Highland Park is one of the most popular neighborhoods in Los Angeles, CA right now. I grew up in Highland Park during the 1980s. My family lived on  the corner of N. Avenue 49 & Stratford Road just one block away from Occidental College. I spent a great deal of my youth on that campus.

20 years ago, Highland Park was a different place. You didn’t go south of York Blvd. after dark, and you definitely didn’t go south of Figueroa. All that’s changed now. Highland Park 90042 is one of LA’s hottest neighborhod trendiest enclaves and the streets that I was originally told to avoid as a kid, are now the same streets where you can find some of the best dive bars and restaurants in the Northeast LA area. The best part of this community is that it really feels like a small town neighborhood, where the business owners live and work in the 90042, and know the regular customers by their first names. There’s a sense around here, that we’re all playing for the same team.

The real estate ranges from century-old homes to brand new construction. It runs the whole gambit. It’s most common homes are the Craftsman, Bungalow, Spanish style, and transitional-style homes that blend elements from more than one period. Highland Park has a diverse collection of historic homes. About 2,800 structures, including more than 50 designated as historic cultural monuments by Los Angeles’ Cultural Heritage Commission, make up the Highland Park Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, established in 1994.

Most people wouldn’t think of Highland Park as a college town, and some might argue contrary to this theory, but it is. It is an excellent residential town for college students, and much of the real estate is renter occupied. Highland Park has an above average safety rating. For this reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 1.1% of college-friendly places to live in the state of California. It is estimated that there are approximately 75,000 residents of the 90042.

Highland Park is located 8.2 miles northeast of Downtown LA and is bordered by Pasadena, Eagle Rock, South Pasadena, and El Sereno.

It was in 1870 that two pioneer Southern California investors, Andrew Glassell (yes Glassel Park 90065 is named after him) and A. C. Chapman, purchased what is now Highland Park from the Verdugo interests for one dollar per acre; and promptly leased the land for further sheep raising; and it was in the year 1871, as recorded in “The Five Friendly Valleys,” published in 1923 by the SecurityFirst National Bank, that 15,000 sheep grazed on the hills and valleys of what is now Highland Park. And the hillside that now is the beautiful Occidental College campus was then a sheep-shearing corral; and the adobe ranch house stood on what is now North Ave. 54, near Franklin High School.

On May 20, 1882, the Hunter Highland View Tract, located above Cypress Ave. and including lots along Isabel St., was recorded by G. W. Morgan intended to “…make this spot the most desirable for suburban homes of any in Southern California…”

In spite of the vigorous promotions of the early 1880’s, few lots were sold; and as late as early 1887 only half dozen or so houses had been built in all the region that now is Highland Park, including Garvanza and Annandale. The Garvanza Land Co, owned by Ralph artd Ed Rogers, James Booth and W. F. McClure, opened the first Garvanza Tract Dec. 13, 1886, and named the tract “Town of Garvanza,” after the garbanzo bean fields surrounding the hills. Later, as the Sante Fe railway brought more and more people to Southern California, the town became attractive to bohemians eager to take advantage of the Arroyo’s unique natural setting, close proximity to Los Angeles, and inexpensive properties. These elements helped contribute to the development of the first artist colony in Los Angeles, with leading lights like William Lees Judson making the area their home and establishing studio space there.

The 1890’s were lean years for Highland Park, as they were for the rest of Southern California. Business lots that had sold for $l5OO were sloughed off for as little as $lOO. The corner lot now occupied by the Security-First National Bank, at N. Figueroa St. and Ave. 56, could have been purchased for $125 in 1893 if there had been a buyer. Another event of great importance for 1898 was the coming of Occidental College to Highland Park.

Content courtesy of CDNC.

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