El Sereno s Happy Valley Begins to Get Skittish

Residents of El Sereno take respite and inspiration in Elephant and Ascot Hills, which they have defended from development. Photo by Iris DeAnda

Iris DeAnda, a lifelong El Sereno resident and poet, lives in the northwestern area of El Sereno near an undeveloped open space known as Elephant Hill. I have been hiking those hills since I was a little girl. For years, Ive had dreams about there being a lake in the hills surrounding my home and its been a place for creating personal ceremony. These hills are important for the wildlife in our area such as coyotes and owls.

When DeAnda and other longtime residents heard that developers were planning on building condos on those same hills, they fought to keep the hills as open space. Finally, it was the vision that she'd had in her dreams that saved the hills. One of the last EIR (Environmental Impact Report), found that there is water under these hills so they are not safe for major construction which was a huge advantage for those of us who want to maintain the hills intact, she says. Now protected greenspace of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, El Sereno residents can continue to enjoy the hills that have remained largely untouched.

And although El Sereno is still a largely overlooked and unknown part of Los Angeles, its residents have recently witnessed unsettling change, early signs of gentrification that have already ravaged other eastside communities. In spite of its relatively low profile, El Sereno has recently dealth with its gentrification issues and also stands at a crossroads with its remaining open space in the western quadrant of the district. The battles taking place in El Sereno right now regarding its uncut nature and looming gentrification, combined with its storied history, make it one of the most dynamic pockets of 2016 Los Angeles.

Place of Serenity

El Sereno is aptly named because it is a quiet neighborhood that only longtime Angelenos even know exists. Located in the easternmost district in the City of Los Angeles and immediately north of much more famous eastside areas like City Terrace and Boyle Heights, El Sereno is somewhat similar to City Terrace with its many houses cascading chaparral hillsides.

The hilly topography of the neighborhood is rimmed by major arteries like Huntington Drive, Eastern, Valley Boulevard and Alhambra Avenue/Mission Road. Similar to many other districts across Los Angeles, El Sereno has sub-districts like Hillside Village, University Hills and an area called Rose Hill that bridges El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, Montecito Heights and South Pasadena. California State University at Los Angeles is actually located in El Sereno on the southeastern edge of the district adjacent to City Terrace, Alhambra, and the 10 and 710 freeways.

The combination of hills and distinct sub-communities gives El Sereno a unique identity unlike any other pocket of Los Angeles. The Cal State LA English lecturer Benito Solis grew up just east of El Sereno in Alhambra and lived in El Sereno for much of his 20s. He tells me, For as long as I can remember, El Sereno has been a complicated place frozen in time, a bucolic expanse sporadically littered with incongruent but charming homes rendered inconspicuous by hillside foliage and treetop canopies.

A Brief History

El Sereno recently celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2015, making El Sereno one of the oldest and most historic communities in Los Angeles. Indeed it is so historic that the thoroughfare of Mission Road which becomes Alhambra Avenue in El Sereno is the exact path that the original Spanish pobladores walked 11 miles west along from the San Gabriel Mission to establish the original pueblo of Los Angeles in 1781, according to the El Sereno Historical Society. El Sereno lies directly along the road that the first 44 Spanish Franciscans walked on when they established the Los Angeles pueblo in the late 18th Century. Furthermore, they would continue to take this path consistently for the next 9 years to get to church at the San Gabriel Mission. Eventually a church was built in the Los Angeles pueblo in the early 1790s, but the road that is now Mission Road/Alhambra Avenue has been a key thoroughfare for over 235 years. Travelling on it today, it is easy to see that it was chosen as a main artery for its mostly flat terrain and because bisects the local foothills surrounding it on both sides.

Before the Spanish claimed local land in the 1770s, El Sereno was the Tongva village of Otsunga according to the El Sereno Historical Society. With the Spanish takeover it became part of the San Gabriel Mission land. With Mexican rule, the ownership went to Juan Ballesteros, who named his land Rancho Rosa de Castilla. Under Yankee rule, farmers grew hay and barley and raised dairy cows, pigs and sheep. The construction of the Santa Fe, Southern Pacific and Pacific Electric railways brought urban development centering on Huntington Drive where it remains today, states the Historical Society. A plaque at California State University at Los Angeles honors Rancho Rosa de Castilla and notes that the site is where one of the 36 original adobes was built in California in 1776. Considering this history predates the founding of Los Angeles in 1781, the El Sereno Historical Society is indeed correct to note that development in El Sereno is among the oldest areas in Southern California.

Flock of sheep with houses in background, Los Angeles County, about 1880, Photo taken on the Rancho Rosa de Castillo, approximately where El Sereno, Los Angeles, is today. Photo from El Sereno Historical Society.

Home Off the Grid

As many El Sereno residents and urban hikers know, Ascot Hills Park is one of the best places to hike on the Eastside and characterizes its bucolic landscape. Located just west of Wilson High School the land was once the New Ascot Speedway dur

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