10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. #20: Greater Hancock Park—The Platinum Square, 5 miles.

Finally, Barbara and I had time for a long hike from a new book: Paul Haddad's 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. , a collection of 5-mile hikes in different areas of the city. We chose this one for its coolness, class, and age—a neighborhood we thought knew well...by car. But the real gems can only be savored by foot. Stunning revival architecture in Tudor, English, Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean, Monterey, and American Colonial styles—some houses visible from the street, others surrounded by two-story privacy hedges. Landscaping to die for. First stop, Windsor Square a historic district founded in 1892—south of 3rd, north of Wilshire, east of Larchmont Village. A horticulturist's dream, with trees older than old and gardens landscaped to perfection. Notable homes include the 1921 Getty (as in J.Paul) House—a Tudor occupied by L.A. Mayor Garcetti. Next we headed east on Wilshire past the Masonic Temple, the Wilshire Ebell Theater (1894), and the gates to Fremont Place, a neighborhood so private you have to be a resident to walk around. Mary Pickford lived in there pre-Pickfair. Down Rimpau into Brookside, a little-known neighborhood with a creek running through some of the backyards, and then back to Hancock Park and past the gorgeous, stately, Tudor residence of Nat King Cole. When he moved in in 1948, the KKK burned a cross on his lawn and the property owners told him they didn't want undesirables in the neighborhood. NKC's response: "...if I see any coming in here, I'll be the first to complain." Barbara and I finished up with a window-shopping stroll along Larchmont to Peet's and a well-deserved mocha. Old money smells and looks different than new money.