Elysian Park, Los Angeles

Elysian Park is the name of a municipal park and the adjacent neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California.

Encompassing Chavez Ravine, where Dodger Stadium is located, the neighborhood is mostly a low-income community of 2,600+ people. It is also home to the city's first Catholic high school, an elementary school and the Los Angeles Police Academy.

History

The southeastern corner of the park is near the Los Angeles River at the location where the Portolá expedition gave the river its name in 1769. The first Europeans to see inland areas of California camped near this spot on August 2, and California Historical Landmark #655 ("Portolá Trail Campsite") is located at the Meadow Road entrance.

Park

The park is the second largest park in Los Angeles at 600 acres (2.4 km²). It is also the city's oldest park, founded in 1886 by the Elysian Park Enabling Ordinance. It hosted the shooting and the shooting part of the modern pentathlon events for the 1932 Summer Olympics. In 1964 the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park was founded to prevent the City of Los Angeles from constructing the Municipal Convention Center on 62 acres (250,000 m²) of park land.