Tour of Homes Around Lafayette Square
From the turn of the century to the 1930s, most of Los Angeles’ “hot properties” were located southwest of downtown in a collection of neighborhoods that now generally parallel the Santa Monica Freeway, from about Vermont to La Brea avenues.
Perched on the graceful crescent of Alvarado Terrace, in the comfortable cluster of Chester Place, set back on well-landscaped lawns on Harvard Boulevard, behind walls on West Adams Boulevard, through the gates of Country Club Estates and lining St. Charles Place were the homes of the rich and famous.
Then came the Depression, the war, and the flight to the suburbs and the more fashionable neighborhoods of the moment. Many of the mansions were carved up into warrens of bootleg apartments or were razed, to be replaced with poorly designed and cheaply constructed buildings.
The area deteriorated, aggravated by joblessness, crime, neglect and poor planning, the results of which are depressingly visible along select streets here.
But all the streets did not succumb to the blight. A few persevered in the 1960s and ‘70s, to become within the last decade the backbone of a heartening preservation movement that is generating new life, and hope, in the once (and future?) fashionable area. Helping considerably is a community spirit among the residents and the relatively reasonable prices for well-appointed, spacious houses within easy commuting distance of downtown.
One of the neighborhoods that stalwartly maintained its residential resolve and architectural integrity through the rough decades and is now enjoying increasing popularity as an attractive place to live is Lafayette Square. It is located just west of Crenshaw Boulevard between Venice and Washington boulevards.
The lushly landscaped neighborhood and five of its vintage residences will be on display Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as the Lafayette Square Homeowners Assn. holds its second annual house tour in cooperation with the Los Angeles Conservancy. Tickets, $7 for conservancy members and $10 for the public, will be sold at the corner of St. Charles Place and Wellington Road.
The neighborhood, focused on the palm-lined St. Charles Place and its median strip, invites strolling. As the last subdivision developed by George Crenshaw, it was styled very much in the spirit of the 1910s and ‘20s to attract upwardly mobile families. The lots and houses were spacious, with each being individually designed.
And while there are no “official” landmark structures in the neighborhood, almost all are of historic interest; together they form an engaging streetscape evoking a simpler, more gracious time.
Among those worth looking at will be 1675 Buckingham Road, a rambling three-story Craftsman-styled structure that was the first constructed in the area. It was known as the Crenshaw House and was designed by architect Charles Wagner, with a respectful nod to the more famed Greene and Greene brothers, as evidenced by the oak front door with beveled and leaded glass windows. The interior woodwork is stunning.
A Wagner-designed house on display will be 1705 Victoria Ave. It was built in 1916 and indicates the shift then away from the Craftsman style toward a Mediterranean motif. For a purer view of the respective styles, compare the Craftsman and its massive roof and overhang at 1725 Wellington Road, built in 1913, with the Spanish-inspired structures at 1705 and 1719 Wellington, built in the 1920s, and the richly detailed terra-cotta doorway at 1820 Virginia Road.
Of note also is the very geometric, horizontally accented, Modernistic-looking house at 1740 Virginia Road. Actually, it was built in 1913 and remodeled in 1922, no doubt standing out then as it does now. The comfortable-looking two-story, Modern-style house with the stone, stucco and glass exterior walls at 1704 Wellington Road was designed in 1953 by Paul Williams, a very successful black architect who lived in Lafayette Square and graced it until his death in 1980.
Before there was Lafayette Square, there was Highland Park, one of the first suburbs of Los Angeles. While architecturally more modest and dispersed than Lafayette Square, Highland Park also has been experiencing preservation.
Some of the efforts there can be seen today on a house and walking tour sponsored by Highland Park Heritage Trust. The tour, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., begins at 748 N. Avenue 66. Admission: $5; seniors 62 and older $4; children 12 and younger accompanied by an adult are free. Information: (213) 258-3421.
