Elysian Heights Neighborhood

Early Elysian Heights settlers viewed their hilltop community as a place to escape the hubbub of central Los Angeles. Today, though residents can see downtown looming through their windows, the neighborhood and its adjacent park remain a sanctuary. Beginnings From the founding of Los Angeles in 1781 to its first great expansion more than a century later, these hills were the highest in the city. During the real estate boom of the 1880s, the City Council preserved Elysian Park for public use.

The garden in the Elysian Heights median is easy to miss. These days, it is little more than a hillside of hard-packed dirt dotted with struggling plants -- spindly hollyhocks, sprawling cactus clumps, a few mismatched trees and scattered tufts of sage and poppies. But you can't pass along this narrow stretch of Lemoyne Street without noting the poster-size sign in the window of a home across the street, declaring the garden "Larry's Median."

The garden in the Elysian Heights median is easy to miss. These days, it is little more than a hillside of hard-packed dirt dotted with struggling plants -- spindly hollyhocks, sprawling cactus clumps, a few mismatched trees and scattered tufts of sage and poppies. But you can't pass along this narrow stretch of Lemoyne Street without noting the poster-size sign in the window of a home across the street, declaring the garden "Larry's Median."

Early Elysian Heights settlers viewed their hilltop community as a place to escape the hubbub of central Los Angeles. Today, though residents can see downtown looming through their windows, the neighborhood and its adjacent park remain a sanctuary. Beginnings From the founding of Los Angeles in 1781 to its first great expansion more than a century later, these hills were the highest in the city. During the real estate boom of the 1880s, the City Council preserved Elysian Park for public use.

Ellen Landauer and her husband, Lewis Turlington, began their house hunt in mid-1988. After a nine-month search, they bought a charming mini-Victorian in Elysian Heights, a neighborhood in northwest Echo Park, for $180,000. The two-bedroom, one-bath turn-of-the-century house boasts many original features. The entry hall has leaded-glass windows and the bathroom a dainty, claw-foot tub.