Jefferson Park, Los Angeles

Southern Border of Jefferson Park at Crenshaw and Jefferson Boulevards

Jefferson Park is a district in southwestern Los Angeles, California. It is considered a part of South Los Angeles.

Geography and transportation

Jefferson Park's boundaries are, roughly, Western Avenue on the east, Adams on the north, Crenshaw Boulevard on the west, and Exposition Boulevard/Rodeo Road on the south. It is bordered by Arlington Heights on the north, Mid-City on the northwest, Leimert Park/King Estates on the south, and West Adams on the east. Major east-west roads through the district include Adams, Jefferson, and Exposition Boulevards, and 7th, 10th, and Arlington Avenues which run north-south. The Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) runs just north of the district, parallel to and between Washington and Adams.

The neighborhood

Jefferson Park neighborhood sign

With development commencing around the turn of the 20th century, Jefferson Park began as one of the city's wealthiest areas. On the hills rising west of Western Avenue, wealthy white Angelenos built fine Edwardian, Craftsman, and Art Deco mansions, with churches and commercial buildings of commensurate expense. Some wealthy blacks moved into the area as well, leading the neighborhood to be dubbed "Sugar Hill" by many African-Americans of the day. To the south, in the flatter areas along Jefferson Boulevard, a low-rise commercial corridor developed, with small single-story homes and low-rise apartment buildings in the blocks behind. After the 1948 Supreme Court ruling that banned segregationist covenants on property, most of Jefferson Park's white population decamped to other parts of the region, in turn being replaced by upper-middle and upper-class blacks whose descendants still reside in many of the district's spectacular homes.

Additionally, many Japanese-American families moved to Jefferson Park in the late 1940s to the 1960s. This is reflected in some old Japanese businesses such as Tak's Hardware, Saki Liquors and Kashu Realty, all on Jefferson Blvd. Distinctive Japanese-style landscaping also shows the influence in yards in the neighborhood. As South Central (now South Los Angeles) deteriorated from the 1970s onward (punctuated by the 1992 Los Angeles riots), the working-class black population that had moved into the bungalows and ranch homes in the Jefferson corridor was increasingly replaced by Latinos.

Today, like most of South Los Angeles, Jefferson Park is a mix of blacks and Latinos. The Exposition light rail line, which is currently under construction, will likely bring greater prosperity to the district, which is roughly equidistant between Downtown Los Angeles and the business districts of Westwood and Century City.

Notable landmarks

McCarty Memorial Christian Church

The First African Methodist Episcopal Church, considered the spiritual heart of South Los Angeles and the usual venue for funerals of prominent black Angelenos (most recently Johnnie Cochran), lies just northwest of the intersection of Adams and Western. Its rector, Los Angeles icon Rev. Cecil Murray, stepped down in 2004.

The Victorian mansion used to depict the Fisher family home in the HBO series Six Feet Under is located on Arlington Avenue in Jefferson Park.

Eugene W. Britt House

Education

Dorsey High School

Jonnie L. Cochran Jr. Middle School

Jefferson Park is zoned to schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District [1].

Zoned elementary schools include:

• 6th Avenue Elementary School
• 24th Street Elementary School
• Bright Elementary School

Cochran Middle School (formerly Mount Vernon Middle School) serves as the area middle school.

Some high school students are zoned to Dorsey High School [2], while others are zoned to Manual Arts High School.

External links

• Los Angeles Times, Real Estate section, Neighborly Advice column: "[Jefferson Park:] L.A. as it looked a century ago" (10 Aug 2003)
• Bungalow History of Jefferson Park