Silver Lake Places
The reservoir, the stairways, the Modernist houses you can see from the street, and the long-running places that have anchored Silver Lake for decades.
Start at the Silver Lake Reservoir, built by William Mulholland in 1906–07, and walk the path past the Meadow to Richard Neutra’s VDL Studio, a National Historic Landmark open for Saturday tours. From there, the Neutra Colony lines Silver Lake Blvd, and Schindler, Lautner, Ain, Soriano and Harris houses sit on the hills around it. Climb the Music Box Steps or the painted Micheltorena Stairs, stop at the Black Cat on Sunset, where a 1967 protest helped start the gay rights movement, and end at Sunset Junction.
How to read the cards: the ◉ marks an official historic designation, named on the card. The boxed tag gives the year a place opened or was built. The ♥ is an Architecture Pick, buildings worth a special trip. Most of the houses listed are private homes: enjoy them from the sidewalk, and please don’t knock. Businesses listed here have operated for many years; hours change, so check before you go.
Landmarks + History
6 placesSilver Lake Reservoir Complex
William Mulholland built Ivanhoe Reservoir in 1906 and Silver Lake Reservoir in 1907 in what was Ivanhoe Canyon; the lake is named for water commissioner Herman Silver. Walkways open dawn to dusk
Black Cat
Site of a February 11, 1967 protest against a police raid on the bar, one of the first public demonstrations for gay rights in the country, two years before Stonewall, 3909 W Sunset Blvd
Mattachine Steps
The Cove Ave stairway below the longtime home of Harry Hay, who founded the Mattachine Society, an early gay rights organization, in 1950. The City Council named the steps in 2012
Walt Disney’s Hyperion Studio site
Disney’s studio stood on Hyperion Ave, at the Silver Lake–Los Feliz line, from 1926 to 1940; Mickey Mouse and Snow White were made here. The buildings are gone, and a market now fills the corner at Griffith Park Blvd
Mack Sennett Studios
Built in 1916 for the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company, a survivor of the Edendale silent-film era, and still a working stage and event space, 1215 Bates Ave
Sunset Junction
Where Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards meet. The name comes from the streetcar junction that opened here in 1905; the last train passed through in 1954
Silent films, Mickey Mouse, a protest before Stonewall. Silver Lake’s history happened here.
Parks + Stairways
5 placesSilver Lake Meadow
A 2.5-acre lawn for picnics, kites and sunset-watching, across from 2300 Silver Lake Blvd on the reservoir’s east side. Opened in April 2011
Silver Lake Recreation Center
The neighborhood’s rec center beside the reservoir, with basketball courts, a playground and the Silver Lake Dog Park across the road, 1850 W Silver Lake Dr
Bellevue Recreation Center
A small, family-friendly city park in southern Silver Lake with a ball field, gym and picnic tables, 826 Lucile Ave
Music Box Steps
The public stairway where Laurel and Hardy hauled a piano uphill in The Music Box (1932), which won the first Academy Award for a live-action comedy short. A plaque marks the base, 900 block of N Vendome St
Micheltorena Stairs
Silver Lake’s brightly painted heart stairway, 204 steps from Sunset Blvd up to Micheltorena St. Silver Lake has dozens of public stairways, built to reach the old streetcar lines
Most of the houses listed are private homes: enjoy them from the sidewalk, and please don’t knock.
Architecture
9 placesNeutra VDL Studio and Residences
Richard Neutra’s own home and studio on the reservoir, first built in 1932 and rebuilt with his son Dion after a 1963 fire. Owned by Cal Poly Pomona, 2300 Silver Lake Blvd
The Neutra Colony
Neutra houses built from 1948 to 1961 along Silver Lake Blvd, Neutra Place and Earl St, the densest cluster of his work anywhere. Private homes; view from the street
Neutra Office Building
The 1950 office where Neutra ran his practice until his death in 1970, glass on its street face, 2379 Glendale Blvd
How House
Rudolph Schindler’s 1925 concrete-and-redwood house for James Eads How, one of the city’s key early Modernist homes, on Silver Ridge Ave. Private
Silvertop
John Lautner’s arched-roof house above the reservoir, designed in 1956 for inventor Kenneth Reiner, on Micheltorena St. Private
Avenel Cooperative Housing
Gregory Ain’s 1947 ten-unit cooperative built for a group of film cartoonists, a model of compact modern housing, on Avenel St. Private
Lipetz House
Raphael Soriano’s first house, 1936, designed around a curved music room for pianist Helen Lipetz, on Dillon St. Private
Hawk House
Harwell Hamilton Harris’s 1939 redwood hillside house with reservoir views, on Silver Ridge Ave. Named a city monument in 2020. Private
Canfield-Moreno Estate
Robert D. Farquhar’s 1923 hilltop mansion for Daisy Canfield and silent-film actor Antonio Moreno, the centerpiece of the Moreno Highlands, now known as the Paramour
Neutra on the water, Lautner above the reservoir, Schindler in the hills. Modernism lives here.
Eat + Drink
4 placesMillie’s Cafe
Small all-day breakfast counter and one of the oldest restaurants in Silver Lake, 3524 W Sunset Blvd
El Cid
Flamenco dinner theater in a Spanish-tavern building near Sunset Junction, presenting dancers and guitarists since the early 1960s, 4212 W Sunset Blvd
Casita del Campo
Rudy del Campo’s pink-walled Mexican restaurant, with the Cavern Club cabaret downstairs and a long LGBTQ following, 1920 Hyperion Ave
Café Tropical
Cuban bakery and coffee counter that began as an ice cream shop in 1975, known for guava-and-cheese pastries, 2900 W Sunset Blvd
Markets + Library
2 placesSilver Lake Farmers Market
Produce, flowers and prepared food at Sunset Junction, at Sunset Triangle Plaza on Griffith Park Blvd
Silver Lake Branch Library
The neighborhood’s Los Angeles Public Library branch, with Wi-Fi, computers and children’s programs, 2411 Glendale Blvd
Nearby
1 placeVista Theatre
Single-screen movie palace that opened in 1923 with a Spanish-style front and Egyptian interior, just west of Sunset Junction, 4473 Sunset Dr. Covered by Los Feliz Living
Just Silver Lake is written by Debbie Pisaro, a California real estate agent (DRE #01369110) with 24 years in California real estate, an Inman Luxury Leader, and the founder of Coastline 840. Her office is just over the line in Echo Park, minutes from the reservoir. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.
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