Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 34°07′02″N118°22′31″W / 34.11722°N 118.37528°W | |
Country | United States of America |
State | California |
County | Los Angeles |
City | Los Angeles |
Named for | California bay laurel |
Elevation | 264 m (866 ft) |
Time zone | UTC-8 (PST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (PDT) |
Laurel Canyon is a mountainous neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills region of the Santa Monica Mountains, within the Hollywood Hills West district of Los Angeles, California. The main thoroughfare of Laurel Canyon Boulevard connects the neighborhood with the more urbanized parts of Los Angeles to the north and south, between Ventura Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard.
Originally inhabited by the Tongva people, by the early 20th century real estate developers situated a vacation site along the slope of neighboring Lookout Mountain; this formed the nucleus of what would become the Laurel Canyon neighborhood. It later developed into a celebrity enclave: the remote, rugged nature of the land and its proximity to many of the movie studios in nearby Hollywood made it an ideal location for many movie stars to site their homes, especially during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Raymond Chandler's first novel The Big Sleep sets lurid scenes there, and in The Long Goodbye (1953), his private detective Philip Marlowe is residing in 'the Laurel Canyon district'.
By the 1960s, the neighborhood had become a local center for counterculture, and many prominent folk and rock musicians moved into the area, making it a nexus for musical collaboration. By the late 1970s, criminal activity in the neighborhood, including distribution of drugs, was controlled by the Wonderland Gang (named for a Laurel Canyon thoroughfare), and the neighborhood became associated with the Wonderland murders, a grisly quadruple homicide in 1981.
Laurel Canyon is focused on its central thoroughfare, Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Unlike other nearby canyon neighborhoods, Laurel Canyon has houses lining one side of the main street most of the way up to Mulholland Drive. There are many side roads that branch off the main canyon, but most are not through streets, reinforcing the self-contained nature of the neighborhood. Some of the main side streets are Mount Olympus, Kirkwood, Wonderland Avenue, Willow Glen, and Lookout Mountain Avenue. The zip code for a portion of the neighborhood is 90046. [2]
Laurel Canyon Boulevard is an important North–South route between: West Hollywood, Hollywood, and Central Los Angeles; and Studio City and the eastern San Fernando Valley. The canyon's division between the two regions is defined by Mulholland Drive.
The Laurel Canyon neighborhood is generally bounded by West Hollywood to the west and south, Hollywood to the east, and Studio City to the north. [3]
Laurel Canyon is known for its natural wildlife and is home to at least one adult male mountain lion. [4]
The Laurel Canyon area was inhabited by the Tongva people, a regional tribe of the indigenous peoples of California, for thousands of years.[ citation needed ] A spring-fed stream flowed year-round providing water.
The reliable water supply attracted colonial Spanish ranchers who started grazing sheep on the hillsides in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After the Mexican–American War and the advent of U.S. statehood for California in 1850, the area was settled by Americans interested in water rights.
Until the 20th century, passage up the canyon was made on foot or by mule. In 1907, an 82-mile dirt road (132 km), later named Laurel Canyon Boulevard, was built. It ran up the canyon, dividing at what is now Lookout Mountain Road; the left road went up to the summit of Lookout Mountain, and the right branch of the road went to the top of the Santa Monica Mountains and then down to the San Fernando Valley.
In 1908, the Lookout Mountain Park and Water Co. was formed to purchase 280 acres (110 ha) on Lookout Mountain, just west of Laurel Canyon, subdivided and marketed as mountain vacation properties. On August 14, 1908, the Los Angeles Times announced that the company would build Lookout Mountain Inn at the summit of Lookout Mountain and Sunset Plaza roads, and Lookout Mountain Park, Bungalow Land at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Lookout Mountain Avenue and Wonderland Park. [5] Two years later, the company widened the winding dirt road to the top of Lookout Mountain where they built the Lookout Mountain Inn. [6] [7]
In 1910, [8] Charles Mann, a real estate developer, and Richard Shoemaker, an electrical engineer, [9] [10] built a "trackless trolley" (trolley bus) line, starting passenger service on September 11 as the first commercial trolley bus operation in the United States. [8] [11] It ran up Laurel Canyon Road from the Pacific Electric Laurel Canyon Shuttle stop at Sunset Boulevard to the Tavern at the top of Lookout Mountain Road, a road house serving visitors.
Each of the two 16-passenger cars had two trolley poles, one to a positive overhead wire and one to a ground overhead wire, and were able to sway to either side of the street, only using power uphill. Each trolley was actually an Oldsmobile bus whose gasoline engine was replaced with a 15-horsepower electric motor. [8] Their original bodies were rebuilt in 1912, [9] their open sides being enclosed. [8] Sometime in 1915, they were replaced by Stanley steam buses and the overhead wires were taken down. [9] [8] Until 1918, the shuttle service traveled up and down Laurel Canyon to meet the half hour schedule to Los Angeles. It was insufficiently patronized and discontinued when demand failed to support it after Pacific Electric stopped service to Laurel Canyon Boulevard from Gardner Junction (at Gardner Street and Sunset Boulevard, 1451 N Gardner St, West Hollywood, CA 90046) [18] [19] in 1924. [20] [21] [22]
On October 26, 1918, a fire, fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, burned about 200 acres and totally destroyed Lookout Mountain Inn at the summit of Lookout Mountain Avenue and Sunset Plaza Drive. [23] [24] [21] [22] [25] [26] [27] [22] [28] Another major fire occurred in July 1959, destroying some 38 homes. [29]
As the roads were improved, access was possible by automobile. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35]
As of 2007 a vacant lot, the corner of Lookout Mountain Avenue and Laurel Canyon Blvd (2401 Laurel Canyon Blvd) [36] is where the famous 1915 "Log Cabin" mansion stood, with its 80-foot living room, floor to ceiling fireplace, bowling alley (there was no indoor swimming pool as previously stated) [37] It was once occupied by silent film star Tom Mix [38] but spent years on the rental market. In 1968 it was rented by Frank Zappa. [39] Zappa moved out after four months. The house burned to the ground on Halloween 1981. Directly across the street, at 2400 Laurel Canyon Blvd., is site of the home, long-gone, that magician Harry Houdini may have rented around 1919. It was originally the Walker estate. [40] [41]
Laurel Canyon became a nexus of counterculture activity and attitudes in the mid-late 1960s and early 1970s, becoming famous as home to many of L.A.'s rock musicians, such as Cass Elliot of the Mamas & the Papas; Joni Mitchell; Frank Zappa; Jim Morrison of The Doors; Carole King; The Byrds; Gram Parsons; Buffalo Springfield; Canned Heat; John Mayall; members of the band The Eagles; the band Love; Neil Young; Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys as well as James Taylor, Jackson Browne, JD Souther, Judee Sill, Linda Ronstadt and Stone Poneys, Ned Doheny, Bonnie Raitt, Harry Nilsson; [42] and Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork of The Monkees. Cass Elliot's home was considered one of Laurel Canyon's party houses with all-night, drug-fueled sleepovers, attended by musicians and movie stars of the era. [43]
John Phillips, also of the Mamas & the Papas, took inspiration from his home in Laurel Canyon for the song "Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)", released in 1967. The following year, blues artist John Mayall recorded and released the album Blues from Laurel Canyon , based on his experiences during a vacation that he spent there.
The area and its denizens served as inspiration for Joni Mitchell's third album Ladies of the Canyon , released in 1970. Her house was immortalized in the Crosby, Stills, and Nash song "Our House" (1970), written by her lover Graham Nash. The group is reputed to have met and first sung together in Mitchell's living room. [44] [ page needed ]
Rock photographer Henry Diltz was also a resident and used the scenic Canyon backdrop for many of his historic photos of rock musicians. Several of his photos became representations of the West Coast music scene during the 1960s and 1970s; other of his photos became album sleeve covers, such the one used for as CSN's debut album Crosby, Stills & Nash (photographed in nearby West Hollywood).
Musician Josh Tillman has said that his output under the moniker Father John Misty was partly inspired by a move to Laurel Canyon. The song "I Went to the Store One Day" from his 2015 album I Love You, Honeybear , recounts the story of how Tillman met his wife, Emma, in the parking lot of the Laurel Canyon Country Store. [45] [46]
On July 1, 1981, three members and one associate of the Wonderland Gang, so-called because they were based at 8763 Wonderland Avenue, died in the Wonderland murders (also known as the "Four on the Floor murders" or the "Laurel Canyon murders"). Salón stated "The massacre took place just down the street from what was then the home of Jerry Brown, who was California’s governor at the time. The 8763 Wonderland Avenue address is said to have been inhabited at one time by Paul Revere & the Raiders." [47]
The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Situated northwards of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the incorporated cities of Burbank, Calabasas, Glendale, Hidden Hills and San Fernando, plus several unincorporated areas. The valley is the home of Warner Bros. Studios, Walt Disney Studios, and the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.
Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties is named Mulholland Highway. The road is featured in a significant number of films, songs, and novels. David Lynch, who wrote and directed a film named after Mulholland Drive, has said that one can feel "the history of Hollywood" on it. Jack Nicholson has lived on Mulholland Drive for many years, and still did so as of 2009.
Studio City is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1927, now known as Radford Studio Center.
North Hollywood is a Los Angeles, California, neighborhood, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, El Portal Theater, several art galleries, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The North Hollywood Metro Rail station is the northern terminus of the B Line subway on the Los Angeles Metro.
The Hollywood Freeway is one of the principal freeways of Los Angeles, California and one of the busiest in the United States. It is the principal route through the Cahuenga Pass, the primary shortcut between the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley. It is considered one of the most important freeways in the history of Los Angeles and instrumental in the development of the San Fernando Valley. It is the second oldest freeway in Los Angeles. From its southern end at the Four Level Interchange to its intersection with the Ventura Freeway in the southeastern San Fernando Valley, it is signed as part of U.S. Route 101. It is then signed as State Route 170 north to its terminus at the Golden State Freeway.
Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east–west thoroughfares in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. Ventura Boulevard is one of the oldest routes in the San Fernando Valley as it is along the commemorative route El Camino Real. It was also U.S. Route 101 (US 101) before the freeway was built, and it was also previously signed as U.S. Route 101 Business.
Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It runs through the Hollywood, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, and Los Feliz districts. Its western terminus is at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollywood Hills and its eastern terminus is at Sunset Boulevard in Los Feliz. Hollywood Boulevard is famous for running through the tourist areas in central Hollywood, including attractions such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Ovation Hollywood shopping and entertainment complex.
La Cienega Boulevard is a major north–south arterial road in the Los Angeles metropolitan area that runs from the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood in the north to El Segundo Boulevard in Hawthorne in the South. It was named for Rancho Las Cienegas, literally "The Ranch Of The Swamps," an area of marshland south of Rancho La Brea.
Crenshaw Boulevard is a north-south thoroughfare that runs through Crenshaw and other neighborhoods along a 23-mile route in the west-central part of Los Angeles, California, United States.
Ballona Creek is an 8.5-mile (13.7 km) channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a "year-round river lined with sycamores and willows". The urban watercourse begins in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles, flows through Culver City and Del Rey, and passes the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Preserve, the sailboat harbor Marina del Rey, and the small beachside community of Playa del Rey before draining into Santa Monica Bay. The Ballona Creek drainage basin carries water from the Santa Monica Mountains on the north, from the Baldwin Hills to the south, and as far as the Harbor Freeway (I-110) to the east.
Nichols Canyon is a residential area in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California, bounded by Hollywood Boulevard on the south and Mulholland Drive on the north, lying between Laurel Canyon and Runyon Canyon. It was also known as Miller Canyon.
Laurel Canyon Boulevard is a major street in the city of Los Angeles. It starts off at Polk Street in Sylmar in the northern San Fernando Valley near the junction of the San Diego and the Golden State (I-5)) freeways. Laurel Canyon Boulevard bypasses the city of San Fernando to the west, running parallel to I-5 in the vicinity of Pacoima and Arleta. The portion through Sun Valley passes through rock quarries and a great deal of open space.
Victory Boulevard is a major mostly east–west arterial road that runs for 25 miles (40 km) traversing almost the entire length of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles and Burbank, California. About two miles of the boulevard runs north-south before reaching its eastern terminus.
Los Angeles's 2nd City Council district is one of the fifteen districts in the Los Angeles City Council. It is currently represented by Democrat Paul Krekorian since 2009, after he won the special election to finish Wendy Greuel's term.
Hollywood Hills West is a neighborhood within Central Los Angeles, California.
Lookout Mountain Air Force Station (LMAFS) is a Formerly Used Defense Site which today is a private residence of actor Jared Leto in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The USAF military installation produced motion pictures and still photographs for the United States Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) from 1947 to 1969.
Coldwater Canyon Avenue is a street, primarily within the City of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County, California. It runs 10.3 miles (16.6 km) from North Beverly Drive at Coldwater Canyon Park in Beverly Hills, north up Coldwater Canyon, including a short stretch shared with Mulholland Drive, ending at a crossroad intersection with Roscoe Boulevard in Sun Valley, where the Coldwater Canyon Avenue changes into Sheldon Street.
The Tujunga Wash Greenway and Bike Path is a trail and stormwater mitigation project in the Valley Village and Valley Glen neighborhoods of California’s San Fernando Valley.
Wonderland Avenue Elementary School is a public elementary school in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Ranked one of the best elementary schools in California, Wonderland is known for its gifted magnet program and high number of prominent parents in the entertainment industry.
Laurel Spring, also known as Lookout Mountain Spring, is a natural spring in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the Hollywood Hills section of the Santa Monica Mountains. A resort property was developed at the site in the early 20th century and it was later a private residence. In 2024, conservationists raised $1 million to purchase the 2.4-acre (0.97 ha) property surrounding the spring and create a protected area under the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).
Built 1894 by Cahuenga Valley Railroad Company as a narrow gauge steam line. Obtained by Pasadena & Pacific in 1896 and electrified about 1900. It was standard gauged by LAP in 1909 and became PE [Pacific Electric] property in 1911. PE operated it until March 10, 1924, when it was abandoned.