Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California

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For other uses, see Laurel Canyon.

Laurel Canyon is a canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was first developed in the 1910s, and became a part of the city of Los Angeles in 1923 (prior to then, it was an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County).[1]

Much like Topanga Canyon, community life is focused on its central thoroughfare, Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Unlike other nearby canyon neighborhoods, Laurel Canyon has houses lining one side of the main street most of the way up to Mulholland Drive. There are many side roads that branch off the main canyon, but most of them are not through streets, reinforcing the self-contained nature of the neighborhood. Some of the main side streets are Mount Olympus, Kirkwood, Wonderland, Willow Glen, and Lookout Mountain Avenue. The zip code for at least part of the neighborhood is 90046.

Laurel Canyon is an important transit corridor between West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, specifically Studio City. The division between the two can roughly be defined by the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Mulholland Drive. In early 2005, the first section of the road on the Hollywood side was partially washed away in a heavy rainstorm, and traffic was redirected to a normally quiet residential side street.

Historical photos of Laurel Canyon can be seen at Bruce Torrence Hollywood Historical Collection

Contents

[edit] History

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the area of Laurel Canyon was inhabited by the local Tongva tribe of Native Californians. A spring-fed stream that flowed year-round provided water. It was that water that attracted Mexican ranchers who established sheep grazing on the hillsides in the late 1700s and early 1800s. After the Mexican government was ejected, the area caught the attention of Anglo settlers interested in water rights. Around the turn of the century, the area was subdivided and marketed as mountain vacation properties.

Between 1912 and 1918, a trackless electric trolley ran up the canyon from Sunset Boulevard to the base of Lookout Mountain Road where a road house served visitors. Travel to the newly subdivided lots and cabins further up in the canyon was at first made on foot or by mule. As the roads were improved, access was possible by the new automobiles of the era[1]

Around 1920, a local developer built a hotel at the summit of Lookout Mountain and Sunset Plaza roads. The Lookout Mountain Inn burned completely just a few years after it opened.

Among the famous places in Laurel Canyon are the log cabin house once-owned by silent film star Tom Mix that later became home to the Zappa clan, and another (directly across the street) that legendary magician Harry Houdini may or may not have lived in.

Laurel Canyon found itself a nexus of counterculture activity and attitudes in the 1960s, becoming famous as home to many of L.A.'s top rock musicians, such as Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison of The Doors, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and Love. Joni Mitchell, living in the home in the Canyon that was immortalized in the song, "Our House", written by her then-lover, Graham Nash, would use the area and its denizens as inspiration for her third album, Ladies of the Canyon. The bohemian spirit from that time period endures to this day, and every year residents gather for a group photograph at the country market.

Laurel Canyon has been mentioned in many films and novels of Los Angeles, including Laurel Canyon written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko in 2002, and is the subject of a book by Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood, published by Faber and Faber in May 2006.

Laurel Canyon was also prominently featured in the 2003 film Wonderland, which chronicled the 1981 Wonderland Murders that occurred at 8763 Wonderland Avenue in the Canyon, and involved porn star John C. Holmes and reputed gangster Eddie Nash. The Wonderland Massacre has been described as one of the bloodiest mass murders in California history.

[edit] Literary references

The short story "—And He Built a Crooked House" by Robert Heinlein mentions an address on Lookout Mountain Ave. as the residence of the mad architect Quintus Teal. In real life, that address, #8775, was the residence of Mr. & Mrs. C. M. Kornbluth and later of Mr. & Mrs. Robert Heinlein. The story wasn't about Laurel Canyon or Lookout Mountain, but was a mathematical fantasy which was republished in 6xH (original title The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag) and in the four volume collection Fantasia Mathematica, edited by Clifton Fadiman.

[edit] Famous residents

[edit] Deaths in Laurel Canyon

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Laurel Canyon" (1 ed.). 1997.  by Leonard Pitt and Dale Pitt, published by the University of California Press, Los Angeles.

[edit] Further reading

  • Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock ’n’ Roll’s Legendary Neighborhood, Farrar Straus and Giroux (16 May, 2006), hardcover, 277 pages, ISBN 0571-21149-6 trade paperback (May 1, 2007) ISBN 0865479666
  • Baerney Hoskins, Hotel California: Singer-Songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons, 1967 - 1976, Harper Perennial (2006), Paperback, 316 pages, ISBN 0-00-717705-4

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 34°7′2.19″N 118°22′31.01″W / 34.117275°N 118.3752806°W / 34.117275; -118.3752806

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