Stairway to Heaven

We call the steps leading up to The Box House the stairway to heaven because once you walk in the house you feel a sense of privacy, peace, and relaxation - a zen state of mind.  Los Angelenos are crazy about stairs too. They flock to them for fitness and to enjoy the beauty of our City of Angels.  Here is a list of where they flock and you should too:

Music Box: In the Oscar-winning short, The Music Box, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy wrestled a piano up this flight of 133 steps in Silver Lake. 923-925 N Vendome St

Baxter: 231 steps straight up an Echo Park slope get steeper as they ascend, but downtown views at the summit are worth it the climb. A sunset Instagram is a must. 1501 Baxter St

Beachwood Canyon: 861-step network of staircases in the community originally known as Hollywoodland.  Most of the steps are cut from granite. 2800 Beachwood Dr

Culver City: 282 irregularly shaped risers, formed from recycled concrete, lead to a decommissioned hilltop reservoir at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Outlook.  The record sprint up is two minutes, nine seconds. 6300 Hetzler Rd

Santa Monica: Twin staircases - one wooden (170 steps), one concrete (199 steps) - have turned Santa Monica Canyon into the best people watching and celebrity spotting workout in town. 4th St and Adelaide Dr

Castellammare: 518-step chain of staircases rising from the Pacific Coast Highway crisscrosses up and down a bluff in the Pacific Palisades, offering ocean views at every turn. This beautiful hike ends on the beach. Breve Way and Castellammare Dr

California Dreamin’

The Box House is located in historic Laurel Canyon.  In the 1960’s and 1970’s, just as San Francisco was having its own Summer of Love, this famous canyon at the heart of Los Angeles was also in full bloom with songs that would define the moment and written by bands that would define a generation.  

Laurel Canyon drew a group of musicians and “hippies” who would combine folk and country influences into rock and roll and change the history of music forever and serve as an incubator for a “golden age” of popular music.

The song “California Dreamin’”  by The Mamas & The Papas would come to identify this Laurel Canyon movement and spread throughout the entire music culture within California, the United States and around the World.

You can listen to the past and present sounds of Laurel Canyon on Laurel Canyon Radio or read this insightful Vanity Fair article about the musical history of the canyon.

Welcome to Los Angeles

In 1908, Charles Lummis, a former Los Angeles Times editor and outspoken regional booster, launched a public campaign to stop English speakers - as he saw it - butchering the pronunciation of Spanish place names, especially Los Angeles.  He summarized his case in a brief rhyme, which publications across the nation printed with some amusement:

"Our Lady, The Queen of the Angels" The Lady would remind you please, her name is not Los Angie Lees, nor Angie anything whatever. To spare her fit historic pride. The G shall not be jellified. O long, G hard, and rhyme with "yes" and all about Loce Ange-el-ess.