The community near downtown offers stunning views and a slower pace.

Elysian Park sits on and around arocky promontorynear the confluence of the Los Angeles River and ArroyoSeco, avantage point that offers commanding views of downtownand the Eastside.

Those views, along with the difficultyindeveloping the rugged canyons and ravines that crisscross the hill, led the citytoestablish aparktherein1886,makingit the oldest municipal parkinL.A.

It wasn’t muchtolook at in the beginning.Nearlyevery tree had been stripped from the land by the time of the park’s founding, carted away for lumber or fireweed. The denuded hills offerednoshade and precious little scenic beauty.

So the cityundertook aprogram of reforestation of the park’s 604 acres, planting morethan 100,000 treesoverthe course of six years. An arboretum wasalso established on 10 acresinthe park, and although it wassoon supplanted in the public’s imagination by the largercounty arboretuminthe SanGabriel Valley, it still exists.

Despitethe area’sreputation as difficult to develop, people began to move intothe portions of the hilly terrain that the parkdid not cover. In and around alarge valley in the hills —whichwas named ChavezRavine afterthe former citycouncilman whowas the original owner of muchofthe park’sland —three communities flourished: Bishop, La Loma and Palo Verde.

Residents were primarily MexicanAmerican Angelenos who lived an almost rurallifestyle in this isolated corner of the city. Their neighborhoodpride ran deep, and the communities showed theirorganizing powerin 1926,whentheysuccessfully lobbied for the end of blasting operations at the nearby Los Angeles Brick Works.

In the 1950s, thecitybegan to evict the residents of the Chavez Ravine communitiestomakeway forthe planned Elysian Park Heights housing project. Their homes were demolished and their neighborhoods bulldozed, and close-knitfamilies were scattered across L.A.

Although the cityhad promised residents that they would be able to move back to liveinthe new project,itwas neverbuilt, having runintoabuzz sawofopposition from red-baiters and anti-communists.

By the time the Brooklyn Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles in 1958, the land wasnearly vacant, and the team identified the ravine, with its proximitytodowntown and twomajor freeways, as the preferred location for their new stadium. The last of the old neighborhood’s residents were evicted to make way for Dodger Stadium in 1959.

Neighborhood highlights Explore and discover: From Radio Hill to the Barlow Respiratory Hospital, Elysian Park is full of hidden history and stunning vistas.

Go, Dodgers: Its controversial beginnings notwithstanding, there’s no question there are few better places to see a baseball game than Dodger Stadium.

Laid-back lifestyle: The slower pace of life in old Elysian Park is preserved in such tucked-away neighborhoods as Solano Canyon, which dates back to 1866.

Neighborhood challenges

The price of popularity: Traffic from events at Dodger Stadium often clogs the streets of Elysian Park, and the picnic areas and trails keep a steady stream of cars coming and going the rest of the time.

Expert insight Rob Kallick, a real estate agent with Sotheby’s International Realty, said Elysian Park residents can enjoy breathtaking views and walking trails, as well as a sense of being away from it all despite the neighborhood’s proximity to downtown.

“It’s the best of both worlds,” he said.

“It feels private, remote and rural.”

He said there is also a nice mix of midcentury homes and properties built in the last 10 to 15 years but noted that inventory levels have been low.

“There is always a very small selection of homes in the area,” Kallick said.

Market snapshot In the 90026 ZIP Code, based on 29 sales, the median sales price for single-family homes in May was $895,000, according to CoreLogic. That was a 12% increase in price over the same month the previous year.

Report card Within the boundaries of Elysian Park is Solano Avenue Elementary, which scored 923 out of 1,000 in the 2013 Academic Performance Index.

Nearby schools include Dorris Place Elementary and Logan Street Elementary, which scored 870 and 745, respectively.

Florence Nightingale Middle had a score of 756; Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts scored 737; and School for the Visual Arts and Humanities had a score of 685.

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