highland park – content.whygo.com

The Southwest Museum in Los Angeles is home to over a quarter million American Indian artifacts and works of art. It was one of the most impressive collections of Native American pieces assembled in this part of the world and because of limited room, the museum could only display about 5,000 pieces.

This meant that at any given time, about 98% of the museum’s collection was in storage. But no longer. The Southwest Museum is going to be renovated and restored to a level that will give curators much more flexibility and option in their display selection and increase the usable space in the museum significantly.

Unfortunately, this will also force the museum to relocate from its neighborhood location on the top of tight-knit Mt. Washington, to the expanded campus in Griffith Park.

Previous problems with the building itself led to problems with leaking roofs during rain, flooding, electrical problems and an infestation of what the museum’s website calls “vermin.”

The plan is to have the Southwest Museum up and running again by 2009, in a new building with updated seismic technology, display capabilities and technology. Meanwhile, work will continue on the old building, which is scheduled for completion in 2010. The Southwest Museum will then become some other type of cultural building, as was stipulated in the donor’s will. Until then, the Museum store will be open on weekends and events and programs will be open to the public and put on around the year. The Southwest Museum website has information on the restoration, remodel and move to the new location.

Admission

Museum exhibits are now closed to the public until the collection is moved to another location. The Southwest Museum had a deal with a location in Griffith Park called “The Museum of the American West” that allowed for admission to both for $12.00, but that deal has been discontinued since the Southwest Museum closed.

Location

The new location of the Southwest Museum is undecided, although the plan is that it will be part of the expansion in Griffith Park. This is a map to the old location on Mt. Washington, which will become another cultural interpretive center.

Highland Park and Eagle Rock make up the area between Glendale and Pasadena in East Los Angeles. Although they are incorporated within the city of Los Angeles, the two neighborhoods have distinct boundaries and neighborhood identities.

Highland Park

Highland Park is a neighborhood north east of Los Angeles bordered by the 110 freeway, South Pasadena, and Eagle Rock. The neighborhood is relatively small, but within its borders there is a progression from a depressed neighborhood full of people just trying to get by, to an area of interesting architecture, beautiful houses and relative wealth.

Highland Park is one of the oldest settled suburbs of Los Angeles. During the 1960’s the area became predominantly Latino and in the last few decades a significant black and Asian population has moved in to the neighborhood.

Attractions in Highland Park include the Southwest Museum, which has a vast collection of Native American artifacts from surrounding tribes, and various local restaurants and bars.

Eagle Rock

A formerly somewhat depressed area similar to Highland Park, in the last few years Eagle Rock has been revitalized and rebounded from a few decades of decline. Termed “the new Silver Lake” when local residents realized that housing prices were somewhat less in Eagle Rock than surrounding areas, Eagle Rock has seen an influx of urban hipsters and residents with disposable income that has tipped the neighborhood on its head.

Eagle Rock’s small area has the self-contained feel of a college town. The neighborhood is home to Occidental College, a small liberal arts university with 2,000 students and a significant number of those students stay in Eagle Rock after graduation. The local student watering hole “The Chalet” is frequently ranked in the top ten bars in Los Angeles and local restaurants like Casa Bianca and The Bucket draw accolades from food critics across the city.

Restaurants

Casa Bianca and The Bucket are both neighborhood mainstays in Eagle Rock. They are landmarks that have been around forever. Two new restaurants have opened across the street from each other on Colorado Boulevard at the heart of Eagle Rock, Dave’s Chillin’ and Grillin’ and The Oinkster. “Dave’s” is a sandwich shop run by Massachusetts transplant Dave Evans which focuses on the quality of ingredients for the best sandwiches in the city, The Oinkster bills itself as “slow fast food” and has the name of fine dining chef Andre Guerrero to back it. While the Oinkster participates in such foolery as making their own ketchup every day from scratch, the dining experience at Dave’s makes you feel like you’re getting a custom sandwich. Just ask Dave about his ingredients and watch him go.