2 Best Sights in Highland Park, Los Angeles

Looking like a prop street set up by a film studio, Heritage Square resembles a row of bright dollhouses in the modest Highland Park neighborhood. Five 19th-century residences, a train station, a church, a carriage barn, and a 1909 boxcar that was originally part of the Southern Pacific Railroad, all built between the Civil War and World War I, were moved to this small park from various locations in Southern California to save them from the wrecking ball. The latest addition, a re-creation of a World War I–era drugstore, has a vintage soda fountain and traditional products. Docents dressed in period costume lead visitors through the lavish homes, giving an informative picture of Los Angeles in the early 1900s. Don't miss the unique 1893 Octagon House, one of just a handful of its kind built in California.

Charles Fletcher Lummis was an American journalist and civil rights activist who advocated for indigenous people’s rights and historic preservation. After dropping out of Harvard, he set out to walk from Ohio to Los Angeles, where he ultimately resettled after spending several decades throughout California and the Southwest as a journalist. The Lummis House, or El Alisal, was hand-built by Lummis over the course of 14 years. Visitors come in awe of the exterior of the house, which is built of river rock, concrete flooring, and shelving that was set into the walls so that the entirety of the house could be cleaned with a garden hose. Today El Alisal is a state historical monument owned by the Los Angeles City Parks and Recreation Department.