HOMES—Hanging on to History

0



With thousands of vintage homes and other structures, Highland Park stands as one of L.A.’s best-kept historic secrets. But preserving that legacy isn’t easy

With sprawl and population growth mounting, the historic neighborhoods of inner-city Los Angeles are feeling the pressure.

While drawing increased attention from developers in search of infill properties, those storied areas are also taking a higher priority among local, regional and even national preservation groups that are rallying to restore historic structures while keeping developers in check.

One of those areas is Highland Park, northeast of downtown L.A., which boasts the city’s largest historic preservation overlay zone requiring City Hall to undertake a number of special design reviews related to the impact of projects proposed in the area.

Highland Park can trace its history to the arrival of the first Europeans and their encampment at the junction of the Arroyo Seco and the Los Angeles River. The area now contains more than 2,500 historic structures and 70 city cultural monument sites, including the Southwest Museum (the city’s first museum), El Alisal (the home of Charles Fletcher Lummis), Heritage Square and the Judson Studios.

Driving through Highland Park is a step back in time, with its picturesque California bungalows, low-rise main street along Figueroa Street (once part of Route 66), and sycamore-filled parks. But it’s quickly becomes apparent that it is also a neighborhood in transition.

Because of Highland Park’s relative affordability, many longtime residents fear imminent gentrification, with the area’s multicultural mix at risk. Others are concerned about the possible demolition of historic structures and their replacement by oversized stucco apartment buildings.

In addition, the Pasadena extension of the Blue Line light-rail route, which will traverse Highland Park, is expected to greatly impact the historic commercial center. City planners have already drafted a new Avenue 57 Transit-Oriented District Plan that advocates a mix of businesses and housing types surrounding the proposed Highland Park station.


Historic watchdog

Since its founding in the early 1980s to fight oversized developments, Highland Park Heritage Trust has served as the guardian of the area’s history in the face of such projects. The strictly volunteer, nonprofit organization with no budget, permanent staff, or office has worked to educate the resident community about the area’s rich legacy in the hope of raising vigilance about historic encroachment.

The educational and advocacy organization now represents more than 250 households with membership crossing all ethnic and economic lines.

As part of its efforts, Highland Park Heritage Trust convinced the city in 1997 to officially recognize part of the area as Garvanza, which was its original designation at the end of the 19th century. According to Nicole Possert, vice president of the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the name recognition was important for the area’s sense of civic pride and history.

“Reclaiming Garvanza allows residents to connect with the past and the development of the city,” she said. “People get a sense of the place and its history, which resonates.”

Indeed, the area in the lower Arroyo Seco has flourished since the time of Gabrielino Indian settlements. El Camino Real even crossed through Garvanza when it was part of Rancho San Rafael. But a disastrous drought in the 1860s forced the grant’s partition.

The coming of the railroad and the Los Angeles real estate boom of the 1880s helped transform the once-agrarian hillsides into a modern town that boasted a railroad station, luxury hotel (the Mt. Washington Hotel built in 1909), and a hometown newspaper (the Garvanzan).

Both Highland Park and Garvanza were annexed by Los Angeles at the turn of the century. And the region’s legacy as an arts colony and home to arts and crafts ideals can still be seen in the many fine examples of workmanship in the local version of the California bungalow, complete with river rock from the arroyo as a structural and decorative element.

The tradition of appreciating historic buildings in Highland Park goes back to Charles Fletcher Lummis, who helped found the California Landmarks Club in 1894 to advocate the restoration of California’s crumbling missions. His appreciation and writings about the arroyo’s natural beauty also helped popularize the scenic area with other writers, artists and painters of his day. Garvanza was also the site of Los Angeles’ first fine arts college, which was located on the property of today’s Judson Studios.


‘Constant battle’

In fact, David Judson, the great-great grandson of William Lees Judson, still works at the nationally recognized art glass studio that has called Garvanza home for the past century.

“It’s still reasonably affordable to live here and it’s a nice community to get a start in, but it’s a constant battle to prevent developers from razing houses and replacing them with multifamily units,” says Judson.

Judson is in the process of restoring the Judson Studios historic property, which is listed on the National Historic Register administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Like many property owners, Judson hopes to benefit from federal tax credits for commercial buildings on the register that provides a 20 percent bottom-line credit for construction work done as part of restoration efforts.

The J. Paul Getty Trust has also been instrumental in helping preserve local landmarks. Both the Christ Faith Mission-Pisgah Home (built in 1895) and the Faith United Presbyterian Church (1923-24) will receive funds from the trust’s Preserve L.A. grant program to create comprehensive conservation plans for the structures.

The Getty program stresses the importance of planning and extensive study of a resource before actual brick-and-mortar work begins. It’s a reflection of the trust’s belief that historic buildings all need stewards of one sort or another, says John Oddy, program officer of the Getty grant program.

Possert agrees.

“Preservation is a tool that keeps buildings and landscapes intact with the net benefit to all community members being the opportunity to share pride of place with your neighbors,” she said.

No posts to display