Westside Village is a neighborhood on the west side of

Los Angeles, California 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' ...

Geography

Westside Village is bounded by National Boulevard to the north, Charnock Road to the south, Overland Avenue to the east and

Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Bou ...

to the west. The neighborhood shares a 90034 zip code with Palms, but Westside Village is designated "Zone 1" of the Mar Vista Community Council.

History

The area was part of

Rancho La Ballona Rancho La Ballona was a Mexican land grant in the present-day Westside region of Los Angeles County, Southern California. The rancho was confirmed by Alta California Governor Juan Alvarado in 1839, to Ygnacio and Augustin Machado and Felipe ...

and later the Charnock Ranch (which grew

lima beans A lima bean (''Phaseolus lunatus''), also commonly known as the butter bean, sieva bean, double bean, Madagascar bean, or wax bean is a legume grown for its edible seeds or beans. Origin and uses ''Phaseolus lunatus'' is found in Meso- and S ...

, grain hay and

walnuts A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bot ...

). Then, in 1939, the area was subdivided for the building of 1,200 single family homes by

developer Developer may refer to: Computers * Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web d ...

Fritz B. Burns, and it became one of the first examples of

tract housing Tract housing is a type of housing development in which multiple similar houses are built on a tract (area) of land that is subdivided into smaller lots. Tract housing developments are found in suburb developments that were modeled on the " Levi ...

in the Los Angeles area. Fritz Burns was also responsible for the development of the westside neighborhoods of

Playa del Rey Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...

and Westchester, and his personal papers are archived at the Westchester campus of

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

. Westside Village was a created with affordability in mind. The houses averaged just , had single car garages, and were built on lots of about . In 1939–1940, the original homes sold for around

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

4,000. Burns kept the prices affordable by selling the houses unpainted, the yards unplanted (while providing buyers with access to plants that could be purchased for 25 and 50 cents each) and by leaving the streets without sidewalks—many of which remain without sidewalks to this day. The placement of Westside Village between what was then the

MGM Studios Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

in Culver City and the Douglas Aircraft Company in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

at a time when both the movie and aerospace industries were booming, made the homes in the development immediately desirable to workers of both facilities.

Foliage

The streets are lined with mature, statuesque

Jacaranda ''Jacaranda'' is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. The generic name is also used as the common name. The species ''Jacaranda mimosifolia'' has achie ...

Pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

, Camphor,

Chinese Elm ''Ulmus parvifolia'', commonly known as the Chinese elm or lacebark elm, is a species native to eastern Asia, including China, India, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Fu, L., Xin, Y. & Whittemore, A. (2002)Ulmaceae in Wu, Z. & Raven, P. (eds) ''Flora of ...

, and

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...

trees, which provide privacy and shade for the residents.

Population

As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Westside Village had a population of about 9,984.

References

Neighborhoods in Los Angeles Mar Vista, Los Angeles Westside (Los Angeles County) 1940 establishments in California Populated places established in 1940 Palms, Los Angeles {{LosAngeles-geo-stub