Wilshire Vista is a neighborhood in the
central region of
Los Angeles
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, ...
.
History
A portion of Wilshire Vista was part of a 120-acre farm purchased in 1870 by Joseph Masselin, a French miner who had failed at prospecting in the 1849
California Gold Rush
The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
and then settled in the Los Angeles area in 1870. His heirs sold 73 acres fronting on Wilshire Boulevard to Walter G. McCarty, John A. Vaughn and John Evans, who combined it with other land to form the Wilshire Vista tract.
Sales and development began in 1922 on 85 acres of high, rolling ground between Pico, Cahuenga and Wilshire boulevards, with "the promising of a
treet
Treet (Armour Star Treet) is a canned lunch meat product similar to Spam first introduced in 1939 by Armour and Company in the United States. Sold as "spiced luncheon loaf", it is made with chicken and pork and has a more finely ground texture ...
ar line, the new Los Angeles High School within eight minutes walk, the Page Military Academy on the adjoining property, the convenience to the city and beaches via the boulevards, as well as Country Club Drive and
San Vicente Boulevard
San Vicente Boulevard is a major northwest-southeast thoroughfare located in the western portion of the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, CA.
The boulevard begins at Venice Boulevard between Crenshaw Boulevard and La Brea Avenue and travels ...
running across the tract."
In 2001, 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 ...
noted that Wilshire Vista was historically an African-American community, but had now become more varied in ethnic composition with the arrival of young families and single professionals.
in 2015, the northwest corner of Wilshire Vista was determined historically significant by SurveyLA and was named the "Orange Grove Avenue-Ogden Drive-Genesee Avenue Multi-Family Residential Historic District". This part of Wilshire Vista contains a unique district of multifamily homes adjacent to single family homes, built between 1927-1950 and most of which (96 percent) are still in their original condition.
["Wilshire Vista residents seeking Historic District Designation ''LarchmontBuzz'' August 4, 2019]
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In 2020, Wilshire Vista West was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historical Resources.[''LarchmontChronicle'' March 2, 2022]
/ref>
Geography
Wilshire Vista is bounded by San Vicente Boulevard on the north, Hauser Boulevard on the east, Pico Boulevard on the south and Fairfax Avenue on the west.
Notable Landmarks
* Charlotte Chase Apartments -1074-76 South Genesee Avenue - Los Angeles Cultural Historic Monument 1179 [List of Cultural Historic Monuments]
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* Charles H. Bevis Duplex - 1080-82 South Genesee - Los Angeles Cultural Historic Monument 1180 [
* Packard Well Site: 5733 W. Pico Blvd. - Opened in 1968, The Packard Well Site is a drilling location disguised to look like a nondescript office building from street level. There are 51 active wells and the site continues to produce thousands of barrels of oil each year.]
References
External links
*
P.I.C.O. Neighborhood CouncilThe Wilshire Vista Neighborhood Association
{{Wilshire
Neighborhoods in Los Angeles
Westside (Los Angeles County)