction of homes there began in 1960. A shopping center, Bixby Village Plaza, and the Bixby Village Golf Course followed in 1974 and 1980, respectively.
BLAIR HILLS
Most of the homes in the Blair Hills neighborhood were built in the 1950s by developers Stone & Stone, who created streets like Blairstone, Stoneview, and Vicstone. Blair Hills is home to the popular Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook.
BLANCO-CULVER CREST
Lewis Crank and R.J. Blanco began developing residential Culver Crest in 1953. The Culver Crest Historical Society was founded in 1980. In the 1990s, the primarily residential neighborhood began to be referred to as Blanco-Culver Crest.
BLUFF HEIGHTS
The somewhat redundantly-named Bluff Heights is a neighborhood composed primarily of California Craftsman bungalows constructed between 1910 and 1923, including many designed by Miner Smith, an architect from the eighth flattest state, Ohio.
BLUFF PARK
Bluff Park was part of Alamitos Beach when it was annexed by Long Beach in 1905. By 1915, it was served by three PE streetcar lines. The Long Beach Museum of Art moved there in 1954. The Bluff Park Historic District was designated in 1982.
BOILING POINT
Boiling Point is a small settlement in Mint Canyon that was so known at least as early as 1930, although it was formerly usually referred to as “The Boiling Point.” It’s home to a road named Boiling Point Road.
THE BONG DISTRICT
California legalized medical cannabis in 1996 and, by the 2000s, a short stretch of 3rd Street was full of wholesalers selling hookahs, hand pipes, rolling papers, vaporizers, &c. By 2008, it was colloquially known as the Bong District.
BONNELL PARK
John H. Bonnell opened Bonnell’s Topanga Park (later Bonnell Park) on 15 April 1923. Incentives for its cabin sites included oil rights, “splendid” bus service, and a “California barbecue.” Bonnell divorced in 1924 and died of syphilis in 1938.
BOYLE HEIGHTS
What’s now Boyle Heights was historically home to the Tongva village of Apachiangna. Irishman Andrew Boyle moved there in 1858. In 1875, Boyle, Isaias W. Hellman, and William H. Workman announced the opening of their Boyle Heights Tract.
BRADBURY
Lewis Leonard Bradbury‘s namesake, the wealthy equestrian community of Bradbury, incorporated in 1957, despite its small population. It includes within it three districts: the gated Bradbury Estates, the gated Woodlyn Lane, and the un-gated area.
BRENT’S JUNCTION
BRENTWOOD
In 1906, the Western Pacific Development Co. began developing Brentwood Park, modeled after Golden Gate Park, along the PE‘s then-new Westgate Line. By 1911, the area was simply known as Brentwood. A modest skyline of mid-rises arose in the 1960s.
BRENTWOOD CIRCLE
The 1925 Danziger Addition formed the basis for the Brentwood Circle neighborhood. In 1995, two years after Citizens Against Gated Enclaves v. Whitley Heights Civic Assn., the cluster of uniplexes became a gated community with three gates.
BRENTWOOD GLEN
The Ratteree Tract opened in the 1920s but the first home wasn’t built until 1932. Residences voted to adopt the name, Brentwood Glen, on 20 May 1957, but it was the 1961 opening of the 405 next to it that truly transformed its character.
BRENTWOOD PARK
BRENTWOOD TERRACE
The San Vicente Land Co.‘s streetcar suburb, Brentwood Terrace, opened in 1907 on the route of PE’s then-new Westgate Line. Its barn-themed, Rowland Crawford-designed Brentwood Country Mart opened there in 1948.
THE BRIDAL DISTRICT
BRIGDEN RANCH
Brigden Ranch is a primarily residential neighborhood with one commercial street, Allen Avenue. It initially developed along Pacific Electric Railway‘s East Washington Line in the 1920s. The eastern portion was mostly built out in the 1940s.
BRISTOL-CYPRESS
BROADWAY CORRIDOR
BROADWAY SQUARE
Several tracts were subdivided in 1906 and 1907 in what is now Broadway Square. Most of the homes were built in the 1910s and ’20s. The “Broadway Square” designation, however, was created by the Eighth District Empowerment Congress’s Naming Neighborhoods Project in 2008.
THE BROADWAY THEATER DISTRICT
BROCKMONT
Brockmont is a residential neighborhood located in the foothills of the Verdugos above Missouri-born businessman John C. Brockman‘s 1920s Brockmont Park development. Brockmont is comparatively newer, its single-family homes having been built between the 1950s and ’80s.
BROCKMONT PARK
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS
The development of Brooklyn Heights began in 1875. For decades, it was a thriving Jewish enclave. After World War II, however, most Jews moved elsewhere and it was absorbed into Boyle Heights. In 1994, Brooklyn Avenue became Cesar E. Chavez.
BROOKMERE
The San Rafael Winery was established in 1887. In 1950, Milton D. Winston and the Brookmere Propertyholder’s Association applied to transform the former winery the community center for the community of Brookmere, which was gated in 1953.
BROOKSIDE
BRYANT
BUNGALOW HEAVEN
By 1913, there were three Pacific Electric Railway lines serving a streetcar suburb centered around Pasadena’s McDonald Park. The neighborhood was designated Bungalow Heaven in 1989. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
BUNKER HILL
Bunker Hill, part of the Elysian Hills, is named after a hill in Boston. In 1867, Prudent Beaudry and Stephen Mott bought land there and subdivided the Mott Tract in ’69. Massive redevelopment began in 1955 ultimately completely transformed it.
BURBANK
THE BURBANK MEDIA DISTRICT
THE BYZANTINE-LATINO QUARTER
CAHUENGA PASS
Cahuenga Pass is a mountain pass through the Santa Monica Mountains and refers to a neighborhood to the west of the Hollywood Freeway. The main thoroughfare is Cahuenga Boulevard West. Cahuenga comes from the Tongva word, Kawee’nga, meaning “place of the fox.” The native gray fox is the only American canid that can climb trees.
CALABASAS
Calabasas is derived from the Spanish “calabaza.” Its suburbanization began in 1969 with the opening of the Calabasas Park subdivision. Having incorporated in 1991, it’s the county’s newest city. The top employer is The Cheesecake Factory.
CALABASAS ADJACENT
Calabasas Adjacent is an unincorporated enclave dominated by Mountain View Estates (a gated community developed between 1989 and ’98); a row of commercial and office buildings; and the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park, which opened in 1928.
CALIFORNIA HEIGHTS
The Jotham Bixby Company placed 830 lots of the California Heights Tract on sale on 10 October 1922. California Heights was annexed by Long Beach in 1924. The neighborhood was designated an historic site in 1990 and expanded in 2000.
CALIFORNIA ROSE COURT
California Rose Court is a subdivision developed by Kaufman and Broad that opened in 1989. The homes were designed in the California Craftsman style, popularized a century earlier. The land had been annexed by Pasadena in 1970.
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY LONG BEACH
CALIFORNIA VILLAGE
CAMBODIA TOWN (ទីក្រុងខ្មែរ)
Metro Los Angeles is home to the largest community of Cambodians outside of Cambodia. By 1985, Cambodia Town (ទីក្រុងខ្មែរ) was known colloquially by that name. In 2007, it was finally granted official recognition by the city of Long Beach.
CAMEO PLAZA
Southern Pacific‘s Santa Monica Air Line opened in 1909. Its Sentous Station lent its name to the area, annexed by Los Angeles in 1915. Tract 14457 was built out in 1948. As part of the naming neighborhoods project, it was named Cameo Plaza in 2001.
CAMP AL HUEY
Camp Al Huey is a United States Naval Special Warfare Command training facility built on San Clemente Island in 1989. It’s named after Special Warfare Operator Master Chief Petty Officer “Uncle Al” Huey. About 200 people live there at any time.
CANOGA PARK
CANTERBURY KNOLLS
CANYON COUNTRY
In 1959, Saugus‘s Schaefer Land Co. created the Canyon Country Homes subdivision. “Canyon Country” supplanted pre-existing community names like Honby and Solemint. When Santa Clarita incorporated in 1987, Canyon Country became a neighborhood.
CARMELITOS
The 713-unit Carmelitos Housing Projects occupy 25 hectares and opened in two phases, in 1941 and ’43. It is the oldest and largest housing project built by HACLA. By the 1960s, Carmelitos lent its name to the surrounding Long Beach neighborhood.
CARROLL PARK
Irish immigrant John Carroll debuted his streetcar suburb, Carroll Park, on 19 January 1903. By 1923, it was mostly developed — primarily with California Craftsman bungalows. Carroll Park was designated a Historic Landmark District in 1982.
CARSON
What’s now Carson was historically the Tongva village of Suangna. South Bay State College (now CSUDH) was founded there in 1960. In 1968, when naming the community, 318 more votes were cast for Carson than Dominguez. It incorporated on 20 February.
CARSON PARK (PLAZA EAST)
CARTHAY CIRCLE
J. Harvey McCarthy developed Carthay Center in 1922 along the Santa Monica via Sawtelle Line. The Fox Carthay Circle Theatre opened there in 1926. By 1930, the neighborhood, too, was known as Carthay Circle. The cinema was demolished in 1969.
CARTHAY SQUARE
Tract No. 7603 was developed near PE‘s Santa Monica Via Sawtelle Line on land annexed in 1922’s La Brea Addition. It was built out between 1925 and 1932. The name, Carthay Square, was coined by the 1970s. It was designated an HPOZ in 2017.
CASA GRANDE
Casa Grande is presumably named after Casa Grande Street. John Marshall School opened there in 1925. Formerly characterized as part of Altadena, it was annexed by Pasadena between 1929 and 1952.
CASTAIC
Castaic is located in a valley formed by the Sierra Pelona, Topatopa, and Santa Susana mountains. Its name is derived from that of an historic Chumash village located there, Kaštiq, meaning “what is like a face or an eye.”
CASTAIC CANYONS
Castaic Canyons is a vast, sparsely-populated region in the Sierra Pelona. The St. Francis Reservoir opened there in 1926. In 1928, the dam collapsed and at least 431 people died. Its replacement, the Bouquet Reservoir, opened in 1934.
CASTAIC JUNCTION
“Castaic” is derived from the Chumash village of Kaštiq. The Ridge Route through the Sierra Pelona opened in 1915. At least as early as 1924, the area and community at the southern terminus were known as Castaic Junction.
CATALINA VILLAS
CASTLE HEIGHTS
In 1923, Winnipegger Harold Charles Seymour opened his Castle Heights Tract, a mostly residential streetcar suburb along the Santa Monica Air Line. It was preceded by several tracts there, including Arnaz and Ivywild. Seymour died in 1931.
CASTELLAMMARE
The Frank Meline Company created the Italian-esque community of Castellammare (named after Castellammare di Stabia, in Naples) in 1924. The Getty Villa, a museum designed to resemble the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, opened there in 1954.
CENTER CITY
West Hollywood incorporated in 1984 and thus, only then officially became a city. People only began referring to the neighborhood surrounding City Hall (1984) and Hamburger Mary’s (1972) as Center City by the 2010s.
CENTRAL HOLLYWOOD
Central Hollywood, the geographic core of the Hollywood region, formerly straddled the towns of Hollywood and Colegrove. It’s home to the Cinerama Dome, Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, Gower Gulch Plaza, and Sunset Vine Tower.
CENTRAL LONG BEACH
Central Long Beach is located northeast of Downtown. It was added to the city in the 1920s with the Northside and Northeast District annexes. As the result of subsequent annexes, it’s now located in the southernmost third of the city.
CENTRAL-ALAMEDA
Traditionally characterized as South Central, “Central-Alameda” was coined around 2000 to describe the area between Central Avenue and Alameda Street that’s home to the Lincoln Theatre, Pueblo Del Rio, and Augustus F. Hawkins Nature Park.
CENTURY CITY
In 1961, after a series of commercial flops, 20th Century Fox sold a backlot to developer William Zeckendorf and the Aluminum Co. of America. The new owners created the Century City neighborhood, a 1960s simulacrum of a “city within a city.”
CENTURY COVE
CENTURY PALMS
Forest Station was an interchange and terminus interchange for at least four passenger railways. It was later replaced by the Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange. The 8th District Empowerment Congress named an adjacent area Century Palms in 2001.
CERRITOS
Dairy Valley incorporated on 24 April 1956. Its name was changed to Cerritos on 10 January 1967. Today, it’s the only Asian-majority city in Southeast Los Angeles. It’s home to the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts and Cerritos Auto Square.
THE CHANNEL ISLANDS
The Channel Islands are an eight-island archipelago. Two of the islands, San Clemente and Santa Catalina, together comprise Los Angeles County’s Channel Islands region — about 341.32 km2 in size but home to only about 4,500 residents.
CHAPMAN
Chapman is named after Alabama-born real estate attorney and investor Alfred Beck Chapman. It was developed in the 1920s but mostly demolished in the 1970s to allow for the construction of the 210 Freeway. It’s also home to Sierra Madre Villa Station and freeway-adjacent apartments and storage.
CHAPMAN WOODS
CHARTER OAK
The Charter Oak School District was formed in 1894. In 1947, retired county agricultural inspector Robert Hutchison founded Charter Oak Realty. Charter Oak was mostly developed in the 1950s and ’60s. Charter Oak Park opened in 1957.
CHATSWORTH
CHERRY MANOR
Cherry Manor was a 220-home tract built in the shadow of an oil refinery, storage, and distribution center. It opened in 1942. Today the name is extended to the surrounding area, which likewise was built out to provide World War II-era housing.
CHESTERFIELD SQUARE
Charles and R.D. List subdivided Chesterfield Square in 1912, with Chesterfield Square Park as the streetcar suburb’s centerpiece. Ray Harryhausen‘s studio was there, LaRutan opened there in 1968, and Boyz N the Hood was filmed there.
CHEVIOT HILLS
Frans Nelson & Sons opened the Cheviot Hills Tract on 19 August 1923. The streetcar suburb was located on Pacific Electric Railway’s Santa Monica Air Line. The titular hills, roughly 30 meters tall, are named after a range of uplands in the UK.
CHEVIOTDALE HEIGHTS
The Cheviotdale Tract was established in 1906 on the former San Rafael Ranch. Pasadena‘s Cheviotdale Heights Annex occurred on 5 August 1923. Cheviotdale Heights was mostly built out in the 1950s and ’60s.
CHEVY CHASE
Chevy Chase is named after a 15th century English ballad, “The Ballad of Chevy Chase.” Sycamore Canyon, which Chevy Chase Drive traverses, was annexed by Glendale on 20 November 1925 and development of the neighborhood began around the same time.
CHINATOWN [OLD]
In the 1860s, about 200 men from Guangdong settled around the intersection of Alameda and Macy (now Cesar E. Chavez). By 1871, the area was known as Chinatown. It was demolished to make way for the construction of Union Station and the 101.
CHINATOWN (唐人街)
Chinatown migrated from its old location after most of it was razed (and its people displaced) to build Union Station. In 1938, both Christine Sterling‘s China City (7 June) and Peter Soo Hoo et al’s New Chinatown (25 June) opened in what had until then been Little Italy.
CITRUS
Citrus is a mostly-Latino residential community named after Citrus Avenue and bisected by Big Dalton Wash. Nearly every home within it was built in the mid-1950s. It’s also home to Dalton Park, Center Middle School, and Covina Church of Christ.
CITRUS GROVE
Citrus Grove was part of Glendale since it incorporated in 1906. It developed along the route of the Glendale and Eagle Rock Railway, which opened in 1909. “Citrus Grove,” though, seems to be a more recent coinage, first appearing by the 2000s.
CITRUS SQUARE
What’s now Citrus Square was annexed by Los Angeles in 1923 and ’24. George Allan Hancock began developing Tract 8498 of Hancock Park in 1924. The tract was mostly built out by the end of the decade. “Citrus Square” was coined around 2010.
CITY CENTER
Glendale‘s City Center (a chiefly British designation — although Portland provides another American exception) is in every sense a downtown as the actual geographic center of Glendale (thanks to numerous annexations) is located in the Verdugo Mountains. It was the center when Glendale was founded, however, and was designated “City Center” in 1935.
CITY TERRACE
Walter H. Leimert developed City Terrace in 1923, believing that Los Angeles was moving east. It didn’t, and a century later, the community is still unincorporated. Until the 1940s, it had large populations of Japanese and Jews. Sometimes the hilly neighborhood is referred to as “the Mexican Alps.”
CITY WEST
The Central City West Association formed in 1985, hoping to create an high-rise office district west of Downtown. Beaudry Center (1986), Rolls Royce Tower (1987), and Arco Tower (1989) followed. Today, the neighborhood is better known as City West.
CIVIC CENTER
Civic Center replaced the original downtown, which by the 1900s had begun to migrate south to the “Historic Core,” leaving behind the neglected, Victorian-era “North End.” The first formal plan for Civic Center was made in 1909, the latest in 2017. For decades, virtually every new suburb was advertised by its travel time to and from the nation’s second-largest such district (after the one in Washington, DC).
CIVIC CENTER FINANCIAL DISTRICT
The Civic Center Financial District is dominated by five buildings constructed between 1905 and 1928: the Security Pacific, Citizens Bank, the MacArthur, Mutual, and Crown buildings. All were added to the NRHP in 1982.
CIVIC SUPPORT
Civic Support is an auxiliary of Civic Center. As such, it’s home to a jail, a prison, numerous bail bonds offices, Piper Tech, transit agency headquarters and yards, Keller Yard, Union Station, and (since 1966) an isolated location of Denny’s.
CLAREMONT
Claremont was founded in 1887 and named after a town in New Hampshire. PE‘s San Bernardino Line arrived in 1906. Claremont incorporated in 1907. It’s notably home to the Claremont Colleges, California Botanic Garden, and radio station KSPC.
COLLEGE HILLS
College Hills is Glendale neighborhood that’s home to Glendale Community College, founded in 1927 as Glendale Junior College. The residential community was mostly developed in the 1960s. Many of the homes were destroyed by serial arsonist and firefighter John Orr in 1990.
COLLEGE PARK ESTATES
COLLEGE SQUARE
Ajax Construction Company developed College Square in 1951, its name a reference to adjacent Compton College. The neighborhood was annexed by Long Beach in sections, between 1946 and ’65. A neighborhood association was founded in 1975.
COMMERCE
By the 1940s, the small communities of Bandini, Laguna, and Rosewood Park were dominated by railroads and industry. In the 1950s, industrialists advocated incorporation. On 28 January 1960, with 895 yes votes, Commerce nominally became a city.
COMPTON
Compton is a primarily Latino suburb of Los Angeles named after settler Griffith Dickenson Compton. Both presidents Bush lived there starting in 1949. In the 1950s, it became known for its barn dances and emerged as a center of Country & Western music. In the 1980s, it was known for producing electrofunk and gangsta rap acts. Today it’s home to the Compton Cricket Club.
COOLRIDGE TRIANGLE
What’s now Coolidge Triangle was annexed by Long Beach in 1924 and ’29. Coolidge Park opened there, on Coolidge Street, in 1955. 22% of the neighborhood was obliterated by the construction of the Long Beach and Gardena freeways in the ’60s
CORNELL
Cornell is located at the confluence of Malibu and Triunfo creeks in the Santa Monica Mountains. The former Cornell post office and Country Store became the Old Place Restaurant in 1969. A former amusement park became Peter Strauss Ranch in 1976.
COTTAGE GROVE
Cottage Grove is a micro-neighborhood within Adams Hill composed of just fourteen mostly Tudor Revival homes built between 1924 and 1928 and situated along Cottage Grove Avenue. The City of Glendale designated it an historic district in 2009.
COUNTRY CLUB HEIGHTS
Robert Marsh began selling lots in the Country Club Park tract in 1905 and later built his residence there. The suburb boasted access to two streetcar lines. Around 2012, the neighborhood council began calling the area Country Club Heights.
COUNTRY CLUB PARK
The Los Angeles Country Club relocated to Pico/Western, an intersection on LARy‘s P Line, in 1899. Robert Marsh & Co.’s Country Club Park, Country Club Boulevard, and Country Club Heights tracts opened. The country club moved out in 1910.
COVINA
Covina was founded at the former site of the Tongva village, Weniingna. Covina was founded in 1882 by Joseph Swift Phillips, whose surveyor, Frederick Eaton, combined “cove” and “vine” to create its name. It incorporated as a city on 14 August 1901.
COVINA ISLANDS
Covina Islands refers to an archipelago of neighborhoods composed mostly of single-family homes built in the 1950s and surrounded by the city of Covina. They’ve been so known since at least 1976.
CRENSHAW MANOR
Crenshaw Manor opened on 27 August 1939. It became part of Los Angeles with the Crenshaw Manor Additions of 1940 and ’42. The streetcar suburb was mostly built out by 1945. It’s home to Paul R. Williams‘s striking Angelus Funeral Home (1934).
CRENSHAW SEINAN
In the 1950s, many Japanese Angelenos began buying Oriental Ranch style homes near Crenshaw. Soon, Crenshaw Seinan hosted the Crenshaw Square Oriental Festival (1960-1977), the Gidra offices (1969-1974), and numerous Japanese businesses.
CRENSHAW-IMPERIAL
Crenshaw-Imperial, the southernmost neighborhood in Inglewood, was annexed by that city in the 1920s, ’50s, and ’60s. It’s named after Crenshaw Bouelvard and Imperial Highway. The Crenshaw Imperial Shopping Center opened there in 1961.
CRESCENT HEIGHTS [LOS ANGELES]
Much of Crescent Heights was developed as the Cielo Vista, a tract that opened in 1922. Today it shares a name with a neighborhood in West Hollywood. Frank Lloyd Wright‘s Storer and Pierre Koenig‘s Stahl houses are among its notable homes.
CRESCENT HEIGHTS [WEST HOLLYWOOD]
Norton & Hay opened their Crescent Heights Tract on 13 March 1905. It was promoted as a streetcar suburb. Crescent Heights Boulevard terminates north of the tract in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood that shares its name.
CRESCENTA HIGHLANDS
Glendale annexed the New York Avenue District in 1952. The portion containing the La Crescenta Highlands and Highway Highlands tracts eventually became known as Crescenta Highlands. It’s notably home to Ananda Ashrama and Dunsmore Park.
CRESTVIEW
Crestview is a residential neighborhood mostly built out in the 1920s and ’30s. “CRestview” was the old telephone exchange for Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, beginning in 1928. Residents voted to name their community Crestview in June of 1988.
CRESTWOOD HILLS
Crestwood Hills began as Mutual Housing Tract, a Bauhausian utopia dreamt up by four studio musicians in 1946. Many of its modernist homes were designed by A. Quincy Jones, Craig Ellwood, Richard Neutra, Welton Becket, and Whitney R. Smith
CROWN HILL
In 1885, Los Angeles’s first mechanical railway began operation and the Los Angeles Improvement Company began developing Crown Hill, Los Angeles’s first streetcar suburb. Today it’s known for its row houses, Belmont Square, and the Nurses Club.
CRYSTAL LAKE
CRYSTALAIRE
The Billy Bell-designed Crystalaire Country Club opened next to Big Rock Wash in 1957. The adjacent community was to have been known as Big Rock Ranch but after the Crystal Airport opened, the community, too, came to be known as Crystalaire.
CUDAHY
Cudahy is named after Irish meat-packer, Michael Cudahy, founder of Cudahy Packing Company. In 1893, he bought Nadeau Ranch and renamed it Cudahy Ranch. In 1908, it was subdivided as Cudahy Ranch. On 10 November 1960, it incorporated as Cudahy.
CULVER CITY
Nebraskan Harry Hazel Culver founded the Culver Investment Company in 1914. Culver City incorporated on 20 September 1917. Several film studios settled there and in 1937, the chamber of commerce tried to change Culver City’s name to Hollywood.
CULVER CITY ARTS DISTRICT
Los Angeles is home to at least four designated arts districts. Despite its name, only 38% of the Culver City Arts District, lies within the borders of Culver City with 62% located within Los Angeles. Art galleries began to open in the area in the early 2000s. An artwalk began in 2006. Around 2008, it was designated the Culver City Arts District.
CULVER-WEST
The Culver Gardens Tract opened in 1924. It and other tracts along Washington Boulevard were annexed by Culver City as the Walnut Park Annexation in 1926. “Culver-West” was coined in 1963 by the Culver-West Business & Professional Association.
CYPRESS GROVE
By 1905, Los Angeles Pacific Railroad‘s Cypress Grove Station had lent its name to surrounding area. The name quickly fell from use, however. Cypress Grove was annexed with Barnes City, is home to Mar Vista Gardens, and the Culver City Boys.
CYPRESS PARK
The Los Angeles Railway launched the Eagle Rock Line in 1895 and a streetcar suburb subsequently developed around its route along Cypress Avenue. The Cypress Park Improvement Association was formed in 1909. Local chains Yum Yum Donuts (1971), King Taco (1975), and El Atacor (1992) all started there.
DAIRY
Dairy is named after Dairy Avenue, a short, alley-lined diagonal avenue that slices through the street grid. The oldest home is from 1904 but it was subdivided in the ’20s. It was annexed by Long Beach in ’24. Burton W. Chace Park opened there in ’05.
DAISY-VILLA
DAVENPORT PARK
A landfill near Long Beach closed in 1947 and was redeveloped for industrial purposes. In 2006, it re-opened as Ed “Pops” Davenport Park and this residential neighborhood, annexed between 1951 and 1967, came to be known as Davenport Park.
DAYTON HEIGHTS
The streetcar suburb of Dayton Heights opened in 1887. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1909. In the 1920s, white residents mobilized to keep out blacks but it soon became so dominated by Japanese Angelenos that it was nicknamed “J. Flats.”
DEARBORN GROVES
Dearborn Groves is an entirely residential neighborhood centered on Dearborn Street. Most of the homes were built from the 1900s to the 1930s. The name was coined around 2019, with the formation of the Dearborn Groves Neighborhood Association.
DECKER
DEER LAKE HIGHLANDS
Deer Lake Highlands was subdivided in 1926 into 1200 cabin sites. The discovery of oil in 1950 transformed it from a weekend retreat into an oil field. In 2014 development began of a master-planned community called Deerlake Ranch.
DEFOREST PARK
Construction of DeForest Park began in 1975. The park opened in 1977. The surrounding neighborhood, which came to be known as DeForest Park, had been annexed by Long Beach in the 1920s. It was substantially built out between 1946 and 1961.
DEL AIRE
Development of Del Aire (Spanish: “of the air”) began in 1940. Its residences were intended for employees at Los Angeles Municipal Airport and other workers in the airplane industry. Much of the original development has been annexed by Hawthorne.
DEL LAGO
DEL REY
The Venice del Rey Tract opened in 1905 along the Venice-Inglewood Line. Barnes City was established nearby for Al G. Barnes Wild Animal Circus and Zoo. Both collectively came to be known, simply (if somewhat nonsensically) as Del Rey by the 1950s.
DEL SUR
Del Sur is an abandoned master planned community that was to have been built by the Larwin Co. around an unbuilt lake. Hovanian Homes‘ Westview Estates was also similarly mostly unbuilt. Del Sur is home to Bohunk’s Airpark and several solar farms.
DEL VALLE
DESERT RELIEF
Charles and Lydia Nixon operated the Desert Relief Service Station on Pearblossom Highway in the 1910s. Fred died in 1923. Lydia died in 1945. Desert Relief still appeared on maps as late as 1934. There are a few scattered homes there today.
DESERT VIEW HIGHLANDS
Development of residential Desert View Highlands began in 1951. It was mainly built out by the end of the decade and entirely built out by the end of the ’70s. The unincorporated community is wholly surrounded by the city of Palmdale.
DIAMOND BAR
In 1918, Frederick E. Lewis II founded the Diamond Bar Ranch. Lewis sold the ranch to William Bartholomae in 1943. In 1956, Transamerica Corporation began developing a master planned community, Diamond Bar. It incorporated on 18 April 1989.
DODGE CITY
Dodge City (officially TAR 4) is the nickname of a mock village that was built in the 2000s to train Navy Seals for urban combat. The layout of the village, with the exception of a few main buildings, changes periodically.
DOGTOWN
DOHENY
DOMINGUEZ
Next to Carson’s Dominguez Park is the 405-and-710 Freeway-dominated Dominguez. It was annexed by Long Beach in 1966 and ’71. The mostly industrial neighborhood is home to a rail maintenance yard, industrial research facilities, and the like.
DOWNEY
Downey was founded in 1873 and named after California’s first immigrant governor, Irish-born John Gately Downey. The first Taco Bell opened there in 1962. Downey Records had a 1962 hit with The Chantays‘ “Pipeline.” The Carpenters moved there in 1963 and lived in several Downey homes.
DOWNTOWN BURBANK
Burbank was founded in 1887. The city center was referred to as Downtown Burbank by the 1920s. Downtown Burbank’s skyline is mainly defined by the 18-story Holiday Inn Burbank Media Center (1981) and the ten-story 303 North Glenoaks (1983).
DOWNTOWN COMPTON
Griffith Compton‘s namesake town incorporated in 1889. “Downtown Compton” was so-known by 1930. It’s home to the Harold L. Williams-designed Compton City Hall & Civic Center (1976/1977) and the city’s oldest home, the Heritage House (1869).
DOWNTOWN CULVER CITY
Culver City was incorporated in 1917, located at the intersection of three PE train lines. The six-story Hotel Hunt (now Culver Hotel) opened there in 1924. The surrounding neighborhood was known as Downtown Culver City by the 1930s.
DOWNTOWN HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood was founded in 1887, incorporated as a city in 1903, but was annexed by Los Angeles in 1910. In the 1920s, however, people began referring to the bustling district around the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street as Downtown Hollywood.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES
What’s now Downtown was historically home to the Tongva village of Yaangna. The multi-neighborhood region was referred to as Downtown by the 1870s, despite a then-meager population of about 6,000. Today it boasts the 96th tallest building on Earth.
DOWNTOWN INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT
The Downtown Industrial District designation dates back at least to 1912. Most of the district has since organized into specialized districts (ie Produce and Seafood). What’s left is dominated by a Metro bus yard and warehouses.
DOWNTOWN INGLEWOOD
Downtown Inglewood had arisen along the Los Angeles & Redondo Railway Company and LARy‘s 5 Line by the 1930s. Rail transit returned with the opening of Metro‘s K Line in 2022. It’s home to a fine WPA Moderne and Brutalist Civic Center.
DOWNTOWN LONG BEACH
Downtown Long Beach is the heart of Los Angeles County‘s second-most populous city. It was known as “Downtown” by 1904. The buildings that define its skyline mostly rose in the 1920s. It’s home to most of the city’s tourist attractions.
DOWNTOWN PASADENA
Downtown Pasadena includes within it Old Pasadena, the Civic Center, and the Financial District — as well as the surrounding area that includes within it Central Park and the Pasadena Convention Center.
DOWNTOWN POMONA
Pomona was founded in 1875. By the 1910s, its city center was referred to as Downtown Pomona. The district is home to the historic First Presbyterian Church of Pomona (1874), Mayfair Hotel (1915), and Fox Pomona Theater (1931).
DOWNTOWN SAN PEDRO
The town of San Pedro arose in the 1850s. By 1909, when San Pedro consolidated with Los Angeles, it had its own downtown. Downtown San Pedro icons include the San Pedro Municipal Building, Warner Grand Theatre, and Harbor View House.
DOWNTOWN SANTA MONICA
DUARTE
Duarte is named after Rancho Azusa de Duarte — an historic ranch named after the Tongva village, Asuksagna, and Mexican corporal, Andrés Duarte. Duarte’s largest ethnicities, today, are Mexican and Filipino. Its main drag, Huntington Drive, was historically part of Route 66.
DUNDEE HEIGHTS
The Dundee Heights Tract opened around 1887 and developed along The Highland Street Railway Company North Lake Avenue Line. It’s mostly residential except for the French Gothic-style Westminster Presbyterian Church, which opened in 1906.
EAGLE ROCK
Eagle Rock is named after a stone that casts a shadow that resembles an eagle in flight. It incorporated as a city in 1911. It was annexed by Los Angeles on 18 May 1923. Its historic attractions include Eagle Rock Plaza and Occidental College.
EAST AZUSA (AZUSA EAST)
EAST COMPTON
East Compton is an archipelago of two unincorporated areas surrounded by the city of Compton. Despite sharing no borders with Ranch Dominguez, however, in recent years it’s sometimes been referred to as East Rancho Dominguez, and East Compton Park was renamed East Rancho Dominguez Park.
EAST EATON WASH
Named after the Eaton Wash, a channelized stream (named in turn after Judge Benjamin Silas Eaton) that runs along its western edge toward the Rio Hondo. Home to Viña Vieja Park, the Boulevard Bar, and Pasadena City College Community Education Center.
EAST HOLLYWOOD
East Hollywood originally referred to an unincorporated community in what’s now Los Feliz. In the 1940s, it began to shift to the area we know as East Hollywood today, a region annexed along with the town of Colegrove on 26 October 1909.
EAST LOS ANGELES
The East Los Angeles area is an historic Mexican American cultural hub. It includes the communities of Belvedere, City Terrace, Eastmont, and Maravilla. Were it to incorporate, it would be the tenth most populous city in Los Angeles County
EAST ORANGE GROVE
A streetcar suburb that developed along PE’s Sierra Madre Line (1904-1950) and at the terminus of the Pasadena Local North Loop Line (1907-1923) was annexed, as Santa Anita, by Pasadena in 1925. It later became known as East Orange Grove.
EAST PASADENA
EAST SAN GABRIEL
East San Gabriel is an archipelago of seven incorporated areas of widely varying sizes located east of, or in some cases surrounded by, San Gabriel. Roughly half its population is foreign-born and more than half is Asian (mostly Chinese).
EAST SAN PEDRO
East San Pedro refers to the area of Terminal Island, in the Harbor, that contains the Port of Los Angeles and a low-security prison. It formerly hosted numerous shipbuilding facilities, canneries, and a Japanese village called Furusato.
EAST VILLAGE
The East Village is part of the original Long Beach townsite and development of the area began in the early 1900s. By the early 2000s, it had emerged as Long Beach’s arts district, with galleries lining Atlantic Avenue and 4th Street.
EAST WASHINGTON VILLAGE
EAST WHITTIER
Unincorporated East Whittier is bisected by La Mirada Creek and home to Southern California University of Health Sciences, founded in 1911 (although its campus moved there in 1981). Most of East Whittier’s homes were built in the 1950s and 1960s.
EASTMONT
THE EASTSIDE [LOS ANGELES]
The communities on the Los Angeles River‘s east bank have been referred to collectively as The Eastside since at least 1913. It’s home to Cal State LA, El Mercado de Los Ángeles, Lincoln Park, Otomisan, Wyvernwood, and other institutions.
THE EASTSIDE [SOUTH LOS ANGELES]
The communities east of Main Street in South Los Angeles (e.g. Florence, South Central, South Park, and Watts) were collectively referred to as the Eastside at least as early as 1909, when the Eastside Boys Club formed there.
EASTSIDE [WEST HOLLYWOOD]
The Eastside of West Hollywood is dominated by Santa Monica Boulevard, a busy street lined by studios, chain stores, and small local businesses, including the famous Formosa Cafe. It’s also home to historic Plummer Park.
EATON BLANCHE PARK
Park Las Encinas Sanatorium was established in 1903 and built on the Sunny Slope Estate. It was annexed by Pasadena in 1927’s Eaton Annex. The titular three-hectare park, located on the west bank of Eaton Creek/Wash, was created in the 1950s.
EATON CANYON
Connecticut-born Judge Benjamin S. Eaton purchased Fair Oaks Ranch in 1865 and planted vineyards on what came to be known as Eaton Canyon. Eaton died in 1904. It was annexed by Pasadena in 1952. Today it’s home to the Eaton Canyon Nature Center.
ECHO PARK
Echo Park is named after the park created in 1892 on the site of the city’s former Reservoir No. 4 (now Echo Park Lake). The reservoir was created in 1870 by building a dam beneath the confluence of two arroyos, now entombed underneath the streets.
EDENDALE
Moses Langley Wicks‘s Edendale Tract opened in 1902. Edendale emerged as the capital of the west coast film industry in the 1910s and supported 30 film studios. PE’s Edendale Siding closed in 1946 and afterward the “Edendale” name faded from use.
EL DORADO LAKES
El Dorado Lakes is a cookie-cutter condominium community developed by Bob Lintz and Bob Langslet in 1974, located on the banks of Coyote Creek and oriented around a shallow pond. Its purported nickname is “the Lakes.”
EL DORADO PARK ESTATES
In 1960, Long Beach annexed land on its eastern edge and built the Artesia-Norwalk Drain. Between 1962 and ’72, S & S Construction Company built residences on either side of the storm drain given the name, El Dorado Park Estates.
EL DORADO PARK NORTH
Tracts 16619 and 17742 opened in 1952. Nearly every home on them was built in 1953. The almost entirely residential community was annexed by Long Beach in 1955 and ’56. By 1971, the neighborhood was known as El Dorado Park North.
EL DORADO PARK SOUTH
The adjacent Tracts 17703 and 19781 were both nearly completely developed in 1953 and ’54. They were annexed by Long Beach in 1954 and ’55. After El Dorado Park opened in 1956, they collectively came to be known as El Dorado Park South.
EL DORADO PARK WEST
EL MIRADERO
El Miradero is named after Missouri-born Leslie Coombs Brand‘s estate, built in 1904, and now the Brand Park and Library. A gallery and recital hall was added in 1969. Most of the surrounding neighborhood was developed in the 1920s and 1930s.
EL MOLINO ORCHARD
El Molino Orchard is a small residential neighborhood descended from a tract, El Molino Orchard Park, developed beginning around 1908. Most of the neighborhood’s predominantly single-family homes were built from 1890 through the 1920s.
EL MONTE
El Monte is archaic Spanish for “the wood.” The town of El Monte began as a stagecoach stop, El Monte Station, in 1858. The city of El Monte incorporated on 18 November 1912. It’s still a transit hub, home to El Monte Station and San Gabriel Valley Airport.
EL NIDO
El Nido (Spanish for “the Nest”) is a small but densely developed, residential community nestled in lower Corral Canyon, above the city of Malibu. The oldest home was built in 1929 but most of the community was built out in the 1980s and 1990s.
EL PUEBLO
El Pueblo is the neighborhood that formed the core of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, established by Spain in 1781. Its location was chosen due according to Las Leyes de Indias, with: near a reliable source of freshwater (the Los Angeles River), an exploitable workforce (the Yaangnavit), and sufficiently inland to avoid pirate attacks.
EL RIO/LAKE
The Normandie Heights, Painter & Ball, Thornton & Morse, and Wilson tracts all developed along PE’s Oak Knoll and East Washington rail lines. Around 2011, they were collectively named El Rio/Lake, after Rio Grande Street and Lake Avenue.
EL SALVADOR COMMUNITY CORRIDOR
Home to the largest community of Salvadorans outside of El Salvador, there’ve been efforts for decades to get recognition for Little El Salvador. In 2013, 12 blocks of Vermont Avenue were designated the El Salvador Community Corridor.
EL SEGUNDO
El Segundo is located within the Rancho Sausal Redondo, granted to Antonio Ygnacio Ávila in 1836. In 1911, a townsite was developed there, named after Standard Oil‘s second west coast refinery. El Segundo incorporated as a city on 17 January 1917.
EL SERENO
El Sereno was historically home to the Tongva village of Otsungna. In 1905, A. A. Baird founded a streetcar suburb, Baird Park. It was annexed in 1912, making it the easternmost neighborhood in the city. Bairdstown was renamed El Sereno in 1917.
ELDORA PARK
The Eldora Park Tract was created by landscape engineer and contractor Clarence P. Day in 1920. Most of its homes were designed to resemble English cottages. The streetcar suburb developed along Pacific Electric Railway‘s East Washington Line.
ELDORADOVILLE
Eldoradoville began as a gold mining camp established by prospectors at the confluence of the San Gabriel River and Cattle Canyon Creek in the early 1850s. By the end of the decade, it boasted a boarding house, a blacksmith, a butcher shop, and other stores. At its peak, there were six saloons. Then, on 18 January 1862, the entire town was washed away by the Great Flood of ’62.
THE ELECTRONICS DISTRICT
The Wholesale District emerged downtown in the 1890s. In the 2000s, a stretch of shops specializing in stereo systems, electronic instruments, video games, &c coalesced along 11th Street and came to be known as the Electronics District.
ELIZABETH LAKE
A sag pond situated on the San Andreas Fault was historically the site of a Tataviam village, Pi’ing. After several names (including la Laguna del Diablo), “Elizabeth Lake” was settled upon as early as 1855 and later applied to the surrounding community.
ELYSIAN HEIGHTS
ELYSIAN PARK
Elysian Park was designated on 5 April 1886, making it the city’s fourth-oldest park and the fifth largest in the city. Most of the neighborhoods within were demolished but Solano Canyon and fragments of the Bishop and La Loma neighborhoods remain within it.
ELYSIAN VALLEY
Lots of the Elysian Garden Tract went on sale in 1907. As early as the 1910s, the area was known as Elysian Park Valley or, simply, Elysian Valley. The formation of the Frogtown gang in the 1970s reflected yet another nickname for the area.
EMERALD ISLE
Emerald Isle is an exclusively residential subdivision located in the chaparral shrublands of the San Rafael Hills. The street names are taken from Irish family and place names. The first homes opened in 1966. Emerald Isle Park opened in 1977.
ENCINO
What’s now Encino was historically home to the Tataviam, whose village Siutcangna translates to “place of the oaks.” The oaks inspired both the Spanish name, “El Valle de Santa Catalina de Bolonia de Los Encinos” and the Mexican “Rancho Los Encinos.”
EXPOSITION PARK
Agricultural Park was founded in 1872. The park and surrounding community were annexed in 1899. On 17 December 1910, its name was changed to Exposition Park. Today the park is known for its numerous cultural amenities.
FAIRCREST HEIGHTS
Faircrest Heights is a residential neighborhood developed in and after the 1920s. “Faircrest” is a portmanteau derived from Fairfax Avenue and Crescent Heights Boulevard. The “heights” exist only in the neighborhood’s name, which was coined around 2003.
FAIRFAX
The Fairfax District was mostly annexed, built out, and known by that name in the 1920s. It’s home to Farmers Market (1934), CBS Television City (1952), the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (1961), Pan-Pacific Park (1989), and The Grove (2002).
FAIRMONT
The Fairmont Reservoir (long decommissioned) opened in 1908. The Fairmont tufa quarry and grinding mill (now in ruins) followed in 1909. Both — named after the nearby Fairmont Butte — were built to serve the Los Angeles Aqueduct, opened in 1913.
FALLING SPRINGS
In 1944, Frank McCord opened his Falling Springs lodge at the former site of Headlee’s La Cienega. It was popular for vacationers, wedding parties, and Boy Scouts for decades. Wildfires in 2001 and ’02 wiped out most of the resort, though.
THE FASHION DISTRICT
In the 1900s, Los Angeles Street supported several laundries, amongst other businesses. By the mid-’20s, it was the heart of the Textile District. By the ’70s, “Garment District” was preferred. The Fashion District BID was formed in 1996 and the name stuck.
FERN ANN FALLS
Fern Ann Falls is an area northwest of Chatsworth that formerly hosted several ranches. Most homes were built in the 1970s until a gated community called Indian Spring Estates was developed in 1987 and comprised of charmless mansions with pools and tennis courts.
FERNWOOD
The Fernwood Park development opened in 1924. Over time, the “Park” was usually dropped, making it just Fernwood. Today, its home to Fernwood Market, Country Natural Food, Café Mimosa, Bhutan Shop, a fire station, and the abandoned Camp Wildwood.
FILIPINOTOWN (BAYAN NG PILIPINO)
Around the 1920s, a downtown area came to be known as Little Manila. In 1955, the redevelopment of Bunker Hill began and many Filipinos relocated to an area that came to be known as Filipinotown. In 2002, it was officially recognized as Historic Filipinotown.
THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT
The Financial District is dominated by corporate office towers and other skyscrapers, including Wilshire Grand Center (the 98th tallest building on Earth). There’s also the Biltmore, the Bonaventure, the Central Library, and fine plop art.
THE FLATS
When Beverly Hills was created in 1907, its residential core lie almost entirely on a plain. The area was built out in the 1920s, along the routes of three PE lines, two of which operated into the 1940s. By the 1960s, it was nicknamed “the Flats.”
FLORENCE
Florence is a community in South Los Angeles’s Eastside named after a prominent thoroughfare that was developed by 1887. The western half was annexed by Los Angeles on Christmas 1906. Homes began to spring up from the 1900s to the 1920s. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Florence boasted a thriving black cinema district. The Crips were formed by Fremont High Schoolers in 1969 and it was also in Florence that founder Raymond Washington was killed in 1979.
THE FLOWER DISTRICT
The Flower District grew out of the merger of the Southern California Flower Market (established in 1912) and the Original Los Angeles Flower Market (established in 1919). A community arose after hundreds of wholesale florists sprang up around the market. The flower district bustles in the wee hours of the morning, with most vendors beginning business at 2:00 and things winding down by the time the public is admitted at 8:00.
FORD PLACE
The Ford Place subdivision opened in 1902. Homes were designed by architects Charles F. Driscoll and C.W. Buchanan. It became the campus of Fuller Theological Seminary in 1947. It was added as the “Ford Place Historic District” to the National Register of Historic Places on 22 July 2010.
FOREST PARK
Forest Park began, circa 1933, as Troutman’s Tract. By the late ’30s, it was known as Forrest Park. At some point, an “r” was dropped. By the 1960s, it was usually lumped in with Canyon Country and is today a suburb of a suburb (Santa Clarita).
4TH STREET CORRIDOR
Long Beach’s 4th Street Corridor, also known as Retro Row, is a commercial district known for its antique and vintage clothing stores as well as the poet-hosting Portfolio Coffeehouse (est. 1990) and The Art Theater, an art-house cinema.
FOX HILLS
Construction of the Fox Hills Golf Club of Los Angeles began in 1926. Fox Hills was annexed by Culver City in 1962 and ’64. Afterward, the golf course closed and was redeveloped. The Fox Hills Mall opened in 1975. Fox Hills Park opened in 1977.
FRANKLIN
FRANKLIN CANYON
Franklin Canyon is an unincorporated area above the Franklin Canyon Reservoir. The scenic area was owned by oil baron Edward L. Doheny and enjoyed by his family. In 1981, the National Park Service purchased the Franklin Canyon Ranch.
FRANKLIN HILLS
For most of its history, tiny Franklin Hills was identified with Los Feliz. In 1988, residents formed the Franklin Hills Residents Association. Its most iconic feature is the J.C. Wright-designed, Gothic revival-style, “Shakespeare Bridge” (1926).
FRANKLIN VILLAGE
A charming neighborhood developed along Franklin Avenue in the 1910s and 1920s. Its urban charm was shaken by the opening of the Cahuenga Pass Freeway in 1940. Nurse Ann DeBello led efforts in the 2000s to brand the area “Franklin Village.”
FREEWAY CIRCLE
Tracts 6305 and 6792 were subdivided in the 1920s. By the 1970s, though, the neighborhood was better known as Freeway Circle, after the interchange of the Artesia, Gardena, and Long Beach freeways — and an echo of the quainter Traffic Circle.
FREMONT PARK
Oliver’s West Glendale and Pioneer Investment & Trust Co.’s Glendale Place tracts were developed as streetcar suburbs in the 1900s. The Fremont Park name appeared after Patterson Park (opened in 1922) was renamed after John C. Frémont, in 1925.
FRENCHTOWN
In the 1850s and ’60s, the French were the city’s largest immigrant population. Frenchtown arose southeast of El Pueblo. Los Angeles was the leader in US wine production and had three French mayors. What little remained was destroyed for the 101.
THE FURNITURE & DECORATIVE ARTS DISTRICT
On 5 March 2003, the city designated a vast swathe of South Los Angeles’s Eastside the “Furniture & Decorative Arts District,” stretching from the LA Mart in the northwest to Florence and Central avenues in the southeast.
FURUSATO (ふるさと)
Furusato (ふるさと; literally “hometown”) was a Japanese fishing village on Terminal Island. Most of its residents were from Kishū. A row of abandoned Japanese commercial buildings still stands on Tuna Street, as does a memorial on Seaside Avenue.
GALLERY ROW
Most of Downtown‘s Spring and Main streets were built out by 1928. After a few art galleries began to appear in the area, Nic Cha Kim and Kjell Hagen proposed designating the area Gallery Row. City Council unanimously approved on 23 July 2003.
GARDENA
Gardena incorporated in 1930. It has the second-highest percentage of Japanese in California. Historically home to strawberry farms, it was nicknamed “Berryland.” Today, its nickname is “The Freeway City.” They still host an annual Strawberry Day Festival.
GARFIELD HEIGHTS
Garfield Heights opened in 1904. The residential tract developed as a streetcar suburb along PE’s East Washington Line. Many of the homes there were designed by Greene & Greene, Meyer & Holler, and Sylvanus Marston.
GARVANZA
In 1886, Ralph and Edward Rogers founded Garvanza. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1899. A hub of the Arts & Crafts movement, it’s been home to Judson Studios since 1911. It’s also home to numerous mansions designated Historic Cultural Monuments.
GLASSELL PARK
Andrew Glassell received part of Rancho San Rafael as a result of the Great Partition of 1871 lawsuit and established a streetcar suburb, Glassell Park, in 1906. He named Toland Way; and Drew, Andrita, and Marguarite streets after members of his family. He was born in Orange County, Virginia in 1827 and later co-founded the city of Orange.
GLENDALE
In 1860, Teodoro Verdugo built an adobe on Rancho San Rafael, the oldest building in what’s now Glendale. Glendale was founded in 1884 and incorporated as a city on 15 February 1906. Today it’s the fourth most populous city in Los Angeles County.
GLENDORA
On 1 April 1887, George Dexter Whitcomb founded Glendora — a portmanteau of “glen” and “Leadora” (his wife). The streetcar suburb on PE‘s Monrovia-Glendora Line incorporated on 13 November 1911. A Foster’s Donuts there became Donut Man in 1985.
GLENDORA ISLAND
From the 1960s through the 1990s, Glendora acquired land through dozens of small annexations. The shrinking unincorporated area, surrounded by Glendora, was known as Glendora Islands although now only one residential “island” remains today.
GLENOAKS CANYON
Glendale annexed a section of the San Rafael Hills as the Sierra Avenue District Annexation in 1921. The residential Glenoaks Canyon subdivision opened there in 1923. The neighborhood is also home to Glenoaks Park and Glenoaks Elementary.
GLENVIEW
Glenview is a small residential community in the Santa Monica Mountains. The oldest homes in the community were built in the 1920s but the name, Glenview, appeared in the early 1950s. The Glenview Improvement Association was founded in 1952.
GLENWOOD
What’s now Glenwood was annexed by Glendale in 1919 and ’21. Afterward, 6th Street was renamed Glenwood Road. Early tracts included Clement’s Orange Tract, a streetcar suburb along the Glendale-Burbank Line. It was mostly built out by the 1940s.
GOLDEN TRIANGLE
GORMAN
Irish immigrants James Gorman and Johanna O’Keefe moved to Peace Valley and opened a supply station, Gorman’s Station, around 1876. It had historically been the site of the Tataviam village of Kulshra’jek. Gorman died in 1876 when his own wagon ran over him.
GRAHAM
Graham Station opened on the Long Beach Line in 1902 and the surrounding community came to be known as Graham. The community is today often lumped together with Florence as Florence-Graham or Florence-Firestone. It’s home to Ted Watkins Memorial Park.
GRAMERCY PARK
GRANADA HILLS
Granada was founded in 1926. Granada Hills opened in 1939. Eventually, Granada Hills became the name of the entire area. Today, it’s home to the second-largest city park, O’Melveny Park, and the county’s only Eichler Tract, Balboa Highlands.
GRAND CENTRAL
Most of what’s now Grand Central (after Grand Central Avenue) was annexed in 1923 as the Flower Street District Annexation. Griffith Manor Park opened there in 1937. Since the 1950s, it’s been increasingly dominated by studios and warehouses.
GRANDVIEW
GRANT
Harding Park was annexed by Long Beach in 1924. Ulysses S. Grant Elementary School opened there in 1930 and by the 1950s, the neighborhood came to be known simply as Grant. In 2021, a block of Walnut was designated the Nehyam Historic District.
GREEK TOWN (Γκρικτάουν)
Many Greeks settled in Pico Heights in the mid-20th Century and a stretch of Pico Boulevard came to be nicknamed Greek Town. Most Greeks left the area in the 1970s but remaining vestiges include C & K, St. Sophia Cathedral, and Papa Cristo’s.
GREEN MEADOWS
Green Meadows acquired its name around 1864 when artesian wells there nourished alfalfa, apples, and dairy cows. Its character remained rural until the 1920s when significant development began. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1925.
GREEN VALLEY
Edward Allen Salisbury established a retreat in the Sierra Pelona near the headwaters of San Francisquito Creek and the historic site of the Tataviam village of Tochaburanga. He called it La Joya. By 1938 it was a village known as Green Valley.
GREENBRIAR
GREENWOOD/ALLEN
Greenwood/Allen is a residential neighborhood mostly composed of uniplexes mostly built between the 1920s and 1950s. Previously part of incorporated San Pasqual, most of it became part of Pasadena as a result of the Greenwood Annex in 1946.
GRIFFITH PARK
“Colonel” Griffith J. Griffith purchased Rancho Los Feliz in 1882 and donated 1,220 hectares of land to Los Angeles on 16 December 1896. The vast urban park is home to numerous attractions. The park’s most famous resident is a puma named P-22.
HACIENDA HEIGHTS
The grand opening of Hacienda Heights took place on 17 December 1954. The six styles of homes were designed by Daniel L. Dworsky. In the 1970s it was nicknamed “the Mexican Beverly Hills” but the 1980s saw it transform into “Little Taipei.”
HAMILTON
The Hamilton subdivision was launched around 1904. It’s the northernmost neighborhood in Long Beach. Largely residential, it was mostly developed after the conclusion of World War II. Hamilton Jr High (now Hamilton Middle School) opened in 1967.
HANCOCK PARK
George Allan Hancock inherited land from his oil baron father, Major Henry Hancock, and subdivided Hancock Park in 1920. The streetcar suburb was served by LARY’s R Line from 1920-1947. The Hancock Addition became part of Los Angeles in 1923.
HAPPY VALLEY
In 1887, Hancock McClung Johnston subdivided his estate and created the Ela Hills Tract. Later that year, the Los Angeles Cable Railway opened. Happy Valley, located between Flattop and Paradise Hill, developed near the railway’s terminus.
HARBOR CITY
The Shoestring Annex of 26 December 1906 connected Los Angeles to the Harbor cities of San Pedro and Wilmington. The Harbor City Baseball Team formed at the new Harbor City Park in 1908. Residential tracts began opening in Harbor City in 1917.
HARBOR GATEWAY
Francis Pliny Fisk Temple formed the Harbor Gateway & Land Co. in 1906. That September, the Shoestring Addition connected Los Angeles to San Pedro and Wilmington via “the strip.” City Council officially voted to name it Harbor Gateway in 1985.
HARBOR PINES
The Harbor City Pines area was subdivided in 1927. It was primarily built out, however, in 1942 and ’43. El Rancho Verde Mobile Home Park opened there in 1965, by which time the community was more often referred to simply as Harbor Pines.
HAROLD
Harold is a residential community in the Antelope Valley developed in the 1980s. Nearly every street there is named after Palmdale Water District board member Robert H. Harold. Lake Palmdale was known as the Harold Reservoir from 1924 until 1952.
HARVARD HEIGHTS
Grenville C. Emery established Harvard School in 1900 on the route of a Pasadena & Pacific rail line. In 1903, the Small-Brown Company developed four blocks as Harvard Heights. The name was soon extended to the surrounding neighborhood.
HASLEY CANYON
HAWAIIAN GARDENS
In September 1923, developers Bringhurst & Myers began promoting their new subdivision, Hawaiian Gardens. It incorporated as a city on 9 April 1964. At 2.48 km2, Hawaiian Gardens is the smallest city in the county.
HAWTHORNE
Hawthorne was founded by B.L. Harding and H.D. Lombard‘s Hawthorne Improvement Company in 1905. It’s named after Nathaniel Hawthorne, who shared a birthday with Harding’s daughter. The city is famously the hometown of The Beach Boys, Emitt Rhodes, and a dead mall, Hawthorne Plaza.
HAYES
Hayes is named after Irish hog farmer, walnut grower, teacher, and Southern Pacific Railway employee, John Hayes, who came to El Monte in 1878. A camp for Mexican laborers, Hayes Town, evolved into the Hayes neighborhood. John Hayes died in 1917.
HEL-MEL
“Hel-Mel” was jokingly coined to refer to the intersection of Heliotrope and Melrose around 2007. In the years since, however, it’s been widely adopted as a name for the surrounding neighborhood within the East Hollywood subregion and is home to LACC.
HELLMAN
Isaias Wolf Hellman was a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria who emigrated to Los Angeles in 1859. A major landowner, in 1881 he bought the land that includes the neighborhood which bears his name. In 1901, he co-founded the Pacific Electric Railway.
HENNINGER FLATS
HERMON
Free Methodists bought land from Ralph Rogers and established Hermon in 1903. Its name comes from Mount Hermon, in the Levant. Ebey, Coleman, Terrill, and Redfield streets are named after clergy. It’s also home to Albert Emmanuel Sederquist‘s folk art piece, the Hermon Car Wall.
HERMOSA BEACH
Moses Hazeltine Sherman and Eli P. Clark organized the Hermosa Beach Land & Water Co. in 1900. The first pier was built in 1904. Hermosa Beach incorporated on 14 January 1907. In the 1970s, it spawned punk bands Black Flag and The Descendants.
HI-VISTA
Hi-Vista was founded in 1930. From roughly 1932-1978, it hosted a spring and wildflower festival. An improvement association existed from the 1930s to the ’50s but today most roads remain unpaved and most buildings are abandoned and boarded up.
HIDDEN HIlLLS
Hidden Hills is a gated community in the foothills of the Simi Hills and Santa Monica Mountains. It was developed in the 1950s by A.E. Hanson with the slogan “where living is fun.” The primary ethnicity of inhabitants is Russian. The entirely residential suburb was the setting of a little-watched sitcom, Hidden Hills.
HIGHLAND PARK
George W. Morgan and Albert H. Judson subdivided the Highland Park Tract in 1886. It was a “dry” town and, along with “wet” Sycamore Grove to the south, one of the first two communities annexed by Los Angeles, which it was on 17 December 1895.
HILLSIDE VILLAGE
The Legion Ascot Speedway closed in January 1936 after two drivers died in a crash. In 1941, a development called Hillside Village opened on the site. It was promoted by its developers as “the Beverly Hills of the Eastside.”
HISTORIC CORE
Although Los Angeles Plaza was the core of Los Angeles for well over over a century, the part of Downtown mostly developed between 1900 and 1930 was named “the Historic Core” by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency around 1990.
HOLIDAY VALLEY
In 1966, after California State Route 138 was completed, Occidental Petroleum began promoting Holiday Valley as an investment opportunity with huge ads touting its proximity to amenities within a 35-mile radius. The ad campaign ended in 1972. The Lake Club House was put up for sale in 1976 and is today a community center. Around 2006 sellers began promoting it as Holiday Valley Estates.
HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood was founded in August 1887. Hollywood incorporated as a city in 1903. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1910. The multi-neighborhood Hollywood region is (along with the Downtown, Mideast, and Midtown regions) part of Central Los Angeles.
HOLLYWOOD DELL
Hollywood Park Place opened on 25 November 1905. Construction of the Hollywood Freeway, begun in 1947, cleaved the neighborhood in two. Hollywood Park Place was rebranded “Hollywood Dell” by the Hollywood Dell Civic Association (est. 1976).
HOLLYWOOD HEIGHTS
Danish immigrant Ivar A. Weid moved to the Cahuenga Valley in 1883 where he operated a stone quarry. His 145 acres in the Cahuenga foothills were subdivided into a streetcar suburb, Hollywood Heights, in November 1901. Weid died in 1902.
HOLLYWOOD HILLS EAST
“Hollywood Hills East” entered common usage around 1980 to broadly refer to the area east of the Cahuenga Pass. More specifically, though, it refers to the business district and unpopulated area surrounding Oakwood Toluca Hills.
HOLLYWOOD HILLS WEST
“Hollywood Hills West” emerged by the early 2000s to differentiate the Hollywood Hills communities west of the Cahuenga Pass from those to the east. It is applied both to named neighborhoods within it and otherwise undesignated ones.
HOLLYWOOD KNOLLS
The Taft Realty Company‘s Hollywood Knolls Tract opened in the autumn of 1923. Much of the subdivision was designed by Swiss planner, Franz Herding. Advertising slogans included “the Coronado of the Hills” and “the cream of North Hollywood.”
HOLLYWOOD MANOR
In 1923, Frederick Woodward “Daddy” Blanchard sold part of his large estate to the Bedford Realty Company for the purposes of developing the Hollywood Manor subdivision. Ads touted the homes’ views and proximity to bus and streetcar routes.
HOLLYWOOD RIVIERA
Hollywood Riviera became Torrance‘s only beachfront neighborhood when it was annexed as the Meadow Park District in 1927. Clifford F. Reid‘s development opened there on 4 March 1928. Its Hollywood Riviera Beach Club burned down in 1958.
HOLLYWOOD STUDIO DISTRICT
In 1911, Nestor Studios became the first film studio in Hollywood. By 1921, the concentration of major studios was known as the Hollywood Studio District. By the 1930s, however, all had left but Paramount, which arrived in 1927.
HOLLYWOOD-HIGHLAND
The Greater Hollywood-Highland Association formed in 1934. The intersection was served by two streetcar lines until the 1950s. Today, it’s home to Boardner’s and Micelli’s; the Egyptian, El Capitan, and Chinese theaters; and Japan House.
HOLLYWOODLAND
Tracy E. Shoults and S. H. Woodruff‘s Hollywoodland development opened in 1923. It was advertised by a 4,000 bulb-lit sign composed of 14-meter tall letters erected on the southern face of Mount Lee. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1924.
HOLMBY HILLS
The Westgate Annexation happened in 1916. Arthur Letts Sr. purchased 1.6 km2 of the land therein and named it Holmby Hills after his birthplace, Holdenby, England. Letts died in 1923 and Janns Investment took over the development of the Estates.
HOUGHTON MANOR
Long Beach annexed what’s now Houghton Manor in January 1924. In December, the heirs of Colonel Sherman Otis Houghton donated land for Houghton Park. David Starr Jordan High School opened there in 1934. It was mostly built out by the 1950s.
HOWARD STREET
Howard Street is both a street in Pasadena and a one-block micro-neighborhood of the same name composed of homes mostly built between 1905 and 1925. It was traditionally regarded as part of Normandie Heights.
HUNTINGTON PARK
In 1902, 600 acres of the Mexican-era Rancho San Antonio were subdivided as Huntington Park, a streetcar suburb located along Los Angeles Railway‘s Huntington Line. It incorporated as a city on 1 September 1906. Slayer formed there in 1981.
HYDE PARK
Hyde Park was established in 1887 as a stop on AT&SF’s Harbor Subdivision. It incorporated as a city on 11 May 1921. It was consolidated with Los Angeles on 17 May 1923 and developed as a streetcar suburb along LARy’s 5 Line in the 1920s and ’30s
IDLEWOOD CANYON
Idlewood Canyon is the name of both a narrow valley in the Verdugos and a very small neighborhood consisting of a dozen single-family homes nestled in the foothills and built along Idlewood Road in the 1950s and ’60s. The area was annexed by Glendale on 22 July 1921.
IMPERIAL ESTATES
Imperial Estates, straddling Coyote Creek and practically in Orange County, has traditionally been popular with Long Beach police and other city employees required to live in the city. It was annexed by Long Beach in 1963 and ’65.
INCEVILLE
Filmmaker Thomas Ince came to Edendale in 1911. In 1912, he bought the 460-acre Bison Ranch and built the Miller 101 Bison Ranch Studio, or “Inceville.” A fire destroyed it in 1916. Today it’s home to the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine.
INDIAN SPRINGS
Cecil B. DeMille established his 310-acre Paradise Ranch in 1916. DeMille had a stone cottage built there in 1920. DeMille died in 1959. Eventually the area began appearing on maps as Indian Springs, named after a tributary to Tujunga Creek.
INDUSTRIAL
In Inglewood, there’s a freight railway-adjacent industrial area comprised of factories and warehouses from the 1940s and newer. Inglewooders came to refer to the neighborhood (straightforwardly) as Industrial. Rogers Park opened there in 1962.
INDUSTRY
John Ferrero’s Industry incorporated on 18 June 1957. Industry is basically a municipal corporation. There are almost no actual residents. Ferraro remained mayor from ’57 until his death in 1996. It’s home to a McDonald’s used only in commercials.
INGLEWOOD
IRWINDALE
ISLAND VILLAGE
On 22 April 1973, Beard Development Company‘s Island Village opened on a plot of land at the edgethe Los Cerritos Wetlands and in the shadow of the Haynes Generating Station. The architect of the village-themed private community was Emil Benes.
IVANHOE
In 1887, Griffith J. Griffith subdivided the Ivanhoe tract. Street names Avenel, Herkimer, Kenilworth, Locksley, Rowena, and Waverly came from the titular novel. Ivanhoe began to disappear from maps by the 1920s when it was subsumed by Silver Lake.
JEFFERSON PARK [LOS ANGELES]
The streetcar suburb of Jefferson Street Park (later shortened Jefferson Park) opened in 1888. After Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), the neighborhood became home to many Japanese and blacks from Louisiana and, on account of the latter, came to be nicknamed “Little New Orleans.” A Jefferson Park HPOZ was created in 2011.
JEFFERSON PARK [PASADENA]
The area around the Thomas Jefferson School was formerly known simply as Jefferson. After it closed, Pasadena redeveloped the school grounds as Jefferson Park, which opened in 1949 and afterward lent the neighborhood its name.
THE JEWELRY DISTRICT
The Jewelry District was so-known by the 1950s. As early as 1932, it was home to Harry Winston & Co. and Laykin Diamond Co. Many jewelers arrived in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. Today, it’s the nation’s largest jewelry district.
JUNIPER HILLS
The community of Juniper Hills has existed as a few homes scattered on the north face of the San Gabriel Mountains since at least 1931. For thousands of years prior, the ʔívil̃uqaletem used the berries of juniperus californica to make porridge. The Juniper Hills Community Association was created in 1948.
KAGEL CANYON
KENNETH VILLAGE
Around 1900, Baugh Road was re-named Kenneth Road after resident Walter Kenneth Dow (1868-1960). A small commercial district began to arise in the ’20s. By the ’80s, it was nicknamed Kenneth Road Village, later shortened to Kenneth Village.
KING ESTATES
KINGSLEY VISTA
The Swansea Place and Romaine Square tracts opened along Kingsley Drive, likely named after developer Samuel B. Kingsley, in the 1900s. Kingsley died on 1904. The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment named the area Kingsley Vista c. 2001.
KINNELOA MESA
KNOB HILL
KOREATOWN (코리아타운)
Hi Duk Lee and Kil Ja opened Olympic Market in 1971. Three “Koreatown” signs were installed along Olympic Boulevard in 1980. Koreatown’s official borders were drawn in 2010, by which time it was both the most populous and most densely populated neighborhood in the city
KOREATOWN [OLD]
The original Koreatown arose in the 1930s and was centered along West Jefferson Boulevard. It was still thriving in 1965, when Francis Lewe opened Los Angeles’s first Korean restaurant, Korea House. It mostly vanished, though, by the 1970s.
LA BREA-HANCOCK
Originally developed as Wilshire Highland Square, the “La-Brea Hancock” designation was created by members of the La Brea Hancock Homeowner’s Association, which formed in or around 2014.
LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE
Rancho La Cañada was founded in 1843. Frank Putnam Flint established his estate, Flintridge, in 1914. Communities named after both merged on 30 November 1976 with the incorporation of La Cañada Flintridge. It’s home to Descanso Gardens.
LA CIENEGA HEIGHTS
La Cienega Heights, Spanglish for “the Swamp Heights,” was subdivided as Tract 1250. Unlike surrounding neighborhoods, it’s dominated by apartments built in the 1950s and ’60s. The name “La Cienega Heights” was coined by the mid-1980s.
LA CIENEGA PARK
LA CRESCENTA
Benjamin B. Briggs built a home in the valley he named Crescenta in 1881. The town of Crescenta Canyada was founded in ’84. The name morphed into La Crescenta Cañada and ultimately just La Crescenta. “The crescent” is “el creciente” in Spanish.
CRESCENTA VALLEY
The Crescenta Valley lies between the San Gabriel Mountains, Verdugo Mountains, and San Rafael Hills. The word “crescenta” was coined by Ohio-born Dr. Benjamin Bennett Briggs, who arrived during the Cold Rush and established a sanatorium.
LA HABRA HEIGHTS
Ohio-born avocado farmer-turned-developer Edwin G. Hart transformed a 3,600-acre avocado orchard in the La Habra Hills into the La Habra Heights Tract in 1922. Almost exclusively residential, it incorporated as a city on 3 December 1978. The Hass Avocado Mother Tree, planted there by Rudolph Hass in the 1920s, died in 2002.
LA LOMA
In the 1900s, the hillside above Solano Canyon began to develop into the La Loma community. Streets included Phoneix, Pine, Spruce, Aqua Pura, Brooks, and Yolo. There were more than 218 homes but all but those on Amador were demolished in the 1950s.
LA MIRADA
LA PINTORESCA
LA PUENTE
The Tongva village of Awiingna (“abiding place”) was located on the banks of the San Gabriel River. In 1769, a Spanish expedition built a bridge (Spanish: puente) there. Rancho La Puente was founded in 1842. La Puente incorporated on 1 August 1956
LA RAMBLA
La Rambla is an unincorporated community surrounded by the neighborhood of San Pedro. When San Pedro was annexed by Los Angeles in 1906, La Rambla was not. It was then the site of the Gaffey family estate, Hacienda La Rambla, demolished in 1964.
LA TUNA CANYON
La Tuna Canyon is a gorge in the Verdugos traversed by La Tuna Lateral and La Tuna Canyon Road that connects the Crescenta and San Fernando valleys. The sparsely populated neighborhood is dominated by La Tuna Canyon and Verdugo Mountain parks.
LA VERNE
LADERA HEIGHTS
The development of Ladera Heights began in 1947. In 1963, the neighborhood was flooded in the Baldwin Hills Dam Disaster. The site is now the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. Ladera Heights has long been characterized as part of the “Black Beverly Hills.”
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
Missourian and banker George Lafayette Crenshaw opened LaFayette Square on 22 September 1912. The residential streetcar suburb, served by LARy and PE lines, was mostly built out in the 1910s and ’20s with various period revival style homes.
LAKE BALBOA
Lake Balboa was originally part of the town of Van Nuys, founded in 1911. It seceded from Van Nuys in 2006. It’s home to the Van Nuys Golf Course, Van Nuys Tennis Ranch, the Van Nuys Bus Terminal, and mostly surrounds the Van Nuys Airport.
LAKE HOLLYWOOD
LAKE HOLLYWOOD ESTATES
In 1964, the Lake Hollywood Development Company began selling lots in their Lake Hollywood Estates subdivision. The homes, nearly all built between 1964 and 1979, were designed by architects Abraham Shapiro and CR Wojciehowski.
LAKE HUGHES
LAKE LOS ANGELES
In 1967, developers George Isaac and Ray Watt subdivided a 4,000-acre, master-planned desert oasis community they named Lake Los Angeles. The chief enticement, a 16-acre artificial lake, was allowed to evaporate in the 1980s.
LAKERIDGE ESTATES
Development of Lakeridge Estates began in the summer of 1955, when Clark J. Milliron and his LakeRidge Construction Company graded a freeway-adjacent subdivision in the Hollywood Hills. The Hollywood Reservoir is the titular lake.
LAKEVIEW
Sparsely populated Lakeview was mostly developed in or after the 1950s. Lakeview’s name refers to its position near a body of water that has been known by several names, including Alpine Lake, Schoeller Lake, the Harold Reservoir, and Lake Palmdale.
LAKE VIEW TERRACE
The “lake” in Lake View Terrace was Holiday Lake, a reservoir created in 1949 by engineers that was a popular recreation area. Over time, it filled with debris from storm run-off. Much of Lake View Terrace remains zoned for equestrian uses.
LAKEWOOD
Developers Ben Weingart, Louis Boyar, and Mark Taper created the planned community of Lakewood. Lots went on sale on 24 March 1950. It incorporated on 16 April 1954. The suburb was celebrated in D. J. Waldie‘s book, Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir.
LAKEWOOD CITY
LAKEWOOD VILLAGE
On 30 September 1934, the Montana Land Company opened its Lakewood Village Tract, a planned, “garden home” suburb located on the former Montana Ranch. It was largely built out in the mid-1940s. It was annexed by Long Beach in 1952 and ’53.
LAMANDA PARK
LANCASTER
Moses Wicks began developing Lancaster in 1884. It incorporated on 22 November 1977. The fifth-most populous city in the county is home to the Museum of Art and History, the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, and the off-key Civic Musical Road.
LANG
Rancher John Lang founded the town of Lang in 1870. Lang Station was built in 1873. In 1876, Charles Crocker drove a golden spike in Lang to mark the completion of a rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Lang Station was demolished in 1971.
LARCHMONT
In early 1910, just a few months after the land was annexed in the Colegrove Addition, developer James V. Baldwin began selling lots of his tract, Larchmont Heights. By the 1920s, most referred to the streetcar suburb simply as “Larchmont.”
LARGO VISTA
Largo Vista is a very small community located north of the Largo Vista Road and Forest Service Road 4N07. Around 1932, a few cabins were built at the edge of the San Gabriel Mountains and the Antelope Valley. A few more homes were constructed in the decades that followed but little else.
LAS FLORES HEIGHTS
The Las Flores Heights subdivision opened in Little Las Flores Canyon in 1918. By 1930, there were 20 homes there. Fires and floods had reduced them to six by 1982. What little is left today is classified by the county as a rural village.
LAUREL CANYON
A gorge fed by several springs in the Hollywood Hills was known as “Laurel Cañon” at least as early as 1874. The Laurel Canyon Annex added it to Los Angeles on 15 May 1923. It came to be associated with film stars, nature boys, and musicians.
LAUREL HILLS
Homes began to appear in the hills above Laurel Canyon in the late 1950s, including Pierre Koenig‘s 1958 Case Study House #21. In 1960, advertisements touted the homes of Laurel Hills‘ city convenience, rural charm, and automatic gas equipment.
LAWNDALE
In 1905, Charles B. Hopper subdivided Lawndale, named after a Chicago neighborhood. The streetcar suburb, located along a Pacific Electric line, was promoted to homebuyers as a good place to raise chickens. Lawndale incorporated on 27 December 1959.
LEIMERT PARK
Leimert Park, developed by Walter H. Leimert and the Olmsted Brothers, opened on 10 April 1927. The streetcar suburb was served by LARY‘s 5 and PE‘s Santa Monica Air lines. It has for decades been recognized as a significant black cultural hub.
LENNOX
A small community along Lennox Avenue (now Boulevard) chose the name Lennox in 1912, around the time Lennox Station opened on Pacific Electric’s Hawthorne Line. Lennox Park opened around 1914. A streetcar suburb slowly developed although, over the decades, most has been annexed by Inglewood.
LEONA VALLEY
Frank D. Hall bought the St. Anthony Ranch in 1908 in Leonis Valley and raised dairy cows on his Leona Valley Ranch. In 1918, he subdivided it. The Leona Valley Cherry Festival launched in 1972 and the Leona Valley AVA was established in 2008.
LEXINGTON HEIGHTS
In 1913, Pacific Electric Railway‘s Oak Knoll Line began service and a streetcar suburb, Lexington Heights, was developed by Associated Homebuilders. It was annexed by Pasadena on 8 June 1926. It annually hosts the Historic Highlands Tour.
LINCOLN HEIGHTS
John S. Griffin and Hancock Johnston subdivided East Los Angeles in 1873. East Los Angeles Park was created in 1881, renamed Eastlake Park in 1901, and Lincoln Park in 1917. The streetcar suburb was renamed Lincoln Heights that same year.
THE LINCOLN HEIGHTS BUSINESS DISTRICT
The Lincoln Heights Business District is one of the three oldest business districts in the city. It’s home to HM157, El Huarachito, Chùa Quan Âm, an Art Deco LADWP center, and an Italian Renaissance Revival El Pollo Loco.
LINCOLN HEIGHTS INDUSTRIAL ZONE
LINCOLN HOWARD ARROYO FREEWAY
LINCOLN-VILLA
Lincoln-Villa began to develop along the Colorado & Orange Grove and Lincoln Avenue streetcar lines in the 1900s. “Lincoln-Villa” was in wide use by the 1950s. Much of the neighborhood was demolished in the 1960s for the 210, 710, and 134.
LINDA VISTA
Linda Vista rancho was purchased in 1886 and the Linda Vista Improvement Co. formed in ’87. The Linda Vista name is shared with streets, a library, and a park but the best-known feature of the community is the Rose Bowl, which opened in 1922.
LINDBERGH
LITTLE ARMENIA (Փոքր Հայաստան)
Los Angeles is home to the largest Armenian community outside of Armenia. An area of East Hollywood was nicknamed Little Armenia in the 1970s. The city officially recognized the neighborhood on 6 October 2000.
LITTLE BANGLADESH (লিটল বাংলাদেশ)
The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War impelled many Bengalis to flee South Asia. Many settled and opened businesses in Wilshire Center, particularly along 3rd Street. By 2009, the enclave was colloquially recognized as Little Bangladesh.
LITTLE BELIZE (LEE BILEEZ)
Little Belize began to emerge at least as early as the 1970s and was referred to thus at least as early as 1986. Today, Los Angeles is home to more Belizeans than any other city in the world — including in Belize.
LITTLE BRAZIL (PEQUENO BRASIL)
LITTLE BRITAIN
LITTLE CENTRAL AMERICA (PEQUEÑO CENTROAMÉRICA)
Following US interventions in Central America; significant numbers of refugees settled in the neighborhoods of Pico-Union and Westlake in the 1980s, which came unofficially to be known as Little Central America or Pequeño Centro America by the early 1990s. Today, Los Angeles is home to the largest community of Salvadorans and Guatemalans outside of their respective home countries.
LITTLE ETHIOPIA (ሊትል ኢትዮጵያ)
The seed of this thriving commercial enclave was Adolis (now Rosalind’s), which Fekere Gebre-Mariam opened in 1988. By 1995, the area was commonly known as Little Ethiopia (ሊትል ኢትዮጵያ). The city granted official recognition in 2002.
LITTLE HAVANA (PEQUEÑA HAVANA)
Between 1961 and ’66, about 14,000 Cuban exiles settled in Los Angeles, especially in Echo Park and Silver Lake. As Cuban businesses sprang up along Sunset Boulevard, a stretch came to be known, briefly and informally, as Little Havana.
LITTLE INDIA (छोटा भारत)
LITTLE ITALY
In the 1890s, Little Italy began to coalesce in the area that became Chinatown in the 1930s. Few vestiges remain today but include Eastside Market, Italian Hall, Lanza Brothers, the Pelanconi House, Saint Peter’s, and San Antonio Winery.
LITTLE MANILA [LONG BEACH]
LITTLE MANILA [LOS ANGELES]
721 Filipinos arrived in Los Angeles in 1924 and soon after, Little Manila arose around Bunker Hill and Little Tokyo. By the ’30s, there were proposals for a tourist-friendly enclave but urban renewal displaced the Pinoy community in the 1950s.
LITTLE MANILA [WEST COVINA]
LITTLE ODESSA (МАЛЕНЬКАЯ ОДЕССА)
Little Odessa (Маленькая Одесса) emerged in the 1970s when Russian Jews settled in eastern West Hollywood with many opening businesses on Santa Monica Boulevard. More arrived after the fall of the USSR although the population has since declined.
LITTLE OSAKA (小大阪)
In the 1900s, many Japanese denied access to other Westside communities settled in the town of Sawtelle. After Sawtelle’s annexation by Los Angeles, the small, vibrant, western counterpart to Downtown‘s Little Tokyo was nicknamed Little Osaka.
LITTLE TAIPEI (小台北)
Los Angeles is home to the largest community of Taiwanese outside of Taiwan. By 1984, Monterey Park was nicknamed “Little Taipei.” Since the 1990s, the moniker has been applied more often to an area of Hacienda Heights and Rowland Heights.
LITTLE TOKYO (小東京)
LITTLEROCK
The Littlerock Creek Irrigation District was established in 1892 in order to irrigate fruit orchards. The farming community of Littlerock arose around a variety of crops, most famously Bartlett Pears. In 1918, the annual Pear Day was inaugurated.
LLANO
Llano (Spanish for “plain”) is a town on the Pearblossom Highway. It was the site of socialist mayoral candidate Job Harriman‘s short-lived commune, Llano del Rio, launched in 1914 and abandoned in 1918, the ruins of which remain there.
LOMA VISTA
The Loma Vista neighborhood is named after Loma Vista Street. The homes along it were built in the 1920s and ’30s. The Loma Vista-Martelo Annex and Loma Vista Annex added most of it to Pasadena in 1941 and ’42.
LOMITA
The W. I. Hollingsworth Co. established Lomita (Spanish for “hillock”) in 1907, which they intended to be a Dunkard colony. After much was annexed by Torrance, Lomita incorporated on 30 June 1964. The Lomita Railroad Museum was founded there in 1966.
LONG BEACH
The Chumash lived in what’s now Long Beach some 8,000 years ago. The Tongva later established Povuu’nga there, meaing “Place of Emergence.” The Long Beach Land and Water Company incorporated in 1884. The city incorporated on 13 December 1897.
LONG BEACH AIRPORT
Barnstormer Earl S. Daugherty established the world’s first flight school in 1919. The Long Beach airport opened there in 1923. The community is also home Lundgren Maurer‘s 1968 groovy Holiday Inn, a business park, and a golf course.
LONGVIEW
LONGWOOD
LONGWOOD HIGHLANDS
What’s today known as Longwood Highlands was developed as several numbered tracts in the 1920s. The streetcar suburb, served by both Pacific Electric and Los Angeles railways, was almost entirely built out by the end of the decade.
LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN
Above Laurel Canyon is the neighborhood of Lookout Mountain. It was formerly home of the Air Force-managed 1352d Motion Picture Squadron who used it to make films for the Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission from 1947 to 1963.
LOPEZ CANYON
Lopez Canyon was so known by at least 1895. It has since been home to the Independent Order of Foresters Tubercular Sanitarium, Sky Terrace trailer park, a nature center, Lopez Canyon Park, and Hope Gardens, a supportive housing complex.
LOS ALTOS
L.S. Whaley bought most of Long Beach’s Alkali Flats in 1946 and began developing tracts like Los Altos Manor, Los Altos Park Terrace, and Los Altos Village — collectively known as Los Altos. Welton Becket designed its Los Altos Center (1955).
LOS CERRITOS
In 1844, Mexican cattle rancher Don Jonathan Temple built his Rancho Los Cerritos home near the historic site of the Tongva village, Amaungna. On 7 October 1906, the Los Cerritos Tract, a streetcar suburb on the Long Beach Line, made its debut.
LOS FELIZ
Named after a 27 km2 ranch owned by Spanish settler José Vicente Feliz — although his family name was also spelled “Felis” and “Felix” before its standardization. Los Feliz was the first home of Disney studios and was later a hub of the swing revival scene. Today, Armenians comprise the largest ethnicity and comprise the plurality of the neighborhood’s foreign-born.
LOS NIETOS
In 1784, Rancho Los Nietos was granted to Spanish soldier Jose Manuel Nieto. By the 1890s, the area was knows as Los Nietos Junction, after a rail divergence used by multiple railroads. The Los Nietos community was mostly built out in the 1950s.
LOW BOTTOMS
LOWER ARROYO SECO HISTORIC DISTRICT
A small neighborhood of mostly Craftsman homes was added to the NHRP as the Lower Arroyo Seco Historic District on 12 July 2005. Ernest A. Batchelder‘s 1910 home (added to the NHRP in 1978) is also inside the district.
LOWER HASTINGS RANCH
Lower Hastings Ranch began to be differentiated from Upper Hastings Ranch in the 1940s and was primarily built out between 1947 and 1959. It is also home to the Hastings Village (1975) and Hastings Ranch Plaza (1985) shopping centers.
LOWER WESTSIDE
The Lower Westside (not to be confused with neighboring Westside South) is a mostly residential neighborhood (Santa Fe Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway are commercial). It was annexed by Long Beach in 1910 and developed as Tract No. 1833.
LUCERNE-HIGUERA
Much of Lucerne-Higuera was developed as Nolan Park, which opened in 1919 and was primarily built out in the 1920s along two PE lines. Thomas H. Ince Studio (now Culver Studios), opened there in 1918. Today it’s home to Culver City Station.
LYNNWOOD
In 1902, Charles H. Sessions founded the Lynnwood Dairy and Creamery, named after his wife, Lynn Wood. The suburb incorporated in 1921. It’s the hometown of “Weird Al” Yankovic (born in 1959) and home to Plaza México, built by Donald Chae in 2002.
MADISON
Madison is home to James Madison Park, James Madison Elementary, and Madison Avenue — all named after America‘s shortest president. It began as several subdivisions that, by 1913, were served by three Pacific Electric lines. It was known as Madison by the 1940s.
MADISON HEIGHTS
The Madison Ave. Heights Tract opened in 1906. Notable homes in the neighborhood include Henry Greene‘s Crow-Crocker House (1909) and Greene & Greene‘s E. J. Backer House (1912). By the ’70s, the name was usually shortened to Madison Heights.
MAGNOLIA DISTRICT
The Champan and Moorland tracts developed along Pacific Electric‘s Magnolia Avenue Line that opened in 1904. It developed into an industrial area typified by small factories and warehouses. It still retains a similar industrial character.
MAGNOLIA PARK
Dairy Farmer and developer Earl Loy White‘s Magnolia Park subdivision opened on 4 March 1923. It was annexed by Burbank that October. It was mostly built out by the end of the 1940s. White died in 1971.
MAGNOLIA SQUARE
MALIBOU LAKE
Near the site of the historic Chumash village of Ta’lopop, Bertram D. Lackey and George Wilson created Malibou Lake by building a dam at the confluence of Medea and Trifuno creeks. Their country club opened in 1924 and a small community developed there. The original lodge burned down in 1936 but was replaced. In 1953, Ronald Reagan was appointed “honorary mayor.”
MALIBU
Still famous for its beaches, what’s now Malibu was for at least 7,000 years home to the Chumash village of Humaliwo (“where the surf sounds loudly”). May K. Ringe opened the Malibu Colony there in 1926. Malibu incorporated on 28 March 1991.
MALIBU BOWL
Malibu Bowl is a residential community named after the geographic feature in which it is situated. The oldest of its roughly 100 homes were built in 1927. In the 1950s, Malibu Bowl was home to actor Lew Ayres, who played Dr. Kildare in nine films.
MALIBU CANYON
MALIBU HILLS
Listed in County literature as an unincorporated community perhaps referring to El Nido, above Malibu, labeled as “Malibu Hills” on many maps but not street level, where signs announce “El Nido.” Further south, in the city of Malibu, S. C. Potter, Richards & Ames subdivided Malibu Hills in 1926. The centerpiece was a 1000-gallon wishing well, said to have something to do with an “Indian romance.” Construction of the Malibu Hills Inn began in 1927.
MALIBU VISTA
Nestled in the Latigo Canyon above Malibu is Malibu Vista. The oldest home, built in 1928, has long served as the earth headquarters of the Ashtar Command & Galactic Federation of Light. Most neighboring homes were built in the 1970s-1990s.
MALIBU/SYCAMORE CANYON
MALIBU PLACE
MANCHESTER SQUARE [SOUTH BAY]
MANCHESTER SQUARE [SOUTH LOS ANGELES]
Smith Investment Company opened Manchester Square on 22 February 1925. The event was promoted with aerial tricks performed by aviatrix Gladys Roy and free “real Mexican chili” prepared by Romero. Art’s Famous Chili Dogs moved there in 1944.
MANDEVILLE CANYON
In 1872, the Sepúlveda Family sold their property to Robert S. and Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker. It included on it Casa Viejo Cañon. By 1888, it was known as “Mandeville Cañon” (now Mandeville Canyon). The name’s origin is unknown.
MANHATTAN BEACH
MAR VISTA
The Venice Short Line opened in 1903 and included a stop named Mar Vista Station. A streetcar suburb, the Mar Vista Park Tract, opened on 7 January 1923. It was simply known as Mar Vista by 1931. Gregory Ain‘s Mar Vista Tract opened there in 1948.
MARAVILLA
The Maravilla Park Tract was recorded with the office of Los Angeles County on 14 November 1911. The famous Maravilla Handball Court opened in 1928. The Maravilla Housing Project opened in 1945. The Maravilla Historical Society was formed in 2009.
MARBLE ESTATES
Developer Don Wilson acquired the rights to the Marble Fee site in 1959. A fight over zoning and density led to the approval of a scaled back Marble Estates on 4 December 1962, with land set aside for Hickory Elementary and Hickory Park.
MARCELINE
MARGUERITA LANE
Dr. Alexander Schutt conceived of Marguerita Lane as an artists’ colony. The Spanish Colonial Revival “studio homes” were designed by Denman and Burton Schutt and were built between 1927 and 1930. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
MARINA PACIFICA
In 1972, construction began in the degraded wetlands near the Alamitos and Haynes generating stations on an old oil tank farm. The “Mediterranean spa” themed Marina Pacifica, a collection of condos and a shopping center, was complete in 1974.
MARINA PENINSULA
The Silver Strand and Ocean Strand tracts opened along Pacific Electric Railway‘s then-new Venice-Del Rey Shuttle Line in 1905. A homeowners’ association coined Marina Peninsula in 1958, to capitalize on their proximity to Marina del Rey.
MARINA DEL REY
In 1953, a loan was obtained to redevelop a saltwater marsh covered with oil derricks. Eleven years later, Marina del Rey was dedicated on 10 April 1965. Developers envisioned a marina home to 30,000 residents. As of 2019, it was home to 9,852.
MARION AVENUE
Marion Avenue is a small district that developed as a streetcar suburb on PE’s East Colorado Line (Pasadena Local) (1894-1950) on land that was annexed by Pasadena in 1906. The land was subdivided as the Colorado Street and Hill Street tracts.
MARIPOSA
Mariposa is a dense neighborhood characterized by a mix of 1920s houses and 1980s apartments. It’s presumably named after Mariposa Street. It’s highly diverse; home to many Armenians, Mexicans, Filipinos, Salvadorans, and Koreans, Arabs, and others.
MARKHAM PLACE
MAXSON
Benjamin Franklin Maxson settled in El Monte in 1889. He purchased land east of town. Deafened in the Civil War, he was killed by a Southern Pacific train in 1899. A community called Maxson developed and was annexed by El Monte in the 1950s and ’60s.
MAYFLOWER VILLAGE
On 1 September 1945, a 150-acre subdivision known as Mayflower Village opened. It was owned by Harold R. Wilson, who oversaw the development on what had been Meadows Ranch. It was nicknamed “Cow Town” for its two, large dairies.
MAYWOOD
Maywood was apparently named after real estate agent May Wood when it was created in 1919. The streetcar suburb was “6 1/2 cents/20 minutes from Broadway!” It was incorporated in 1924 and was built out by the 1930s. In 1971, Tapatío was born there.
MCKINLEY
The town of Hynes arose in the late 1890s. The area was annexed by Long Beach in 1924 and renamed McKinley Heights. William McKinley Elementary opened there in 1930. By the 1950s, when it was substantially built out, it was shortened to McKinley.
MCLAUGHLIN
Brothers George and William McLaughlin established a lima bean farm in 1884. Their family name was used to name McLaughlin Avenue in the 1920s. By the 1970s, part of the area annexed as Walnut Park in 1926 was better known as McLaughlin.
MCMANUS
The Lehosky Tract and Tract 5560 were added to Culver City as the Adams Annexation. (1922). McManus Park (now Syd Kronenthal Park) was annexed in 1949. The origin of the name, McManus, was chosen by developers in 1922 and has no known significance.
MELROSE
Melrose (also known as the Melrose District) is named after its famous thoroughfare, Melrose Avenue, itself named after a town in Massachusetts. It was paved in 1909. Most of the homes were built in the 1920s. It emerged in the early 1980s as a fashionable shopping area with boutiques catering to the new wave scene.
MELROSE HILL
The Briggs Real Estate Company opened their Melrose Hill Tract streetcar suburb in 1906. Changes in the neighborhood’s character were reflected by the opening of the Hollywood Freeway (1954), the Tiki Theatre (1969), and Bangkok Market (1986).
MEMORIAL HEIGHTS
The Long Beach Line began operation in 1901 and a streetcar suburb, Vista del Mar, opened along it in 1905. In 1924 it was annexed by Long Beach. In 1960, Long Beach Memorial moved to the area and people began referring to Memorial Heights.
MENTOR CATALINA
Mentor Catalina is a small neighborhood most of which was annexed by Pasadena in 1906. It developed as a streetcar suburb along PE’s South Loop/Tournament Park (1904-1923) and Oak Knoll (1906-1950) lines. The name comes from two avenues.
MENTRYVILLE
On 26 September 1876, Frenchman Charles Alexander Mentry struck oil in Pico Canyon. A boomtown, Mentryville, arose nearby in the 1880s. By the 1930s, it was a ghost town, now preserved as Mentryville Park. The Pico No. 4 oil well closed in 1990.
MID-CENTRAL PASADENA
In 1920, tracts along Pacific Electric Railway‘s East Colorado and Sierra Madre lines were added to Pasadena in its East Side Annex. By the 1960s, no longer in the city’s east, the neighborhood was known as Mid-Central Pasadena.
MID-CITY [LOS ANGELES]
“Mid-City,” as a designation, seems to have arisen early in the 20th century — albeit not in Los Angeles. The current Westside was mostly annexed in the 1920s, moving the city’s center westward. What’s now Mid-City was referred to as such by 1964.
MID-CITY [SANTA MONICA]
In the early 1980s, Santa Monicans began referring to an area framed by Colorado Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard to the south and Wilshire Boulevard to the north began as Mid-City. In 1982, Santa Monica Mid-City Neighbors was formed.
MID-CITY WEST
The Mid-City West Community Council formed in 2001 to represent the area framed by La Brea Avenue, San Vicente Boulevard, Beverly Hills, and West Hollywood. Since then, Mid-City West has gradually entered common usage.
MID-WILSHIRE
Mid-Wilshire is a subregion of Midtown centered around the “mid-section” of Wilshire Boulevard. “Mid-Wilshire” entered common usage by 1932. The actual mid-point of the 25 km-long road is the intersection with Wetherly Drive in Beverly Hills.
MIDEAST LOS ANGELES
Mideast Los Angeles is the region that in 1781 marked the westernmost edge of the city. In 1896, the Westside began to expand westward. Now MELA is surrounded by Downtown, Hollywood, Midtown, the Eastside, and Northeast Los Angeles
MIDTOWN
The “Midtown” designation first appeared in New York in 1930. As early as 1935, though, Angelenos began referring to the neighborhoods south of Hollywood, east of the Westside, west of Mideast Los Angeles, and north of South Los Angeles as Midtown.
MILE HIGH
In 1920, a building (later Mile High Cafe) was built at the intersection of Big Pines and Largo Vista roads. Also, home to Mile High Ranch, the very small community came to be known as Mile High. Its elevation is, in fact, a mile above sea level.
MINT CANYON
Mint Canyon is a canyon in the Sierra Pelona. Much of it lies, too, within the city of Santa Clarita. An unincorporated portion, home to Mint Canyon Elementary and Mint Canyon Mobile Manor, lies outside.
MIRACLE MILE
The Miracle Mile was designed to be an automobile-oriented commercial district and is lined with grand buildings that formerly housed department stores. Today it’s known for its Museum Row, El Rey Theatre, and Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles.
MISSION
MISSION HILLS
The Spanish founded Misión San Fernando Rey de España in 1797 near the Tataviam village of ‘Achooykomenga. On 24 May 1953, the development of Dennis Park opened nearby. In 1959, residents voted to change the community’s name to Mission Hills.
MONK’S HILL
Boston-born farmer Henry G. Monk bought 160 acres in 1870 and later opened the Monk Tract. It included a general store and a crystalline rock called Monk’s Hill. Monk died on 18 January 1903. Monk’s Hill was annexed by Pasadena in 1904.
MONROVIA
Monrovia is named after Indiana-born developer William Newton Monroe. It incorporated, as a dry town, in 1887. In the 1920s, it was home to vegetarian socialist author Upton Sinclair. In 1936, however, Patrick McDonald opened a hamburger stand, the Airdrome there — the precursor to McDonald’s.
MONTE NIDO
Monte Nido was subdivided in the 1920s near the historic site of the Chumash village of Talopop. Originally a weekend retreat, over the decades that followed, the cabins were joined by private residences, a restaurant, and treatment centers.
MONTEBELLO
MONTECITO HEIGHTS
The Montecito Park Tract was established in 1906. Another tract called Montecito Park opened in Glendale in 1923 and around that time, people began referring to the first as Montecito Heights. It’s home to Debs Park and Heritage Square.
Barnum-Walters Company‘s Montecito Park development opened in Sparr Heights in October 1923. The residential neighborhood was mostly built out between the 1930s and ’50s. The titular park, though, was later renamed Montrose Community Park.
MONTEREY HILLS
The Monterey Hills Redevelopment Project was adopted by Los Angeles City Council in 1971 which called for the construction of 21 residential complexes atop experimental landfills. Monterey Hills is also home to the small Budd Wiener Park.
MONTEREY PARK
MONTROSE
Robert A. Walton and J. Frank Walter began developing Montrose in 1910. Its name was chosen through a poll in 1912. Most was annexed by Glendale in the ’50s and ’70s. The 210 Freeway erased much of the rest. Today it’s usually attached by a hyphen to neighboring La Crescenta.
MONTROSE-VERDUGO CITY
Montrose was founded in 1910. Verdugo City was founded in 1924. Glendale annexed Verdugo City in 1946 and parts of Montrose in the 1950s. The Montrose-Verdugo City hyphenate was created by the chamber of commerce in 1960.
MOORPARK
The Kenilworth and Valley View districts, which form the core of Moorpark, were annexed by Glendale in 1918. In 1969, the owners of Pasadena’s Moonlight Rollerway bought Harry’s Roller Rink, in Moorpark, and renamed it Moonlight Rollerway II.
MORNINGSIDE CIRCLE
MORNINGSIDE PARK
J.B. Roof‘s Morningside Park Tract opened in 1927. The land on which it’s located was annexed by Inglewood in 1921 as Manchester Terrace. It was substantially built out by 1949. At its center is a two-acre, circular park named Circle Park.
MOUNT OLYMPUS
In 1963, filmmaker-turned-developer Russ Vincent and Al Hess premiered their Mount Olympus project; 700 homes in the rugged upper Hollywood Hills that had previously resisted development. The gaudy entrance sign is appropriately pretentious.
MOUNT WASHINGTON
Mount Washington, like its New England namesake, was developed with a resort hotel accessed by a funicular rail. The hotel long ago became the headquarters of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Eldred Street is the steepest street in the city.
MUIR HEIGHTS
Early tracts opened in what’s now Muir Heights in the 1900s. It was mostly built out as a streetcar suburb at the terminus of Pacific Electric‘s Lincoln Avenue Line. John Muir High School opened in 1926. Pasadena‘s Muir Annex took place in 1955.
NAPLES
NAPLES ISLAND
NEENACH
The site of the Kitanemuk village of Puyutsiwamǝŋ was known to the Spanish as Ojo de la Vaca. The Americans called it Cow Springs. In the 1870s, it was settled by Danes from Neenah, Wisconsin. John A. Coovert opened the Neenach post office in 1888.
NEW HORIZONS
Ray Watt and Richard Meine began developing a condominium community called New Horizons in the 1950s. Homes were in the Oriental and Polynesian Modern styles. Golf course designer Ted Robinson in charge of landscaping. The units opened in 1963
NEWHALL
What’s now Newhall was historically home to the Tataviam village of Tochonanga. In 1875, Henry Mayo Newhall bought 188 km2 of land there and allowed the Southern Pacific through the Newhall Pass. The town of Newhall arose around a train stop there.
NICHOLS CANYON
Nichols Canyon is named after John G. Nichols, Los Angeles mayor who was the first to expand the city’s borders. He was also the owner of the city’s first brick home. The neighborhood was later home to Father Yod, founder of the Source Family.
NINETYNINE OAKS
NIODRARA DRIVE
Niodrara Drive is composed of 32 uniplexes built between 1909 and 1962. Niodrara likely comes from the Omaha, “ní ubthátha,” meaning “water.” The stream that lined Niodrara Drive dried up in 1986. It was designated an historic district in 2016.
NOHO ARTS DISTRICT
The NoHo Arts District was established by the North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1992 to create an identity for North Hollywood‘s art and theater district. The name is a play on New York City‘s Soho (“South of Houston”) neighborhood.
NORMA TRIANGLE
The “triangle” of Norma Triangle, if not obvious, comes from its shape; formed by Doheny Drive, Sunset Boulevard, and Santa Monica Boulevard. “Norma” refers to a somewhat inconspicuous street, Norma Place. The name first appeared c. 1980.
NORMANDIE HEIGHTS
NORTH CENTRAL
The Painter & Ball and La Pintoresca tracts along with MD Painter’s, Mrs. C Howell & FP Hoy’s, and LH Michener’s subdivisions were all annexed by Pasadena in 1904. By the 1920s, they were collectively known to Pasadenans as “North Central.”
NORTH CLAREMONT ISLANDS
1991’s Hillside Annex created two unincorporated North Claremont Islands. One is a small residential area in the Padua Hills comprised of homes built in the 1950s. The other is the undeveloped areas around Chicken and Palmer canyons.
NORTH CUMBERLAND HEIGHTS
North Cumberland Heights is an historic district designated in 2012 and consisting of single-family homes, mostly Spanish Colonial Revival, but also other period revival styles, built in the 1920s and ’30s by Arthur and Dan Campbell. There are also Ranch and Minimal Traditional homes from the 1940s and ’50s.
NORTH EL MONTE
But for two schools and a liquor store, unincorporated North El Monte is an entirely residential community. The oldest homes were constructed in the 1920s but roughly half were built in 1949. The population in 2020 was 3,933.
NORTH HILLS
Mission Acres opened in 1915. It was renamed Sepulveda in 1927. 1991, residents voted to rename the neighborhood west of the 405, North Hills, and the east side followed suit. North Hills is home to a church nicknamed The Onion, built in 1964.
NORTH HOLLYWOOD
The town of Toluca was founded in 1887. It was renamed Lankershim in 1896. It was renamed North Hollywood in 1927 That name stuck although unhappy residents in Valley Village, Sherman Village, and West Toluca Lake all seceded in the 1990s.
NORTH OF MONTANA
Los Angeles Pacific Railroad‘s Westgate Line opened in 1906 on land annexed by Santa Monica a week later. Two tracts, the Palisades and Gillette’s Regent Square, opened there and by the 1940s were collectively known as North of Montana.
NORTH PASADENA
North Pasadena is — unlike the similarly designated East Pasadena (an unincorporated community) or South Pasadena (an independent municipality) — a neighborhood in Pasadena. Almost exclusively residential, most homes were built in the 1920s or 1940s.
NORTH PASADENA HEIGHTS
The Pasadena Heights Tract opened in 1905. From 1906 until 1941, the streetcar suburb was served by PE Railway lines. The Pasadena Heights Annexation took place in 1916. By 1991, people were referring to it as North Pasadena Heights.
NORTH POMONA
Pomona annexed much of its northern territory in the 1950s and ’60s. Crest Mobile Manor, Foothill Village Mobile Home Park, as well as a nearby cluster of houses built in the 1950s, remain unincorporated and known as North Pomona.
NORTH UNIVERSITY PARK
The city’s first suburban rail line, the Main Street & Agricultural Railroad, began operation in 1875. A streetcar suburb, University Park, developed after. Preservationists formed the North University Park Community Association in 1980.
NORTH VILLAGE WESTWOOD
North Village Westwood is a district north of Westwood Village notable for its notable multi-dwelling residences including The Holmby House, The Grove, Chateau Colline, The Lindbrook, The Landfair, The Strathmore, Gayley Terrace, &c.
NORTH WHITTIER
One of North Whittier‘s first residents was Seichi Kobayashi, who lived in a home built in 1906. He died in 1956, the same year North Whittier’s Sunrise Village subdivision opened. He’s buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park, which opened there in 1914.
NORTH WRIGLEY
North Wrigley is a subdivision of Wrigley, a development created in 1905 by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. It was primarily developed in the 1940s. It’s home to the Wrigley Greenbelt and the Streamline Moderne Cheney-Delaney Residence.
NORTHEAST LOS ANGELES
The “Northeast Los Angeles” designation appeared at least as early as 1875. The Highland Park Addition (1895) and Garvanza Addition (1899) were Los Angeles’s first annexed communities. NELA 13, a local gang, provided the popular “NELA” acronym.
NORTHEAST SAN DIMAS ISLANDS
NORTHEAST [SANTA MONICA]
Northeast was mostly built out from the 1920s through the 1940s on land annexed by Santa Monica in 1905. After the Douglas Aircraft Company moved in 1927, the lot was converted into the neighborhood’s Douglas Park, which opened in 1933.
NORTHEAST WHITTIER ISLANDS
The Northeast Whittier Islands refer to two small unincorporated areas within the city of Whittier. One contains within it the abandoned Turnbull Canyon Reservoir. The other contains a single home, built in 1941.
NORTHRIDGE
Zelzah was founded in 1908. It was annexed in 1915 renamed North Los Angeles in 1929, then Northridge Village in 1938. Eventually, bucking the trend, it dropped the “village.” California State University, Northridge, was founded there in 1958.
NORTHWEST WHITTIER
Northwest Whittier is a very small, unincorporated residential community located to Whittier’s northwest. It’s bisected and dominated by the San Gabriel Freeway. It’s also home to the Apostolic Church of Whittier.
NORTHWEST WHITTIER
NORTHWEST LOS ANGELES
From 1781-1909, the northwest corner of Los Angeles was at Hoover and Fountain. In 1915, an annexation moved that corner to Chatsworth. Since the 1940s, though, “Northwest Los Angeles” has more often meant Northwest Los Angeles County.
NORWALK
Norwalk was founded by Atwood and Gilbert Sproul in 1874. It was largely settled by Dutch dairy farmers. Norwalk incorporated in 1957. Today the plurality of inhabitants are Mexican or Filipino American. Norwalk’s motto is “A Connected Community.”
NORWALK ISLANDS (AKA CERRITOS ISLANDS)
OAK KNOLL
Abraham Macomber, William Staats, and Henry E. Huntington opened the Oak Knoll Tract in 1905 atop a ridge formed by the Raymond Fault. It was served by PE’s Oak Knoll Line. In 1914, Huntington reopened the Hotel Wentworth as the Huntington Hotel.
OAKDALE (AKA ROSEDALE AKA SIERRA BONITA)
OAKMONT
In 1922, citrus grower William Sparr sold 112 acres of his land to the Oakmont Country Club. Their golf course opened on 15 March 1924. Some homes were built in the surrounding neighborhood but Oakmont was mostly built out in the 1950s-1980s.
THE OAKS [LOS ANGELES]
The Oaks is a mostly residential neighborhood located below Griffith Park. Its name is derived from streets within including Black Oak, Cayon Oak, Dell Oak, Green Oak, Hill Oak, Live Oak, Mountain Oak, Red Oak, Spreading Oak, Spring Oak, Valley Oak, Verde Oak, and Wild Oak.
OAKS [PASADENA]
OAKWOOD
Venice founder Abbot Kinney hired many black Angelenos as canal builders, laborers, and servants and by the 1910s, Oakwood emerged as a black residential enclave. The residence of Kinney’s chauffeur, Irvin Tabor, was designated LAHCM #1149 in 2017.
OAXACATOWN
Guelagetza opened on Olympic Boulevard in 1994 and many Oaxacan businesses opened afterward in the area. In 2012 there were efforts to designate the Oaxaca Corridor although, since at least 2001, the area was more commonly known as Oaxacatown.
OBAN
Oban was founded with a Southern Pacific railroad siding on 28 July 1899. Near a Scottish colony at Willow Springs, it was named after the Scottish resort town. Located at the convergence of several streams, it was a water stop and still has many wells.
OCEAN PARK
The Ocean Park Development Co. formed in South Santa Monica in 1891. The surrounding community was named Ocean Park in 1895. An Ocean Park town incorporated nearby in 1904, disincorporated in 1907, and was divided between Santa Monica and Venice.
OLD BANK DISTRICT
Following the 1999 passage of an adaptive reuse ordinance, former financial institutions of the old Spring Street Financial District were converted into residences in the Old Bank District. Neighborhood signs were installed on 8 January 2004.
OLD CANYON
OLD POST OFFICE
Thomas Trippet‘s general store opened in 1887. Postmaster William T. Vanderhurst opened the Topanga Post Office there in 1900. William P. Whitsett subdivided the Post Office Tract in 1925. The titular “old post office” was demolished in 1952
OLD TOPANGA
Construction of Topanga Canyon Boulevard began in 1913 and an old stagecoach route came to be known as Old Topanga Road. “New” Topanga Road opened on 29 May 1915. By 1931, diffuse community in upper Topanga Canyon was referred to as Old Topanga.
OLD TOWN [PASADENA]
Pasadena was named in 1875. By the mid-1960s, the town’s original city center was nicknamed “Old Town.” By the mid-1970s, “Old Pasadena” was more common. In 1979, the city board voted to designate the Historic Old Pasadena District. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
OLD TOWN [TORRANCE]
Torrance was founded in 1912. By 1930, through numerous annexations, Torrance had grown more than fourteen times its original size. By 1937, its business district was known as Downtown. By 1971, it had acquired a new nickname, Old Town.
OLIVE HEIGHTS
Olive Heights is a densely-populated neighborhood in Pasadena. It was formerly home to the Olive Heights Sanitarium. The streetcar suburb developed around two PE lines: Oak Knoll (1906-1941) and North Loop (Pasadena Local) (1907-1923).
OLYMPIC PARK
South of Olympic Boulevard, home to Queen Anne Park, and partly developed as the Brookdale Tract; residents chose the name, Olympic Park, c. 2002. Aside from Los Angeles High School, it’s mostly residential, with most homes built in the 1920s.
ORANGE GROVE VILLAGE
Despite its bucolic name, Orange Grove Village is named after Orange Grove Boulevard rather than any orange groves. The “village” consists solely of 122 detached condominiums designed by Matlin and Dvoretzky and completed in 1975.
ORANGE HEIGHTS
Pasadena’s Orange Heights Tract was inaugurated in 1906. Most of the neighborhood’s single-family Craftsman homes were built in the decade that followed. The Orange Heights-Barnhart Tracts Historic District was added to the NRHP in 1995.
OUTPOST ESTATES
In 1850, General Harrison Gray Otis acquired Don Tomás Urquidez‘s property and built a clubhouse he called The Outpost. In 1924, Charles E. Toberman bought the property and developed it as Outpost Estates.
OXFORD SQUARE
Emil Firth’s Oxford Square subdivision opened in 1907. It was annexed in 1909. Ironically, although Firth was himself Jewish, Jews were explicitly prevented from buying homes there by restrictive deeds which remained in place for decades.
PACIFIC PALISADES
Rev. Charles Holmes Scott founded the Pacific Palisades as a Methodist Episcopal commune in 1921. Today, it’s known for Will Rogers State Historic Park (1944), the Eames House (1949), and the largest park in the city, Topanga State Park.
PACIFIC VILLAS
In 1986, Warmington Homes built Pacific Villas, a gated residential community of 35 “luxury Mediterranean style homes” (i.e. identical stucco houses) on Alamitos Bay. The Long Beach Pacific Villas Homeowners Association incorporated in 1990.
PACIFIC-EDISON
Named after Pacific Park and Edison Elementary, development of Pacific-Edison began along PE’s Glendale-Burbank Line (1904-1955 — now the Brand Blvd of Cars). Its Lyon Van & Storage Co. warehouse (1923) is Glendale’s oldest skyscraper.
PACOIMA
In 1887, Jouet Allen established the Pacoima townsite near a rail stop at what was historically the site of the Tataviam village of Pakɨynga, meaning “the entrance.” Until 1948, it was the only area where non-whites in the Valley could own property.
PALISADES HIGHLANDS
The Palisades Highlands master-planned community was approved in 1966. It was created by Headland Property, Inc., a subsidiary of Sunasco, Inc. Construction of its condominiums and uniplexes was begun in 1973 by Youngham Land Co.
PALMDALE
Midwestern Lutherans founded the village of Palmenthal on 20 April 1886. The titular “palms,” were likely Joshua trees, also known as yucca palms. Palmdale incorporated on 24 August 1962. Palmdale is now the sixth-most populous city in the County.
PALMS
The town of the Palms was founded in 1886 along the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad near the midway point between Los Angeles and Santa Monica. It was annexed in 1915. It’s home to the Irish Times, Museum of Jurassic Technology, and Simpang Asia.
PALO VERDE [LONG BEACH]
Located at the confluence of Boulton Creek and Los Cerritos Channel, Palo Verde (not to be confused with the Chavez Ravine neighborhood of the same name) was subdivided between 1951 and 56. It was annexed by Long Beach between 1952 and ’59.
PALO VERDE [LOS ANGELES]
PALOS VERDES ESTATES
PALOS VERDES PENINSULA
Palos Verdes Peninsula is a landform and region of Los Angeles. Historically it was home to numerous Chumash and Tongva villages. In 1846, it was granted as Rancho Palos Verdes to Mexican ranchers José Loreto and Juan Capistrano Sepúlveda.
PANAMA ACRES
Ion L. Clark and B. W. Watlington‘s Panama Acres opened in 1909, at the former site of the town of Rosecrans. Though a pocket of homes from the 1940s remains, most of the streetcar suburb was later industrialized and annexed by Gardena in 1970.
PANORAMA CITY
In 1948, developer Fritz Burns, industrialist Henry Kaiser, and architectural firm Wurdeman & Becket created Panorama City; the San Fernando Valley‘s first planned community. Today it’s the most densely populated neighborhood in the Valley.
PARADISE SPRINGS
Paradise Springs was formerly home to a Kaivitam village called Senengna, meaning “place where the waters rise.” In 1928, Noah Beery turned an old mine there it into a resort, Beery’s Paradise Trout Farm. A fire burned it down in 1939.
PARAMOUNT
Paramount was created with the merger of two villages, Hynes and Clearwater, in 1948. It was known for its dairy and hay production. A camphor tree at the intersection of Paramount and Harrison, where the daily price of hay was set, is still known as the Hay Tree.
PARK ESTATES
Through a series of annexations that took place between 1947 and ’53, Long Beach annexed the land on which Los Altos Realty‘s Park Estates was developed, beginning in 1950. The residential neighborhood was almost entirely built out by 1957.
PARK LA BREA
Park La Brea (Spanglish for “The Tar Park” ) is a residential community in Midtown that was primarily developed in two phases. The first consisted of a 31-building garden apartment complex designed by Leonard Schultz & Son with Earl T. Heitschmidt in 1941. Eighteen thirteen-story towers designed by Leonard Schultz Associates with Stanton + Kaufmann were added in 1948.
PARK MESA HEIGHTS
PASADENA
Pasadena, historically home to the village of Hahamog’na, was so-named in 1875. It’s derived from “Weoquân Pâ sâ de ná”; literally “crown of the Valley” in the Anishinaabemowin language spoken by the indigenous people of Michigan and North Dakota.
PASADENA CIVIC CENTER
Pasadena approved a bond measure for the development of a civic center in 1923. Its centerpiece is the Bakewell and Brown-designed City Hall. The district also includes the courthouse, police, and planning and development departments.
PEARBLOSSOM
Pearblossom is a small town that, like Pearland, is named after pear orchards of the Antelope Valley. Most of the pears, these days, however, are grown near the similarly portmanteaued Antelope Valley town of Littlerock.
PELANCONI
The Pelanconi Vineyards began to be subdivided in the 1910s. It was annexed by Glendale in 1918. Pelanconi Park opened there in 1937. It was mostly built out between 1925 and 1939 along PE’s Glendale-Burbank Line.
THE PENINSULA
Historically, the estuary at Alamitos Bay was home to the Tongva village of Mutuucheyngna. The Peninsula neighborhood began life as the Alamitos Bay Tract in 1904. From 1913 to 1940, it was served by PE‘s Long Beach-Alamitos Bay-Seal Beach Line.
PHILLIPS RANCH
Prussian Jew Louis Galefsky moved to California and changed his family name to Phillips. He bought a ranch in 1866 and built a mansion in 1875. Louis Lesserin‘s Phillips Ranch master-planned community opened in 1965 and was annexed in 1968.
PICFAIR VILLAGE
Named after the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. It was home to the Picfair Theatre, an art deco cinema built in 1940 that was operated by Joseph Moritz. In later years, it was a swap meet. The former cinema burned down in the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
PICO
PICO HEIGHTS
In 1886, the Electric Railway Homestead Association started selling tracts of a new streetcar suburb, Pico Heights, that was served by the Pico Street Railway. Pico Heights was annexed by Los Angeles on April Fool’s Day of 1896.
PICO PARK
Tracts 1740, 4889, 5091, and others in Midtown were developed in the 1920s along PE’s Venice Short Line in the 1920s. “Pico Park” seems to have first been applied to the neighborhood by a neighborhood association in the 21st century.
PICO RIVERA
PICO DEL MAR
Tract No. 1740 began to develop along PE‘s Venice Short Line in 1914. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1915. The Mid-City neighborhood’s famed black comedy club, the Comedy Union, opened there in 2001. “Pico del Mar” first appeared around 2007.
PICO HEIGHTS
PICO-ROBERTSON
Pico-Robertson, named after an intersection, has been so known since at least 1929. A center of Jewish culture, it’s home to the Museum of Tolerance and Simon Wiesenthal Center — as well as several synagogues and kosher Chinese restaurants.
PICO-UNION
Tracts in what’s now Pico-Union began opening in the 1880s. In 1895, the Los Angeles Railway began operating streetcars there. The name “Pico Union” was applied to a church by 1926. The Greater Pico-Union Neighborhood Council was formed by 1966.
PINE STORE
THE PIÑATA DISTRICT
The Piñata District began to coalesce after the 1995 opening of Joker Party Supply. Other stores in the area, including older party supply stores, began focusing on selling smashable, candy-filled papier-maché figures and objects.
PLAYA VISTA
By roughly 6000 BCE, the Ballona Wetlands supported a large Chumash village. Playa Vista was later used by the Tongva as a burial ground. From 1941-1985, it was home to the Hughes Aircraft Co. It was annexed by Los Angeles on 9 February 1986.
PLAYA DEL REY
THE PLAYHOUSE DISTRICT
Gilmor Brown established the Community Playhouse Association of Pasadena in 1917. The Pasadena Playhouse, designed by Elmer Grey, opened in 1924. By the 1930s, the surrounding neighborhood was known as the Playhouse District.
PLEASANT VIEW
The Pleasant View Neighborhood Association serves a very small neighborhood of about two-dozen homes surrounded by the larger La Pintoresca neighborhood. It was originally developed as Indian Tract in 1904 and annexed by Pasadena the same year.
POLY HIGH
POMONA
What’s now Pomona was historically the site of the Tongva village of Toibingna. Pomona was founded in 1875. Its name was taken from Pomona, a wood nymph and Roman goddess. Pomona incorporated on 6 January 1888. It’s hosted the Los Angeles County Fair since 1922.
POMONA VALLEY
POPPY PEAK
PORT OF LONG BEACH
The Port of Long Beach was founded in 1911. It was developed by the Los Angeles Dock and Terminal Company and built atop augmented mudflats at the mouth of the Los Angeles River. It was acquired by Long Beach in 1916. Today, it’s the second-busiest container port in the US, after the Port of Los Angeles.
PORTER RANCH
Benjamin F. Porter bought land from his cousin, George, who’d purchased it in 1874 and evicted the remaining Tataviam living there. In 1883, he formed the Porter Land and Water Company. The Porter Ranch Tract was subdivided in the early 1960s.
THE PRODUCE DISTRICT
Los Angeles Terminal Mart, designed by John Parkinson, was built from 1917-1923. It was the terminus of the Southern Pacific Railroad and the hub of what became the Produce District. The Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market opened in 1986.
PROSPECT PARK
Prospect Park opened in 1906. The streetcar suburb was largely built out in the decade that followed and today contains several notable homes including Greene & Greene‘s Louise C. Bentz House (1906) and Frank Lloyd Wright’s La Miniatura (1923).
PARK
QUAIL LAKE
Quail Lake is a sag pond on the San Andreas Fault that was turned into a 197-acre reservoir for the California Aqueduct. Most homes in the area are abandoned and the Quail Lake School lies in ruin. There is a Spanish Colonial-style phone booster station, built in 1929. In 1942, developer Glaucus E. “George” Kinsey acquired an old hunting lodge and converted it into the still extant Neo-Classical style Kinsey Mansion, completed in 1946, complete with a private airport, Quail Lake Sky Park.
QUARTZ HILL
A cross was erected atop a hill in 1868. William Stratman planted the first olive tree below in 1891. A post office called Earl’s Station opened on E.T. Earl‘s ranch. By the 1920s, a small agricultural community had arisen called Quartz Hill.
QUEENSWAY BAY
After the RMS Queen Mary permanently docked there in 1974, the Long Beach City Council named the surrounding area “Queensway Bay” in 1976. It’s also home to The Reef (1958), the abandoned Mary’s Gate Village, and the Spruce Goose Dome (1983).
QUEENSWAY PARK
RAMONA
Cereal magnate William Keith Kellogg established an Arabian horse ranch in Ramona in 1925. In 1956, it became the new campus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Forest Lawn Memorial Park Covina Hills opened there in 1965.
RAMONA [ALHAMBRA]
James de Barth Shorb founded the Ramona Townsite in 1886 at Southern Pacific‘s Shorb’s Station. Ramona was both the name of de Barth Shorb’s wife and Helen Hunt Jackson‘s hugely popular novel. The still-extant Ramona Convent opened there in 1889.
RANCHO DOMINGUEZ
Luis Gonzaga Policarpo Manuel Antonio y Fernando Domínguez‘s still extant adobe was completed in 1826. Today, all residents of the industrial community live in one of two trailer parks: Del Amo Mobile Home Estates (1942) and Dominguez Hills Estates (1980).
RANCHO ESTATES
RANCH PALOS VERDES
Rancho de los Palos Verdes granted to José Loreto Sepúlveda and Juan Capistrano Sepúlveda in 1856. In 1954, the Rancho Palos Verdes Corporation began developing a master planned community. It incorporated as a city on 7 September 1973.
RANCHO PARK
Rancho Park was named by Bill Heyer, who opened his real estate office there in 1927. In 1947, Felix Figueroa (a pseudonym of Freddy Martin) released the song “Pico and Sepulveda” about an intersection there. A gap exists there in the Exposition Line Bikeway thanks to NIMBYs.
RANCHO SAN RAFAEL
In 1784, the 36,403-acre Rancho San Rafael was established in the San Rafael Hills. 205 years later; Homes By Polygon, Brock Homes, and Custom Living Homes & Community partnered on a car-dependent master-planned community of the same name.
RAVENNA
In 1860, prospectors in Soledad Canyon named their camp Soledad City. The post office rejected it because there was already a Soledad. Irish grocer James O’Reilly suggested Ravenna, after saloonkeeper Manuel Ravenna. It was accepted on 12 June 1868.
RECREATION PARK
Numerous tracts opened along PE’s Newport-Balboa Line after it debuted in 1906. 95-hectare Recreation Park opened in 1922. After it was decommissioned, the train line became the Greenbelt and the neighborhood came to be named after the park.
REDMAN
REDONDO BEACH
The Chumash settled here at least 7,000 years ago. The Tongva, who arrived later, named it “‘Ongoova’nga,” or “place of salt” after a spring-fed salt lake. The Redondo Beach Railway launched in 1888. Redondo Beach incorporated on 29 April 1892.
REDONDO-SYCAMORE
What’s now Redondo-Sycamore was annexed by Los Angeles in 1915. The streetcar suburb developed along PE‘s Santa Monica via Sawtelle Line in the 1920s. Although named after two streets within it, its primary thoroughfare is La Brea Avenue.
RENAISSANCE SQUARE
Renaissance Square was developed as several tracts, including Allen Rhea, Alta Vista, Hawkeye, MacDonnell, Metcalf, Trissler, and Young & Parmley. “Renaissance Square,” which sounds likes the name of a multiplex, is as far as I know a recent coinage, entering usage as recently as 2005.
RESEDA
REYNIER VILLAGE
In 1865, Don Rocha built an adobe on Rancho Rincón de los Bueyes. In 1923, Citizens Trust & Savings Bank and Title Insurance & Trust Co. subdivided the streetcar suburb as Renyier Park (now Reynier Village). The eponymous park opened in 1978.
RIDGE ROUTE
Ridge Route is a vast, sparsely populated area named after the Castaic–Tejon Route, which in 1915 became the first highway to traverse the Sierra Pelona. Ridge Route is home to campgrounds, reservoirs, a mine, and the ruins of several motor inns.
RIDGEVIEW COUNTRY ESTATES
RIVERSIDE RANCHO
Burbank‘s Riverside Ranchos subdivision debuted in 1937. By the 1940s, it was often shortened to Riverside Rancho and by the 1960s, the name was also applied to the adjacent equestrian community in neighboring Glendale.
THE RIVIERA
ROLLING HILLS
In 1935, Archibald Elexis Hanson began developing dude ranches on the former Rancho Palos Verdes. One, the gated community of Rolling Hills, was developed with homes designed by Wallace Neff. It incorporated as a city on 24 January 1957.
ROLLING HILLS ESTATES
The Rolling Hills General Store opened in what’s now Rolling Hills Estates in 1937 and was the town’s first commercial structure. It incorporated on 18 September 1957. Roughly one in five inhabitants is foreign-born, most often in Japan.
ROOSEVELT
In 1907, John DeMuth circulated a petition to establish a school district for the scattered homes east of Lancaster. The Roosevelt School opened in 1908 with just 14 students in attendance. The Roosevelt Community Church was completed in 1945.
ROSE HILL
Pacific Electric Railway‘s Monrovia-Glendora Line began operation in 1902. Grider & Hamilton’s Rose Hill Tract, a streetcar suburb, opened in 2004. Its name echoes the name of an historic Tongva village there, Otsungna, meaning “place of roses.”
ROSE PARK
ROSE PARK SOUTH
Development of the Blossom, Blount, Densmore Villa, Long Beach Heights, and Saratoga tracts began in the early 1900s. The area was annexed by Long Beach in 1908 and ’09. Around 2003, people began referring to the district as Rose Park South.
ROSEMEAD
Bavarian settler Leonard John Rose named his ranch Rose’s Meadow. Later it was shortened to Rosemeade. In 1959, it was incorporated as Rosemead. In the 1990s, there was an influx of immigration and today Rosemead is primarily Chinese and Vietnamese.
ROSEWOOD
ROSSMOYNE
Haddock-Nibley Company‘s residential Rossmoyne Tract opened in 1923. The Rossmoyne name was, over time, extended to the streetcar suburb on the Pacific Electric Railway‘s North Glendale Short Line which ran up Brand Boulevard until 1948.
ROSSMOYNE HISTORIC DISTRICT
Virginian Erskine Mayo Ross moved to Los Angeles in 1868 and established Rossmoyne Ranch. The Haddock-Nibley Company opened the Rossmoyne Tract in 1923. The entirely residential Rossmoyne Historic District was designated in 2012.
ROWLAND HEIGHTS
In April 1842, governor Juan B. Alvarado granted Rancho La Puente to American immigrant John Rowland. The Rowland Heights Improvement Association was formed in 1963. Since the 1980s, it’s been recognized as forming part of Little Taipei.
ROXBURY PARK
A streetcar suburb was substantially built-out from 1926-1937 along the route of PE’s Santa Monica via Sawtelle Line. Roxbury Park was constructed there in 1929. By the 1940s, the surrounding neighborhood was also commonly known as Roxbury Park
ROYAL BOULEVARD
RUNYON CANYON
RUSSIAN FLATS
Between 1901 and 1911, about 3,500 Russian Molokans fled to the US. The lowlands below Boyle Heights were transformed into Russian Flats. By the 1940s, it was usually known simply as the Flats. Today it’s known for its many art galleries.
RUSTIC CANYON
Rustic Canyon was so-known at least since 1890. The residential neighborhood of the same name is home to numerous examples of mid-century modern homes as well as the ruins of Huntington Hartford‘s arts colony and the Murphy Ranch Nazi compound.
SAINT ANDREWS SQUARE
SAINT FRANCIS
Saint Francis is a north Long Beach neighborhood that has within it the winding St. Francis Place that, along with the homes that line it, was developed in 1968. Most of the neighborhood’s homes, however, were built in the mid-1950s. St. Francis was a 13th-century mystic and animal lover, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (better known as Francis of Assissi).
SAINT MARY’S
Saint Mary’s is named after St. Mary’s Hospital, which was founded there in 1923 by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. After the original was damaged by an the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake, I.E. Loveless designed the 1937 replacement.
SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND
Its indigenous inhabitants named it Kinkipar. In 1602, the Spanish re-named it Isla de San Clemente. Larger than San Franciso and southernmost of the Channel Islands, San Clemente Island is regardless left off of most maps of Los Angeles.
SAN DIMAS
SAN FERNANDO
Charles Maclay platted the town of San Fernando on 15 September 1874. It was named after the nearby mission. Its location was along the route of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which arrived in 1876. San Fernando incorporated on 31 August 1911.
THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY
SAN GABRIEL
THE SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS [LOS ANGELES COUNTY]
SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS [GLENDALE]
The northernmost neighborhood of Glendale stretches from Deukmejian Wilderness Park up to the 1,547 meter-high peak of Mount Lukens (formerly known as Sister Elsie Peak). The area was annexed by Glendale as the Inter-Valley Ranch Annexation on 24 April 1975.
THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY
The San Gabriel Valley is named after a river which is itself named after La Misión del Santo Príncipe el Arcángel, San Gabriel de los Temblores, destroyed by flooding in 1776. Today it is widely recognized for its large Asian population.
SAN MARINO
San Marino is named after the European microstate of the same name. The San Marino Tract opened in 1891 near what had been the Tongva village of Sheshiikuanungna. It incorporated on 25 April 1913. It’s home to the Huntington, which opened in 1928
SAN PASQUAL
SAN PEDRO
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo arrived in San Pedro Bay on St. Peter’s Day in 1542. In 1784, Rancho San Pedro was granted to Juan José Domínguez. The city of San Pedro incorporated on 1 March 1888. It was annexed by Los Angeles on 28 August 1909.
SAN RAFAEL HEIGHTS
In 1784, José María Verdugo was granted the 147 km2 Rancho San Rafael. In 1898, the Garvanza-based San Rafael Ranch Company began selling lots of the residential tract, San Rafael Heights. It was annexed by Pasadena on 11 August 1914.
SAN RAFAEL HILLS
SAND CANYON
The name Sand Canyon has been used since at least the 1880s to describe an area of Canyon Country. In 1987, most became part of Santa Clarita. More was annexed in 1998. A residential area, developed between 1990 and 2001, remains unincorporated.
SANDBERG
In 1914, Norwegian Harald Sandberg opened Sandberg’s Summit Hotel and Sandberg’s Meals on the Ridge Route through the Sierra Pelona. By 1918, there was a post office and service station. On 29 April 1961, all but two cabins burned to the ground.
SANTA CATALINA ISLAND
By 7000 BCE, the Chumash lived on Santa Catalina. It was later conquered by the Tongva, who named it Pimuu’nga. The Spanish named it twice: San Salvador (1542) and Santa Catalina (1602). Most Angelenos, however, know it merely as Catalina.
SANTA CLARITA
The communities of Canyon Country, Newhall, Saugus, and Valencia merged and incorporated Santa Clarita on 15 December 1987. It’s the fourth newest city in Los Angeles County and the third-most populous. It’s notably home to CalArts.
SANTA FE SPRINGS
James Fulton drilled a well into a spring in 1874 and developed Fulton’s Sulfur Wells there. In 1886, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway bought the land and named Santa it Fe Springs. Santa Fe Springs incorporated on 15 May 1957.
SANTA MARIA
Jesus Santa Maria was born in Spain in 1849. After emigrating, he married 13-year-old Elena Valenzuela in 1878. They settled in what’s now Santa Maria in 1880. They had 18 kids. In 1928, Santa Maria was subdivided into lots for ten of the sons.
SANTA MONICA
SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS
The Santa Monica Mountains is a mountain chain that extends from the Channel Islands to the Los Angeles River’s west bank (where they’re more widely known as the Hollywood Hills). The name also refers to the westernmost region of Los Angeles that includes Malibu and other communities.
SARATOGA HILLS
SAUGUS
Saugus is named after the Massachusetts hometown of Henry Newhall, who established a ranch on land formerly home to the Tataviam village of Chaguayanga. Saugus was one of the four communities (the others being Canyon Country, Newhall, and Valencia) that merged in 1987 to create Santa Clarita, in which it’s now a neighborhood.
SAWTELLE
Too similar in name to Bassett, in 1899, the town of Barrett was renamed Sawtelle after Pacific Land Company manager William E. Sawtelle. It incorporated in 1906. Historically home to many Japanese, it was later nicknamed Soteru (そてる). It was annexed in 1922.
SCHOLL CANYON
In 1892, Prussian doctor John Theodor Scholl placed 1092 acres of land in the foothills on sale. As early as 1895, it was known as Scholl’s Canyon. As Scholl Canyon, it was annexed by Glendale in 1921. It’s best known for its titular landfill.
SEADIP
Long Beach approved the city’s first Planned Development District, the Southeast Area Development and Improvement Plan (SEADIP), in 1977. Today, it’s home to several planned communities, the Alamitos Energy Center, and Los Cerritos Wetlands.
THE SEAFOOD DISTRICT
After American-Mexican William Wolfskill died in 1866, his former vineyard and orange orchards were subdivided as the Wolfskill Orchard Tract. Adjacent to both the railroad tracks and Little Tokyo, by the 1890s it was developing into the Seafood District. Today it’s still dominated by wholesale markets and cold storage facilities.
SEASIDE
Ben Haggot‘s Seaside Ranchos opened in 1947. Seaside Elementary opened in 1949 and the landlocked community came to be known simply as “Seaside.” Sea-Aire Golf Course opened there in 1957. Seaside has long been locally famed for its holiday displays
SECO
SEINAN (西南)
Seinan (西南) arose in the 1920s. By the 1930s, it was home to more Japanese than Boyle Heights, outnumbered locally only by Little Tokyo and Furusato. Mostly vanished today, it’s nevertheless still home to Senshin Buddhist Temple and LA Holiness Church.
SEMINOLE HOT SPRINGS
7 STREETS EAST
Although represented by a neighborhood association, there’s not much information about 7 Streets East. It’s home to the corner of the CalTech campus that includes the Page and Ruddock Houses, as well as the Hale Solar Laboratory.
SHADOW HILLS
In 1907, Dr. Homer Hansen subdivided the equestrian community of Hansen Heights. The streets were named after members of the Hansen family. The town was annexed by Los Angeles on 10 April 1918. In 1947, voters changed the name to Shadow Hills.
SHERMAN OAKS
M. H. Sherman established an estate around the area known to the Tataviam as Siutcangna (“place of oaks”). In October 1927, developers Bundy & Albright there opened the 1,040-acre tract, Sherman Oaks. Boundaries were redrawn in 1991 and 2009.
SHERMAN VILLAGE
The Sherman Village designation is derived from its position between Sherman Oaks and Valley Village. It was coined in 1993, two years after Valley Village officially split from North Hollywood. It was mostly built out in the 1950s and ’60s.
SHERWOOD FOREST
Northridge‘s Sherwood Forest subdivision was developed in the early 1950s. A homeowner association formed in 1992. Notable homes there include a Graceland replica and Richard Pryor‘s former residence. Blue neighborhood signs went up in 2012.
SIERRA MADRE
SIGNAL HILL
Signal Hill was named in 1889. A streetcar suburb developed after the opening of the Newport-Balboa Line in 1906. Oil was discovered in 1921 and homes were replaced by over 100 derricks. It incorporated in 1924 to avoid paying oil taxes to Long Beach.
SILVER LAKE
Silver Lake is named after Water Board Commissioner Herman Silver and titular reservoir that began operation in 1906. By the 1940s it was a hotbed of Mid-century modern architecture. By the 1950s, it was known as Los Angeles’s gayborhood.
SKID ROW
By the 1900s, urban development had replaced former vineyards and a citrus orchard near Downtown’s La Grande Station and Arcade Depot. By 1939, the area was derelict and nicknamed Skid Row. Centered along 5th Street, it’s also known as the Nickel.
SLEEPY VALLEY
Sleepy Valley gets its name from the Sleepy Valley Motor Inn opened on Mint Canyon Road c. 1938. In 1939, its owner shot a salesman he accused of breaking up his home. A subsequent owner was shot by his wife following an argument about grammar.
SLIPS
A slip is essentially a parking space for a boat. Slips is a small neighborhood on Alamitos Bay that is home to a bayside condominium community named Spinnaker Coves (1982). The bay is also, expectedly, lined with boat slips and inside of them, boats.
SOLANO CANYON
Francisco Solano came to Los Angeles from Costa Rica and in 1854, married 13-year-old Rosa Casanova. In 1866, he bought 87 acres he named Solano Cañon. Solano died in 1871. A son, Alfredo, subdivided a portion as the Solano Tract in 1888.
SOLEDAD
SOMERSET
In 1882, John Calvin Sherer, a Quaker from Maryland, established Somerset Farm in what became Glendale in 1887. The site of the farm later lent its name to the neighborhood of Somerset, which was mostly built out in the 1920s and afterward.
SONORATOWN
Sonoratown was the name of a Mexican enclave centered along Main Street between Arcadia and 1st streets. It was so known as early as 1871. It was vanishing by the 1910s, and was by then often characterized as old Sonoratown or simply “Old Town.”
SOUTH ARROYO
Housing tracts began opening in Pasadena‘s southwest around the 1904 opening of Pacific Electric Railway‘s Arroyo Seco Line. South Arroyo is named after the boulevard that passes through it. Its Colorado Street Bridge was completed in 1913.
THE SOUTH BAY
Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica was granted to soldier Francisco Sepúlveda in 1839. By 1874, the bight between Point Dume and Palos Verdes Peninsula was known as the Santa Monica Bay and its southern portion was referred to as the South Bay.
SOUTH BAYPORT
Watt Homes‘ South Bayport development, part of the master-planned Park Del Amo community, was unanimously approved by Torrance City Council in 1986 and went on sale that December. Its New England-style homes were designed by Donald Simmons.
SOUTH CARTHAY
Builder Spyros George Ponty and architect Alan Ruoff began building Spanish Colonial Revival homes “South of Carthay Center” in the 1930s. In 1984, South Carthay was designated the city’s second Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ).
SOUTH CENTRAL
Historically, numerous black cinemas and music clubs lined South Central Avenue. By the 1920s, the neighborhood surrounding the avenue was also known as South Central. In the 1930s and ’40s, it was a famous hub of West Coast Jazz and jump blues.
SOUTH DIAMOND BAR
South Diamond Bar, also known as The Ranch, is an agricultural zone owned by the City of Industry — although they do not share any border. It’s home to the Firestone Boy Scout Reservation and scattered oil wells and other ruins but no homes or commercial properties.
SOUTH EL MONTE
The community of South El Monte was so-known at least as early as 1875. It incorporated on 30 July 1958. South El Monte is today home of New Temple Park, Greater El Monte Community Hospital, Shiveley Park, and Mary Van Dyke Park.
SOUTH GATE
Realtor Charles B. Hooper‘s South Gate Gardens Tract opened in October 1917 on the old Cudahy Ranch at the southeastern terminus of LARy‘s J Line. South Gate incorporated on 20 January 1923. It was mostly built out in the 1920s and ’40s.
SOUTH LAKE DISTRICT
SOUTH LOS ANGELES
The southern area of Los Angeles was known as South Los Angeles at least by 1903. Back then, the city’s southern edge was formed by Slauson Avenue. South Los Angeles is often divided into east and west sides divided, since 1952, by the 110.
SOUTH MONROVIA ISLAND
South Monrovia Island is bisected by Sawpit Wash and surrounded by areas annexed by its neighbors in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s. It’s residential except for Pamela County Park and was almost entirely built out in the 1940s and ’50s.
SOUTH PARK [DOWNTOWN]
In 1970, the Philadelphia planning firm of Wallace, McHarg, Roberts & Todd created plans to revive Downtown. They included South Park Urban Village, centered around the Los Angeles Convention Center and a 50-acre park with a lake. There is another neighborhood known as South Park since 1899 and the park was never built but the name stuck. Today it’s home to L.A. Live and the Staples Center.
SOUTH PARK [SOUTH LOS ANGELES]
7.75-hectare South Park was created in 1899 as the centerpiece of a streetcar suburb also named South Park. Its Dunbar Hotel opened in 1928 and was a hub of the Central Avenue Jazz scene. Another amenity, the Jan Perry Wetlands, opened in 2012.
SOUTH PASADENA
South Pasadena incorporated on 3 March 1888. Early on, it was famously home to the Cawston Ostrich Farm and California Cycleway. Today it’s home to the Fair Oaks Pharmacy, the Rialto Theatre, Shakers, and Mission Wines.
SOUTH SAN GABRIEL
The community of South San Gabriel was so-known at least as early as 1925. It was named after South San Gabriel Street (now Boulevard). Its neighbors — Montebello, Monterey Park, and Rosemead — annexed much of it in the 1960s and ’70s.
SOUTH SAN JOSE HILLS
THE SOUTH SERRANO AVENUE HISTORIC DISTRICT
The 400 block of South Serrano Avenue boasts three homes designed by architect Frank M. Tyler and built in 1914. It was added, as the South Serrano Avenue Historic District, to the NRHP in 1988.
SOUTH WHITTIER
Suburban and unincorporated South Whittier was mostly built out in the early 1950s. It’s traversed by Coyote, Leffingwell, and Verde creeks. Its main park, Gunn Avenue Park, was optimistically renamed “Adventure Park” around 1999.
SOUTH WRIGLEY
South Wrigley is named after chewing gum magnate and developer William Wrigley Jr. Subdivisions included the Pacific Fountain, Starr, Willow Junction, and Willowdale tracts. Annexed by Long Beach in 1910, it was known as South Wrigley by 1944.
SOUTH OF CONANT
South of Conant is a mostly residential neighborhood with a commercial corridor on Spring Street. Most of the homes were built between 1947 and 1951. It was mostly annexed in 1953 and 1955. It was known as South of Conant by 1961.
SOUTHEAST LOS ANGELES
The “Southeast Los Angeles” designation has existed since at least 1902 to refer to the suburbs located between the Los Angeles River in the west; Coyote Creek in the southeast; and the Repetto, Montebello, and Puente Hills in the north.
SOUTHWOOD
Don Wilson and Milton Kauffman‘s Southwood Homes development opened in 1955 on property purchased from Jaime del Amo. The Del Amo Financial Center opened nearby in 1967. By the 1970s, the surrounding region was usually known simply as Southwood.
SOUTHWOOD RIVIERA
Don Wilson‘s Southwood Riviera Royale opened on 30 October 1960. In 1963, Wilson was picketed for refusing to sell to blacks. Nazis counter-protested. Today, Southwood Riviera‘s population is 3% black, 23% Latino, 33% white, and 42% Asian.
SPARR HEIGHTS
Indiana-born citrus magnate & developer William S. Sparr‘s Sparr Realty Corporation began operation in 1922. A streetcar suburb, Sparr’s offices were converted into a streetcar station. Today the building is the Sparr Heights Community Center.
SPAULDING SQUARE
SPINNAKER BAY
In 1988, Newport Beach-based Fieldstone Company announced their plans for a waterfront community called Spinnaker Bay (a name already used in Newport Beach). Construction occurred from 1989-1998. It’s home to the Jack Dunster Marine Reserve.
STEARNS PARK
The Alamitos Circle Civic Association‘s Stearns Park opened on 17 June 1946. By the ’50s, the surrounding neighborhood was also known as Stearns Park. Before that, the area — mostly built out between ’43 and ’49 — was known as Alamitos Circle.
STEVENSON RANCH
Phase 1 of Dale Poe Development Corp.’s Stevenson Ranch master-planned community was approved by the county in late 1985. Many of the streets (eg. Poe Pkwy and Hemingway Ave) are named after authors although “Thackerey Lane” is misspelled.
STONEHURST
Stonehurst is a residential neighborhood that was built out mainly between 1923 and ’25. Many of the homes are Stonemason Vernacular-style and were built by artisan Daniel Lawrence Montelongo using river rocks from the nearby Tujunga Wash.
STONEMAN
Maj. Gen. George Stoneman Jr. served as California’s governor from 1883 until January 1887. That April, he opened the Governor Stoneman Tract in Alhambra. Stoneman died in 1894 and today, the residential neighborhood is known simply as Stoneman.
STONEY BROOK VILLAS
Stoneybrook Villas is a large, gated, 471-unit condominium community built in 1970. In addition to amenities including tennis courts and pools, early buyers were further enticed with the promise of free refrigerators and microwave ovens.
STRATFORD SQUARE
Cunningham & Britain‘s Stratford Square opened in Long Beach in 1951 and was built out by 1961. Ads for neighborhood homes boasted luxury amenities like silent garbage disposals, full length mirrors, colored bathroom fixtures, and sparkling wallpaper.
STUDIO CITY
The streetcar suburb of Laurelwood was founded in 1910. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1915. The Mack Sennett Studio opened there in March 1928. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and other studios followed suit and by June, the area was known as “Studio City.”
STUDIO VILLAGE
In 1927, land next to Ballona Creek was donated to Culver City for the construction of Lindberg Park. Circa 1931, the Title & Guarantee Trust Co. developed Studio Village (Tract 10123) to provide homes for workers from nearby film studios.
SUGAR HILL
In 1938, black businessman Norman Oliver Houston moved to West Adams Height’s Blueberry Hill. He was followed by a group of black professionals and entertainers. By 1941, the area was nicknamed Brown Sugar Hill. By 1942, it was simply Sugar Hill.
SULPHUR SPRINGS
SUMMERWIND
SummerWind is a residential subdivision within Torrance‘s master-planned Park Del Amo Community. The Cape Cod cottage-inspired townhomes were built by Watt Homes. The grand opening occurred on 7 November 1987.
THE SUMMIT
SUN VALLEY
Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in the San Fernando Valley in 1876 and a town called Roscoe arose at the mouth of La Tuna Canyon. In June 1948, residents chose the new name “Sun Valley,” beating out Glenridge, Glenoaks, and North Los Angeles.
SUN VILLAGE
In 1946, Melvin Ray Grubbs and the Sun Village Land Corporation began advertising the Sun Village development in The California Eagle, a black newspaper. The Sun Village Parks Assn. was formed in 1958. Jackie Robinson Park was dedicated in 1965. The Mothers of Invention commemorated the community with “Village of the Sun.”
SUNKIST PARK
Richard S. Diller and Irving L. Kalsman‘s Sunkist Park was almost entirely built out between 1951 and ’53. Culver Park opened there in 1953 and was renamed El Marino Park in 1961. 22% of Sunkist Park was demolished for the 90/405 interchange.
SUNLAND
Near the site of the Tongva village, Tuxunga, the Monte Vista Hotel and Sunland (then a nickname for Southern California) post office both opened in 1887. Eventually, Sunland won out as the name for the surrounding community although, by 1928, it was often connected by a hyphen to Tujunga as Sunland-Tujunga.
SUNNY COVE
Sunny Cove is a residential neighborhood on the west bank of Compton Creek, centered around D.r Walter R. Tucker Sr. Park. It’s dominated by Park Village Apartments (1942), New Wilmington Arms (1973), and homes all built between 1984 and ’87.
SUNNYSLOPE
Until the late 1940s, what’s now the neighborhood of Sunnyslope was a dairy pasture. Eaton Sunnyslope Park opened in 1950, between Eaton Wash and Sunnyslope Avenue. Sunnyslope was annexed by Pasadena in 1950 and ’52.
SUNRISE
SUNSET HILLS
Sunset Hills is a residential neighborhood named after Sunset Hills Road and home to architecturally significant homes, like La Collina (designed by Gordon B. Kaufmann, 1922) and the George Cukor Residence (designed by Roland E. Coate, 1931).
SUNSET JUNCTIONS
Sunset Junctions is named after two historic Pacific Electric stops; Sanborn-Sunset Junction and Hollywood-Sunset Junction. The neighborhood is home to the Vermonica installation, El Cid, the Cahuenga Branch Library, and the “Elliot Smith Mural.”
SUNSET MESA
Exhibit Homes began developing the planned community of Parker Mesa in 1958. In 1961, the name was changed to Sunset Mesa. Home models included Contemporary, Early California, English Cottage, and Oriental. It was built out by the early 1970s.
SUNSET OAKS
Prior to the 1970s, what’s now Sunset Oaks consisted of Calvary Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and a few scattered houses. Roughly 100 ranch homes were constructed there in 1977. The Sunset Oaks Neighborhood Association had formed by 1993.
SUNSET PARK
What’s now Sunset Park was annexed by Santa Monica in 1905. It was largely built out between the 1920s and ’40s. The name, Sunset Park, appeared by 1971. It’s home to Santa Monica College, Clover Park, and Santa Monica Airport.
SUNSET PLAZA
In 1924, Francis S. Montgomery built the Georgian-style Sunset Plaza in West Hollywood. By the 1980s, Sunset Plaza Drive, which winds up the hills to Wonderland Avenue, had lent its name to the surrounding residential neighborhood, Sunset Plaza.
SUNSET SQUARE
The Sunset Square Historic Preservation Overlay Zone was created on 31 January 2017. It consists of 348 parcels developed mostly in the 1910s and ’20s. One of the most notable is Lloyd Wright‘s Maya-inspired Henry Otto Bollman House (1923).
SUNSHINE ACRES
The Loftus Land Company began subdividing farmland formerly owned by the Mayberry and Meyer families into suburban Sunshine Farms in 1926 followed by Sunshine Acres and a public golf course in 1928. It was mostly developed in the early 1950s.
SURFRIDGE
Developers Dickson & Gillespie‘s Surfridge opened in 1925. In 1949, Mines Field became Los Angeles International Airport. Eminent domain was used to take over the neighborhood. It was a ghost town by 1971. Today it’s a protected butterfly habitat.
SUTTER
The land that is now home to the Sutter neighborhood was annexed by Long Beach on 4 January 1924. I honestly don’t know why it’s called “Sutter” but the mayor of Long Beach from 1953 to 1954 was Lyman B. Sutter.
SWITZER
The Switzer neighborhood is presumably named after Switzer Alley which was, in turn, probably named after Perry Switzer. It was annexed by Pasadena in 1948 and ’50. It’s dominated by the abandoned St. Luke’s Hospital, open from 1933 until 2002.
SYCAMORE GROVE
Historically, travelers between Los Angeles and (dry) Highland Park had to pass through lawless Sycamore Grove. The two towns were annexed in 1895 in part to expand LAPD’s reach. A notorious roadhouse closed and became Sycamore Grove Park.
SYCAMORE SQUARE
Sycamore Square is a trapezoid-shaped neighborhood that shares its name with a 1970s Simi Valley shopping center. It was mostly built out in the 1920s. The Sycamore Square Neighborhood Association was founded in 2005 and coined the name.
SYLMAR
In 1893, the Los Angeles Olive Growers Association bought land they named “Sylmar,” from the Latin “sylvan” and “mare.” The magnitude 6.5 1971 Sylmar Earthquake caused 58 deaths. It’s also home to J.B. Nethercutt‘s automobile museum, founded in 1971.
SYLMAR ISLAND
Sylmar Island is the name applied to the area north of Sylmar. It’s home to Hog, May, Sombrero, and Wilson canyons; Saddletree Open Space; and Veterans Memorial Community Regional Park. There are probably no permanent human residents, though.
SYLVIA PARK
Cabin sites in Sylvia Park went on sale in 1924. The developers, Charles H. and Irving H. Goldman, suggested as an incentive to prospective buyers that they might discover oil. A further incentive, the Sylvia Park Country Club, was built in 1930.
THUMS ISLANDS
TARZANA
In 1919, Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs bought General Harrison Gray Otis‘s 550-acre Mil Flores and re-named it Tarzana Ranch. Lots of the Tarzana Tract went on sale on 15 October 1922. Its tallest building is the ten-story 18321 Ventura (1974).
TEHRANGELES (تهرانجلس)
After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Los Angeles emerged as home to the largest Iranian population outside of Iran. By the mid-1980s, a stretch of Westwood Boulevard and the surrounding neighborhood became colloquially known as Tehrangeles (تهرانجلس). The city has yet to recognize it as such but did designate an intersection within the neighborhood as Persian Square in 2010.
TEMPLE CITY
TEMPLE-BEAUDRY
Temple-Beaudry, so known since at least the 1930s, is named after two intersecting streets that are in turn named after local politicians Francisco Pliny Fisk Temple and Prudent Beaudry. It’s home to Vista Hermosa Park.
TERMINAL ISLAND
Rattlesnake Island was renamed Terminal Island in 1891. It has supported a resort, the Furusato neighborhood, canneries, a prison, shipyards, a racetrack, a marina, and more. It is home to the largest container port complex outside of Asia.
THAI TOWN (ไทยทาวน์)
Los Angeles is home to the largest population of Thai people outside of Thailand. New Hollywood Plaza, completed in 1980, became a hub of Thai Los Angeles. Thailand Plaza opened next door in 1992. In 1999, the city recognized the area as Thai Town.
THEATRE ROW
Movie studios may’ve ditched Hollywood decades ago but there a small theater district has been known as Theatre Row, since at least 1976. Today it’s often referred to as Hollywood Theater Row to differentiate from other local live theater districts.
THREE POINTS
Three Points is a hamlet in the Sierra Pelona foothills. It was homesteaded by the Lafferty family in 1892. Bert Gookins built and opened the Three Points Cafe around 1920. It closed in 1995. Since 2008, Three Points has had zero businesses.
TOLUCA LAKE
The Lankershim School District became the Toluca School District in 1892. The name came from Tolcan, Nahuatl for “Place of Tolo.” Toluca was annexed in 1923. In 1924, Heffron-McCray-St. John‘s Toluca Lake Park Tract (now Toluca Lake) opened.
TOLUCA TERRACE
What’s now Toluca Terrace was annexed by Los Angeles as part of Lankershim in 1923. The subdivision was established in 1943. Italas name is a reference to Toluca Lake, with which it shares no borders, and which is named after Toluca de Lerdo.
TOLUCA WOODS
In 1941, Fritz B. Burns opened Toluca Wood, an affordable community targeted at workers employed by nearby aircraft plants and film studios. Home models included the Cape Cod and the Suburban. By 1946, it was often pluralized to Toluca Woods.
TOPANGA
Topanga was historically the site of a Chumash village. The Tongva later and named it Topaa’nga, which they adapted the Chumash phrase meaning “where the mountain meets the sea.” The region became popular with all manner of bohemians in the 1920s.
TOPANGA PARK
TOPANGA WOODS
In 1915, English immigrants Thomas William and May Haney Kneen established Kneen’s Camp near Garapito Creek. A still extant American Legion Hall opened nearby in 1925. By the 1940s, the surrounding area was developed as Topanga Woods.
TORRANCE
Jared Sidney Torrance founded Torrance in 1911. “Torrance” is derived from the Gaelic “torran,” meaning “hillock.” Torrance is home to the nation’s 2nd largest population of Japanese, behind Honolulu. Torrance is home to many Japanese American business and the headquarters of several Japanese companies. Koreans are the most numerous foreign-born.
THE TOY DISTRICT
Hongkonger Charlie Woo opened ABC Toys in 1979 whilst pursuing a physics degree from UCLA. Soon, toy sellers from China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam followed suit, and “Toy Town” was born. It was later designated The Toy District.
TRAFFIC CIRCLE
Long Beach‘s Los Alamitos Traffic Circle was designed by engineer Werner Ruchti in 1930 in order to accommodate increased traffic from the 1932 Olympics. The surrounding neighborhood, annexed in the ’40s, was soon known as Traffic Circle.
TREASURE ISLAND
In 1906, A. M. Parsons began constructing Treasure Island in Alamitos Bay. A recession followed, forcing him to sell to Henry Huntington, who in turn sold it to McGrath & Selover, who completed it. The oldest homes there date from the 1920s.
TRIUNFO CANYON
In 1770, the expedition of Gaspar de Portolà entered a beautiful valley and friar Juan Crespí renamed a Chumash village there, “El Triunfo del Dulcísimo Nombre de Jesús.” Beginning in the 1920s, a few homes began to appear in Triunfo Canyon.
TROPICO
Tropico began with a Southern Pacific depot of that name in 1887. It was known, among other things, for its strawberries. Part of the town was annexed by Los Angeles in 1910 what remained incorporated in 1911. In 1918, however, Tropico was absorbed into Glendale.
TROUSDALE ESTATES
Tennessee-born developer and former gum salesman Paul Whitney Trousdale Jr. bought the old Doheny Ranch in 1954 with plans to develop it. On 28 August 1955, Beverly Hills annexed the entirely residential area as Trousdale Estates.
TUJUNGA
Tujunga (“old woman’s place”) was a Tongva village. Little Lands was founded there in 1907. Its name changed to Tujunga in 1916, was incorporated in 1925, and was annexed by Los Angeles in 1932. It’s home to Los Angeles’s tallest peak, Mount Lukens.
TUJUNGA CANYONS
Tujunga Canyons is a vast, sparsely populated area named after the Big and Little Tujunga canyons. It’s also home to Bad, Beartrap, Dagger Flat, Gold, Gooseberry, Iron, Rattlesnake, Slaughter, and other canyons; picnic sites; and campgrounds.
TWEEDY LAKE
TWIN LAKES
Twin Lakes Park was a private resort and resort community with a Mayan Revival architecture theme designed by Robert Stacy-Judd and developed by Gerard and Walters. Two lakes were created by damming Browns and Devil canyons and were stocked with bass and perch. The streets were named after various Native American peoples. In 1927, 750 lots of George W. Haight‘s ranch were put on sale. By the 1930s, though, roads remained unpaved, sewer undeveloped, and lots were slow to sell. Lawsuits were brought against the developers in 1933. Raymond Lake was drained in 1948 and the lower lake went dry. A fire in 1970 destroyed half of the homes but some Maya-style structures remain, along with the old dams. The rustic character took a hit when the 118 highway was extended along its edge in 1975.
TWO HARBORS
Two Harbors is located on the isthmus between Banning Harbor and Catalina Harbor. Historically it was the site of the Tongva village of Naayxoxar. In 1864, the Army sent 83 soldiers to establish a camp there, now the basis of the small village.
UNINCORPORATED AZUSA
UNINCORPORATED CALABASAS
Unincorporated Calabasas is home to Zev Yaroslavsky Las Virgenes Highlands Park, two residential subdivisions (the Estates (1989) and Mont Calabasas (2001)), the Calabasas Landfill, and the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.
UNINCORPORATED CLAREMONT
UNINCORPORATED GLENDORA
UNINCORPORATED HAWTHORNE
Tracts #12216 and #12256, part of the North Moneta Gardens Land Tract, were subdivided in 1940. Today, the 3.85 km2 area remains unincorporated. Mostly residential, it’s also home to a strip club, King Henry VIII, founded in 1970.
UNINCORPORATED LANCASTER-WEST
UNINCORPORATED LONG BEACH
Unincorporated Long Beach (formally designated Increment 152) is a small, residential area centered along Harco and surrounded by the city of Long Beach. Within it are single-family homes, almost all of which were built in 1954, Woodruff Medical Plaza (1978), and Cypress Point (2005).
UNINCORPORATED SANTA CLARITA
UNINCORPORATED WEST HILLS
UNIVERSAL CITY
German immigrant Carl Laemmle opened the film studio, Second Universal City, on 15 March 1915. A retail area, Universal CityWalk, opened on 27 May 1993. Unincorporated and with no residents, however, Universal City is a city in name only.
UNIVERSITY HILLS
In 1972, California State College was renamed California State University, Los Angeles and what had been known as Metro Hills became University Hills. It’s also home to the city’s tallest public stairway, the 234-step Heidleman Stairway.
UNIVERSITY PARK
UNIVERSITY PARK ESTATES
UNIVERSITY PARK NORTH
UNIVERSITY PARK WEST
UPPER HASTINGS RANCH
In 1882, Charles Cook Hastings founded Mesa Alta Rancho and began growing grapes. In the 1940s, the convention arose of dividing Upper and Lower Hastings Ranch. Edward H. Fickett built nearly every home in the Upper Hastings Ranch in 1951.
UPPER WESTSIDE
The Upper Westside was annexed by Long Beach in 1924, ’30, and ’44. The Inner Port Tract opened there in 1913 but it was mostly built out in the 1940s. It’s home to Silverado Park. The “Upper Westside” designation first appeared around 2010.
UWAMACHI (宇和町)
Uwamachi (宇和町), or “Uptown,” was a Japanese enclave that arose in Pico Heights in the 1900s. By the 1930s, there were Japanese churches, businesses, &c. It’s still home to a Japanese school and at least five contemporary Japanese restaurants.
VAL VERDE
VALENCIA
Valencia is a master-planned community created by the Newhall Land and Farming Company. The first subdivision, Old Orchard I, opened in 1967. The California Institute of the Arts moved there in 1971. Valencia became part of the city of Santa Clarita in 1987.
VALINDA
In 1947, Camille Alphonse Garnier and his Valinda Corporation subdivided his wife’s family ranch as Valinda Village, billed as “the Westwood of the San Gabriel Valley.” Garnier died in 1968, one year after Valinda failed to incorporate.
VALLEY GLEN
In 1997, a group of homeowners voted to rebrand their corner of Van Nuys, “Valley Glen.” A glen is a narrow valley. Valley Glen is home to Judy Baca‘s 1978 mural, The History of California, which residents rebranded the Great Wall of Los Angeles.
VALLEY VILLAGE
Bob Symonds‘s Valley Village development opened in 1937. The neighborhood was mostly built out by the end of the 1950s. Symonds died in 1971. Historically part of North Hollywood, it was recognized by the city as its own neighborhood in 1991.
VALYERMO
Valyermo is a small village located at the confluence of Pallett and Sandrock creeks. Its name is a contraction of “valle” and “yermo.” It’s home to St. Andrew’s Abbey. From 1957-2008, its Benedictine monks hosted an annual fall festival there.
VAN NUYS
The Suburban Homes Company auctioned lots of its Van Nuys town site (named after Dutch rancher Isaac Van Nuys) on 22 February 1911. Pacific Electric‘s San Fernando Line arrived in December. Today Van Nuys is the most populous community in the Valley.
VENICE
Abbot Kinney founded Venice of America on 4 July 1905. Like its namesake, its chief attraction was its canals. Venice became part of Los Angeles on 24 November 1925. In 1929, most of the canals were filled in, paved over, and surrendered to the car.
VENICE CANALS
After the town of Venice was annexed by Los Angeles, seven of its thirteen famed canals, built in 1905, were filled in to accommodate automobiles. The Venice Canal Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
VERA CANYON
Vera Canyon was occupied by the Chumash since at least 5000 BCE. A pictograph site there depicts the Portolà expedition of 1769. Modern settlement of the village began in the 1940s. It’s also home to vineyards, ranches, and fire-gutted ruins.
THE VERDUGOS
VERDUGO MOUNTAINS
Glendale annexed most of the Verdugo Mountains in the 1950s. The range’s highest peak is Verdugo Peak, which rises 953 meters above sea level. The region, a “neighborhood” unpopulated by humans, is home to the Verdugo Mountains Open Space.
VERMONT KNOLLS
Vermont Avenue Knoll opened in 1928. It was almost immediately alternately known as Vermont Knolls. It was built out by 1937, when Pepperdine University opened there. The campus (vacated in 1972) became the Crenshaw Christian Center in 1981.
VERMONT SQUARE
The Southwest Land Company began developing Vermont Square, a streetcar suburb, in 1907. Next to the titular park is one of the city’s three Carnegie libraries, built in 1913. Most of the neighborhood’s bungalows date from the 1900s-1930s.
VERMONT VISTA
Much of Vermont Vista was developed in the early 20th century as the Sunny Side Tract in 1905. It was annexed by Los Angeles as part of the Shoestring in 1906. It was named Vermont Vista by the Eighth District Empowerment Congress in 2001.
VERMONT-SLAUSON
Union Realty Company‘s Vermont and Slauson Avenue Tract opened in August 1913. Advertisements boasted of the streetcar suburb’s location at the junction of “the longest street in the world” and “the great Southwest boulevard to the sea.”
VERNON
Vernon is a “phantom city,” that is, a city almost without a population (just 112 in 2010). Like other phantom cities, Vernon was created as a tax shelter and cover for noxious businesses like chemical plants and slaughterhouses such as Farmer John.
VICTOR HEIGHTS
VICTORIA
VICTORIA PARK
Victoria Park opened in 1907 atop West Adams Heights Hill. The tiny streetcar suburb boasted service from three rail transit lines. The neighborhood’s defining Craftsmen homes were built between 1905 and ’10. Duplexes followed in the ’20s.
VICTORY
But for the Frostig School, Pasadena Church of the Brethren, and AGBU Alex and Marie Manoogian School; the Victory neighborhood is exclusively residential. Nearly all of Victory’s homes were built between the 1940s and ’60s.
VICTORY PARK
VICTORY ROSE
VIEW HEIGHTS
VIEW PARK
VILLA CORDOVA
VILLA PARKE
Villa Parke is named after two of its residential streets, Villa and Parke. In the 1920s, the streetcar suburb was served by no fewer than six Pacific Electric Railway lines. The Villa Parke Community Center Library opened its doors in 1992.
VILLA VISTA
Villa Vista was originally mostly developed as part of Crawford’s Orange Grove Avenue Tract although a portion was developed as the Villa Vista Tract. Most of Villa Vista’s homes were built in the 1910s and ’20s although the oldest is from 1895.
VILLAGE GREEN
VILLAGE GREEN
Construction of a 35-hectare garden apartment complex called Baldwin Hills Village began in 1941. The development opened in 1942. In 1972, the apartments were converted into condominiums and the development was renamed Village Green.
VINCENT
Vincent is a residential community named after Vincent Avenue. It was built out in the 1950s and is home to Valleydale Park. It’s traversed by San Dimas, Big Dalton, and Little Dalton washes; and an abandoned Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way.
VINEYARD [GLENDALE]
The Vineyard neighborhood was annexed by Glendale with the Annexation of October 14 1911 and the Kenilworth District Annexation of 1918. Early tract names included Glendale Boulevard, Glendale Place, and West Glendale.
VINEYARD [LOS ANGELES]
The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad extended a line to Vineyard Junction in 1907. A train collision in 1913 left fourteen dead. Most of Vineyard’s homes were built in the 1920s but the arrival of Sears Pico in 1939 and Midtown Shopping Center transformed it into an area of big box stores and surface parking lots.
VIRGIL VILLAGE
Connor’s Subdivision of the Johannsen Tract opened in 1887. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1909. The name Virgil Village was coined in 1994 as part of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative, supposedly to empower residents.
WALNUT
What’s now Walnut was part of Rancho Los Nogales, granted to José de la Luz Linares in 1840. The first post office, founded in 1895, was named Lemon. In 1908 its name was changed to Walnut. Walnut was incorporated as a city on 19 January 1959.
WALNUT PARK
Gustav S. Smith‘s Walnut Park Tract opened on 1 December 1904. It was a streetcar suburb located near the southern terminus of Los Angeles Railway‘s Huntington Line. Other enticements for homebuyers included walnut trees and free pianos.
WARNER CENTER
Planning of Warner Center (originally Warner Victory Center) began in 1965. It was built on ranch land owned by Harry Warner. Notable for its cluster of towers, it’s been promoted as the Valley’s Downtown but is more truly its Century City.
WASHINGTON CULVER
Washington Culver is a Culver City neighborhood named after two of its primary boulevards. Filmmaker Thomas H. Ince‘s Triangle Film Corporation Studio opened there in July 1915 and dominates the neighborhood.
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS
WASHINGTON SCHOOL
The American Avenue School burned down in 1918. Its replacement, the W. Horace and John C. Austin-designed Streamline Moderne George Washington Junior High, opened in 1921. By 1990, the surrounding neighborhood was known as Washington School.
WASHINGTON SQUARE (AKA CLEMENTE HEIGHTS AKA HEATHER HEIGHTS)
WATERFRONT
Waterfront is home to Aquarium of the Pacific, the Golden Shore Marine Biological Reserve, Shoreline Village, Long Beach Arena, the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, the Pike Outlets, and many of Long Beach’s tallest towers.
WATTS
WE-WIL
WEHO HEIGHTS
Two tracts above the town of Sherman, Sherman Heights (1907) and Shoreham Heights (1922), form the basis of WeHo Heights. “WeHo” emerged as a nickname for West Hollywood around 1992 and the “WeHo Heights” designation appeared by 2008.
WELLINGTON SQUARE
In 1912, George L. Crenshaw and M.J. Nolan subdivided the Wellington Square tract atop a knoll framed by LARY’s W Line and the then-planned A Line. The streetcar suburb opened in early 1913. It was mostly built out by the end of the 1920s.
WEST ADAMS
The Du Ray Place (1912) and Home Villa (’23) tracts were two streetcar suburbs that arose just east of Culver City. Although historically associated with the area to its east, by the 2000s this area, too, was characterized as West Adams.
WEST ADAMS [HISTORIC]
West Adams is a region centered along West Adams Boulevard. It was mostly annexed by Los Angeles between 1896 and 1915. Most wealthy residents decamped to the Westside, especially after the 10 Freeway opened, but many mansions remain.
WEST ADAMS HEIGHTS
The West Adams Heights tract opened in January 1902. The streetcar suburb was originally served by two LARy lines. By the 1940s, a section became known as Sugar Hill. Much of what remained was demolished for the Santa Monica Freeway.
WEST ADAMS TERRACE
The West Adams Terrace HPOZ was established in 2003. It is home to William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (which specializes in Oscar Wilde and his circle), the Wilfandel Club House, and numerous architecturally significant homes.
WEST ATHENS
By 1912, the community west of Athens was colloquially known as West Athens. In 1917, Ionia School was renamed West Athens School. The Western Avenue Public Golf Course opened there in 1928. Los Angeles Southwest College opened there in 1967.
WEST CARSON
The city of Carson was named in 1968. By 1971, the unincorporated community west of it was known as West Carson. West Carson is home to the Bavarian-themed shopping and cultural center, Alpine Village, construction of which began in 1968.
WEST CHATSWORTH
The Chumash lived here for roughly 8,000 years. The Tataviam roughly 3,500 years ago and trading centers developed there. In the 20th century, sparsely populated, unincorporated West Chatsworth was home to Iverson and Spahn movie ranches.
WEST COMPTON
Development of unincorporated West Compton mostly took place in the 1940s. By the 1960s it was a mostly black community — then unlike Compton. The industrial west was mostly developed in the 1960s and ’70s. Despite its location to Compton’s west, developers have promoted it as West Ranch Dominguez since the 2000s. By the 2010s, it was the last black majority community on South Los Angeles’s Eastside.
WEST COVINA
West Covina incorporated on 17 February 1923. It was almost entirely built out in the 1950s, when the population increased from 4,499 to 50,645. Its tallest building, the 13-story Eastland Tower, is home to Jollibee‘s North American headquarters.
WEST GATEWAY
Although part of Long Beach since its incorporation in 1897, the West Gateway moniker only appeared in the mid-2000s to describe the neighborhood on Downtown Long Beach‘s west end. Attempts to rebrand it West Village have been less successful.
WEST HILLS
What’s now West Hills was historically home to the Chumash village of Hu’wam. It became part of Owensmouth in 1912, which was renamed Canoga Park in 1931. In 1987, hoping to increase property values, West Hills voted to secede from Canoga Park.
WEST HOLLYWOOD
The West Hollywood designation arose by 1901. Martin T. Hildinger‘s West Hollywood and New West Hollywood tracts opened in 1922. Unincorporated West Hollywood quickly attained a reputation for lawlessness. It incorporated on 29 November 1984.
WEST HOLLYWOOD NORTH
For most of its existence, it’s doubtful that many felt the need to break down tiny West Hollywood (fewer than five square kilometers in area) into neighborhoods. The West Hollywood North Neighborhood Association was formed around 2001.
WEST HOLLYWOOD WEST
West Hollywood’s southernmost neighborhood developed in the 1920s along PE’s Hollywood-Venice and South Hollywood-Sherman lines. The name come from the West Hollywood West Residents Association, formed in 1980 to address parking woes.
WEST LOS ANGELES
WEST LOS ANGELES CIVIC CENTER
In the 1950s, Los Angeles began created three regional civic centers to serve the sprawling population. The West Los Angeles Civic Center, built between 1957 and 1965, opened in 1961. It’s now set to be majorly redeveloped.
WEST LOS ANGELES VA MEDICAL CENTER
The Pacific Branch of the National Home of Disabled Volunteer Soldiers was founded in 1887. Today, known as the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, it’s an unincorporated, 236 hectare enclave inside the city of Los Angeles
WEST PARK TERRACE
What’s now West Park Terrace was annexed by Los Angeles in 1924 and 1931. It was mostly built out by the early 1940s. Its name was coined in 2008 by the 8th District Empowerment Congress‘s Naming Neighborhoods Project.
WEST PASADENA
WEST POMONA ISLANDS
WEST PUENTE VALLEY
Several 1950s residential tracts were marooned on an unincorporated island after neighboring La Puente became a city in 1956. By the early 1970s, the area was known as West Puente Valley. Allen J. Martin Park was created there in 1996.
WEST SAN DIMAS
WEST TOLUCA LAKE
Secessionists in North Hollywood rejected “SoNoHo,” “Toluca Village,” and “Toluca Lake West,” and approved West Toluca Lake. The West Toluca Lake Residents Assn. was formed in January 1996 and on 5 August, neighborhood signs were installed.
WEST WHITTIER
WESTCHESTER
In 1942, the Marlow-Burns Development Company opened the Westchester district to residential development. Prefabricated homes were quickly built throughout the area. LAX began expanding massively in the 1960s and now occupies 45% of Westchester.
WESTDALE
Paul W. Trousdale launched the Westdale Village tract in 1947 on former bean fields and citrus orchards. Architect Allen Siple designed the homes in a variety of styles, including American Colonial, Monterey Colonial, and Regency revival as well as Ranch.
WESTERN HEIGHTS
The Western Heights Tract opened in 1903. The streetcar suburb was served by LARy’s Washington Line until 1956. It’s home to the Kissam House (LAHCM No. 761) and the home Marvin Gaye lived in from 1975 until he was murdered there in 1984.
WESTFIELD
Most homes in the equestrian community of Westfield were built between 1959 and ’67. Westfield is home to Mystic Canyon Stable and several horse trails (Bridle, Palomino, Pinto, Quarterhorse, Ranchview, and Thoroughbred trails), and Westfield Park.
WESTLAKE
WESTLAKE VILLAGE
On the site of the Chumash village of Hipuc, American-Hawaiian Land Co. opened a planned community designed by A. C. Martin & Associates in 1966. Its focal point is Westlake Lake. The Los Angeles County half incorporated as a city in 1981.
WESTMONT
Tracts including Sunnyside, Olivito Heights, Woodcrest, and Manchester Heights opened along Los Angeles & Redondo Railway‘s Sunnyside Division in the mid-1900s. The area was known as Westmont by the 1970s — a portmanteau of Western and Vermont.
THE WESTSIDE [LOS ANGELES]
For its first 115 years, Los Angeles’s westernmost boundary was at Hoover Street — the edge of Westlake. The Westside, as a region, has existed since at least 1896. Expansions moved the Westside west, though, reaching the Pacific Coast in 1916.
THE WESTSIDE [LONG BEACH]
The Westside, in Long Beach, is both the region west of the Los Angeles River and a smaller neighborhood within it. It was annexed in 1910; built out by the 1970s; and is home to Cabrillo Village, Admiral Kidd and Hudson parks, and Long Beach’s Little Manila.
THE WESTSIDE [SOUTH LOS ANGELES]
The Westside (of South Los Angeles) was annexed between 1899 and 1948. The traditional dividing line between the region’s east and west sides was Main Street. From 1954 to ’58, the Harbor Freeway carved a more dramatic division.
WESTSIDE SOUTH
WESTSIDE VILLAGE
In 1939, Fritz B. Burns subdivided Westside Village. To reduce costs, there were no sidewalks installed and houses were sold unpainted. One of the most noteworthy residences there is Richard Dorman‘s Sepulveda Rose apartments (1959).
WESTWOOD
What’s now Westwood was annexed by Los Angeles on 14 June 1916. UCLA moved there in 1929. Westwood is home to numerous museums, botanic gardens, sculpture gardens, striking architecture, theaters, and venues — as well as notoriously sleepy Westwood Village.
WESTWOOD VILLAGE
Development of Westwood began in 1919. Ten years later, the first businesses opened in Westwood Village — a planned commercial district. From the 1930s through the 1980s, it was a vibrant regional hub of dining, entertainment, and shopping.
WHITE FENCE FARMS
Glendale’s White Fence Farms Company incorporated in 1949. Their 260-hectare White Fence Farms tract, an unincorporated residential and agricultural community between Lancaster and Palmdale, was approved in December 1950.
WHITE HEATHER
The White Heather Inn was in operation on Sierra Highway by 1933. A library, liquor store, and service garage were added later. The cafe was renamed Minnie’s Home Bakery in 1949 but the community afterward came to be known as White Heather.
WHITING WOODS
Perry Whiting was born in Michigan in 1868. He co-founded the Whiting-Mead Company in 1898. He published his memoir, Perry: Experiences of a Pioneer in 1930. His estate, the Whiting Woods, was annexed by Glendale in 1950. He died in 1953.
WHITLEY HEIGHTS
WHITTIER
Alta California governor Don Pío de Jesús Pico built his home, El Ranchito, here in 1853. German Jacob F. Gerkens built a cabin c. 1860, the foundation of a quaker colony named after poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Whittier incorporated as a city in February 1898.
WHITTIER NARROWS
Bounded the Puente and Montebello hills, various rivers flow through the Whittier Narrows area. The Tongva had several villages in the area, including Isantcagna and Peruksngna (“place of the running water”). It proved less suitable for permanent structures. The Spanish built the first mission there in 1771 but was washed away by a flood in 1776.
WHOLESALE DISTRICT
By the mid-1890s, the Wholesale District began to coalesce in the southeast corner of Downtown next to freight train lines. Today there are neighboring districts dedicated to bongs, electronics, garments, piñatas, produce, seafood, and toys; and the Wholesale District is slowly being absorbed into the Arts District.
WILLMORE
In 1991, William E. Willmore leased 4,000 acres from Rancho Los Cerritos and founded Willmore City. In 1884, the Rancho claimed non-payment and sold the land to the Long Beach Land and Water Company. Thus Willmore became a neighborhood of Long Beach.
WILLOWBROOK
Willow-lined brooks and streams covered marshland here until the 1940s, much of the community was developed. Today it’s known as the home of Magic Johnson Park (and several smaller parks) as well as Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital.
WILMINGTON
In 1858, Phineas Banning acquired land from Manuel Domínguez and named it Wilmington after his Delaware birthplace. Today it’s home to the Banning Museum, the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, and the first location of the Der Wienerschnitzel chain.
WILSHIRE CENTER
Wilshire Center is a sub-district of Midtown named after Henry Gaylord Wilshire‘s eponymous boulevard. It contains within it both Koreatown and Little Bangladesh. The designation first appeared around 1928, the year after Gayolord’s death.
WILSHIRE HIGHLANDS
The original Wilshire Highlands tract opened in 1923. Later, the name was revived for a neighborhood developed in 1922 with a less romantic name, Tract No. 5069. Since 1969, it’s been home to a 24-hour Tex Mex joint, Lucy’s Drive-In.
WILSHIRE PARK
The Boulevard Heights Tract opened in 1906. The Wilshire Park Tract was subdivided in 1921 and developed around LARy’s L Line. The Wilshire Park HPOZ was designated in 2008 and Boulevard Heights Historic District was added to the NHRP in 2012.
WILSHIRE VISTA
John A. Vaughn and Walter G. McGarty‘s Wilshire Vista tract opened in October 1922. Despite the name, the only place in the neighborhood which affords a view of Wilshire is an oil well disguised as a commercial midrise, constructed in 1968.
WILSHIRE VISTA HEIGHTS
The area east of Wilshire Vista was developed in the 1920s. One of the most striking residences is Gregory Ain‘s Dunsmuir Flats (1937). Thirteen meters taller than its neighbor, the area was much later named Wilshire Vista Heights.
WILSHIRE-MONTANA
Montana Avenue marked the northern border of Santa Monica from 1875 until 1905. Wilshire-Montana Neighbors formed in 1983, providing the neighborhood with its name. Wilshire-Montana is home to the Aero Theatre and the Miles Playhouse.
WILSON COVE
WILSONA GARDENS
Wilsona Elementary School and the Wilsona School District were established in 1915. Around 1949, an arid patch of desert between Piute, Saddleback, and Long buttes was developed as Wilsona Gardens. Hot Rods From Hell was filmed there in 1966
WILTON
On 24 July 1979, 65 homes built between 1907 and 1939 were added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Wilton Historic District. It was part of a successful effort to prevent the demolition of six homes for a street widening project.
WINDSOR HILLS
Marlow-Burns Company‘s Windsor Hills development opened in January 1938. The suburb, composed largely of ranch homes, was served by LARy’s 5 Line until 1955. It is one of several contiguous neighborhoods that make up the “Black Beverly Hills.”
WINDSOR SQUARE
Robert A. Rowan debuted the English-themed Windsor Square in 1911. By the 1920s, it was served by two LARy streetcar lines and built out with Tudor, Italian Renaissance, and Dutch Colonial revival-style mansions, including the mayor’s residence.
WINDSOR VILLAGE
WINNETKA
The oldest homes in Winnetka date back to the 1910s but development really took off after the establishment of the Weeks Poultry Colony on 14 July 1927. In 1987, residents of eastern Canoga Park voted to rename their community after Winnetka Avenue.
WISEBURN
Wiseburn is an enclave surrounded by Hawthorne. Wiseburn is a portmanteau of “Wise” and “Burwell.” Around 1891, Kentuckyian Kenneth D. Wise established a horse farm near the Redondo Railway‘s Burwell Station. Doc Wise died on 31 July 1916.
WOODBURY
Woodbury is presumably named after Woodbury Road. It was home to the Glendale Sanitarium, which opened in 1905, now in operation as Adventist Health Glendale. Most homes in the neighborhood were built in the 1920s and ’30s.
WOODLAND HILLS
Near the historic site of the Tataviam village of Jucayubit, counterfeit Persian rug salesman/developer Victor Girard Kleinberger founded the community of Girard in 1923. In 1939, the Girard Country Club was renamed Woodland Hills Country Club. Residents of the community decided to rename their community Woodland Hills in 1941.
WRIGHTWOOD
The Taaqtam were probably the first people in Swarthout Valley. Mormons settled the valley in 1849. One Mormon, Sumner Wright, leant his name to Wrightwood. Mainly in San Bernardino County, by the 1960s, Wrightwood spread into Los Angeles County.
WRIGLEY HEIGHTS
Construction began in January 1944 on 300 homes for the Wrigley Heights Tract. The homes were built by the Glenn A. Doughty Co. for US Navy drydock workers. The subdivision was annexed by Long Beach on 18 May 1944. Homes went on sale in July.
YORK VALLEY
In 1909, residents of New York Valley petitioned to change New York Street to York Boulevard due to misdirected mail and the community afterward became York Valley. In 1922, York Valley forsook its distinct identity and joined Annandale, Garvanza, and Hermon in the Greater Highland Park Association. Garvanza and Hermon later regained a measure of their distinct identities.
YUCCA CORRIDOR
By the 1950s, Hollywood and Yucca Corridor went into steep decline. By the 1980s, it was a hotbed of cocaine dealing. Roads were blocked, cameras installed, and a park was created. In 2007, a Los Angeles Times writer described it as a “hip urban district.”
ZAFERIA
The Zaferia Tract was established in 1906 as a streetcar suburb amongst fields of mustard and sugar beets. Pacific Electric’s Balboa Line (1906-1950) opened the same year. Zaferia had saloons until it was annexed by dry Long Beach in 1920.
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Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, essayist, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking paid writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities. He is not interested in generating advertorials, cranking out clickbait, or laboring away in a listicle mill “for exposure.”
Brightwell has written for Angels Walk LA, Amoeblog, Boom: A Journal of California, diaCRITICS, Hidden Los Angeles, and KCET Departures. His art has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft Contemporary, Form Follows Function, Los Angeles County Store, the book Sidewalking, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Brightwell has been featured as subject in The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, LAist, CurbedLA, Eastsider LA, Boing Boing, Los Angeles, I’m Yours, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA?, at Emerson College, and the University of Southern California.
Brightwell is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Ameba, Duolingo, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Mubi, and Twitter.
Eric Brightwell 
There is a new gold rush in California, and the prospectors are already lining up. With a deluge of cash from Washington and Sacramento ready to flow down to counties and cities across our state, there is no shortage of ideas for how to invest this newfound money. Some proposals make a lot of sense, like shoring up California’s crumbling roads, bridges, and other key public infrastructure, and providing additional stimulus directly to households and businesses most in need. But some proposals make little sense, like those calling for L.A. and the state itself to build their own broadband networks. This is a good news for us in our community.
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