University Hills is a neighborhood on the East Side of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It consists of the residential areas surrounding California State University,

History

University Hills is in the eastern San Rafael Hills. They were part of the

Pre-columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

homeland of the

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically ...

Indians for thousands of years, and they named this area ''Otsunga'' (place of roses). It is the former site of one of California's 36 original adobes, built in 1776 by Franciscan missionaries, and destroyed by a fire in 1908. The area was part of the 1831

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...

Rancho Rosa Castilla Rancho Rosa Castilla was a Mexican land grant in the southwestern San Rafael Hills, in present day Los Angeles County, California, given to Juan Ballesteros in 1831 by Governor Manuel Victoria. It included present day Rose Hills, Lincoln Heigh ...

, given to Juan Ballesteros by

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

Governor

Manuel Victoria Manuel Victoria (died 1833) was governor of the Mexican-ruled territory of Alta California from January 1831 to December 6, 1831. He died in exile. He was appointed governor on March 8, 1830 by Lucas Alamán. Exile The revolt, called Battle of Ca ...

. It was named for the abundant amount of native Wood roses (''Rosa californica'') along the creek. In 1852, after statehood, the title passed to Jean-Baptiste Batz and his wife, Catalina. He was a Basque immigrant rancher from northern Spain. In 1882, after both died, the land was divided among six of their children. For most of its history, University Hills was a neighborhood within El Sereno, which was developed more than a century ago with the expansion of the

Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

Red Car lines. The Eastsider.com: "El Sereno historic district comes up for review"
/ref> In the 1990s, the community's homeowners association lobbied for renaming the area. In 2004, the City of Los Angeles designated the residential community surrounding California State University Los Angeles as "University Hills". The increase in Southern California real estate values in the early 2000s attracted professionals looking for alternative neighborhoods to more distant

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

s and the Westside.Jennifer Delson, "A Campus Enclave That's a Study in Contrasts," ''Los Angeles Times,'' April 24, 2005
/ref>

Geography

University Hills was designated an official Los Angeles neighborhood in October 2004. It is bounded by Mariana Avenue on the west, Valley Boulevard on the north, the Long Beach Freeway on the east, and Eastern Avenue on the south. The Department of Transportation was instructed to install signs (with a blue background, white text, and City logo at the top) at the following locations to identify "University Hills": Valley Boulevard at Beatie Place, Valley Boulevard at Highbury Avenue, and Eastern Avenue at Medford Street. University Hills is bordered by El Sereno on the north and west,

City Terrace City Terrace is an unincorporated area of East LA, in Los Angeles County, California, east of Downtown Los Angeles. It contains City Terrace Elementary School, Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School, Esteban Torres High School, Harrison Elementary S ...

on the south,

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the ...

on the north-east, and Monterey Park on the south-east. Major thoroughfares include Eastern Avenue, Marianna Avenue, and

Valley Boulevard Valley Boulevard is a street in Southern California, running east from Los Angeles to Pomona, where it becomes Holt Boulevard, and a continuation from Fontana to Colton. It generally parallels Interstate 10 (I-10) and State Route 6 ...

. The San Bernardino freeway runs along the neighborhood's southern edge. The adjacent campus of California State University, Los Angeles occupies nearly 200 acres (0.8 km) on a hilltop site that affords views of the

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains ( es, Sierra de San Gabriel) are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Tr ...

to the north, the

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley ( es, Valle de San Gabriel) is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles, and occupying the vast majority of the eastern part ...

to the east, metropolitan Los Angeles to the west, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Catalina Island to the south. University-Hills

Education

University Hills is zoned to schools in the

Los Angeles USD Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...

: * City Terrace Elementary School * El Sereno Middle School * Wilson High School

References

External links

University Hills Association
{{coord, 34, 04, 00, N, 118, 10, 04, W, display=title Neighborhoods in Los Angeles Eastside Los Angeles El Sereno, Los Angeles Populated places established in 1776