Highland Park Police Station

Infobox_nrhp | name =Highland Park Police Station
nrhp_type =

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caption = Highland Park Police Station, 2007
location= 6045 York Blvd., Highland Park, Los Angeles, California, USA
lat_degrees = 34
lat_minutes = 7
lat_seconds = 8
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 118
long_minutes = 11
long_seconds = 12
long_direction = W
locmapin = California
area =
built =1926
architect=
architecture= Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Other
added = March 22, 1984
governing_body = Private
refnum=84000874cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service] The Highland Park Police Station on York Boulevard in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, California, USA is the city's oldest surviving police station. Closed in 1983, the station is now operated as the Los Angeles Police Museum. It has been designated as a Historic Cultural Monument and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Built from 1925-1926 at a cost of $100,000, the station opened in April 1926 in a ceremony attended by Chief Edgar Davis and Police Commissioners Birnbaum, Insley and Webster. [cite news|title=Ne Highland Park Police Station Formally Opened Yesterday|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1926-04-22]

A number of big cases were handled out of the Highland Park station; it was that Det. Robert Grogan pursued the "Hillside Stranglers", Angelo Buono, Jr.. and Kenneth Bianchi.cite news|author=Cecilia Rasmussen|title=L.A. Then and Now: Retired Police Station No. 11 Found a New Career|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=2003-09-07 ("In 1973, the Symbionese Liberation Army planted a bomb inside the station; it was a dud.")] In the early 1980s, the building was cited for failure to meet seismic safety standards and was described as a "Shake and Bake Hellhole". [cite news|auhtor=Greg Braxton|title=Hihgland Park Feeling 'Deserted' at Loss of Old Police Station: Neighborhood Frets as Police Prepare to Move Away|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1983-10-16] The radical Symbionese Liberation Army (the group that kidnapped Patty Hearst and engaged in an infamous shootout with the LAPD in 1974) planted a bomb in the Highland Park Station in 1973, but it proved to be a dud. In 1942, future LAPD Chief Daryl Gates was arrested and briefly held at the Highland Park station after punching a police officer; in 1963, Gates returned as a police captain in command of the station. He later wrote, "Never dreaming I would voluntarily return to the station where I'd been brought in for punching a cop, I showed up for work, eager to continue trying out my talents as a boss."

The station was closed in 1983 as the Los Angeles Police Department moved its Northeast Division to a new location. With the vacant station threatened by demolition, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission declared the building a Historic Cultural Monument (HCM #274) in January 1984; [Citation | last = Los Angeles Department of City Planning | date = 2007-09-07 | title = Historic - Cultural Monuments (HCM) Listing: City Declared Monuments | place = | publisher = City of Los Angeles | edition = | url =http://www.cityprojectca.org/ourwork/documents/HCMDatabase090707.pdf | accessdate = 2008-06-25 ] it was added to the National Register of Historic Places two months later in March 1984. It is the only precinct police station in California listeed on the National Register. (The City of San Diego Police Headquarters, Jails and Courts building is also registered.)

The building now houses the Los Angeles Police Museum, including photographs, uniforms, badges, squad cars, a paddy wagon, and bullet-riddled vehicles. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the third Saturday of each month from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. [cite web|title=Los Angeles Police Museum|publisher=Los Angeles Police Historical Society|url=http://www.laphs.com/]

ee also

*List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
*History of the Los Angeles Police Department
*Los Angeles Police Department

References