Hancock Park, Los Angeles, California

Hancock Park is a historic and affluent urban neighborhood in Los Angeles, California.

Geography

Concerning usage of the term "Hancock Park," it is generally considered acceptable for residents of surrounding neighborhoods to say that they live in Hancock Park.

Due to this alternate meaning of the term, the boundaries of what is meant by "Hancock Park" have some ambiguity. Respectively, its boundaries are Rossmore Avenue to the East, Melrose Avenue to the North, Highland Avenue to the West, and Wilshire Boulevard to the South. Its East and West borders are often confused with Larchmont Village and Windsor Square to the East, and the Fairfax District to the West. Contrary to popular usage, Larchmont Village and Windsor Square are (technically) not part of Hancock Park "proper" – rather, they are their own distinct neighborhoods.

History

Hancock Park was developed in the 1920s, by the Hancock family, with profits earned from oil drilling in the former Rancho La Brea (much of which is now the Miracle Mile district). Hancock Park owes its name to developer-philanthropist G. Allan Hancock, who subdivided the property in the 1920s. Hancock, born and raised in a home at what is now the La Brea tar pits, inherited 4400 acres, which his father, Major Henry Hancock had acquired from the Rancho La Brea property owned by the family of Jose Jorge Rocha.

Some 71 oil wells were operating at capacity on the land from 1905 to 1910. Nine years later Hancock subdivided the property into residential lots. He leased 105 acres to the Wilshire Country Club with an option to buy. The Hancock Park development was started on Rossmore Avenue and moved west to Highland Avenue in 1921.

Architects such as Paul Williams, A. C. Chisholm and John Austin were hired to design homes for many of the city's pioneer families. The list of families who moved into Hancock Park's first homes reads like a "Who's Who" of California: Doheny, Chandler, Huntington, Van Nuys, Crocker, Banning, Newmark, Van de Kamp and Duque, were some of the early residents.

After a 1948 Supreme Court decision barring the enforcement of racial provisions in restrictive covenants, popular jazz pianist and singer Nat King Cole purchased a house in Hancock Park. The Ku Klux Klan, still active in Los Angeles well into the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn.

Hancock Park activists were also instrumental in the passage of a 1986 Congressional ban on tunneling through the neighborhood. The ban, sponsored by Congressman Henry Waxman prevented the Red Line Subway from being routed along Wilshire Boulevard through the neighborhood.

Surroundings

In sharp contrast to most Los Angeles neighborhoods, houses in Hancock Park are set well back from the street, most power and telephone lines are buried, and fences are strongly discouraged. The area also surrounds the Wilshire Country Club in which the Academy Award winning Actress Kathy Bates (Misery, Titanic, About Schmidt) lives along side in her 4.5 million dollar mansion and she's not too far from the Los Angeles Tennis Club. These characteristics, along with the area's abundance of classic Los Angeles architecture, have made it one of the most desirable areas in all of Southern California ever since its development, and the average household income of its residents consistently ranks among the highest in the United States.

Today

Hancock Park still maintains a white, European majority including many Orthodox Jews; Korean immigrants constitute the largest minority group. Small numbers of wealthy blacks also reside in the area.

An estimated 20 percent of Hancock Park's 1,250 homes are owned by Orthodox Jews. [http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=15722]

Emergency services

Fire services

The Los Angeles Fire Department operates [http://lafd.org/fs29.htm Station 29] (Hancock Park) and [http://lafd.org/fs61.htm Station 61] (Fairfax), serving Hancock Park.

Police services

The Los Angeles Police Department Wilshire Community Police Station serves the neighborhood [http://www.lapdonline.org/wilshire_community_police_station] .

Education

Public schools

Hancock Park is within the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Public schools serving Hancock Park include:

High schools:
* Los Angeles High School
* Fairfax High School(two separate attendance zones)

Middle schools:
*John Burroughs Middle School (Located within Hancock Park)
*Bancroft Middle School (Serves a small section of Hancock Park)(two separate attendance zones)

Elementary schools:
* [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/3rd_Street_EL/school.htm 3rd Street Elementary School] (Almost all of Hancock Park is zoned to this school, which is located in Hancock Park)
* [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Melrose_EL/ Melrose Elementary School] (Small portions west of North Highland and north of Beverly are zoned to Melrose)

Private schools

Private schools include Marlborough School (Los Angeles), a private girls' school, and Yavneh Hebrew Academy, an Orthodox Jewish school Pre-School - 8; Wilshire Private School, a K-6 academy.

External links

* [http://www.hancockparkhomeownersassociation.org/ Hancock Park Homeowner's Association]
* [http://www.wshphs.org/ Windsor Square, Hancock Park Historical Society]
* [http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-guide17sep17,1,7281699.story] Los Angeles Times guide to the eruv including Hancock Park