Angelino Heights: History with a Price

I’m a sucker for a double parlor. Give me a nice set of pocket doors into the front receiving rooms, and I’m ready to turn on my Tivo’ed version of Sense and Sensibility and make myself at home.

Which is one of the reasons I love Angelino Heights, the enclave of Victorian mansions between Echo Park and downtown. We’re talking 6 bedroom, carriage house-out-back types of places for those of you unfamiliar with the area. Of course, it comes at a price—the cash kind and the lifestyle kind. Listings here often top a million dollars, and this isn’t a 90210 kind of place. In fact, it’s probably got closer ties to Skid Row than Rodeo Drive.

Angelino Heights is really no more than a few streets surrounded by, shall we say, lesser homes. Forget about your Whole Foods. In fact, I’m not sure there’s even a Ralph’s nearby. But then again, you get to tell guests just to look for you in the “main house” when they arrive. And most homes get a huge property tax break since they are in a historic district.

Here are a couple of really beautiful places currently up for grabs:

The Beaudry House: A house with it’s own name! It’s also known as Cultural Historic Monument #174. Tell me that won’t impress the inlaws. All 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths yours for only $1.75 million.

1442 Kellam: This 4,000-square-foot spot has been on the market for 204 days, so the $1.399 million price tag may be negotiable. It started out at $1.499

1417 Kellam: AKA Historic Cultural Monument #166, this place has a pool! You know how those Victorian’s loved their pools. Call this a modern Craftsman—everything has been redone, including the guest house. $1.595 million, on the market for 141 days.

FYI: Because Angelino Heights is such a small area, comps are hard to come by—you can’t go by zip code or even surrounding streets, since it’s an apples-to-oranges problem.