Walking L.A. #20, Melrose Hill: Diamond in the Rough, 1 mile.

The need for a brief hike for a busy day took Barbara and me to the tiny, yet noteworthy, tree-shaded community of Melrose Hill, a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone tucked in the elbow north of Melrose and east of Western Ave. L.A. is known as "the bungalow capital of the world" and the houses in Melrose Hill are a great example of why. The majority of homes are original structures built between 1911 and 1926—the core of L.A. Craftsman Bunglalow boom. While the neighborhood surrounding Melrose Hill is nothing to brag about, when we turned the corner on Marathon Street, we felt as if we entered a secret village. Craftsman bungalows with Colonial, Mission, and Tudor Revivals peppered between, the bigger homes at the top of the hill have views of the city to the south, or the Hollywood sign and Observatory in the hills to the north—a bit magical, a bit nostalgic...and very "old L.A."