The Neighborhood News Online

Bulletin! Bulletin! If you’re not taking advantage of two estates in our community, regularly open to the public, you’re missing a treat.

The Clark Library grounds with large lawns, walkways and statuary, at Cimarron and Adams, is open for public strolls during the week. What better way to de-stress the day?

You should also be aware that the Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens and The Movement Of Spiritual Awareness (MISA) and its building--the former Guasti  Villa—are also available for tours, meals or simply hanging out on an almost-daily basis.

In 1910 Mr. Gausti an Italian immigrant who helped develop one of the first California vineyards into one of  the world’s largest, commissioned Hudson and Munsell to design the mansion in the Beauz Arts/Italian style. The impressive home features most of the original lighting fixtures, doors and moulding, rare bronze stair-rails, a hydrolic elevator, solarium, servants quarters, carriage house, and porte de coucher, Marble, imported from Italy came along with some artisans who were responsible for the carved wood paneling  and handpainted murals adorning the ceilings, illustrated with cherubs holding grapes and other heavenly images.   The bedroom of Guasti’s only surviving child reflects the boy’s muscular dystrophy in a then-state-of-the-art therapeutic shower.  

In 1937 Busby Berkely bought the home, turning the basement wine cellar into a film editing studio among other refinements.  Then in 1944 the Los Angeles Physicians Aid Association, acquired the property as a retirement home, adding two wings.   The current owners, the Movement of Spiritual and Inspirational Awareness (MSIA) purchased it in 1974 and engaged in a faithful  and loving restoration after much damage caused by the 1994 earthquake. 

While the home originally looked out onto rolling greens with citrus and avocado trees, it was the MSIA who developed the property into breathtaking landscaped fountains, a meditation garden and labyrinthe based on the one at Chartres.  Now the MSIA uses the home as the movement’s world headquarters but it mainly serves as a backdrop for special seminars, retreats, classes and visitors revolving around the beautiful grounds, labyrinth, and view.

Free tours of the home and gardens are offered Tues-Friday from 11-3 and are also accessible MWF after evening seminars.  The dining room (with cool chef) is open for lunch and dinner M-F at 1 and 6 pm.  So simply ring the bell (seriously) and make yourself at home with pond fish, turtles and staff at this exceptional oasis.

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Residents of Jefferson Park have intensified their efforts over the past few weeks to gain Historic
Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ) protections from the City for their classic “California bungalow” architecture.

Frustrated by what they perceive to be indifference from city officials, including Council District 10 (CD10), the Planning Department, and the City Attorney, they have begun a public outreach and letter writing campaign to persuade the City to take action.

The community has been spurred on by a recent spate of permitted and unpermitted work in the neighborhood that has resulted in the irreversible damage to the historic integrity of several Craftsman bungalows.

Jefferson Park is widely known to have one of the nation’s best collections of the iconic cottages, which were widely built in Los Angeles for middle class transplants from the Midwest in the early 20th century. Since then, the modest homes have served as the bedrock housing type for Japanese, African-American, and Latino communities. Community HPOZ supporters believe that preserving the history of the neighborhood is important for community identity and memory, as well as the economic vitality of the area, from stabilizing property values to generating revenue from filming.
Community members started the HPOZ process over eight years ago, in early 2002, by gathering signatures from neighborhood residents.
This grassroots movement led then-councilmember Nate Holden to introduce a motion to the LA City Council to direct the planning department to gather the necessary data to make a Jefferson Park HPOZ a reality. Over the years, the process has stopped and started depending on available city financing and staff availability. Finally, by summer of 2009, the City was able to finance and finish, with significant community help, the collection of historical data that would become the basis of a historic designation. Unfortunately, due to the recent severe budget crisis and turmoil at City Hall, that document, and the promise that it holds to preserve architecture and enhance public awareness and education of the district’s historic resources, has been sitting on a shelf at the City with no action taken.

Neighborhood residents are seeking to change that. They have been pushing the Council Office, the Planning Department, and the City Attorney to take action, as well as offering efficient, inexpensive, and creative solutions to help the cash-strapped city with the HPOZ’s implementation. Ideas include temporarily linking the new Jefferson Park HPOZ to an existing HPOZ close by until times are better, and hiring consultants with existing neighborhood funds to help city staff with administration.
Council District 10 staff have been responsive to recent requests for action. With this support, neighborhood leaders are hopeful to have at least some official historic district recognition and protections, if not full HPOZ status, by this summer.

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