Victoria Park is a small neighborhood in the central region of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, California. There are three

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria. History The Historic-Cul ...

located in Victoria Park.

Geography

Victoria Park is bounded by

Pico Boulevard Pico may refer to: Places The Moon * Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin Portugal * Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde * Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribeir ...

on the north, the rear lot lines of Victoria Avenue on the east,

Venice Boulevard Venice Boulevard is a major east–west thoroughfare in Los Angeles, running from the ocean in the Venice district, past the I-10 intersection, into downtown Los Angeles. It was originally known as West 16th Street under the Los Angeles numbered ...

on the south and West Boulevard on the west. It is bisected by Victoria Park Drive. It is 2.5 miles (4.02 km) south of Hollywood and 3.5 miles (4.83 km) west of downtown Los Angeles. Century City is five miles (8.05 km) to the west along

. The

West Adams Heritage Association Founded in 1983, the West Adams Heritage Association (WAHA) is an historic preservation organization in Los Angeles, California that is focused on the preservation of the Historic West Adams section of the city. As stated on their website: "West ...

considers Victoria Park to be part of

Historic West Adams Historic West Adams is a residential and commercial region along the route of the Rosa Parks Freeway, paralleling the east-west Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. With variously described boundaries, the area was an exclusive residential ...

. Lafayette Square and

Wellington Square Wellington Square may refer to: * A neighbourhood in Burlington, Ontario, Canada * Wellington Square, Chelsea, a garden square in Chelsea, London * A square in Hastings, on the south coast of England * A square in Kolkata, India, renamed Subodh ...

are just to the south. Windsor Square and

Hancock Park Hancock Park is a city park in the Miracle Mile section of the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. The park's destinations include the La Brea Tar Pits; the adjacent George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, which displ ...

are to the north.

History

Origin

A first mention of Victoria Park was on January 20, 1907, in the '' Los Angeles Sunday Herald:''

A level, elevated block of around 1000x1000 feet, between Pico and Sixteenth streets, on the West Adams Heights hill, has been bought by a syndicate of a dozen prominent business men who will improve the tract as the highest class of residence property obtainable in the city. High class improvements are planned. Surface and subway car lines are close. David Barry & Co., the selling agents, say lots will range from $1720 to $2000 in value, corners higher.

The

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

ted but undeveloped tract was owned and offered for sale by a

syndicate A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndicat ...

composed of Josias J. (Jerry) Andrews, David Barry, S.R. Barry, J.A. Bowden, E.P. Clark, H.P. Hoffman, E.G. Howard, M.P. Gilbert, Isaac Kennedy, Charles Lloyd, E.N. Mathis, J.W. Willcox, M.H. Sherman, M.O. Tremaine, B.S. Tyler, F.M. Tyler and W.E. Tyler."Palms and Drives Lend Air of Distinction to Victoria Park," ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 20, 1908, page V-24
/ref> Established "as a "desirable residence tract for desirable people", the subdivision was limited to "high-class homes" that would be built for no less than $4,000. It would be "lighted by handsome stone and wrought-iron electroliers, twelve to fourteen feet high, with five large electric lights on each". The Victoria Park neighborhood design is based on the ideas of

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co ...

, who felt that "circular shapes broke up the linear look of most urban areas". The area was intended to be upscale; for example, the streetlights were custom-designed and registered with the city as the "Victoria Park Fixture". Many of the homes were built between 1910 and 1915 and serve as fine architectural examples of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.

Drainage

Although the builders had promised in 1907 that Victoria Park, being "on a high hill", had "perfect drainage", property owners found two years later that rainwater was flooding down

from as far west as

Vermont Avenue Vermont Avenue is one of the longest running north–south streets in City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, California. With a length of , is the third longest of the north–south thoroughfares in the region. For most of its length be ...

and turning into Victoria Park "with such volume that the street work has been torn up several times". After a complaint by property owner and police commissioner J.J. Andrews to the Board of Public Works, the city's chief public works inspector said he would look into the matter but he felt not much could be done unless the property owners would pave Pico at their own expense.

Transportation

Streetcars were promised for both West 16th Street (today's

) along the south boundary as well as a Pico Boulevard Line to the north. And by 1913, Pacific Electric's 16th Street Line would offer residents a 7-minute ride to downtown Los Angeles. A few years later, in 1920,

Los Angeles Railway The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent local ...

's "P" Line (Pico Line) would finally reach Victoria Park. There was also a subway line promised to and from downtown."Victoria Park to Be Exclusive," ''Los Angeles Times,'' October 23, 1907, page III-3
/ref>

Hadacheck v. Sebastian

Victoria Park had a role in a landmark zoning case that reached all the way to the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

and was decided in 1915 as '' Hadacheck v. Sebastian''. The court effectively ruled that the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...

did not prohibit a local zoning ordinance from putting a commercial enterprise out of business.''Hadacheck v. Sebastian'' 239 U.S. 394 (1915)

Security

In 1996, a pedestrian walkway between Venice Boulevard and Victoria Park Place was closed for security reasons. The $1,000 cost was borne by Victoria Park residents.

Neighborhood Tours

On December 2–3, 2006, the

's twentieth annual Holiday Tour, titled "A Holiday to Remember in Victoria Park", took place in the neighborhood. On June 4, 2016, the

sponsored a tour of 5 homes in Victoria Park. Titled "A Walk in the Park", the ticketed event was open to the public.

Gallery

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments

There are three Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Victoria Park. On September 18, 1998, the Craftsman home at 4318 Victoria Park Place was added to the list of

. It was built in 1912 and is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #654. On August 15, 2007, the

Holmes-Shannon House The Holmes-Shannon House is a Craftsman style home with Tudor influences. History It was built in 1911 in the Victoria Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Designed by Robert Farquhar Train and Robert Edmund Williams, the house wa ...

at 4311 Victoria Park Drive was added to both the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

and the list of

. Built in 1911, it is described as "a residential building designed in the Tudor-Craftsman style by a prominent firm and reflective of the development of Victoria Park". It is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #885. On August 12, 2014, the Charles C. Hurd Residence, located at 4359 Victoria Park Place, was added to the list of

. Built in 1909, the Charles C. Hurd Residence is a single-family home built in the Arts and Crafts

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

style. It is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #1073.

Sugar Shack

The Sugar Shack is an " intentional community" occupying a two-story, three-bathroom house on the edge of Victoria Park that was brought to public attention through a

feature story A feature story is a piece of non-fiction writing about news. A feature story is a type of soft news. The main sub-types are the ''news feature'' and the '' human-interest story''. A feature story is distinguished from other types of non-news ...

in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' in April 2007. Reporter Carla Hall wrote:

Sugar Shack is an oddity in this neighborhood, a home caught literally and figuratively between Pico oulevard– with its fast-food joints and auto parts shops – and Victoria Park, a jewel-like hamlet a block south that is dotted with stately Craftsman houses.The homeowners of Victoria Park, which is diverse but mostly black, have a courtly sense of what a neighborhood should be, and it doesn't include a house that is painted blue and has a front door that looks like a piece of
psychedelic art Psychedelic art (also known as psychedelia) is art, graphics or visual displays related to or inspired by psychedelic experiences and hallucinations known to follow the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT. The word ...
from a '70s
head shop A head shop is a retail outlet specializing in paraphernalia used for consumption of cannabis and tobacco and items related to cannabis culture and related countercultures. They emerged from the hippie counterculture in the late 1960s, and ...
. The neighbors regard Sugar Shack ... with some suspicion, unsure what the residents are up to and scornful of the house's exterior decor.Carla Hall, "The Cries of the Beholder," ''Los Angeles Times,'' April 12, 2007
/ref>

At issue was a mural painted around 2005 by one of the Sugar Shack residents, artist Olga Socolovia, on the

side of the property, just next to a bus stop, without a city permit. Somebody complained, and residents of the house had to go to neighborhood meetings to explain what the community was all about and plead for support for their artwork. Some of the residents turned the meetings into a critique of the communal house itself, which sits in the commercially zoned Pico Boulevard strip of Victoria Park. In the end, the city granted a permit for the mural, which still exists. The Sugar Shack's front door has been repainted to blend with the neighborhood.

Filming

A number of homes in Victoria Park have served as locations for feature films and TV shows, including the 1997 film ''L.A. Confidential'', the 2010 film ''Insidious'', the 2007 film ''This Christmas'', and 2014 episodes of ''Teen Wolf''.

Notes and references

Access to some of the links may require the use of a library card. {{reflist