Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known for its trendy local businesses, as well as its popularity with artists, musicians and creatives. It has been home to numerous notable people. The neighborhood is centered on the eponymous Echo Park Lake.The area now known as Echo Park in 1894. Echo Park Lake is at the top left. Glendale Boulevard is marked as Lake Shore Avenue. The Temple–Beaudry district is at the right center.Established in 1892, and long before Hollywood became synonymous with the commercial film industry of the United States, the area of Echo Park known as Edendale was the center of filmmaking on the West Coast.By the 1910s, several film studios were operating on Allesandro Avenue (now Glendale Boulevard) along the Echo Park-Silverlake border, including the Selig Polyscope Company, Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, the Pathe West Coast Film Studio, and others.Silent film stars who worked in the Edendale studios included Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle, and Harold Lloyd, and Gloria Swanson. Charlie Chaplin's first film was made at Keystone Studios, as well as the very first feature-length comedy, which starred Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand.The first pie-in-the-face scene was filmed at what later became the Mack Sennett Studios on Glendale Boulevard near Effie Street. The complex, which is now part of a storage facility, dates from 1909 and includes one of the area's first permanent sound stages, the factories where movies are made. The former studio, 1712 Glendale Boulevard, is City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 256.Echo Park Lake was established in 1868, as a drinking water reservoir, filled with water from a ditch that connects to the Los Angeles River in Los Feliz to the reservoir. In 1891, the four owners of the surrounding area gave up 33 acres (13 ha) of land around the reservoir to the city so that it could be used as a park. The city began work landscaping the park in October 1892. City parks superintendent Joseph Henry Tomlinson chose the name because of echoes he heard during the construction of Echo Park Lake in 1892. By 1895, the park and accompanying boathouse were completed. By the late 1910s, motion picture companies on Allesandro Street, now Glendale Boulevard, had been using the park as a filming location.Echo Park Lake was identified as an impaired body of water in 2006, and the city allocated $64.7 million to fund its cleanup and revitalization. In the summer of 2011, the lake was closed off and drained when the rehabilitation project began. The lake reopened on June 5, 2013, after a $45 million renovation.Starting in November 2019, a growing population of homeless people began moving into the lake grounds. The encampment included nearly 200 homeless tents, and four homeless individuals died at the park in 2020. On March 25, 2021, the park was closed for renovations and cleared of the homeless encampments. While closure notices were posted throughout the park days before the sweep, over 200 protesters clashed with LAPD, who arrested 179 protesters. The encampment and ensuing incident became a major flashpoint in LA's homelessness crisis.Of the 183 homeless individuals living at Echo Park Lake, only 17 had successfully transitioned into permanent housing as of March 2022. In February 2023, councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez announced plans to remove the fence that encircles the lake. The plans became divisive within the community, many of whom have advocated for the fence to remain, amid the ongoing homelessness crisis.The Glendale Freeway (SR 2) was originally planned and constructed in 1959 to connect with the Hollywood Freeway (US-101) through the neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Echo Park, but terminates roughly 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northeast of its intended terminus at the Hollywood Freeway due to opposition from residents living and developers building on a hill that is now a private gated community called Hathaway Estates. In 1962, as a result of this local community opposition, the full build-out plan was rescinded and construction was terminated at the present SR-2 terminus near Glendale Bl and Duane Street. Since then, commuter traffic exiting and entering on to SR-2 has passed through the community, primarily along Glendale Bl and Alvarado Street, which has contributed to congestion. Since that plan has been scrapped, the freeway is somewhat isolated from the remainder of the Los Angeles freeway system.
Here is a local Business that supports the community
Google Map- https://goo.gl/maps/9GHYyPhJABeMLhm66
10727 White Oak Ave #205C, Granada Hills, CA 91344
Be sure to check out this attraction too!