East Hollywood

East Hollywood is a dense neighborhood of about 78,000 people, most of them renters, with three hospitals and Los Angeles City College. It's no tourist strip. The reason to come is a hilltop park with a World Heritage house on it, and the stretch of Hollywood Boulevard the city has named Thai Town.

What's Worth Seeing

Barnsdall Art Park is an 11.5-acre city park on Olive Hill, given to Los Angeles by the oil heiress Aline Barnsdall in the 1920s. From the top you look over the city, the Hollywood Hills and Griffith Park. You can bring a picnic, and the park also holds the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and an art center that teaches classes.

Hollyhock House is the main reason to climb the hill. Frank Lloyd Wright built it between 1918 and 1921 as his first Los Angeles commission, and in 2019 it joined the UNESCO World Heritage List with seven other Wright buildings. The name comes from the hollyhock motifs in the design. You can see the inside on your own or with a guide, and advance tickets are recommended. Check the rules before you go: flat or broad-heeled shoes only, and no large bags or strollers inside. The visit page has the tour times and prices.

Thai Town is six blocks of Hollywood Boulevard between Normandie and Western avenues. The city named it in 1999, the first place in the U.S. with that name, and statues mark its entrances. Each April, for the Thai New Year, the boulevard closes for food stands and a parade.

Little Armenia sits just south of it, named by the city in 2000. The corner of Hollywood and Western is Armenian Genocide Memorial Square.

How to Get There

The nearest Metro stop to the park is Vermont/Sunset on the B Line. Walk north on Vermont Avenue, turn left on Barnsdall Avenue and go in the southeast entrance. For Thai Town, get off at Hollywood/Western. DASH Hollywood and DASH Observatory/Los Feliz also stop at Vermont and Hollywood.

To drive, the main park entrance is at 4800 Hollywood Blvd. Parking in the park is free but limited, at the top and bottom of the hill and along the upper road. The Hollywood Freeway runs along the neighborhood's south edge.

Nearby

• Griffith Observatory is free to enter, on the south side of Mount Hollywood, and the DASH Observatory/Los Feliz route serves it.
• The Greek Theatre is the outdoor concert venue in Griffith Park, just below the Observatory.
• The Hollywood Walk of Fame runs west along Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street.