An Oasis Above the Lakes
In 1992, when Carlos and Virginia Jimenez were house hunting, they told their real estate agent that they had two nonnegotiable requirements.
“We were looking for a house that was big enough for two families and which had great views,” said Carlos Jimenez, a Mexican American studies teacher at Grant High School in East Los Angeles.
At the time, the Jimenezes were expecting their first child. Josephine Jimenez, Carlos’ mother, had a house near UCLA; she planned to sell it and move in with them.
They found a large two-story Tudor house big enough for two families in the hills overlooking the Silver Lake reservoirs, paying more than $500,000 for the property.
“We were forced to catch our breath at the price,” Carlos Jimenez said. “Because we were selling two houses, the deal was doable.”
The 3,500-square-foot home, built in 1930, has three bedrooms and four baths, a formal dining room and a large living room with vaulted ceilings and a huge fireplace.
A big family room facing the pool doubles as a den, office and play area for 7-year-old Daniela and her little brother, Diego.
The downstairs bedroom and bath allow Josephine Jimenez the opportunity to enjoy family activities while maintaining her privacy.
“We liked the spaciousness of this house, which has views of the ocean to the west and the reservoir, and Glendale and Burbank to the east,” Carlos Jimenez said. “The house is perfect for our multi-generational family. We also like the diversity of Silver Lake in terms of culture and ethnic backgrounds.”
Within the Silver Lake district, the hills adjacent to the Silver Lake and Ivanhoe reservoirs form a unique community of single-family homes and small apartment buildings.
The community, bounded by Rowena Avenue on the north, Effie Street on the south, Silver Lake and Glendale boulevards on the east and Hyperion Avenue on the west, is sometimes referred to as Silver Lake Hills.
Although not all houses in the district have views of the reservoir that gives the neighborhood its name, the lake and its surrounding wooded open space have long been a focal point for residents.
The trees and meadows that surround the reservoirs give the neighborhood a rural feeling that belies its proximity to downtown Los Angeles and the Wilshire District about five miles to the south.
Several now-acclaimed architects--Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler and John Lautner among them--designed homes in the community, said Maryann Kuk, a Realtor with Housing Solutions, whose home overlooks Silver Lake reservoir.
Dion Neutra has lived in the area since 1932, when his father, Richard, built the family home known as the VDL Neutra Research House on Silver Lake Boulevard.
“I was 7 years old when we moved here,” he said. “After the original house burned down in 1963, I was responsible for the rebuilding.”
The four-level home, built on the slab of the original house, is considered a local landmark by residents. It belongs to the Cal Poly Pomona School of Environmental Design.
Neutra, who lives in a three-bedroom Neutra house with his fiancee, Jackie Reimach, vividly recalls his boyhood in Silver Lake Hills.
“I remember walking around the reservoir as a kid of 7 or 8 and throwing a fishing line into the water and catching fish. The area was more natural then, with dirt banks and willows around the lake.”
Silver Lake was home to early movie-makers, including Tom Mix, Mack Sennett and the Keystone Studio and the first Walt Disney studio, which was on Hyperion Boulevard.
Remembering Fields and Horse Corrals
Longtime resident Margaret Chase remembers those times. “There was a large field and corrals for Tom Mix’s horses,” she said. “They made movies here in the hills.”
The Chases built their first home in Silver Lake in 1936 as a young married couple. In 1948, the couple and their two daughters moved to her current home, a large Spanish revival house that was built in the early 1930s.
“The people in the neighborhood have always been friendly,” Chase recalled. “The area also didn’t have racial restrictions, as many places did in the 1940s.”
The area’s diversity held a strong appeal for grant writer Amy Wakeland, 30, and her partner, Eric Garcetti, 29, a professor in the department of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College. The couple bought their modernist home in the hills south of the reservoir in 1998. The home, built in the early 1940s, has a 180-degree view.
“There are a lot of young couples, both heterosexual and homosexual, and young families,” Wakeland said. “There is also diversity in terms of ethnicity and family formation.”
Isaac Fast, assistant manager of Prudential John Aaroe & Associates Realtors in Los Feliz, describes the prime Silver Lake district as the west side and north end of the reservoirs.
These areas include Moreno Highlands, bounded by West Silver Lake Drive on the east and Griffith Park Boulevard on the west; and Ivanhoe Hill, bounded by Armstrong on the west and Glendale Boulevard on the east.
An average three-bedroom, two-bath home in this section of Silver Lake Hills sells for between $475,000 and $500,000.
“Homes designed by noted architects have higher prices,” Fast said. “A great view can also add 5% to 15% to a house’s value, with lake views adding more than city views.”
Homes in the hills south of the reservoirs sell for between $249,000 and $399,000, with a median price of $355,000.
Fast and his partner, John Robert Jameson III, the managing editor of the Advocate magazine, live in a 1935 split-level Spanish revival home on Ivanhoe Hill with their mixed-breed dog, Mike.
“We had been looking for another house for a long time and had almost given up,” Fast said. “When this house came on the market in 1999, we made an offer immediately.” They paid in the mid-$500,000s for the home.
Silver Lake Hills has again become popular with people in the entertainment industry, Fast said. People like Greg Ptacek and Alisse Kingsley.
Ptacek, co-director of the upcoming Silver Lake Film Festival, and Kingsley, vice president of publicity for Warner Bros. Records, moved to Silver Lake from the Westside in 1994 when they were looking for a home closer to Burbank studios, where they worked.
“At first we couldn’t afford our house, a Mediterranean revival home built in 1936,” Ptacek said. “However, during the real estate slump in Southern California, prices went down. We bought our home for $333,000 from a screenwriter.”
The tolerance of the Silver Lake community has also attracted a large gay and lesbian population.
“I have lived in Silver Lake for a long time,” said film editor Nancy Rosenblum, who with her partner owns a 1940s home in Moreno Highlands. “I like the fact that there is a mixture of homosexuals, heterosexuals, all races and all economic levels.”
The neighborhood’s central location is also a draw.
“The Music Center is only 10 minutes away,” said Bea Gold, an artist and master gardener for the Echo Park Community Garden. “I also like the fact that when I go down the hill toward Sunset, it becomes a different kind of neighborhood. I grew up in New York City and loved the wildness of it. I didn’t like the blandness of the suburbs.”
Gold and her husband, Jack, moved to Silver Lake from Northridge in 1976. They bought their two-story home for $87,000.
“We had been living on the flats for so many years we wanted to have a home with a view,” added Jack Gold, a psychologist. From their living room, dining room and kitchen, the Golds have a panoramic view of the reservoirs and mountains.
Jack Gold is on the board of the Committee to Save Silver Lake’s Reservoirs, a community action group that has been working with the Silver Lake Residents’ Assn. and the Department of Water and Power to draw up a master plan for the area around the reservoir complex.
The plan is a culmination of a struggle that began in 1988, when the department said it planned to cover Ivanhoe reservoir and build an industrial-style filtration plant on a six-acre meadow in front of the Neutra VDL Research House.
The master plan calls for additional landscaping, open spaces and safe walking and biking paths around the reservoirs.
Many residents view excessive traffic during rush hours as a serious problem.
“Commuters use the neighborhood streets to get to the freeways,” said Catherine Moyers, president of the 30-year-old residents’ association.
Moyers rents a two-bedroom, one-bath house a short walk from Ivanhoe Elementary School, which her son, Cameron Shubb, attends.
“The quality of Ivanhoe is definitely a factor for why I live here,” Moyers said. “The school has a lot of parent participation. There’s also a group called Friends of Ivanhoe, which raises money for field trips and computers.”
Schools, Prices Influenced Decision
The reputation of Ivanhoe School was also a factor for Tom and Tori Black’s decision to buy in Silver Lake in 1995.
“I knew about the neighborhood because I had a friend who lived in the area,” said Tori Black, a management analyst for the city of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation and Public Works.
“My first thought was that the house was way too small. It only had 1,189 square feet, two bedrooms and a bath,” said Tom Black, assistant computer system administrator for the Department of Water and Power.
“It also had a lower price than other houses we had looked at,” Tori Black said. “It was in the low $200,000 range.”
The Blacks are extensively remodeling the house, adding a second story with a master bath and bedroom, and redoing the kitchen.
“The house once belonged to actress Esther Williams,” Tori Black said. “It is also right across from the reservoir, and I knew that was important. The lake is the center of the community.”
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Marilyn Tower Oliver is a Los Angeles freelance writer.
