Eagle Rock is a neighborhood in northeastern Los Angeles, California.

Nomenclature

A massive boulder at the district's northern edge contains an indentation which casts a bird-shaped shadow on the rock at certain times of day, giving the neighborhood its name.^[2]

History

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, the secluded valley below the San Rafael Hills that is roughly congruent to Eagle Rock's present boundaries was inhabited by the Tongva people, whose staple food was the acorns from the valley's many oak trees.^[2][3] These aboriginal inhabitants were displaced by Spanish settlers in the late 18th century, with the area incorporated into the Rancho San Rafael.^[3] Following court battles, the area known as Rancho San Rafael was divided into 31 parcels in 1870. Benjamin Dreyfus was awarded what is now called Eagle Rock.^[3] In the 1880s Eagle Rock existed as a farming community.

Eagle Rock, 1900

The arrival of American settlers and the growth of Los Angeles resulted in steadily increasing semi-rural development in the region throughout the late 19th century. The construction of Henry Huntington's Los Angeles Railway trolley line up Eagle Rock Blvd. to Colorado and on Colorado to Townsend Ave commenced the rapid suburbanization of the Eagle Rock Valley. Eagle Rock was incorporated as an independent city in 1911. ^[4]

Eagle Rock was incorporated as a city in 1911.^[2][3] The depletion of the young city's wells, and their incipient contamination due to the lack of a sewer system, led the citizens of Eagle Rock to agree to annexation to the City of Los Angeles in 1923. ^[4]

Eagle Rock
The Eagle Rock
Location	Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, CA
Coordinates
Area	Northeast Los Angeles
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument
Designated	November 16, 1962[5]
Reference No.	10

Geography

Eagle Rock is bordered by the city of Glendale on the north and west, Highland Park on the southeast, Glassell Park on the southwest and the cities of Pasadena and South Pasadena on the east. Major thoroughfares include Eagle Rock Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard, with Figueroa Street along the eastern boundary. The Glendale and Ventura freeways run along the district's western and northern edges, respectively.

Hill Avenue, now Hill Drive, was (and still is) one of Eagle Rock's most beautiful streets. Other streets were Royal Drive (now Mt. Royal Drive), Acacia Street (now Laverna Avenue), Kenilworth Avenue (now Hermosa Avenue), Highland Avenue (now Highland View Avenue), and Fairmont Avenue (now Maywood Avenue).^[3] In the 1950s, newer streets such as Kincheloe Drive were extended into the hillsides for the building of larger homes with a view of the city. Today these streets are dotted with large and expensive homes on wide lots.

The neighborhood is home to many historic and architecturally significant homes, many done in the Craftsman,^[2] Georgian, Streamline Moderne,^[3] Art Deco and Mission Revival styles.^[2]

Eagle Rock is one of the few cities incorporated by Los Angeles to still have its original pre-annexation City Hall (2035 Colorado Blvd.). The original library was built with the aid of a Carnegie grant was built in 1914. This library was replaced in 1927 with a new structure which used one wall and the basement of the old library. This building (2225 Colorado Blvd.) has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and converted into the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, previously the Eagle Rock Community Cultural Center. ^[4]

Motion picture industry

Intersection of Eagle Rock Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard. Eagle Rock has frequently been used as a backdrop for many movies and television shows

With an "Anytown, USA" feel to it, and such a close proximity to Hollywood and the major motion picture studios, this community has often been a favored choice as a film location. Cameos include Top Gun, Hunt for Red October, and a second-season episode of The O.C. Star Trek III was partially filmed on the campus of Occidental College. This campus also served as "California University" in the 1990s television series, Beverly Hills, 90210. Quentin Tarantino filmed parts of Reservoir Dogs here and in neighboring Highland Park. Other movies filmed almost entirely in Eagle Rock include; all of the exterior scenes of The Incredible Shrinking Woman^[6] (1981) starring Lily Tomlin, Record City^[7] (1978) with Ed Begley, Jr. was filmed in its entirety in a defunct auto paint shop, and The Unwed Father^[8] (1974) starring Timothy Bottoms had all of its exterior location shots filmed on the Eagle Rock High School campus.^[9] Avril Lavigne's music video "Complicated" was mostly shot in the Eagle Rock Mall as well as some scenes from the popular TV show, Glee. One scene from 500 Days of Summer was also shot in one of the streets intersecting Hill Drive.

Some of the architecture of Eagle Rock has been featured as well; a house on the 5200 block of Shearin Avenue was used during the 1984 filming of Teen Wolf, starring Michael J. Fox, and a house on the 4900 block of College View Avenue was used during the 1975 filming of The Day of the Locust, starring Donald Sutherland.

Ben Affleck, a former Occidental College student, lived on Hill Drive with then-roommate and co-writer Matt Damon while they wrote the script for Good Will Hunting, which would go on to win them a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award.^[10]

Many famous motion picture actors and actresses, along with writers and others involved in the industry, have lived in Eagle Rock over the years; see the Notable Residents section below for more details.

Government and infrastructure

The United States Postal Service Eagle Rock Post Office is located at 7435 North Figueroa Street.^[11]
The Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council (ERNC)^[12] meets the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm at Eagle Rock City Hall.^[13]

Population

The neighborhood is inhabited by a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups and the creative class.^[2][3] Over the past decade the Eagle Rock and neighboring Highland Park have been experiencing gentrification, as young urban professionals have moved from nearby neighborhoods such as Los Feliz and Silver Lake.^[3] A core of counter-culture writers, artists and filmmakers has existed in the town since the 1920s.^[3]

According to estimates by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning in 2008, Eagle Rock had 34,466 residents with a population density of 7,644 people per square mile.^[14] Eagle Rock is among the most diverse neighborhoods in both the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.^[14] The racial makeup of the neighborhood is 29.8% White (non-Hispanic), 23.9% Asian, 1.9% African American, 40.3% Hispanic or Latino, and 4.1% from other races. People of specifically Filipino descent make up 16.8% of the overall total making Eagle Rock noted for its large Filipino community. ^[14]

According to "Mapping L.A." from the Los Angeles Times, Eagle Rock's median household income (2008 dollars) is $67,253, which is considered above average for the city of Los Angeles and about average for the County of Los Angeles.^[14]

Education

Public schools

Eagle Rock children attend schools in District 4^[15] of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

There are four public elementary schools: Eagle Rock Elementary School, Dahlia Heights Elementary, Rockdale Elementary School, and Toland Way Elementary School.

There are two middle/high schools; the LAUSD public school Eagle Rock High School, which also serves as a middle school, and public charter school Renaissance Arts Academy.

Eagle Rock High School, 1969

Eagle Rock High School was built in 1927 by the City of Los Angeles, as promised at the time of Eagle Rock's annexation. This beautiful building was demolished in 1970, due to concerns about its earthquake safety. It was replaced by a contemporary brutalist style building built at the rear of the same school site. ^[4]

Colleges and universities

Eagle Rock is the site of Occidental College, which was first established in Boyle Heights in 1887 but a fire destroyed its original site in 1896; from there the college moved to Highland Park and then to Eagle Rock in 1914. The campus was designed by architect Myron Hunt. ^[16][17]

Private schools

• St. Dominic School

Libraries

Los Angeles Public Library operates the Eagle Rock Branch Library at 5027 Caspar Avenue.^[18]

Notable residents

See also

• Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments on the East and Northeast Side

References

External links

• Eagle Rock neighborhood on Mapping L.A
• Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council
• Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society