Franklin Hills vs. Los Feliz Hills: Two Los Feliz Hillsides Compared

Franklin Hills and the Los Feliz Hills are both hillside parts of Los Feliz, but they grew up in different ways. The Los Feliz Hills rise north of Los Feliz Boulevard toward Griffith Park, on a tract subdivided in 1921 for custom homes built lot by lot. Franklin Hills sits on the eastern side of Los Feliz around the 1926 Shakespeare Bridge, with landmark homes recorded one address at a time. Choose the Los Feliz Hills for 1920s period revival homes under the Griffith Observatory. Choose Franklin Hills for an eclectic hillside with modernist landmarks and a storybook bridge.

Rooster Homes is a Los Feliz, Los Angeles real estate team led by Brandon and Sarah Arlington (DRE #02051216). This guide compares the two hillsides using the City of Los Angeles' own historic surveys, the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council, and the LA Conservancy. On this site, luxury in Los Feliz starts at about $2 million.

Franklin Hills has edges drawn by the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council, which calls it District E. The council sets its borders this way:

• North: Franklin Avenue and Tracy Street
• West: Commonwealth Avenue and Hoover Street
• South: Fountain Avenue
• East: Hyperion Avenue

The council also uses Hyperion Avenue as the line between Los Feliz and Silver Lake. That puts Franklin Hills on the eastern edge of Los Feliz. Addresses on Russell Avenue and Lyric Avenue carry the 90027 zip code.

The Los Feliz Hills is this site's name for the hillside above Los Feliz Boulevard. The heart of it is what the City's SurveyLA report on Hollywood historic districts calls the Los Feliz Heights Residential Historic District. That district runs from Nottingham Avenue on the west to Vermont Avenue on the east. It climbs north from Los Feliz Boulevard to the edge of Griffith Park.

A few well-known hillside streets sit east of Vermont Avenue and outside that district. Dundee Drive and Aberdeen Avenue are two of them. No City district name covers them.

No. The City's SurveyLA reports and its Historic-Cultural Monument list do not use the name "Los Feliz Hills." The City's name for the core of this hillside is Los Feliz Heights. You will see that name on the district and on one of its landmarks, the Los Feliz Heights Steps.

Franklin Hills is a different case. The neighborhood council uses the name Franklin Hills for District E and draws its borders on a map. We found no HPOZ, National Register listing, or SurveyLA historic district for Franklin Hills.

For a buyer, the names matter less than the address. A listing may say "Los Feliz Hills" for a home anywhere on the slope above the boulevard. Check the street against the district edges if historic context is part of what you want.

The Los Feliz Hills started as a planned hillside tract. According to the City survey, land developers C.F. Cook, F.E. Woodley and William F. Thompson subdivided it in 1921. Homes went up lot by lot. Each owner hired an architect to design a house for that specific site.

Early advertising sold the hillside setting, panoramic city views, and easy access to Hollywood or downtown. The survey gives the district a period of significance of 1920 to 1949. Of its 317 properties, 232 are contributors, or about 73%.

Franklin Hills grew around a bridge. Eastsider LA reports that the Shakespeare Bridge helped make Franklin Avenue a main western route to land on the eastern hill that was not yet developed. The Los Feliz Improvement Association dates the bridge to 1926 and credits J.C. Wright of the City Engineering office.

The homes the City later recorded in Franklin Hills span several decades. They run from a 1936 Streamline Moderne house to a 1961 school by John Lautner. The two stories show up today. The Los Feliz Hills reads as one 1920s plan with custom homes inside it. Franklin Hills reads as a hillside that filled in over time.

The best-known landmark is the Shakespeare Bridge, which carries Franklin Avenue over a ravine. The City lists it as Historic-Cultural Monument #126, adopted on April 17, 1974. Eastsider LA reports that it spans a 35-foot-deep ravine where the Arroyo de la Sacatela used to flow. The span runs 262 feet between Myra Avenue and St. George Street. It reopened in 1998 after a seismic retrofit.

The City's SurveyLA Hollywood Individual Resources report records these homes:

• Ph. J. Schlessinger House at 1901 N. Myra Avenue. Built in 1953, it is the work of master architect R.M. Schindler.
• Gogol House at 2190 N. Talmadge Street. Master architect Raphael Soriano designed it in 1939. It sits on the western edge, where boundary sources differ.
• 4004 W. Franklin Avenue. Built in 1936, it is recorded as an excellent example of Streamline Moderne residential design.

The City's monument list adds more:

• John and Myra Van Pelt Estate at 2141-49 Lyric Avenue. This Storybook-style property became Historic-Cultural Monument #1249 in 2022.
• Paul Lauritz House at 3955 Clayton Avenue. It became Historic-Cultural Monument #784 in 2004.
• Midtown School at 4155 Russell Avenue. John Lautner designed it in 1961, and it is Historic-Cultural Monument #553. The LA Conservancy places it in Los Feliz, just south of the Shakespeare Bridge.

Inside the Los Feliz Heights district, the City survey names four main styles. They are American Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean and Tudor Revival. Architects represented include Paul R. Williams and Milton J. Black. Gordon Kaufmann, Wallace Neff and the firm Morgan Walls and Clements are on the list too. The survey does not tie those names to specific houses there.

Several hillside homes carry their own City landmark numbers:

• Ennis House at 2607 Glendower Avenue. The City lists it as the Ennis-Brown House, Historic-Cultural Monument #149. It was adopted on March 3, 1976. The LA Conservancy describes Frank Lloyd Wright's textile block design, built from more than 27,000 hand-made concrete blocks. The blocks used decomposed granite taken from the site. The Conservancy dates it to 1924-26.
• Lovell House at 4616 Dundee Drive. It became Historic-Cultural Monument #123 on March 20, 1974. Dundee Drive sits east of Vermont Avenue, outside the Los Feliz Heights district.
• Los Feliz Heights Steps. These public stairways are Historic-Cultural Monument #657, adopted October 14, 1998. The City's list places them along streets including Cromwell Avenue, Bonvue Avenue and Glencairn Road. The City's SurveyLA survey report for Hollywood dates them to 1924.

Glendower Avenue alone holds more. The individual resources report records the Skolnik House at 2567 N. Glendower, a 1951 work of R.M. Schindler. It also records the 1924 Hlaffer-Courcier Residence at 2574 as an excellent example of Storybook design. That home is Historic-Cultural Monument #1069.

Both hillsides share two threads. Each has a Schindler house from the early 1950s, and each has a Storybook landmark. The Los Feliz Hills adds the Wright house and the period revival homes of the 1920s.

The City survey places the Los Feliz Heights district on a south-facing slope of Mt. Hollywood, in the shadow of the Griffith Observatory. Its streets curve to follow the natural contours of the foothills. Some lots have expansive city views. The survey notes concrete sidewalks without parkways and mature cedar and carob trees. It also notes period street lights and several public stairways.

Above the district is Griffith Park, City Historic-Cultural Monument #942. SurveyLA puts it at more than 4,000 acres. The Griffith Observatory opened on May 14, 1935, and it is Historic-Cultural Monument #168.

Franklin Hills has a different feel. Rooster Homes describes it as eclectic hillside homes around the storybook Shakespeare Bridge, many with city views. The ravine under the bridge adds a green break in the middle of the neighborhood. Speranza and Hyperion Public are nearby restaurants.

Start with the features that matter most to you. Here is how each hillside lines up.

• 1920s Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean or Tudor Revival homes: the Los Feliz Hills, where these styles lead the City's district description.
• A home close to Griffith Park and the Observatory: the Los Feliz Hills, which climbs to the edge of the park.
• A Frank Lloyd Wright landmark on the street: the Los Feliz Hills, home to the Ennis House on Glendower Avenue.
• Modernist homes by named master architects: Franklin Hills, with recorded work by Schindler and Soriano and a Lautner school nearby.
• A storybook setting built around a landmark bridge: Franklin Hills, with the Shakespeare Bridge and the Van Pelt Estate.
• City views: both. The survey notes city views from some Los Feliz Heights lots, and many Franklin Hills homes have them.

Rooster Homes is a Los Feliz, Los Angeles real estate team led by Brandon and Sarah Arlington (DRE #02051216). Our pages on buying a home in Franklin Hills and buying a home in the Los Feliz Hills go deeper on each one. For Franklin Hills next to two other neighborhoods, read The Oaks vs. Franklin Hills and Laughlin Park vs. Franklin Hills.

1. Set your must-haves. Decide how much weight to give architecture style, views, park access and the street itself.
2. Place the address. Check a Franklin Hills home against the council's borders. Check a Los Feliz Hills home against the district edges of Nottingham and Vermont.
3. Look up the house. Search the City's Historic-Cultural Monument list and the SurveyLA reports for the exact address.
4. Match the architect to the record. When a listing names an architect, ask for plans, permits or survey records that confirm it.
5. Tour both hillsides in one day. Drive the curving streets below the Observatory, then cross the Shakespeare Bridge into Franklin Hills. The contrast is easier to feel back to back.

This article explains how the process works. It is not legal advice. For your own situation, talk with your attorney as well.

• Read "Los Feliz Hills" as a general label. Confirm whether a home sits inside the Los Feliz Heights district or on a nearby hillside street like Dundee Drive.
• Treat historic status as house by house. Franklin Hills has no SurveyLA historic district. In the Los Feliz Heights district, about 73% of properties are contributors. Look up the specific home.
• Check boundaries near the edges. Sources differ on the western edge of Franklin Hills. Confirm the address before you count a home as part of either hillside.
• Verify architect credits. The survey names architects for the Los Feliz Heights district without tying them to houses. Ask for records before you pay for a name.
• See the setting in person. The ravine in Franklin Hills and the slope below the park both shape how a street feels. A visit tells you more than a photo.

Here are three hypothetical examples to show how the comparison plays out. They are not clients.

A buyer who wants a 1920s Tudor Revival home near Griffith Park. This search points to the Los Feliz Hills. The plan starts with homes inside the Los Feliz Heights district and checks each address against the City survey.

A buyer drawn to mid-century modernist design. This search leans toward Franklin Hills. The plan starts with the City's individual resource list, looks at streets near the Schindler house on Myra Avenue, and spends time around the Shakespeare Bridge. Glendower Avenue in the Los Feliz Hills stays on the list too, since it holds a Schindler house as well.

A buyer relocating to Los Angeles who has seen neither hillside. This search starts with a one-day tour of both. The buyer drives up toward the Observatory, then crosses the bridge into Franklin Hills in the same afternoon. The search narrows from there.

For the bigger picture on a purchase at this level, read our guide to buying a luxury home in Los Feliz.

Rooster Homes is a Los Feliz, Los Angeles real estate team led by Brandon and Sarah Arlington (DRE #02051216). Brandon is an Accredited Buyer's Representative (ABR). Our buyer work follows Our 5-Step Approach to Homeownership:

1. Meet
2. Understand
3. Explain the market
4. Walk the whole process
5. Connect

For a comparison like this one, we start by learning what matters to you. Then we explain how each hillside is set up and walk both with you. The pace fits your timeline, including a relocation.

You can read how we work in our buying process. When you are ready to see both hillsides, contact Rooster Homes and let us know what works best for you. We will coordinate our schedule around yours.