Walking L.A. #29, Echo Park and Angelino Heights, 2 miles 

On a day to celebrate grand old ladies, Barbara and I climbed the steep hills and staircases south of Echo Park Lake to revisit Angelino Heights, the oldest surviving neighborhood in L.A. and its first Historic Cultural Overlay Zone. The 1300 block of Carroll Ave. is on the National Register of Historic Places, and more than a dozen neighborhood homes are L.A. Cultural Monuments. This incredible street of Victorians, Eastlakes, and Queen Annes dates back to the real estate boom of 1886, after the industrial revolution had simplified construction. An 1888 recession stunted the growth of Wm. Stilson and Everett Hall's residential subdivision for professionals that overlooks downtown L.A., leaving a small but unique slice of the past, and walking Carroll Ave. is truly like touring an outdoor museum. The small gray home in the photo below is an example of a "catalog house"—yep, you pick the home from a Sears or Montgomery Ward catalog and they ship you the parts. The 1887 Innes Eastlake Victorian may be familiar to some as the SF home of the Halliwell sisters in Charmed, the only house on the block with a dollhouse fashioned after its design! The last home pictured carries 2 distinctions: it stands under a rare Moreton Fig Tree planted in 1887 (a landmark unto itself,) and the front steps of the house were used in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. Thinking of writing a 19th-century historic novel? Walk Carroll Avenue and let the old ladies charm you. Respect to the homeowners who preserve the integrity of this amazing neighborhood.