GLASSELL PARK - 90065
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Glassell Park is a rapidly gentrifying quaint hillside community tucked into Los Angeles bordering the LA river just north of Echo Park and Silver Lake, between the 2 Freeway to the east, and Mount Washington to the west.
Map of the original Spanish Rancheros with Rancho San Rafael circled in red.
This community was founded by attorney Andrew Glassell in 1871 when he and legal partner Robert Chapman litigated the "Great Partition" of the Rancho San Rafael. This 36,000 acre land parcel had been subject to dozens of claims from Spanish, Mexican, and American owners since it was granted to Mexican Army Corporal Jose Verdugo in 1784. The court decision divided the property into 28 different ownership interests and Glassell, as one of the litigators, received a parcel of this land between the LA River and the hills of Highland Park. Glassell named streets after his children; Toland Way, Margurite, Drew and Andrita.
The area was never aggressively developed like neighboring Glendale, Tropico or Silver Lake and has remained uncrowded and quieter than its neighbors. Glassell Park has many vintage craftsman and Spanish homes, and, with the wave of gentrification and revitalization of NELA, many of these beautiful historic houses have been restored since the early 2010's.
Glassell Park has a terrific recreation center with baseball fields, soccer fields, basketball courts and a heated outdoor pool perfect for swimming some laps. There is also a large California State Park on the LA River called the "Rio de Los Angeles" park.
Glassell Park was once home to the Hemphill Diesel Engineering School. The building is better known as the former Capitol Records Pressing Plant located at 2121 North San Fernando Road. Built in the 1930s, it is a beautiful example of art-deco design featuring a frieze showcasing a technology-filled future powered by diesel. Converted to the pressing plant in 1947, the plant pressed vinyl for artists from the Beatles and Beach Boys to Sammy Hagar and Nat King Cole. Due to a fire, the pressing plant was closed in 1982. 
Capitol Records Pressing Plant - Artist Sketch
The Historic Capitol Records Pressing Plant Today on San Fernando Road
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LA Times: City Profile, Crime, and Schools
The Hemphill Diesel Engineering School Frieze (1936)
Glassell Park paying homage to the classic HollywoodLand sign.
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