Rancho Park is a residential neighborhood in the Westside of the city of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

with mostly single family homes and tree lined streets. The community is nestled between

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped ...

and

Cheviot Hills The Cheviot Hills (), or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes ...

. This enclave draws young professionals and families and is home to residents working in a variety of professional occupations. History proves the neighborhood was once a part of Westwood until Olympic Blvd. was placed dividing the area North and South. The Southern section, now known as Rancho Park, felt cut off from its North side lobbying for its own identity in the 1930s.

Etymology

Rancho Park was named by area boosters after World War II.

We thought it was about time to have our own community. We must separate ourselves from Westwood. There were many names suggested for our new community but there was a pioneer real estate broker here who had established his office on Pico near Manning back in 1927. His name was Bill Heyler. Bill did as much as any other one person to develop the area; so when it came time to adopting a name for the community, the wisdom of our pioneer was in counsel. The honor of naming this community "Rancho Park" went to Bill Heyler. Heyler is also credited with bringing in the Rancho Park Golf Course, which opened in 1947.

Geography

It is bordered by Sawtelle on the west,

on the northwest,

on the east, and Westside Village on the south. The district's boundaries, while somewhat ill-defined, are generally considered to be the San Diego Freeway ( I-405) or Sepulveda on the west, Olympic Boulevard on the north, Manning Avenue (south of

Pico Boulevard Pico Boulevard is a major Los Angeles street that runs from the Pacific Ocean at Appian Way in Santa Monica to Central Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. It is named after Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta C ...

) and Beverly Glen Boulevard (north of Pico) on the east, and National Boulevard on the south. (Los Angeles City signs mark Olympic Boulevard as the district's northern boundary.) Major thoroughfares include

Pico 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 Ribe ...

, Westwood, Olympic, Sepulveda, and Beverly Glen Boulevards, along with Overland and Manning Avenues. Nearby is

Santa Monica Boulevard Santa Monica Boulevard is a major west–east thoroughfare in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It runs from Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica near the Pacific Ocean to Sunset Boulevard at Sunset Junction in Los Angeles. It passes t ...

Century City Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California, United States. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown Los Angeles, Cent ...

is also located nearby.

History

Rancho Park was developed in the 1920s as a middle-class area, and most of its housing stock consists of

Spanish Colonial The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (), often known simply as Spanish Revival, is a term used to encompass a number of revivalist architectural styles based in both Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish architecture in general. These ...

bungalows and ranch houses. Today, many of the modest sized homes have been rehabbed into larger and more modern architecture. Apart from the heavily traveled stretch of Pico Boulevard (including the Westside Pavilion

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

) in its central portions, the district has a notably quiet,

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

an feel. The district's streets are equipped with faux 19th-century streetlights and feature large

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

trees in the strips between the sidewalk and the street. (Rancho Park is one of the few districts in Los Angeles where fall foliage can be seen.) The enclave is centrally located to other Westside communities.

Demographics

In 2009, the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

s "Mapping L.A." project supplied these Rancho Park neighborhood statistics: population: 5,464; median household income: $78,116.

Government

The

Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Health Services Los Angeles County, officially the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, operates the public hospitals and clinics in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County and is the United States' second largest municip ...

SPA 5 West Area Health Office serves Rancho Park.

Los Angeles Police Department The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

operates the West Los Angeles Community Police Station serving the neighborhood.

Education

Rancho Park is served by

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

schools: * Westwood Charter Elementary School * Overland Elementary School * Clover Elementary School
Emerson Middle School
* Venice High School *

Hamilton High School Hamilton High School may refer to: United States Alabama * Hamilton High School (Alabama) in Hamilton Arizona * Hamilton High School (Chandler, Arizona) in Chandler Arkansas * Lake Hamilton High School in Pearcy California * Hamilton High Sc ...

Private school: * Notre Dame Academy (Catholic girls high school) * Lycee Francais de Los Angeles (private, bilingual and international institution) * St Timothy School (Catholic school) * Redeemer Baptist Elementary School Charter school: * New West Charter Middle School

Los Angeles Public Library The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California, operating separate from the Los Angeles County Public Library system. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million resid ...

operates the Palms–Rancho Park Branch.

Recreation

The municipal Rancho Park Golf Course includes an 18-hole layout par 71 championship course. The park has Back Nine Play, a banquet room, a cart rental, a clubhouse, a lighted driving range, lessons, locker rooms for men and women, practice putting greens, a pro shop, rental clubs, and a snack bar.Home page
. Rancho Park Golf Course. Retrieved on March 23, 2010. Two people have tied the course record of 61 (–10) at the par-71 course. The junior record is 64 (–7) by Tiger Woods in 1989, at the age of 13. The senior record is held by James White, who shot a 65 (–6) in the Los Angeles Senior City Championship in August 1998.

In popular culture

* Pico and Sepulveda is a song by Felix Figueroa & His Orchestra (stage name for Freddy Martin's band).

References

External links

Westside Neighborhood Council (includes Rancho Park)

Rancho Park Online is the news and a social networking site for Rancho Park

[Rancho Park:">''Los Angeles Times'', Real Estate section, Neighborly Advice column: "[Rancho Park:
/nowiki> Pancakes, putting green just around the corner" (4 Apr 2004)] {{Authority control Rancho Park, Los Angeles, Neighborhoods in Los Angeles Westside (Los Angeles County)