Welcome to
Wilshire Park
About Wilshire Park
Wilshire Park is a small community west of downtown Los Angeles, bounded by Wilshire, Olympic, Wilton and Crenshaw. On November 5, 2008, Los Angeles City Council approved the nomination of Wilshire Park as an Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ)
Comprised of several historic residential tracts in 1905, including Boulevard Heights, the Norton Tract, and others established by speculative developers, this area was unincorporated (not within the Los Angeles City limits), and was referred to as Colegrove. In 1909, Colegrove was annexed, city services became available, and construction began in earnest on the lots.
The first home in Wilshire Park was built on Norton's 700 block in 1908, and the area for the most part was fully built out by 1921, with speculative development spiking in 1918 as dozens of Colonial Revival variants completed the neighborhood. Notable architects include J. T. Zeller, Frank M. Tyler, Lloyd Wright, and Edith Northman.
658 S. Bronson, pictured above.
Two blocks of South Bronson Ave. in Wilshire Park have been designated the “Boulevard Heights Historic District” and are included in the National Register.
The area has served as a film and television production location, dating back to the days of the 1925 Buster Keaton comedy classic Seven Chances. With the 1960s, one Wilshire Park home (at 837 5th Avenue) attained TV immortality by serving as the exterior for the Douglas family home on the long-running series, My Three Sons.
The Weber House, by Lloyd Wright, 1921
Today, Wilshire Park is a vibrant, ethnically diverse neighborhood with two large public elementary schools, Wilton Place School built in 1918 to serve the burgeoning population, and Wilshire Park Elementary, completed in 2008. Wilshire Park also has three Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monuments (HCMs): The Weber House, by Lloyd Wright, 1921; the A. W. Black Residence, by Frederick Soper, 1913; and the Hubbard Residence, 1923, by Munson and Ruoff.
Wilshire Park Association is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that coordinates a number of neighborhood activities, including preservation, community outreach and education. WPA has been a prime example of grass-roots activism since the 1990s, when it was put together from local block clubs and from loose associations of interested residents.
Articles
Want to read more about the history of Wilshire Park? Here are several articles below.
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South Bronson in Wilshire Park Designated Historic District in National Register (Larchmont Buzz)
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Boulevard Heights named a National Historic Place (Larchmont Chronicle)
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California Fool’s Gold – Exploring Wilshire Park (Eric Brightwell)
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