Comments (0) Best Historic Neighborhood - 2010
Angelino Heights
In a nice bit of nomenclature irony — perhaps bordering on the sarcastic, if one were so inclined — the L.A. neighborhood featuring the most consistent concentration of East Coast–style, Victorian wooden houses is called Angelino Heights. To the jaundiced eye, the only things “Angelino” about the enclave are the views of downtown’s skyscrapers, its location hugging the 101 freeway below, and the fact that it happens to actually be in Los Angeles. Otherwise this district of handsome Queen Anne and Eastlake style homes, surrounded by urban, traditionally working-class Echo Park, could almost be a small slice of Cambridge, Mass., or a fanciful, historic suburb in Connecticut or New Jersey. While recent years have seen an accelerated influx of Silver Lake–ish professionals and artists, Angelino Heights’ proud, decades-long residents lend the place another level of solidity. Start at Carroll Avenue to experience the epicenter of tasteful, Victorian splendor, but work your way out from there, as architectural eye candy lies interspersed throughout this semi-circular neighborhood. Douglas Street & Carroll Avenue, Echo Park. —Adam Gropman
