Laurel Canyon is a canyon neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. Community life here is focused on its central thoroughfare, Laurel Canyon Boulevard. In the early part of the 19th century, Laurel Canyon was a rough and rustic area made up of just a few cabins- some used as hunting lodges. During 1920’s it grew into a real neighborhood with a small schoolhouse, restaurants, a grocery store and even a local newspaper. It quickly turned into the most prestigious and recognizable areas in Los Angeles. Laurel Canyon is a main transit corridor between West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, particularly Studio City.
Scenic View of Laurel Canyon
During Hollywood’s glory years, many notables, including Orson Welles, Ramon Navarro, and Errol Flynn, lived in the canyon. Urban legend has it that another former resident, Harry Houdini, still haunts the remains of his estates, visible on the right just before Lookout Mountain as you drive north. But it wasn’t until the ‘60s that Laurel Canyon’s lifelong reputation as a who’s who commune of legendary rock n’ rollers developed. Like its Northern cousin San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, it became the place to be for hippies, as well as successful and aspiring musicians. Its center was eccentric rock star Frank Zappa’s rented cabin on Lookout Mountain- home to more than a few wild parties. Free spirits and music types continued to migrate and meet up in the Canyon throughout the ‘70s as the scene switched from psychedelic rock to mellow folk music and musicians. Laurel Canyon has been mentioned in many films and novels about Los Angeles.
View of Laurel Canyon Country Store
Today, it continues to carry its reputation as a residential center for people involved in music, film, and arts. Not far from the popular dog-walk capital and Hollywood hikers’ paradise of Runyon Canyon, and just below the hill from the San Fernando Valley, Laurel Canyon is one of the more centrally located parts of the spread out city of LA.
The Canyon had kept the funky, rainbow-colored charm of the ‘60s Love Generation on the walls of its Canyon Country Store, and the occasional brightly colored houses and odd-shaped pads that crop up around newer more upscale homes. Famous, infamous and unknown locals can be seen chatting over coffee and tea at the Country Store’s coffee cart, a local social hub, in the retro feeling atmosphere with wooden floors and the musty smell. Another dining and drinking spot of Laurel Canyon is cozy little Pacé restaurant that serves organic Italian food in a dimly lit Bohemian setting.
Jim Morrison of The Doors
In fact, Jim Morrison’s “Love Street” is directly behind the store and actually for sale right now: 8021 ROTHDELL Trl
As of July, 2010 population of Laurel Canyon is approximately 210,833 people. Average cost of a home per square foot is $455 and the median price of a home is $776,000, while the average size of a home is 1,968 Sq.Ft.
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