L.A.’s Highland Park neighborhood: artistic nexus and historic preservation zone - Los Angeles Unique Travel | Examiner.com

"Sousa Nook" (built 1928) behind the Hiner House on N. Figueroa St.
Photo credit: Molly Frisco

Highland Park is a neighborhood zone in northeast Los Angeles that encompasses three historically distinct settlements (Sycamore Grove, Garvanza, and Mount Angelus) as well as the residential developments between them. Carved out of the Rancho San Rafael (acquired in 1783 by Jose Maria Verdugo, a corporal in the San Gabriel Mission guard, by a grant from Alta California's Spanish authorities) and laid out along the north flank of the southern section of the Arroyo Seco between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena, Highland Park is one of the oldest residential sections in L.A., having been settled as early as the 1870s and with its greater Sycamore Grove neighborhood annexed into the city in 1895. The Garvanza community was likewise annexed in 1899.

Large-scale development of the Highland Park area into parcels for small farms and residences was underway in the late 1880s, reflecting the broader southern California land boom of that time. Before that, only a few dozen residences had been built. The landscape was predominantly rolling hills and grassland, with wild grapes, clematis, and stands of sycamore, California live oak, willows, and black walnut trees found along the lower arroyo itself. Several springs are also to be found near the feet of the hills on both sides of the arroyo.

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