Lafayette Square, Los Angeles

LaFayette Square is a historic semi-gated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California.

Although founded in 1913 by real estate developer George Lafayette Crenshaw, it is named after the French Marquis de Lafayette, who fought alongside Colonists in the American Revolution. Lying west of Crenshaw Boulevard in the Mid-City area, it was designated by the city as a Los Angeles Historic Preservation Overlay Zone in 2000 for its significant residential architecture and history.

Early sales
Properties in the tract, which was described as "part of the Nadeau Rancho vineyard," between "Washington and Sixteenth streets . . . immediately west of Crenshaw Boulevard" went on sale in 1913.

According to the Los Angeles Conservancy, "LaFayette Square was the last and greatest of banker George L. Crenshaw's ten residential developments in the City of Los Angeles." The tract is composed of four north-south streets with an east-west grassy divider.

Unsold lots were liquidated in early 1920.

Viaduct
A petition to the city by Lafayette Square residents in September 1915 urged construction of a level crossing to bring West Boulevard across the Pacific Electric tracks. Without it, the petitioners said, ""children have to walk two miles to school" and stores refused to make deliveries because of the distance around the blockage. Instead, the city's Public Utilities Board approved plans for a more expensive viaduct over the tracks, saying a level crossing would be the worst "death-trap" in the city were it built.

After visiting the site, the City Council approved a $40,000 viaduct for which Pacific Electric would pay half the cost and the city and land owners would pay the rest. Property owners agreed. Construction on the viaduct took place in 1920. The link offered "a safe route of only four blocks to the million-dollar Los Angeles High School and . . . direct access to the West Hollywood and Beverly Hills district[s] by way of Pico and Wilshire Boulevards."

Gates
Around 1980, the Lafayette Square Association proposed closing entrances to the neighborhood by blocking the ends of the streets to create cul-de-sacs. Neighbors debated issues of crime, traffic speed and emergency vehicle access. In 1989, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved the plans.

In the early 1990s, wrought-iron gates were installed at the ends of Buckingham Road, Virginia Road, Wellington Road and Victoria Avenue. The only way into the neighborhood by car is at St. Charles Place. To pay for the enclosures, the homeowners were assessed $40 per year for 10 years.

Geography
LaFayette Square is situated about 7 miles (11 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is south of Victoria Park, east of Arlington Heights and north of Wellington Square.

It consists of eight blocks, centered on St. Charles Place, and situated between Venice Boulevard on the north, Washington Boulevard on the south, Crenshaw Boulevard on the east and West Boulevard on the west. There are 236 homes in the neighborhood.

Residences


The neighborhood was designed for wealthy families and now-historic houses regularly have 5,000 to 6000 sqft floor plans, although the average home size is 3600 sqft. According to a Los Angeles Times real-estate section article on the neighborhood, "Most of the properties have period details: Juliet balconies, mahogany staircases and libraries, sitting rooms, stained glass windows, triple crown molding, soaring ceilings&mdash;even four-car garages."

Demographics
Home ownership shifted "between white-only homeownership during the 1920s through the 1940s to nearly all African American" in the 1950s with court decisions lifting restrictive covenants against black people. The community became more racially mixed "as more white families, priced out of the Westside and Hancock Park" began returning in the early 1990s.

Schools
The neighborhood is zoned to the following schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District:
 * Alta Loma Elementary School
 * Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Middle School (formerly Mount Vernon Middle School)
 * Los Angeles High School

Notable residents
In chronological order by birth year
 * William Claude Dukenfield, W.C. Fields (1880-1946), actor
 * George Pepperdine (1886-1962), entrepreneur and philanthropist, founder of Pepperdine University
 * Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle, Fatty Arbuckle (1887-1933), actor
 * Paul R. Williams (1894-1980), architect
 * Norton Simon (1907-1993), art collector
 * Joseph Louis Barrow, Joe Louis (1914-1981), boxer
 * Vaino Spencer (1920-2016), lawyer and judge
 * Paul Younger Tank Younger, (1928-2001), football player
 * Richard Wayne Penniman, Little Richard (1932-2020), musician, singer, and songwriter
 * John Roseboro (1933-2002), baseball player and coach
 * Larry McCormick (1937-2004), actor, reporter and news anchor
 * John Mack (1937-2018), L.A. Urban League president
 * Mahdi Abdul-Rahman, Walt Hazzard (1942-2011), basketball player and coach