Visiting the City of a Century Ago

Not all of Los Angeles lives preserved in films such as “Chinatown.” Indeed, on any day of the week--Mondays through Fridays are better--it is possible to take a leisurely lunch and stroll through our L.A. as it existed circa 1890 to 1910.

Hidden on the edge of downtown, near Adams and Figueroa, in the middle of the campus of Mount St. Mary’s College, affectionately known as “the Mount, “ is 11 Chester Place, a Gothic-style house designed by Sumner P. Hunt and Fronk O. Eager. The Residents Dining Room, on the first floor of the Ahmanson Commons, provides a delicious cafeteria-style buffet service.

Visitors may eat in the cozy round dining room or outside on the generous, old-fashioned porch or the umbrella-covered tables that extend out to the curb. Although open primarily to students of the college, this veiled slice of turn-of-the-century Los Angeles is a favorite of professionals who work near the area. Los Angeles County Health Department workers, as well as writers, alumni and professors often hang out here. L.A. history buffs come to exchange anecdotes about the “real” City of the Angels.

Visitors may not drive in. The most accessible entrance is through the iron gate on Adams Boulevard and onto Chester Place. Chester Place owes its existence to Judge Charles Silent, who mapped out 15 acres of this elite residential park and named it for his son Chester.

After one walks a mere 100 feet onto the campus, the traffic din of the city disappears, replaced by a monastic silence that frees the eye to inform itself of the eclectic forms of architecture afforded to the moneyed classes of a century ago. A walking-tour pamphlet will take you by Tudor, Gothic and Mission Revival mansions where families raised their children and grandchildren.

It is not unusual to experience the illusion that the quick 45-minute lunch has become a restful happening. A gentle breeze usually wends its way through the porch, allowing visitors to gaze comfortably across Chester Place to the 22-room Doheny Mansion, with its detailed craftsmanship adorning the simplest of windows. Inside the mansion is the original open courtyard, with a Favrile glass dome designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany to create the famous Pompeian Room. This room is opened once a year. When is a secret.

Perhaps it is the old, broad shade trees that serve as noise buffers. But at the Mount, the climate appears cooler; the air we breathe is different, fresher--perhaps because of the well-tended gardens nursed by professionals whose dedication is evident. Quiet. Cool. Tranquil.

Yes, a visitor may muse, this must have been the way it was.