Carthay, Los Angeles, CA

Carthay is the Los Angeles neighborhood where a 1920s subdivision plan still sets the tone, with three historic districts, Carthay Circle, Carthay Square and South Carthay, keeping the original streetscape intact. The housing stock is Period Revival from the 1920s and early 1930s. Spanish Colonial Revival leads, with Storybook cottages, Tudors, Mediterranean and French Revival houses mixed in, some by architects like Paul R. Williams and S. Charles Lee. Because the blocks sit inside preservation districts, front facades change slowly and new construction is rare. Carthay's footprint runs north to West Third Street, so an unusually deep restaurant row is part of everyday life. Verve Coffee Roasters on Third is the usual coffee stop. Green space inside the boundaries is limited to parkways and small medians. For real lawn, people head a short drive northeast to Pan Pacific Park in the Fairfax area, or walk east along Wilshire to the grounds around LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits in Miracle Mile. Errands are easy. Trader Joe's has a store at Third and Fairfax and another on Burton Way, and the Beverly Center anchors the northwest corner. The D Line subway now stops at Wilshire and Fairfax on the eastern edge, which puts downtown and Koreatown on a train ride. The tradeoff is traffic. La Cienega and Third Street jam at rush hour, and restaurant parking near the Beverly Center takes patience on weekends. Step one turn off Wilshire into the Carthay Circle blocks, though, and the street noise drops away to lawns and red tile roofs.