Hancock Park, Los Angeles, CA

Hancock Park is the Los Angeles neighborhood people picture when they think of the city's old estate district, with big period houses set far back from the street around the Wilshire Country Club. G. Homes are early twentieth century revival designs, mostly Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean, on generous lots with deep front yards. The core has been a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone since 2008, so renovations happen behind the facades and the streetscape stays consistent. Larchmont Boulevard is the neighborhood's main street. Go Get Em Tiger pulls the coffee crowd, Salt & Straw and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams sit a few doors apart, and the Larchmont Farmers' Market fills the street on Sunday. Outdoor space is mostly the streets themselves, which draw walkers and runners under the canopy. Robert Burns Park on Van Ness Avenue is a small pocket park, and the Wilshire Country Club golf course is private. The lawns of Pan Pacific Park and the La Brea Tar Pits lie just west. Daily life splits between Larchmont for small errands and the Ralphs on La Brea for a full grocery run. Hancock Park is mostly a driving neighborhood outside the Larchmont strip, though the D Line subway at Wilshire and Western sits at the southeast corner. Hollywood and Koreatown are both close. Larchmont draws the whole region on weekends, and street parking there disappears by late morning. On the residential blocks the pace is slower, and those deep, open lawns running up to the sidewalk set it apart from almost every other part of the city.