Hancock Park

Hancock Park is a historic and affluent urban neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, roughly bounded by Van Ness Avenue to the east, Melrose Avenue to the north, La Brea Avenue to the west, and Wilshire Boulevard to the south.

 

Hancock Park was developed in the 1920s by the Hancock family with profits earned from oil drilling in the former Rancho La Brea. The area owes its name to developer-philanthropist George Allan Hancock, who subdivided the property in the 1920s. Hancock, born and raised in a home at what is now the La Brea tar pits, inherited 4,400 acres (18 km2), which his father, Major Henry Hancock had acquired from the Rancho La Brea property owned by the family of Jose Jorge Rocha.

 

Hancock Park activists were also instrumental in the passage of a 1986 Congressional ban on tunneling through the neighborhood. The ban, sponsored by Congressman Henry Waxman, prevented the Red Line Subway from being routed along Wilshire Boulevard through the neighborhood.

 

Hancock Park is located north of Wilshire Boulevard and south of Melrose Avenue. Along its western and eastern boundaries, North Highland Avenue and North Rossmore Avenue, houses along both sides of the street are within Hancock Park.