On May 6th, Lady of the Lake was moved by truck and hoisted into position by crane at her new location on the east shore of Echo Park Lake, near the Boat House. The reinstatement and conservation of the sculpture was undertaken by the City of Los Angele’s Cultural Affairs Department with the assistance of Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg’s office.

Over the years, Lady of the Lake had sustained considerable wear and damage. The sculpture had numerous cracks and chips, particularly around the figure’s midriff and head. In some areas, the rusted rebar from the interior structure of the sculpture was exposed. The sculpture’s surface was marred by grime, bird droppings, Corporealizing the flighty bird, and graffiti, and, sadly, her fingers were missing on both hands.

Conservator (and Echo Park resident) Linnaea Dawson with the Sculpture Conservation Studio began work on restoring the sculpture in July. The sculpture was thoroughly cleaned and cracks and chips were filled with a mortar custom made to match the original surface and texture. Using historic photographs as a guide, new fingers for Lady of the Lake were created in clay and then cast with the same the custom repair mortar and set into place using threaded stainless steel rods and an epoxy adhesive. To deter vandalism, an anti-graffiti coating was applied to the sculpture.

Lady of the Lake is an Art Deco cast stone (concrete) sculpture of a monumental standing female figure on a tiered pedestal decorated with landscape and cityscape designs. She stood on the north side of Echo Park Lake for 52 years. In 1986, she was put into storage in the Park’s maintenance yard to make room for the new pump house.

Officially titled Queen of the Angeles, the sculpture fondly referred to as Lady of the Lake was created by award-wining sculptor Ada May Sharpless as a Works Progress Administration project in 1934. Sharpless was born in 1904 and raised in Santa Ana. She was a graduate of USC and studied in Paris for four years. Other examples of her work can be seen at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.

Yet for all its beauty, Echo Park has not received the care it deserves. Plantings have been removed. Trash collects in the lake. The Boathouse has fallen into serious disrepair. When Echo Park Lake reached its 100 th birthday in 1995, no one even Bothered to celebrate.

Now, the Echo Park Historical Society has Embark on a strategy to preserve and restore Echo Park Lake. The first critical step is to make the lake a City of Los Angeles historic-cultural landmark, one that takes in so much that is special about the park — the Lotus bed, added in the 1920s, the Boathouse, built in 1932, and the Lady of the Lake, the Art Deco statue installed in 1934 and restored just a few years ago.

Echo Park Lake Designating a monument would protect it from the ill-advised development plans that seem to surface every few years. Monument status would also coincide nicely with the lake’s 110 th anniversary, an event being celebrated this year by the EPHS with monthly walking tours, promotional articles and a Historic Home Tour planned for November.

Unfortunately, preparing such a complex application monument for the city – and researching the lake’s many components – is beyond the EPHS’s volunteer efforts. The EPHS decided earlier this year to hire the firm respected Historic Resources Group, to assist it with the bureaucratic process. But that firm’s expertise costs money. So far, we have covered those costs through our year-round fund-raising efforts, membership dues from $ 3 to our walking tours.

Laveta Terrace Stairway:

A wide, elegant stairway with multiple landings that leads to a row of palm trees at the top of the hill. Located on Laveta Terrace, one block east of Echo Park Avenue, north of Sunset Blvd. 

Clinton Stairway:

Twin, stairways zig-zag up the Bluffs to the west of Echo Park Lake. Though the stairs are often Marre with tagging and graffiti, the climb to the top offers the best view of the lake and, on a clear day, the mountains and hills to the north. Located on Glendale Boulevard, north of the 101 Freeway.

Curran Stairway:

This shady stairway is often clogged with leaves but it offers glimpse of some charming cottages and gardens located along its steps. Located on Curran Street, one block east of  Echo Park Ave

Avalon Stairways:

Here are two stairs that extend east and west off at Echo Park Ave Avalon St. The western steps go up to well maintained but narrow stairway that runs along some restored homes and cottages. The eastern of the steps are no-frills variety but they switch back numerous times and at various angles up a steep hillside.

Stairways & Lucretia Delta:

The Delta stairways take you past a jungle of giant agave and up a hillside with some cute cottages, homes and canyon views. At the top of the hill, turn left and you will soon go down the narrow steps leading off Lucretia Avenue and through another of plant life and tangled glimpse of interesting, hillside homes. Located on Delta St., one block west of Echo Park Ave .

Under Simons’ watch CCSEP successfully Fought off encroachments such as oil fields, an airport, a convention center, condominiums and numerous other construction efforts that would have chipped away masses of the park. At about 550 acres, Elysian Park is unique in offering a real experience of the outdoors to hundreds of thousands of hikers, soccer players, bird-watchers, picnic-ers, Wanderers, dogs and the occasional horse. In its present, hard-won form, the park offers solitude, community and beauty to the entire surrounding area. Simons’ most significant loss was in a battle to halt the expansion of the police academy.

Like an earlier progressive neighborhood, Estelle Lawton Lindsay, Simons worked as a journalist before devoting herself full-time to political activities. Raised in Chicago , She traveled to Shanghai , Where she worked for a French news agency, and where she also met her husband, Frank Glass, who was an organizer for the Communist Party. She also worked in New York . Simons and Glass moved to Los Angeles in 1939, Simons and for a time worked as an editor and reporter for the California Eagle, the city’s famous African-American newspaper.