Echo Park History Day will feature speakers Don Normark, whose photographs of Chavez Ravine were published earlier this year as “1949: Chavez Ravine”, and a representative from Southwest Museum, who will discuss the Indians who once lived in Elysian Park.

Volunteers will be on hand to interview and videotape longtime residents of Echo Park. In addition to photographs and maps from the EPHS archives, there will be a new exhibit of photos from families who have lived in the neighborhood for multiple generations.

The first Echo Park History Day was held in 1995, offering a tour of the Atwater Estate and the first organized collection of local historic memorabilia. The enthusiastic response led community activists to realize there needed to be a group addressing Echo Park’s heritage on a full-time basis. A month later, volunteers met to begin forming the Echo Park Historical Society.

Previously, there had been no mechanism in place to deal with preservation or history-related concerns in Echo Park. EPHS filled that void, and was instrumental in bringing the Jensen’s Recreation Center sign to the attention of the Department of Cultural Affairs. This resulted in the re-lighting of this unique Echo Park landmark on August 20 1997, after five decades of darkness.

EPHS sponsored Echo Park History Day at Barlow Sanitorium (built in 1902 – Historic Cultural Monument #504). This open house event featured guest speakers, tours, and an exhibit of vintage photographs and memorabilia from our archives. “Old-timers” in attendance were encouraged to be interviewed as part of our ongoing oral history outreach.

We publish a quarterly newsletter and hold general meetings three times per year featuring guest speakers on topics ranging from architectural preservation to historic overviews of our community.

We are a grassroots, non-profit organization completely staffed by volunteers. Everyone is welcome to participate in our activities, including non-residents of Echo Park. Our operating costs are covered solely by membership dues and donations. The general public is welcome at all of our functions free of charge.

Initially, the area we now know as the park was a natural arroyo that filled with water from a spring-fed stream that originated at Baxter Street and flowed down what is now Echo Park Avenue. In 1868 the Los Angeles Canal and Reservoir Co. dammed the arroyo to make a reservoir that aided in powering a woolen mill at what is now 6th and Figueroa (then known as Pearl St.) and was to eventually serve local residents, walnut orchards and vineyards to the south along Alvarado. The immigrants that worked these orchards and vineyards settled here and began to build small homes along Sunset Boulevard, between Echo Park Avenue and Lemoyne Street.

In 1875, the woolen mill closed and the reservoir land (then known as the Montana Tract) was sold off. Eventually, Thomas J. Kelley and Dr. W. Lemoyne Wills purchased the land for a business venture. For reasons unknown, the venture wasn’t feasible and in 1888, Mr. Kelley and Dr. Wills donated the land to the city for the expressed purpose of creating a public park for the enjoyment of the people of Los Angeles. The paperwork was finally completed during the recession of 1889 and in 1891 park development began. The first Superintendent of Parks for the city was an English immigrant named Joseph Tomlinson who was assigned the task of creating the park. Mr. Tomlinson, being somewhat homesick for his favorite park in Derbyshire, England, decided to model the park after his favorite childhood place to play. At the same time, the reservoir was closed and the stream was capped. The park superintendent created a 16-acre lake where the reservoir had been. It cost $5,637.00 to create the lake that is now filled with city water. Once that was accomplished, the planting began on the other 15 acres of park.

One day, while overseeing the work, Mr. Tomlinson thought he heard his workers talking during a break, but he knew they were across the park from him. The park had an echo! He knew what the name of the park would be! Unfortunately, the plantings he installed destroyed the echo, but the name remained. The park was dedicated and opened to the public in 1895.

The famous bed of lotuses that grow in the lake at the northwest end of the park, the largest stand of lotuses outside Asia, is a mystery yet to be solved. One legend says that evangelical Chinese missionaries planted them for use as food, but no one knows the real story. They appeared some time in 1923 or 1924. Nonetheless, they remain a beautiful addition to the park and have inspired the city to sponsor the annual Lotus Festival that celebrates Asian and South Pacific Island cultures.

NPR’s Day to Day visited Echo Park to interview reggae historian Roger Steffens about his vast archive of Bob Marley memorabilia. Previously on EP.Net

Last Thursday the LA Weekly ran a piece on walking tours in Los Angeles that included the Echo Park Historical Society’s. Included were a couple of photos the Weekly swiped off of Flickr by local photographer hexod.us. Well, after LA Observed and Blogging.LA picked up on the story he was surprisingly paid for his ‘borrowed’ images.

Someone’s not happy about the moniker.

Another important development that soon found Stone Museum was Los Toldos, which is located 100 kilometers north of the previous 12,000 years ago and where another group used to live in Argentina.

In Stone Museum, the team led by Dr. Laura Miotti make discoveries of great importance, both for the study of prehistory in Patagonia to be able to explain the ways-and age-income men to America. Stone Museum was about 13,000 years ago with an abundance of water and pasture, the elements that determine the arrival at the site of a great number and variety of animals. And behind them, men, ready to turn in their hunt for prey.

In 1991 it was found in one of the deeper layers, a fragment of a spearhead of the well-known as “fish tail” associated with remains of some animals that became extinct in the area for over 10,000 years. Like Mylodon (giant sloth), gracilis lama, Lama guanicoe; hippidion (South American horses) Rhea americana (rhea ancestor of the large) and Pterocnemia pennata (ancestor of the rhea Petiso).

Dating at the University of Arizona, showed a peak age of 10,400 years, which caused a real stir among archaeologists Americans. The media’s most important scientific world began to take up the work they performed the Argentine scientists at the site.

Laura Miotti recalls: “That year I realized what was surely the place for the nomadic hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Patagonia in the Late Pleistocene: a major strategic shelter, shelter, water, and huge opportunities for hunting” .

By 1995, close to the Patricia Madrid, professor of archeology at the University Center, traveled and explored the neighboring hills, finding a second piece of the same end “fish tail.” Samples of charcoal and the remains of extinct animals were sent to United States for dating, which was conducted by Dr. Eileen Johnson, curator of anthropology and director of the archaeological site at Lubbock Lake (Texas), who reported the surprising result: 12,890 years old.

Private property to public park:

In 1868 a company was formed to build the dam No. 4 – now known as Echo Lake Park. Water from the dam by a ditch that flowed into a rolling mill for wool in downtown Los Angeles. By the end of 1880, however, investors like Thomas E. Kelly, bought the dam and land to build more homes and businesses, but were faced with a problem. The City was entitled to raise the water level of the dam 40 feet further, which meant that the properties Kelly (now includes the commercial area of Sunset Boulevard) would be flooded. An agreement was reached whereby the City would give up its right to flood the area, after which Kelly donated 30 acres of land including the dam, to build a public park. In 1895, the park and its lake opened its doors to the public even in a somewhat primitive state, but bought more land and for 1907 the park was extended south of Temple Street.

Echo Park and its boats

The boat has since worked since 1896 as the first structure built in the style Queen Victoria. The current position of Spanish style, was built in 1932, after the lake was emptied for construction. In the early years they had built canoes glided the lake and made parties to the boats at night.

Their Lady of the Lake

This Art Deco-style statue located north of the position of boats, was designed by artist Ada Sharpless and displayed to the public in 1934. The statue was originally located across from where you are now, but was damaged in 1980 and was withdrawn from public view to be temporarily restored. Over a decade later, in 1999, Their Lady of the Lake was returned to the park.

The layer of lotus flower

The giant pink flowers that emerge from the lake each summer, have dazzled the visitors for over seventy years. Planto Who?, Remains a mystery. Legend says they were planted by missionaries of the Angelus Temple after returning from China. The lotus flower blooms in July and coincides with the annual Lotus Festival.

The Echo Park Recreation Center

On the shore of the south side of the park is the center are the Spanish Colonial style designed by the same architects who designed the County Medical Center, and USC. The Center opened in 1925, replacing the club house. Second was the Recreation Center of the City. The Club House moved to 1004 Echo Park Avenue, where it remains today. The Center was built on land that was added to the park shortly after 1900 and had the popular play area and library. The park was divided by the highway to the top Holywood 1950

Bridge

The extension allows us to reach the island has existed for over 80 years. In the early years had a second bridge over what is now the flurry of lotus flower.

Echoes from the past ….

According to legend, the park was christened with that name because the workers who built the original dam, claimed they heard echo when speaking.

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