Fall 2007 Echo Park Historical Society News

8/14/2019 Fall 2007 Echo Park Historical Society News

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Autumn 2007 Volume 11 Number

E c h o P a r k H i s t o r i c a l S o c i e t y

NEWS

Take a step back into the past by ex-ploring our neighborhoods unique net-

work of public stairways that will befeatured on the upcoming 2007 HistoricEcho Park Home Tour.

Flights of Fancy: The StairwayHomes of Echo Park, will highlight

homes located on or near the public stairways that scale the hills of Echo Park, Angelino Heights and Elysian Heights.Find out what stairway living is allabout by taking the tour on Sunday, Nov., from a.m. to 4 p.m.

The approximately eight propertieson this years tour range from a 920s eraSpanish-Colonial compound overlook-ing Echo Park Lake to nearly century-oldCraftsman bungalows in the hills of Ely-sian Heights. For the rst time, the tour

features a newly constructed structure,a post-and-beam house that is one of thefew homes to be built on an Echo Parkstairway in decades.

The public stairways that scale EchoParks sometimes ridiculously steep hillsare relics of the days before automobiles

began to dominate the landscape andculture of Los Angeles. They reect atime when most residents traveled either

by horse and carriage, trolley or (gasp) onfoot. (Please see pages 4 &5 for a stairwaymap and stories.)

Now in its fth year, the Historic EchoPark Home Tour is designed to generateinterest in the preservation of old andhistoric homes as well as raise funds tosupport our ongoing preservation andhistoric-research programs.

The self-guided tour starts at Wil-

liams Hall, 2000 Stadium Way. Tour visi-tors will pick up tickets, a program andmap at Williams Hall and can then seethe homes in any order.

Admission is $20 general, $5 forEPHS members. During the month ofOctober, the general public can purchase$5 discount tickets online and throughthe mail. See Page 6 for a ticket orderform.

For more information about the tour,headed by Holly Hampton, please visitHistoricEchoPark.org. More maps and

information on Echo Park Stairways isavailable in the History & Landmarkssection of HistoricEchoPark.org

A Note on AccessThe nature of this years tour will make

access extremely difcult for people withphysical disabilities. In addition to beinglocated on public stairways, some of thehomes also have multiple steps and stair-

ways. Also, because of restricted park-ing and our narrow streets, some of thehomes will be located about .5 blocks or

Just Say TexThe Story of L.A.s Oldest

French RestaurantWednesday, October 0, at 7 pmBarlow Library at Barlow Hospital

2000 Stadium Way

In 1927, Marius Taix Jr. opened adowntown restaurant featuring 50-centchicken dinners served at communaltables (25 cents more got you a private

booth). Eighty years later, Taix French Restaurant is still going strong underits third generation of family ownershipat its new Echo Park location, whichopened in 1962. Marius grandson, Michael Taix, will present the colorfulstory and vintage photos of this restau-rant that has survived eight decadesof intense competition and constantlychanging tastes.

This presentation, which is free andopen to the public, is part of our quar-terly meeting and includes updates andother news related to neighborhoodhistory and preservation.

EPHS Quarterly Meeting

2007 Home Tour featuresEcho Park Stairway Living

Get a cardio workout and history lessonon this years home tour

more from the nearest available parkingspace.

See Page 6 for ticket order form.

See Pages 4 & 5 for astairway map and stories

on Stairway Living.


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2 www.HistoricEchoPark.org

Calendar news/Updates

Echo Park Historical SocietyP.O. Box 261022 - Los Angeles, CA 90026

(323) 860-8874email: [email protected]

www.HistoricEchoPark.org

Founded 1995

The Echo Park Historical Society is dedicatedto the preservation and promotion of diverse

cultural and architectural heritage of ourcommunity.

Board of DirectorsPresident

Kevin KuzmaVice-President

Mary-Austin KleinRecording Secretary

Jim Schneeweis

At-LargeScott Fajack, Jenny Burman,

Christine Peters, David Schnepp

Newsletter StaffDesktop Publishing: Terri Lloyd Company

Editor:Jenny BurmanAd Manager:Rosie Betanzos

Contributing Writers:Becky Koppenhhaver,Kevin Kuzma, Vanessa McGee, David Ptach

OCTOBER

EPHS Quarterly MembershipMeetingWednesday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.Please see front page for details.

EPHS Board MeetingMonday, October 15 at 7 p.m.

Our monthly board meeting is open toall members. Please call (323) 860-8874for location information.

Library Book DisplaySaturday, October 20 12 p.m. 3 p.m..Stop by the Edendale branch library,2011 Sunset Blvd., and take a peak atthe books on local history and historicpreservation that we are donating aspart of our Ron Emler Memorial BookProgram (a similar display was set up atthe Echo Park branch in October). EPHSvolunteer Rowena Magana will staff adisplay of the books as well as historicphotos and other materials. This yearstitles range from a book on watercolor

artist Phil Dike to a book of bungalowblueprints. We would like to thank gen-erous donations from the Greater EchoPark Elysian Neighborhood Council- Dis-trict 3 and Carla Ballard for defrayingthe costs of purchasing the books.

Elysian Park Walking TourSaturday, October 27 at 10 a.m..The Elysian Park Tour, which is co-spon-sored by the Citizens Committee toSave Elysian Park, focuses on the less-er known but historically rich easternedge of the park. Starting Place: Fre-mont Monument at North Broadway andElysian Park Road. Reservations arerequired. Please call (323) 860-8874or visit the Walking Tour section ofwww.HistoricEchoPark.org for moredetails.

NOVEMBEREcho Park Library 10th AnniversarySaturday, Nov. 3.Stop by the Echo Park Branch Library,1410 W. Temple St., to celebrate its 10thbirthday in its current location. The EPHSwill present a history slideshow from 2p.m. 3 p.m..

2007 Historic Echo Park Home TourSunday, Nov 11 11 a.m. 4 p.m.See Page 1 for details.

EPHS Board MeetingMonday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.See October events for details.

Echo Park Stairway TourSaturday, Nov. 24 at 10 AMThe walk includes the Baxter Stairs (pos-sibly the citys longest) as well as Fel-lowship Park, Red Hill and the modern-ist Harwell Harris house. Starting Place:Elysian Heights Elementary 1562 Bax-ter St. at Echo Park Ave. Reservationsare required. Please Call (323) 860-8874or visit the Walking Tour section of www.HistoricEchoPark.org for more details.

Paddle Boats in Dry DockThere was a big splash around the

paddle boats this summer when they werethreatened with eviction from the newlyrenovated boathouse at Echo Park Lake.Councilman Eric Garcetti got creative

and came up with some money to keepthe concession going. He also announcedat a lakeside press conference that as longas he was in ofce the boats would paddlefor the public. But the paddle boat opera-tion closed for the summer in early Sep-tember and no reopening date has beenannounced.

The Department of Recreation andParks said the paddle boat program runsa $90,000 a year decit it can no longerafford (though its not clear if other rec &park programs are supposed to pay their

way).The Council Member is looking into

ways to make it a more nancially sus-tainable operation, said council ofceeld deputy Kabira Stokes Hochberg inan email to the Chicken Corner Blog. The

boats will return, we are just not certainas to when.

In the meantime, Echo Park photog-rapher Martin Cox is organizing a groupphoto exhibit featuring the paddle boats;she show is tentatively scheduled to bedisplayed in November. We hope this is

not the last time we will see paddle boatsin Echo Park.

Church Wants to Override

Demo BanAngelus Temple is seeking an exemp-

tion from the city to demolish the remain-ing apartment buildings it owns on Lem-oyne Street south of Sunset Boulevard to

build a giant parking structure.The city imposed a moratorium on

new construction and demolition in thearea as it looks to study the creation ofa possible historic district around EchoPark Lake. The church had received twodemo permits before the moratoriumtook effect. A spokesman for Los AngelesCouncilman Eric Garcetti told the Gar-ment & Citizen newspaper that AngelusTemple ofcials plan to seek a waiver onthe moratorium for additional demoli-tions related to the project.

In early September, church ofcialsdiscussed the churchs plans with the his-torical society and other neighborhood

groups. The historical society has urgedthe church to preserve the two-story

buildings, dating from the 920s an930s, that create an inviting and pedes-trian-friendly link between the SunsetBoulevard business district and the lake

Instead, the church wants to build a 60-foot-tall parking structure with no store-fronts or apartments at ground level.

What Real Estate Bust?One of Echo Parks most signicant

residential homes, the Ross House de-signed by modernist architect Rafael So-riano, sold in late August after being onthe market for less than two weeks. TheInternational-style house, which is locat-ed at 223 Valentine St., was built in 938and is one of Sorianos best early works

according to the book Architecture in LosAngeles. The home was later occupied bythe late movie art director Albert Nozakiand his family, who owned the home un-til its recent sale. The asking price for the,700-square-foot home was $859,000.

CALENDAR continued on page 7


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School of Success foundgood vibe in Echo Park

Before we had informercials, beforeself-improvement schemes were part ofour citys DNA, Los Angeles had the Seg-no School of Success a dubious educa-tional enterprise perched right atop a cliffabove Echo Park Lake.

In 902, A. Victor Segno began pro-moting himself as someone who couldread palms and guide Angelenos in the

ways of Mentalism, the practice of put-ting ones brain waves on the right fre-quency a practice that was sure to bringsuccess.

To get their brain waves in order,

Segno promised to send out the right vibrations. But he also told his acolytesthey could get the scoop on mentalism

by mailing $ to -- who else? -- A. VictorSegno. By 903, Segno had 2,000 sub-scribers to his publications, a fact thatinfuriated an indignant Los AngelesTimes.

It seems incredible that there shouldbe even a thousand cheerful suckers forevery month of the year who are clamor-ing for the opportunity to contributed $per for the support of a scheme so rank,

the Times wrote.Segnos popularity took off in 904,

when he built an elaborate two-storyconcrete building at Clinton and Bellevueavenues, directly above Echo Park Lakeon the promontory he called InspirationPoint. With lecture halls, an octagonalreception room and distinctive domes,the building immediately grabbed the at-tention of anyone who walked around thelake, then only a decade old.

The marketing schemes did not endwith brain waves, either. With help fromSegnogram Printing, Segno sold self-improvement books like How to Possessa perfect head of Hair, Personal Mag-

netism and How to Be Happy ThoughMarried. As it turned out, Segno wasnt so

happy about being married himself. In9, he ran off with his (also married)secretary, abruptly leaving town in 9to the consternation of the city. By 95,he found himself in World War I-eraBerlin.

A few years later, Segno was back inLos Angeles pursuing other schemes. Buthis popularity had peaked, even as hiseducational palace was sold off to others.

The school of success, and the nearbySegnogram printing, were demolished

in the late 960s to make way for thecomplex now known as the Lago Vista

Although the complex now houses 4condos, a tiny piece of the old successfactory a cupola -- can be seen in frontof the red house across the street.

To see more School of Success photosplease go to the History & Landmarkspage of www.HistoricEchoPark.org. Click

on Echo Park People and look for theSegno entries.

Top: American Institute of Mentalismand Home of the Segno Success Club.

Bottom: Court and gardens, InspirationPoint, Echo Park.


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4 www.HistoricEchoPark.org

Echo Parks more than 30 public stair-ways are concrete reminders of the daysbefore the automobile began to dominate

the landscape and culture of Los Angeles,when most Angelenos traveled by horseand buggy, trolley car and, gasp, even onfoot.

Many are small and practical in scale,helping link hillside residents with thestreetcar lines and businesses below. Butsome, including the Laveta Terrace, Bax-ter and Clinton stairways, are impressiveand stylish public landmarks that rewardthose who climb them with stunning

views. In fact, at more than 230 steps,the Baxter Stairway is among the tallestin the city.

For many Echo Park residents, thestairways are far more than historic cu-riosities. The stairways provide the onlyphysical link between their homes andthe rest of the world. Its a unique en-

vironment, and the EPHS asked a fewstairway dwellers to write about the upsand downs about stairway life:

Stairway MakesFor Good Neighbors

The 30 steps of the Fellowship Park

Stairway leads to the hilltop that DavePtach calls home.

Living on a stair street is not for ev-eryone. You have to hunt for street park-ing, schlep everything from groceries torefrigerators up countless ights of stairs,not to mention the logistics of getting apizza delivered.

Most stair street homes are small(current building codes make it very hardto build without off-street parking) withnarrow yards, a bit of an anomaly in Mc-Mansion-friendly Los Angeles and thecountry as a whole, where we tend to over-consume everything from cars to food tohousing. But to live on a stair street is toembrace the small home aesthetic.

Each stair street has its own person-ality, its own ambience. Some are littered

with trash and scarred by grafti; othersare a leafy bucolic paradise with pan-oramic views. Stair streets tend to fostera sense of community, as I see my neigh-

bors walking past my house everyday.People from the neighborhood walk their

dogs up thestairs aspart of their

cardio rou-tine. Onseveral eve-nings I haver e t u r n e dhome to nda dozen orso neighborsg o s s i p i n gin my front yard, the kids playing in thehammock and the dogs rolling in the coolgrass.

I ended up living on a stair streetcompletely by accident. I was looking fora house while living on the Westside but

was unable to afford anything on thatside of town. So, I headed to the Eastside.

With an Echo Park address in hand ofone of the few homes in my price range, Idrove up and down a street, but was un-able to nd the house listed.

I returned to search for the housetwo more times before I realized that thestreet ended and turned into a staircase,

barely visible beneath an overgrownthicket of bougainvillea.

Intrigued, I climbed the staircase andentered a magical, secret world. I couldnt

believe that this oasis existed in the mid-dle of this huge metropolis. I felt like Alicegoing down the rabbit hole and emergingin Wonderland.

Needless to say, I bought the houseand have lived there happily ever since.To this day I meet lifelong Echo Parkresidents who still do not know my streetexists, and thats the way I like it: No onecan nd me unless I want them to.

Steps Above A Busy BoulevardHeather & Michan Connor live at the

top of 60-step Sunset Stairway.

Our house by itself is modest andsimple. Its distinguished mostly by itsage (built in 904) and its bright lav-ender hue. Yet, it is unique because itsinsulated from one of the busiest streetsin Los Angeles by a ight of sixty steps.Though we have our minor struggles

with the garbage bins and the groceries,and budget for extra tips for deliveries,

we enjoy peace and quiet that few othersdo. When the Gas Company technicianturned on our service four years ago, hesaid hed never known there was a houseup here.

Our staircase, unlike many in EchoPark, does not connect two streets, so itsmore akin to a cul-de-sac than a throughstreet. We share a community with afew neighbors, but few others make thetrip to the top. As much as weve cometo love our place, our experiences pale incomparison to our closest neighbor, whohas lived across the staircase with herhusband for forty years. She recalls manychanges to the neighborhood and the cityand landmarks of her youth in BunkerHill and Chavez Ravine that have beentaken away by urban renewal. Shes seenthe ups and downs of Echo Park, and issurprised by its recent boom. Shes beenapproached by developers offering mon-ey for her property, but shes quite un-derstandably proud to be able to say noShe keeps an eye on things while were at

work, and often brings us baked goodand holiday treats, which weve tried tohelp pay back by hauling her empty gar-

bage bins back up the stairs, though sheoften refuses to let us, saying the exercisekeeps her young. Neighbors at the Bud-dhist temple below us on the stairs bringsus egg rolls and fried rice almost weeklyafter their celebrations. We try to reciprocate by trimming our trees so they donthang down on their property!

It wouldnt be the same house if itwerent located at the top of a staircaseIts location provides us with communityprivacy, solitude, and (like it or not) plen-ty of exercise!

Where do you live?Life on a stairway streethas its ups and downs

Heather and Michan Conner relax on the Sunset Stairwaywhile Dave Ptach stands at the Fellowship Park Stairway



1.CourtStreetStairway

2.BellevueStairway3.ClintonStairway4.KentStairway5.CrosbyStairway6.Sunset/GlendaleStairway7.EfeStairway8.EwingStaircaseSidewalk9.EwingStairwayWest

10.FargoStairway11.CoveStairway12.OakGlenStairway13.LomaVistaStairway14.PeruStairway15.LandaStairway16.FellowshipParkStairway17.DonaldsonWestStairway

18.CurranStairway19.DonaldsonEastStairway20.BaxterStairway21.PrestonStairway22.LittleFargoStairway23.EwingStairwayEast24.AvalonWestStairway25.AvaonEastStairway

26.DeltaStairway27.LucretiaStairway28.FairbanksStairway29.MontanaStairway30.LavetaTerraceStairway31.McDuffStairway32.InnesStairway33.SunsetStairway

TheStairwaysofEchoParkTolearnmoreaboutthestairwayspleasevisitthewalkingtourssectionofwww.historicechopark.org


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JOVEL LE NARC ISE

PRUDENTIAL CALIFORNIA REALTY

323 .671 .1227 OFF ICE

213 .718 .1110 MOB I LE

Stairways Refect

Echo Park History

and Sensibility

Much ado about stairway. As you likelyhave noticed by now, were all over themin this issue. Were all over the stairwaysthis season, in fact. Not only do we con-duct tours of the staircases but we are inthe process of applying for historic land-mark status for the public stair streets ofEcho Park. They are part of our historyhere as well as being a distinctive featurethat the neighborhood has used effective-ly in keeping the scale of homes, well, inscale.

The Echo Park Historical Society

cares more about history, scale and ori-entation than about preferring one ar-chitectural style of home building over

another. Most of us who honor the his-tory of this complex neighborhood wouldrather see a small modern glass box nextto a small prairie wood box nestled intoa hillside than a faux-Craftsman jumbocontainer that bears no relation to the site

or the neighborhood.Take the Landa stairs, for example.

Developers are interested in building spechouses that would dwarf the cottage-likehomes on the hillsides around them. The

builders interest is not in honoring whatis here in cultural/lifestyle terms, but inmaximizing a prot on a neighborhoodthat is perceived as up-and-coming. Butthe people in the stairway bungalows,some of which are truly tiny, do not con-sider where they live to be up-and-com-ing. Quite the opposite if boxy, out-of-

scale spec houses are allowed to squashthe tucked-away atmosphere many peo-ple seek on a stair street, or almost any-

perspectives

where in Echo Park.Our history is written all around us

in real space. There are books and docu-ments, words and what people remem-

ber, but in the most physical, direct way we experience the history of our neigh

borhood in daily terms, architecturallyas we move through the streets and walk-

ways. It is meaningful that most of thstair street homes have doorways thatface toward the steps.

In stark terms, do you move to aneighborhood or build a house there because you want to be part of what youalready nd there, or because you cantget what you want elsewhere, so you hopeto create it in opposition to whats alreadyestablished?

If the neighbors object, is it a question

of be like us? Or is it a question of dontcome in and squash us?

Echo Park Landmarks

Think you might have a landmark

on your block? The EPHS is planningto compile a list of neighborhood land-marks and needs your help in identifying

buildings and sitesthat might be of his-toric interest. The list

will help the EPHSidentify the sites that

would be worthy of being designated asofcial landmarks

by the City of LosAngeles or other gov-ernment agencies.Contact us at [email protected]

Calendar

DECEMBERHoliday Pot Luck PartySaturday, Dec 8 at 7 PMEPHS members and supporters are in-vited to attend our annual Holiday Pot-luck. EPHS members should look for aninvitation in the mail in late Novemberwith location information and other de-

tails.

EPHS Board MeetingMonday, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m.See October events for details.

Echo Park Lake Walking TourSaturday, Dec. 22 at 10 AMThis tour features many of the neighbor-hoods most prominent landmarks, in-cluding Echo Park Lake, Angelus Templeand Jensens Recreation Center. Start-ing Place: Echo Park Boathouse, 751Echo Park Ave. Reservations are re-quired. Please Call (323) 860-8874 orvisit the Walking Tour section of www.HistoricEchoPark.org for more details.

continued from page 2 with your nomination. Include an address or approximate location as well asan information you might have on thesites historic signicance. Read moreabout Echo Park landmarks and interest-ing places on our website, www.Historic-EchoPark.org.


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Your membership support and involvement makes possible our programs, mailings andeducational activities.Please make your check payable to:Echo Park Historical Society - P.O. Box 261022 - Los Angeles, CA 90026

Or pay online using PayPal at www.HistoricEchoPark.org

Name: _________________________________

Address: ________________________________

City: ________________________State:_______

Phone: _________________________________

Email: _________________________________

New Member Renewal

Would you be willing to lend a helping hand in any of the following areas?

Education ___________ Preservation __________ Fundraising __________

Research/Archives __________ Oral Histories ___________ Special Events __________

INDIVIDUAL................. $15.00 HOUSEHOLD.................. $25.00

BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION............ $40.00

CORPORATE................ $500.00LIFETIME

(INDIVIDUAL)............ $250.00

Echo Park Historical Society

P.O. Box 261022Los Angeles, CA 90026

Documents

Fall 2007 Echo Park Historical Society News