Neighborhood Spotlight: Glassell Park's future looks greener and livelier

"The massive, 36,000-acre Rancho San Rafael - a gift from the Spanish governor of California to Jose Maria Verdugo in 1784 - can fairly be called the mother of Northeast Los Angeles. The neighborhoods that were carved from the hilly, scenic expanse of land to the east of the L.A. River include Atwater Village, Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Glassell Park."

"Lost by the Verdugo family in foreclosure proceedings and snapped up by Andrew Glassell and Alfred Chapman - two Southern lawyers who had made their way west in the years before the Civil War - the rancho was then split by the men into 31 separate tracts in the Great Partition of 1871."

"Modest Craftsman bungalows began to sprout up along winding streets named after Glassell's children, and in 1912 the burgeoning hillside community was annexed by the city of Los Angeles."

Rancho San Rafael, originally granted by the Spanish governor to Jose Maria Verdugo in 1784, served as the foundation for Northeast Los Angeles. After the Verdugo family lost the property through foreclosure, lawyers Andrew Glassell and Alfred Chapman purchased it and divided it into 31 tracts in 1871. Glassell retained approximately 6,000 acres east of the L.A. River and established the city of Orange in 1888. Following Glassell's death in 1901, his family sold portions of the holdings, including land that became Forest Lawn. Investors developed the Glassell Park tract with modest Craftsman bungalows along streets named after Glassell's children. The neighborhood was annexed by Los Angeles in 1912 and benefited from proximity to the Los Angeles Railway's Eagle Rock line.

Read at Los Angeles Times