Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [64]
The fact is, these hallowed grounds are anything but dead. The arrival of the summer months brings outdoor movie screenings (www.cinespia.com; Click here) and theater (www.shakespeareinthecemetery.com), while in November the gates open for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead;).
LOS FELIZ & SILVER LAKE
These side-by-side communities on Hollywood’s eastside (past the 101 Fwy) feel far removed from the artificial glam of Hollywood Blvd. Both attract a more boho-chic crowd of artists, writers, actors, fashion designers and other creative types. Its cafés, bookstores and bars are often abuzz with late-night energy and liberal attitudes.
Los Feliz (loss fee-les) abuts Griffith Park and is the more grown-up of the two areas. Its main strip – cute and pedestrian-friendly Vermont Ave – has plenty of sidewalk cafés tempting you to keep tabs on passing hotties and hipsters over a cup of cap.
In the hills north of here is the spectacular Ennis-Brown House (off Map; 323-660-0607; www.ennishouse.org; 2607 Glendower Ave), one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s four Mayan-inspired ‘textile block’ houses in LA. Unfortunately, it was deemed unsafe in 2004 and remains closed pending restoration. Wright influenced any number of architects, including Austrian immigrant Richard Neutra, whose nearby Lovell House (off Map; 4616 Dundee Dr) featured prominently in LA Confidential; it’s not open to the public.
While the Ennis-Brown House sits crumbling, Wright’s Hollyhock House (Map; 323-644-6269; www.hollyhockhouse.net; 4800 Hollywood Blvd; tours adult/student/child $7/3/free; tours hourly 12:30pm-3:30pm Wed-Sun; ) sparkles in renewed splendor. It’s a prime example of Wright’s California Romanza style, typified by an easy flow between rooms, courtyard and gardens. Commissioned in 1919 by oil heiress and art nut Aline Barnsdall, its walls, carpets and furniture are awash in abstract hollyhocks, her favorite flower. Guided tours take you into the stunning living room with its moated fireplace and Japanese art.
Barnsdall envisioned her house to be part of a cutting-edge theater colony but, as eccentrics are prone to do, abruptly abandoned the idea in 1927. Instead, she donated the house and grounds to the city of LA with the proviso that they become a public art park. Today’s Barnsdall Art Park is a lovely, quiet spot, with views of the Hollywood Sign, a theater, studios and the Municipal Art Gallery (Map; 323-644-6269; adult/student/child $7/3/free; noon-5pm Tue-Sun; ), which presents mostly homegrown artists and also sells Hollyhock House tour tickets.
East of here, Silver Lake used to be grungy and edgy but it too is coming up in the world. Rising rents send bohemians packing, fancier restaurants are opening up, and dive bars are reborn as fancy cocktail lounges, but as yet it’s all still a little unpolished and improvised. Sunset Junction (where Hollywood Blvd runs into Sunset) is still the epicenter of fun and funky shopping in indie boutiques with not a chain in sight.
West Hollywood & Mid-City
Rainbow flags fly proudly over Santa Monica Blvd, the epicenter of lesbigay life in LA. Celebs misbehaving on the fabled Sunset Strip provide ample fodder for the tabloids. Robertson Blvd and Melrose Ave are the main catwalks for style mavens. Welcome to unapologetically hip West Hollywood (WeHo), an independent city that packs more personality (some might say, frivolity) into its 1.9-sq-mile frame than most larger hoods.
To the south and east of WeHo is an amorphous area we have called Mid-City. It encompasses the Fairfax District with the Farmers Market, Miracle Mile with Museum