Another successful event!

WAHA’s most popular tour took place on December 7 & 8, 2013 celebrating A Jolly Holiday in Oxford Square.

To all of you that attended this year's tour, your support of our non-profit organization is very much appreciated.

About Historic Oxford Square

When West Adams was first being settled, many considered the location much too distant from the city center, where the grand Victorian homes clustered on Bunker Hill. It was the introduction of the streetcar that was paramount to the growth and expansion of Los Angeles, as the young city began expanding outward from its downtown core at the beginning of the 20th Century.  Oxford Square was first laid out in 1907 by Emil Firth, a Bohemian immigrant, who came to America in 1874.

Creating wide avenues and large lots, Firth advertised Oxford Square as a "refined and aristocratic" area, and promoted the inclusion of modern conveniences such as  ornamental “electroliers” as well as “wide concrete walks, combination curbs and gutters and oil tamped streets,… all completed and of the very best quality.  The prices for these beautiful lots range from $1000 up and terms are extremely easy.”

The development that Firth laid out stretched from Pico north, almost to Wilshire. WAHA will be visiting the area where the very first homes were built in this new tract.  Several grand residences were built in the Arts & Crafts style during the first ten years, taking advantage of the views afforded by the knoll on which they were built.  The population boom of the 20’s expanded the building styles to the more modest Craftsman and Period Revival styles popular by then, and by 1940, the infill was complete.  The area remains virtually unchanged to this day.