Mount Angelus is a small hillside neighborhood within Highland Park.
Mount Angelus is situated to the southwest of the intersection of York Boulevard and Figueroa Street, and bordered by Avenue 61 on the southwest and Mesa Avenue on the northwest,
The Mount Angelus neighborhood has one of the city's largest concentrations of public stairways, which link the narrow and winding hillside streets.
In the early years of the 20th century, entrepreneur Cora Scott Pond-Pope, purchased the land from the Garvanza Land Co., the holders of the original Spanish land grant. Pond-Pope subdivided the hill and sold lots to individuals. Pond-Pope had relocated to the Los Angeles area after successfully organizing eighty-seven different woman's suffage leagues in Massachusetts in the 1880s.
In years past, the Mount Angelus neighborhood was sometimes referred to as "Pope Hill"; taking the name from the neighborhood's original female developer; although newcomers to the neighborhood often mistakenly think the name "Pope Hill" is somehow releated to the presence of Saint Ignatius Catholic Church at the base of the hill on Avenue 61.
Although the Mount Angelus neighborhood has evolved over several decades, it was largely built up by the 1930s.
In 1997, the Los Angeles Times interviewed local historian Charles Fisher about Mount Angelus. Charlie mentioned the fascinating layered development of architectural styles as you move further and further up the hill.
"The houses at the base of the hill are turn-of-the-century cottages dating from 1890 to 1910," he said."The next layer are houses from the Mission Revival era up to the First World War. Higher up are Spanish Colonial Revival homes built in the 1920s and '30s. At the top of the hill are the most contemporary houses, which were built in the 1950s and '60s."
Cheryl, I loved reading this and the different styles of homes in Mount Angelus. What a pretty place and so interesting.