Elysian Park
Neighborhood of Los Angeles
Elysian Park is located in Los Angeles
Elysian Park
Elysian Park
Location in Central Los Angeles
Elysian Park is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Elysian Park
Elysian Park
Location in Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
Coordinates: 34°04′50″N 118°14′29″W / 34.08056°N 118.24139°W / 34.08056; -118.24139
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
CountyLos Angeles
CityLos Angeles
Time zonePacific
Area code213/323

Elysian Park is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California, United States. The city park, Elysian Park,[1] and Dodger Stadium are within the neighborhood, as are an all-boys Catholic high school and an elementary school.

History

Historic Barlow Respiratory Hospital first opened in 1902.

On August 2, 1769, the Portolá expedition (the first Europeans to see inland areas of California) camped close to the Los Angeles River near what is now the southeastern corner of the city park. California Historical Landmark #655 (Portolá Trail Campsite) is at the park's Meadow Road entrance.

Geography

Elysian Park neighborhood boundaries

According to the Mapping L.A. project of the Los Angeles Times, the Elysian Park neighborhood is flanked on the north and northeast by Elysian Valley, on the east by Lincoln Heights, on the southeast and south by Chinatown and on the southwest, west and northwest by Echo Park.[2] Street and other boundaries are: the northern apex at Exit 138 of the Golden State Freeway, thence southeasterly along the freeway, southerly along the Los Angeles River, westerly along North Broadway, northwesterly along Stadium Way, Academy Road and northerly along Elysian Park Drive.[3][4]

Demographics

Park entrance, with Broadway on the right, about 1900
Waterfall and rock garden behind the former Police Academy, 1956
Los Angeles Police Academy, 2005
Dodger Stadium, 2007

The 2000 U.S. census of the Elysian Park neighborhood counted 2,530 residents in its 1.65 square miles, which includes all the city park land as well as Dodger Stadium—an average of 1,538 people per square mile, one of the lowest population densities in Los Angeles county. In 2008 the city estimated that the population had increased to 2,659. The median age for residents was 31, about average for Los Angeles; the percentage of residents aged 11 to 18 were among the county's highest.[3]

The neighborhood was moderately ethnically diverse. The breakdown was Latinos, 47.6%; Asians, 43.4%; whites, 3.1%; blacks, 2.1%, and others, 3.7%. China (32.3%) and Mexico (27.3%) were the most common places of birth for the 54.4% of the residents who were born abroad, a high figure compared to rest of the city.[3]

The median yearly household income in 2008 dollars was $28,263, low for Los Angeles; a high percentage of households had an income of $20,000 or less. The average household size of 3.1 people was high for the city of Los Angeles. Renters occupied 81.9% of the housing stock, and house- or apartment owners 18.1%.[3]

Education

Thirteen percent of the neighborhood residents aged 25 and older had earned a four-year degree by 2000, an average figure for the city.[3]

The schools operating within the Elysian Park neighborhood borders are:[5]

At Solano Avenue Elementary School, things are done right. Parents chip in, teachers stick around for years, children learn, and the surrounding community claims it for their own. The campus is a thing of pride-no graffiti or trash problems here.[6]

Principal John Stoll noted that nearly half the children began school speaking limited English, having been raised in Spanish or Cantonese-speaking homes. The school was "adopted" by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1980, and it was known for sending the student choir to Dodger Stadium to sing the National Anthem before a ballgame. It is a Solano tradition to hold culmination ceremonies at Dodger Stadium. The class of 2001, however, did not have this privilege.[6]

Park

The park is one of largest in Los Angeles at 600 acres (2.4 km2).[1] It is also the city's oldest park, founded in 1886 by the Elysian Park Enabling Ordinance. It hosted shooting as well as the shooting part of the modern pentathlon event for the 1932 Summer Olympics.[7] In 1964, the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park was founded to prevent the City of Los Angeles from constructing the Municipal Convention Center on 62 acres (250,000 m2) of park land.

In 1968, it hosted a hippie "Love-in."[8]

Figueroa Street Tunnels

The Figueroa Street Tunnels take northbound State Route 110 (the Pasadena Freeway) through the park.

Solano Canyon

Solano Canyon is a canyon within Elysian Park and also the name of a residential district at the southern extremity of the Elysian Park neighborhood, directly north of the Los Angeles State Historic Park. The district is bisected near its southern tip by the Arroyo Seco Parkway, and it shares a border with Chinatown.

Solano Canyon was also an old name for a ravine in the Hollywood Hills that was later named Runyon Canyon.[9][10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Smith, Doug (December 21, 2015). "Recovery plan lies dormant as Elysian Park's exotic trees die off". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Central L.A.," Mapping L.A., Los Angeles Times
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Elysian Park," Mapping L.A., Los Angeles Times
  4. ↑ The Thomas Guide, Los Angeles County, 2004, pp. 594, 634
  5. ↑ "Elysian Park Schools", Mapping L.A., Los Angeles Times
  6. 1 2 3 Marilyn Martinez, "Pride at Solano Helps Earn It State Honor," Los Angeles Times, June 18, 1995, page 8
  7. ↑ 1932 Summer Olympics official report. Archived July 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine p. 74.
  8. ↑ William Drummond, "Police Arrest 76 Hippies at Easter Love-In Festivities," Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1968, page 3
  9. ↑ "M'Cormack Buys Estate," Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1929, page D-1
  10. ↑ "M'Cormack's Wife Arrives," Los Angeles Times, January 14, 1931, page A-10
  • History of Elysian Park
  • Elysian Park neighborhood crime map and statistics]
  • SolanoCanyon.org
  • Solano Canyon can be seen on the horizon of this 1873 photograph, labeled No. 50, as published in "The Story of Fifty Years: Where the City: In Which Southern California and the Los Angeles Times Grew Up Together," Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1931, page E-3.
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