The commercial strips of Echo Park are filled with trendy cafes, boutiques, restaurants, and bars providing a lifestyle that is an extension of its neighbor Silver Lake.  There is a DIY sense of attitude and appreciation for diversity. Sunset Boulevard, both north, and south of Alvarado, the downtown corridor of the community and is lined with a range of vintage stores, record shops, Mexican bakeries, 99 cent stores, laundromats, and mom and pop fashion shops. Echo Park is home to the annual Lotus Festival, the Cuban Festival, and historic Filipinotown.

The past few years have seen more art spaces and galleries hosting local artist exhibits, performance art, and music events. Spaces such as Subliminal Projects and Echoes Under Sunset are intimate venues showcasing multi media, contemporary, street art, or an impromptu DJ set. You might also pop into one of the many bookstores for a poetry reading or performance art night.

Echo Park has become the ‘it’ place to hang out and there’s no need to wait for the weekend.  Music venues and bars throughout the neighborhood host nightly game nights and live shows. One of the most popular performance spaces is the Echoplex, which was invaded for a surprise performance a few years ago by – ready for this – The Rolling Stones. Now that’s next level shit. Party on a Tuesday night? Why not. Head to the Short Stop for some serious dancing and stiff drinks.

If you’re just getting out of a Dodger game and want to celebrate the win, head to any of the cool dive bars or old school eateries and toast to the best baseball team ever (GO BLUE!).

If you’re more about food than drink, you’ve come to the right place. Echo Park has become a foodie destination dining scene mixes neighborhood staples with neighborhood newcomers. Culinary gems such as the uber-hipster Sage and Mohawk Bend mix with some of the best taco trucks in the city.

Live Music | Echo Park

There are plenty of live music events happening every week in Echo Park. Take your pick from music venues like Spaceland (in nearby Silver Lake), The Echo, and Echoplex. They’re all unique and serve up a memorable night on the town.

Echo Park is home to some of the last remaining and most well-preserved architecture in all of the city, most notable Angelino Heights contains some of the best remaining examples of Victorian architectural styles in Los Angeles, as well as later examples of Craftsman and Mission Revival styles. Angeleno Heights was the first neighborhood in Los Angeles to be adopted as a Historical Preservation Overlay Zone. The 1300 block of Carroll Avenue, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a site to see. The meticulously restored manors along this street draw camera-toting visitors and film crews on a regular basis.

The wooded hills at the north end of Echo Park is a residential area known as Elysian Heights. The area has breathtaking views and feels like the city is a hundred miles away. Historically home to artists, political radicals, architects and filmmakers, the homes are just as eclectic, yet still bohemian in their own right.

The thing that draws a new generation of bohemians with Eastside dreams to Echo Park is the abundance of charming craftsman homes and their prices. The area is populated primarily with modest sized homes and a good bang for the buck can still be had here, although the demand has been growing steadily.

Echo Park Real Estate value has been on the steady rise since the early 2000’s and following the Great Recession. The inflow and push of young executives, artist, and tech-minded entrepreneurs have given way for new business and Echo Park Real Estate development. The neighborhood has lately seen a major facelift and revitalization both commercially and residentially. Never in Echo Park, Real Estate’s history has there been such expansion and economic growth making Echo Park the perfect neighborhood to call home.

At the end of the 19th century, a horse-drawn trolley rambled up a dirt road that is now Echo Park Avenue, which led into hills covered with fields of native grasses and wild flowers. If one person could be called a founder, it would be Thomas Kelley, the carriage maker turned in real estate developer.

Kelley and his business partners sold off pieces of what they called the Montana Tract to individuals who built the business district along Sunset Boulevard and the densely packed homes and apartments that surround Echo Park Lake. Legend says the lake, which is actually a man-made reservoir, got its name after workers building the original reservoir said their voices echoed off the canyon walls. The “Lady of the Lake” statue was not added as a feature until years later. Enclaves of rich neighborhoods began poping up, eventually becoming the prestigious Elysian Heights and Angelino Heights areas for upper-middle class Victorian –era Los Angeles from the late 1800s.

Recently a plaque honoring film industry pioneer Mack Sennett which states ‘THIS IS THE BIRTHPLACE OF MOTION PICTURE COMEDY’ was restored and placed in its proper location, along with Glendale Boulevard near Aaron Street in Echo Park. This was the first true site of Sennett’s sound stages, almost 100 years ago, and one could say what put Echo Park on the map, the movie industry! Similar to adjacent Silver Lake, the area thrived as part of the Edendale movie magic and its proximity to the downtown. Several silent comedies were filmed here as were several Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Our Gang, Ben Turpin, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Charley Chase, Chester Conklin, and Three Stooges shorts.

As many middle-class white residents relocated to the suburbs after World War II, Mexican Americans moved into the area’s affordable homes, becoming Echo Park’s majority, along with smaller populations of Chinese, Filipino, and Southeast Asian immigrants. During this era, the neighborhood was shaped by the diverse and colorful artists, musicians, and intellectuals. Years later, the neighborhood was affected by the evictions at Chavez Ravine and the division of the barrios by freeway construction. An area that underwent years of racial hostility towards Mexicans in the low-income neighborhood, Mexican American youths part of the zoot suit riot culture, and later gang periods of the 1970s and 1980s, Echo Park has had its share of violent periods.

Today, however, Echo Park has stayed strong in its culturally rich foundation and is safe for the most part, although you might not want to take a late night stroll on some streets. There is still plenty of movie making magic happening here too, and street & music festivals happen a few times a year. Although Echo Park has changed dramatically over the past century, it has managed to retain the historic character and strong sense of identity that sets it apart in a modern and sprawling metropolis.