Security Guard in Mar Vista, CA

Mar Vista was called Ocean Park Heights from 1904 to 1924. Ocean Park Heights developed along a rail line – the Venice Short Line from downtown Los Angeles to Venice Beach – built in 1902 (present day Venice Boulevard). In 1927, Mar Vista became the 70th community to be annexed to Los Angeles. The neighborhood experienced massive growth in the 1950’s through the 1970’s. The area north of Venice Boulevard was filled in with suburban single-family development, including many surviving examples of mid-century modern residential architecture along Beethoven, Meier, and Moore street. These developments were originally built as basic, low-cost homes in a relatively far-flung region of the city. But as the surrounding areas of Western Los Angeles have developed into major business and tourism centers, property values rapidly increased to the point where, as of 2020, older homes marketed as tear-downs regularly sell for over $1 million. In 2006, the city designated Mar Vista as an official neighborhood and installed signage.

The section of the neighborhood south of Venice Boulevard is zoned for apartment buildings, and as such it is significantly more densely populated. This section is home to a large concentration of dingbat apartment buildings which are mostly subject to Los Angeles’ Rent Stabilization Ordinance, allowing many long-term renters to stay in the area despite increasingly expensive rents and property values.

• Mar Vista Oval District – Circa 1912, Palm Place development laid out north of Washington Boulevard and south of the Venice Short Line, now Venice Boulevard. Related: Just south of the planned Palm Place, land purchased in 1913 for a development to be called Kensington Green. At the time of purchase the land contained an orchard of walnut trees and “one of the oldest eucalyptus groves in Los Angeles,” with 1,700 ft (520 m) of frontage on Washington Boulevard, and the Redondo Beach via Playa Del Rey Line running along the south boundary.
• Mormon Hill