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July 10, 2007
Neighborhood Project: Little Armenia
This summer LAist is going to tackle an ambitious project. We are going to attempt to do a post about every neighborhood in Los Angeles based on LA City Nerd's 172 known designated communities. It might take us into the fall, but every neighborhood/community will be covered, in this lighthearted, and clearly not definitive, tour of LA.
If you would like to send us information, tidbits, little known facts, or full blown posts about your neighborhood, email us at thelaist@gmail.com
Now let's get this party started with Little Armenia, the friendly neighbor of Thai Town, after the jump.
Little Armenia
Boundaries: "the area bounded on the north by Hollywood Blvd between the 101 Freeway and Vermont Ave, on the east by Vermont Avenue from Hollywood Blvd to Santa Monica Blvd, on the south by Santa Monica Blvd between Vermont Ave and the 101 Freeway and on the west by the 101 Freeway from Santa Monica Blvd to Hollywood Blvd."
Subway stops: Hollywood/Western, Sunset/Vermont, Sunset/Santa Monica
Parks: Barnsdall Art Park
City Councilperson: Eric Garcetti
County Supervisor: Zev Yaroslavsky
State Senate: Kevin Murray
State Assembly: Kevin De Leon
US Congress: Xavier Becerra
Freeway access: 101
Usually considered: Hollywood, East Hollywood
People who front who live here say they live in: Los Feliz
Little Armenia is named after the Armenians who escaped genocide and made their way to Los Angeles during the early part of the 20th century. Armeniapedia says that LA "has the second largest Armenian diaspora community in the world, after Moscow, Russia." This beautiful mural of the history of Armenia can be found off Vermont between Fountain and Santa Monica Blvd.
Good restaurants: Marouch, Zankou Chicken, Falafel Arax.
The Sunset Blvd. Zankou is the best of the Armenian-styled rotisserie chicken houses, and if you don't indulge in their garlic paste, you're missing out on everything.
Marouch on Santa Monica Blvd:
Some times the best food is in the strip malls:
A new favorite, Square One on Fountain:
Falafel Arax on Santa Monica Blvd.:
Number of official 99 Cent Stores: 1
Number of stores in Little Armenia named Armenia: 1
Number of super old beautiful hospital wings so old they cant tear them down but too old to use for patients: 1
In 1930, East L.A.'s Kaspare Cohn Hospital moved to Fountain Avenue and renamed itself the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. Lucille Ball gave birth to Desi Arnaz, Jr. there. Judy Garland gave birth to Liza Minnelli there. Natalie Cole and Micky Dolenz were each born there. Among other celebs who were treated there include Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Curly Howard of the Three Stooges. In 1976 Cedars of Lebanon would move again to Beverly Hills and become Cedards-Sinai, and in its place came The Church of Scientology. Below you can still see the Cedars of Lebanon influence in the neighborhood.
L. Ron Hubbard Way is one of the few streets in LA that incorporates hand-laid bricks, and allows no parking at any time.
Sometimes in the summer the Scientologists will have big events in their parking lot
Even without Cedars around any more, the neighborhood still has plenty of hospitals. Including this huge Kaiser that is being renovated and expanded.
Along with Scientology, there are several Armenian churches in Little Armenia, a Mormon temple, and even an all-religion church, among others:
Number of Winchell's in Little Armenia: 0
Number of Michelle's: 1
Last year, after jumping through expensive hoops, Sam Lanni brought Safari Sam's to the location of a former strip club. One of the most exciting new clubs, you can drive by any night and see today's youth smoking and drinking outside in between watching bands inside.
There used to be a bowling alley in Little Armenia. The famous Hollywood Star Lanes opened in 1962 and was the only Hollywood bowling alley for 40 years. It was demolished for this school. We will never forgive those kids for demanding an edjumacation.
Number of Vons in Little Armenia: 0
Number of Jons in Little Armenia: 2. One on Vermont & Hollywood, and one on Santa Monica near the 101:
Number of old school Armenian bakeries: oh so many!
There's great public art in Little Armenia
It even has an Art Park on top of its tallest hill
The Post Office in Little Armenia is on 1385 N Western Ave. near Sunset, near the Home Depot
The Sunset & Vermont red line station is just one of the three subway stations in Little Armenia - if you consider the Hollywood/Western station as being in Little Armenia and not in Thai Town.
Despite the huge Armenian population, as well as heavy Thai influence, Little Armenia, like the rest of LA remains hugely diverse and walking down any of the streets you're bound to hear a variety of languages being spoken. Which is why International hair cuts are so important.
During the riots in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, this Payless shoe store was looted, as were many businesses on this block
At the end of Spike Jonze's Adaptation, he trips you out with some time-lapse photography of flowers and traffic streaming down this stretch of Sunset. Which means this is probably a good place for us to end too.
all photos by Sonny I. LaVista for LAist
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Great article! I can't wait for you guys to run through the rest of LA's 'hoods. As an East Coast transplant living in Hollywood, this info is BEYOND useful. Thanks LAist!
Big ups.
solid post
Awh man, I was going to do a very similar thing over at MetroRiderLA, but you jerks beat me to it. Well, I'm still doing it anyway if I ever get off my lazy ass. $ue me.
i wish you luck!
Oh ya, by the way, good post! Little Armenia rules (and talk about being transit friendly).
Ahhhh! LAist may or may not have covered the Militant's own neighborhood, and I may or may not be in one of those pictures. And contrary to popular perception, there are *zero* tensions between Armenians and Thais in this community, apart from some *Glendale-based* Armenian business interests who balked at the notion of Thai Town following its designation in 1998.
Well done, LAist. This is a great marriage of LA City Nerdiness and cultural content!
I bet Militant Angeleno is the dude on the bike. Or the scientologist walking down L. Ron Hubbard Way!
sexist! i think she is the old lady in the main pic.
Great little photo essay. Captures the essence of the neighborhood. I live an work in Little Armenia -- moved there because it's a major center for Scientology on the West Coast. It was fun to see all the restaurants and shops I use, and what fun to see the shots of L. Ron Hubbard way and the Scientology churches I attend. By the way, Zankou Chicken is an art form unto itself, and the Armenian deli in the plaza with the 99 Cents store has killer pastries and imports the most delicious Middle Eastern delicacies. It's also true that there is a very comfortable melding of cultures, with Latino, Gringo, Armenian and Thai coexisting in this one little stretch of LA. Thanks for this slice of home on the Net!
this is great! ill start reading laist again just for the neighborhood coverage! thanks.
This is fan-freakin-tastic...can't wait for the other installments. Especially enjoy the "People Who Front" designation.
The East Hollywood community isn't just Armenian and Thai, it's also El Salvadoran, Mexican, Filipino, Korean, Cambodian, Ukrainian, Russian, Lebanese, Guatemalan, Japanese, Bulgarian, Peruvian, Chilean, Cuban and more. All of the above groups have residents, businesses, non-profits and houses of worship that represent their groups. Dare I'd say it's the most diverse community in Los Angeles.
A couple corrections from your Militant neighbor:
- There is no Metro station on Sunset/Santa Monica and if there were it would be in Silver_Lake. But I'm sure you meant "Vermont/Santa Monica," home of the new pay toilet.
- The Armenian history mural is located on Vermont and Lexington, not Vermont and Fountain.
In addition:
-
The hub of the Armenian cultural community is on Alexandria Avenue, a few yards south of Hollywood. That's home to the Rose & Alex Pilibos Armenian School and St. Garabed's Armenian Apostolic Church. Three members of System of A Down met as students of Pilibos School. Their library was also designed in the form of an ark, which had nothing to do with Evan Almighty, but rather that Noah's Ark is believed to have landed on the slope of historic Armenia's Mt. Ararat.
- I also can't believe you left our Sasoun Bakery, which has the BEST cheese borek in Little Armenia.
- Yes, Michelle's Donuts used to be a Winchell's, and there used to be a Foster's Freeze across the street, but that was another era. For any of you who have family overseas and need to call them at 3:35 a.m., Michelle's is the best place to go get your long-distance phone cards.
Oh yeah, check out some YouTube goodness right here that I stumbled upon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bw9l91i_Bc
This is awesome. I too look forward to all the neighborhoods being covered, hopefully in as much detail as this entry. Though I imagine some may be a little hard to cover. Good luck. And good luck Fred if you decide to do this on MetroRider LA as well. I love photo essays.
Great article. Look forward to other neighborhoods hopefully not from the Hollywood/East LA ilk cause they always get too much hype.
Love it.. Can't wait for the other hoods!
East LA gets too much hype? I can just hear all the vatos laughing from the other side of the river.
And there's so much more to Hollywood than a boulevard and a sheet metal sign that the rest of the city, nay, rest of the world, doesn't even know about.
... which is why we're doing this series, Militant Angeleno, and if you'd like to contribute, we'd love you to show us what youre talking about.
C'mon ya'll. You don't have to be an expert profiler to know that if Militant were to be caught be the lens it would almost certainly be as he/she was entering/exiting a transit station. And, being militant, might be wearing camo shorts?
This is a great project, and really well done (the Burbank post is great too). You'll never include everything that everyone thinks is the definitive gem of the 'hood. But hell, I'd rather learn about a new place that someone else thinks is the greatest than get validation for a place that I already know and love.
Militant, it would be super-cool if you contributed a post the project.
Check out this event in AND ABOUT Little Armenia.
One MAJOR thing overlooked from a cultural standpoint: Each year on April 24, all of the local Armenian businesses are closed for the day to observe the Armenian Genocide which started in 1915. Some 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, an act that to this day the Turkish government refuses to admit, which is the main catalyst of political activism in the Armenian community. There are also marches and peaceful demonstrations originating in Little Armenia to the Turkish consulate calling attention to recognizing the Genocide.
The Armenian community is one of the most widespread diasporic ethnic groups in the world with enclaves in virtually every continent. The Genocide caused most Armenians to flee Armenia and seek refuge in places like Russia, France, Greece, Bulgaria and Lebanon. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the majority of Armenian immigrants here in Little Armenia as well as Glendale (a.k.a "Big Armenia") were actually born in those countries rather than in Armenia.
Tony, while you were taking a picture of the Payless, you should have sauntered into the strip mall's parking lot.
There is a very fascinating collection of old-time street lamps in front of the Staples. It was meant to be a temporary exhibition, but became permanent by default.
The lamps were featured on "Visiting with Huell Howser" and "Life & Times Tonight."
Also, Metro bus lines 180, 181 and now 780 have been jokingly called the "Yerevan Crosstown". The western half of these routes (middle half in the case of the 780) run through Little Armenia and Glendale, the largest concentration of Armenians outside of Armenia.
A poor set of observations. Watts has a lot going on that this article misses. A new farmers market started two weeks ago. The Seed Lady of Watts has been around for years. There are two big community gardens. There is abundant development of small lot subdivisions. Try a little harder.
Oh, man, I miss that bowling alley! I believe parts of The Big Lebowski was filmed there, FYI. I always thought that it just shut down from lack of business, didn't know it was demolished for a school. Thanks for the info. Good article, by the by. Cannot wait for the rest of the wonderful city we call home.
As a great novelist and an original thinker I have decided to write a book that takes place in Hollywood. How unique. If you knew the plot you'd understand why it has to be there, but anyway... I was wondering if I could get some history on a beautiful old yellow building on Vermont, 1175 vermont to be exact. I came across it the last time I escaped from my Canadian Igloo and visited your fine city. Any help would be appreciated. Please e-mail my publisher at raneast@gmail.com.
Much appreciated,