Author : Cynthia E. Exum
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
ISBN 13 : 073859587X
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (385 download)
Book Synopsis Leimert Park by : Cynthia E. Exum
Download or read book Leimert Park written by Cynthia E. Exum and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leimert Park, one of the first comprehensively planned communities in Southern California, was founded and developed in 1927 by Walter H. Leimert Sr. and designed by Olmsted Brothers, a firm headed by sons of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., the master planner of New York City's Central Park. In its early years, Leimert Park was a pasture situated on portions of the Rancho Cienega O Paso de la Tijera, once owned by land baron E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin. The area is best known for its gracefully curved tree-lined streets, Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean-style homes, and Art Deco buildings designed by some of the nation's foremost architects. Famous residents Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, and Los Angeles's first African American mayor, Tom Bradley, have called Leimert Park home. In 1967, artists Alonzo and Dale Davis founded Brockman Gallery, and with this beginning, a new era of Leimert Park as an arts and cultural center dawned. Today, with its art galleries, jazz and blues clubs, coffeehouses, performance spaces, restaurants, and Afrocentric fashion and merchandise shops, the area has evolved into one of Los Angeles's great idyllic communities.