Eagle Rock, Los Angeles facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Eagle Rock, California
Neighborhood of Los Angeles
Eagle Rock Neighborhood Signage at the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Figueroa Street
Eagle Rock, California Location in Los Angeles
Country	United States of America
State	California
County	Los Angeles
City	Los Angeles
Area
• Total	11.0 km2 (4.25 sq mi)
Elevation	173 m (568 ft)
Population  (2008)
• Total	34,644
• Density	3,147/km2 (8,152/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-8 (PST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-7 (PDT)
Zip codes	90041, 90042, 90065
Area code(s)	213, 323

The Eagle Rock
The Eagle Rock
Location	Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, CA
Area	Northeast Los Angeles
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument
Designated	November 16, 1962
Reference no.	10

The eagle rock at dusk, shown here above California State Route 134 (the Ventura Freeway), north of Downtown Los Angeles, at the border of Pasadena, California.

Eagle Rock is a neighborhood of Northeast Los Angeles, located between the cities of Glendale and Pasadena, abutting the San Rafael Hills in Los Angeles County, California. Eagle Rock is named after a large rock whose shadow resembles an eagle with its wings outstretched. Eagle Rock was once part of the Rancho San Rafael under Spanish and Mexican governorship. In 1911, Eagle Rock was incorporated as a city, and in 1923 it combined with the City of Los Angeles.

The neighborhood is the home of Occidental College and is known for being an enclave of counterculture. Eagle Rock maintains a number of historically significant buildings, including nine Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments, and has a connection with the motion picture industry.

As with other neighborhoods in Northeast Los Angeles, Eagle Rock experienced significant gentrification in the 21st century.

Nomenclature

A massive boulder at the district's northern edge contains an indentation which casts a bird-shaped shadow on the rock at certain times of day, giving the neighborhood its name.

History

Before the arrival of European settlers, the secluded valley below the San Rafael Hills that is roughly congruent to Eagle Rock's present boundaries was inhabited by the Tongva people, whose staple food was the acorns from the valley's many oak trees. These aboriginal inhabitants were displaced by Spanish settlers in the late 18th century, with the area incorporated into the Rancho San Rafael. Following court battles, the area known as Rancho San Rafael was divided into 31 parcels in 1870. Benjamin Dreyfus was awarded what is now called Eagle Rock. In the 1880s Eagle Rock existed as a farming community.

The arrival of American settlers and the growth of Los Angeles resulted in steadily increasing semi-rural development in the region throughout the late 19th century. The construction of Henry Huntington's Los Angeles Railway trolley line up Eagle Rock Blvd. to Colorado Blvd. and on Colorado to Townsend Ave. commenced the rapid suburbanization of the Eagle Rock Valley. Eagle Rock was incorporated as an independent city in 1911. The depletion of the young city's wells, and their incipient contamination due to the lack of a sewer system, led the citizens of Eagle Rock to agree to amalgamation with the city of Los Angeles in 1923.

Several of the major crime sprees that have become part of Los Angeles' late 20th century history have left their mark on the neighborhood.

In 2002, an effort to designate an area of the community as "Philippine Village", for the large Filipino American population, was stopped.

Population

The neighborhood is inhabited by a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups and the creative class. Over the past decade the Eagle Rock and neighboring Highland Park have been experiencing gentrification as young urban professionals have moved from nearby neighborhoods such as Los Feliz and Silver Lake. A core of counter-culture writers, artists and filmmakers has existed in Eagle Rock since the 1920s.

According to the "Mapping L.A." project of the Los Angeles Times, the 2000 U.S. census counted 32,493 residents in the 4.25-square-mile Eagle Rock neighborhood—or 7,644 people per square mile, an average population densities for both the city and the county. In 2008, the city estimated that the population had increased to 34,466. In 2000 the median age for residents was 35, about average for city and county neighborhoods.

The neighborhood was considered "highly diverse" ethnically within Los Angeles, with a relatively high percentage of Asian people. The breakdown was Latinos, 40.3%; whites, 29.8%; Asians, 23.9%; blacks, 1.8%; and others, 4.1%. The Philippines (35.1%) and Mexico (25.1%) were the most common places of birth for the 38.5% of the residents who were born abroad—an average figure for Los Angeles.

The median yearly household income in 2008 dollars was $67,253, considered high for the city. The neighborhood's income levels, like its ethnic composition, can still be marked by notable diversity, but typically ranges from lower-middle to upper-middle class. Renters occupied 43.9% of the housing stock, and house- or apartment-owners held 56.1%. The average household size of 2.8 people was considered normal for Los Angeles.

Geography

Eagle Rock is bordered by the city of Glendale on the north and west, Highland Park on the southeast, Glassell Park on the southwest and the cities of Pasadena and South Pasadena on the east. Major thoroughfares include Eagle Rock Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard, with Figueroa Street along the eastern boundary. The Glendale and Ventura freeways run along the district's western and northern edges, respectively.

Notable residents

Education

Occidental College, 2012

Eagle Rock High School, 1969

Colleges and universities

Eagle Rock is the site of Occidental College, which was first established in Boyle Heights in 1887, but a fire destroyed its original site in 1896; from there the college moved to a temporary location in Downtown Los Angeles until 1898 when it moved to Highland Park, and then to Eagle Rock in 1914. The campus was designed by architect Myron Hunt.

Schools

Eagle Rock children attend schools in District 4 of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

• Eagle Rock High School, 1750 Yosemite Drive. Eagle Rock High School was built in 1927 by the City of Los Angeles, as promised at the time of Eagle Rock's annexation. The building was demolished in 1970 over concerns about its earthquake safety. It was replaced by a contemporary brutalist style building at the rear of the same school site.
• Renaissance Arts Academy, charter high school, 1800 Colorado Boulevard
• Dahlia Heights Elementary School, 5063 Floristan Avenue
• Santa Rosa Charter Academy, middle school, 3838 Eagle Rock Boulevard
• Eagle Rock Elementary School, 2057 Fair Park Avenue
• Rockdale Elementary School, 1303 Yosemite Drive
• Delevan Drive Elementary School, 4168 West Avenue 42
• Toland Way Elementary School, 4545 Toland Way
• Annandale Elementary School, 6125 Poppy Peak Drive
• Celerity Rolas Charter School, 1495 Colorado Boulevard. Closed for 2018–2019 school year.

Intersection of Eagle Rock Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard at dusk. September 2016.

Images for kids

• 

  Boundaries of Eagle Rock as drawn by the L.A. Times

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  Eagle Rock City Hall 2035 Colorado Boulevard Historic-Cultural Monument #59

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  Eagle Rock, 1900

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  Intersection of Eagle Rock Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard.