Titled “Restored, Remodeled and remade,” the Historic Echo Park Home Tour will feature homes in and around Echo Park in a variety of styles – transitional Victorian, Craftsman bungalows, Spanish 20s, mid-century cottage – in settings that range from humble street corners to hillside views. 
The EPHS developed the tour as a way to promote our neighborhood’s efforts at preservation and restoration, homes that have retained their original character or were changed in ways that are faithful to their past.

One home on the tour will feature a rebuilt fireplace, while others have restored windows, doors and built-ins. Hopefully, the tour will have something to inspire everyone and raise money for the EPHS at the same time!

Because the homes are in Echo Park, none are grand mansions. Instead, they will represent the more modest dwellings that dot our neighborhood’s streets and avenues. The majority are no larger than two bedrooms in size, yet all possess interesting, original qualities.

To mount a successful tour, the EPHS will need docents, ticket sellers, event organizers and other volunteers. Help make their home tour a hit!

The staging area will be Barlow Hospital, 2000 Stadium Way, where tour maps will be available for participants. Tickets will be $ 12 in advance, or $ 15 on the day of the event.

See the handy insert in this edition of the newsletter EPHS to purchase advance tickets. For more information, you may also call (213) 482-4458 or leave a message at (323) 860-8874.

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.

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.

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

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