Mt. Washington – A Hidden Los Angeles Neighborhood

Ask many Los Angeles natives (yes, there are some) about the northeast-side neighborhood of Mount Washington and you might just get a “Huh? Where’s that?”

Those in the know, however, will wink slyly as if it’s a little secret that only the two of you share.

Mount Washington is a neighborhood that lies halfway between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena. It’s often called “The Poor Man’s Laurel Canyon”, like nearby Echo Park. Also like Echo Park, Mount Washington is a very diverse middle class neighborhood that rises uphill out of the barrio like a phoenix.

Mount Washington’s neighborhood is a fabulously edgy mix of yuppies, hippies, punks, witches, new lefties, rednecks, gays, artists and middle class Mexican families. Some celebrities have lived in Mount Washington, too, like the current Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa and punk rockers Exene Cervenka and John Doe from “X.

When I lived in Mount Washington with my family in the eighties, I loved it. For a guy like me, the location was perfect, minutes away from all my favorite authentic Asian, Mexican and other ethnic restaurants.

Mount Washington houses are an eclectic mix of Victorian mansions (Mount Washington was first developed in 1909), shabby-chic twenties bungalows (I lived in one of those), and architectural masterpieces from the fifties by the likes of Bauhaus émigrés Richard Neutra and Rudolf Schindler.

A Mount Washington prime visitor attraction is the Southwest Museum, one of the most extensive and important collections of Native American art and artifacts in the world. In recent years, the Gene Autry Museum of the American West had taken over the operations of the Southwest Museum.

When I was living in Mount Washington , one of my favorite neighborhood activities was the Halloween celebration held at the Self-Realization Fellowship world headquarters at the top of the hill. where they’d open their estate gates to the entire community. Intricately carved jack-o-lanterns were spread all over their extensive grounds. For me, this fabulous display and the panoramic city night view was always the highlight of their Halloween celebrations.

Back then, life was good. At night, I’d sit out on the back porch of my twenties vintage ramshackle bungalow listening to a norteno ballad from a backyard brass band, or watch a yard full of gangbangers watching a cockfight. In the morning, I’d walk into my backyard and sometimes see the hanging drying royal purple robes of the witches living behind us. On a lazy afternoon, I’d often stare into the wild canyon gully trying to spot an errant marijuana plant.

Almost twenty years have passed, and I still miss Mount Washington.

SOURCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Washington,_Los_Angeles,_California

http://www.yogananda-srf.org/aboutsrf/index.html

http://www.erha.org/washington.htm

http://www.swmfuture.org/