For the second time in recent memory the City of Los Angeles, in preparation of repaving, has ground away the asphalt along portions of Echo Park Avenue and exposed the long dormant rails of the Echo Park Line.

Some history from the Electric Railway Historical Association:

The Elysian Park Street Railway Company built this line in 1889 on Echo Park Avenue from Temple Street to about 600 feet north of Sunset Boulevard as a horse car line. In the fall of 1890 that part of the line between Temple and Sunset was abandoned and the rails removed. In late 1890 the line was extended about a mile up Echo Park Avenue to Cerro Gordo Street. (more…)

Silver Lake Reservoir Master Plan

This Master Plan will outline the needs and interests of both sides. The current head of the DWP, S. David Freeman, agreed that planning for the future would be a good idea. Community meetings in the coming months will explore various options and come to a consensus on how both the community and DWP would benefit. (more…)

Skylight books is one of the premier independent bookstores in Los Angeles. A member of the American Booksellers Association and Southern California Booksellers Association, Skylight is locally-owned by a small group of people who love books. Located in the fashionable Los Feliz neighborhood, Skylight Books specializes in Contemporary Literature and Poetry. (more…)

The Echo Park Historical Society was founded in the Fall of 1995 to promote interest in Echo Park’s heritage, to preserve and protect natural sites and buildings of historic significance within their community, to document and collect materials pertaining to the rich and eclectic history of our neighborhood, and to chronicle the lives of our past and present residents whose deeds and contributions lend pride and substance to their  lives here today. (more…)

Annalisa Magnusson

Echo Park and its lake have always been a touchstone for the community that grew up around it.

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. (more…)