- Lafayette Square, Los Angeles, California
Lafayette Square is a small, gated neighborhood in
Los Angeles, California named afterGeneral Lafayette . It sits just off of Crenshaw Boulevard in the Wilshire area. It was designated by the city as aLos Angeles Historic Preservation Overlay Zone in 2000 for its significant residential architecture and history.Lafayette Square consists of eight blocks, centered around St. Charles Place, and situated between Venice Boulevard and Washington Boulevard. There are 236 homes in the neighborhood.Cohen, Allison B., [http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/printedition/la-re-guide9feb09,0,3873947.story?coll=la-class-realestate "Neighborly Advice: History behind iron gates in Lafayette Square,"] "Los Angeles Times", 9 Feb 2003.]
According to the
Los Angeles Conservancy , "Lafayette Square was the last and greatest of bankerGeorge L. Crenshaw 's ten residential developments in the City of Los Angeles."Los Angeles Conservancy, "Los Angeles' Historic Preservation Overlay Zones", 2002, pp. 14-15.] The neighborhood was founded in 1913; the gates surrounding the district are a relatively recent addition, coming only in 1989.The neighborhood was always meant to be for higher-income families and now-historic houses regularly have 5,000 to convert|6000|sqft|m2|-2 floor plans, although the average home size is convert|3600|sqft|m2|-1. Architectural styles include Neo-Federalist, Craftsman, Italianate and Spanish Revival, as well as several notable examples of early Modern. According to a "Los Angeles Times" real-estate section article on the district, "Most of the properties have period details: Juliet balconies, mahogany staircases and libraries, sitting rooms, stained glass windows, triple crown molding, soaring ceilings—even four-car garages."
Famous residents of Lafayette Square have included
George Pepperdine (founder ofPepperdine University ), actorsW.C. Fields andFatty Arbuckle , industrialist and art collectorNorton Simon , boxerJoe Louis , architectPaul R. Williams (who designed his own home in the neighborhood), and members of the Crenshaw family.Education
The neighborhood is zoned to schools in the
Los Angeles Unified School District .The neighborhood is zoned to the following schools:
* Alta Loma Elementary School
* Cochran Middle School (formerly Mount Vernon Middle School)
*Los Angeles High School Most of the new families in the neighborhood do not send their children to public school.
References
External links
* [http://www.lafayettesq.org/Home.asp Lafayette Square Association]
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