Angelino Heights Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (Los Angeles, California)

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Los Angeles' first suburb and the city's first historic preservation overlay zone.

The City Council adopted the ordinance enabling the creation of HPOZs in 1979 and Angelino Heights became Los Angeles’ first HPOZ in 1983.

HPOZs are established and administered by the Los Angeles City Planning Department. Individual buildings in an HPOZ need not be of landmark quality on their own. It is the collection of a cohesive, unique, and intact collection of historic resources that qualifies a neighborhood for HPOZ status.

The hilltop residential area of Angelino Heights was planned as a genteel Victorian suburb for the city's late-19th century upper-middle class. It contains some of the best remaining examples of Victorian architecture in Los Angeles, as well as later examples of the Craftsman and Mission Revival styles. The 1300 block of Carroll Ave. is listed as a historic district in the National Register of Historic Places.

The mid 1880s were at the height of the Southern California land boom. The completion of transcontinental railroads and a rail fares as low as one dollar for a trip from the Missouri River to the West Coast helped trigger a land and population boom in Southern California. A flood of eager buyers and rampant speculation pushed some land prices up as high as 500% in one year.

It was a the midst of this land boom in 1886 that William W. Stilson and Everett E. Hall filed for the subdivision of the “Angeleňo Heights” tract in what was then city’s lightly populated western fringe. The elevation of the hill offered beautiful vistas and a quiet suburban atmosphere to the upper middle class Angelenos who moved to the subdivision.

A nearby cable car line, which ran down Temple Street (then the main east-west artery to the heart of downtown 1-1/2 miles away) served the new residents. One could hop a trolley and be downtown a few minutes later or be whisked quickly home from the noise and dust of the city to a game of tennis at one of the three courts located on the hill.

Because of the general banking recession of 1888, most construction on the hill came to an abrupt halt, leaving the island of Victoriana that remains today. When prosperity returned in the late 1890s, other areas of Los Angeles had become more prominent.

The second wave of development in Angelino Heights came between 1900 and 1915, bringing in the Craftsman bungalow style. Many of these gracious homes were built and may be seen today on the Kensington Road crescent.

With the first silent film studios operating nearby, many chase scenes of the Keystone Cops could be seen filmed on the hills of Angelino Heights. Some of the first silent film stars lived or owned property in the area.

From 1915 to 1940 higher-density housing was built to accommodate a new influx.
Angelino Heights remained relatively intact until after World War II, when construction of even larger, multi-unit apartments began and many large homes were converted to multi-family dwellings because of a housing shortage.

Beginning in the 1970s, some of the neighborhood’s historic structures began to be restored to their former glory. On 10 August 1983 Angelino Heights was declared the city’s first Historic Preservation Overlay Zone. The designation helps protects the architectural integrity and historic character of the area.

preservation.lacity.org/hpoz/la/angelino-heights