Pendersleigh & Sons' Cartography's map of Dogtown

INTRODUCTION

The North Industrial District, or Dogtown, is both one of Los Angeles’s oldest and most obscure neighborhoods. It’s also occasionally referred to as either Naud Junction or Mission Junction, after two area junctions of the Southern Pacific Railroad, the entity perhaps most instrumental in the neighborhood’s development (it’s also sometimes referred to as the River Station Area). By the way, this is not the Dogtown neighborhood in Santa Monica, of Dogtown & Z-Boys fame.

Mission Tower near downtown LA. Photo by Ted Soqui (2008)

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Tomorrow I'm dining at the Tam o' Shanter Inn in the Northeast LA neighborhood of Atwater Village. I needed to write about something and haven't yet been able to finish my piece about Irvine so here you go...


A tam o' shanter is a 19th century nickname for a traditional sort of brimless, usually wool, Scottish bonnet topped with a toorie (pom-pom). It, in turn, is named after "Tam o' Shanter," the eponymous hero of the poem by the late, great Robert "Robbie" Burns written in 1790.

"Tam o' Shanter" is part of a once-popular, comic, chiefly British poetic subgenre known as the "Wild Ride." The best known example of which is Lord Byron's "Mazeppa. " A later example is William Cowper's "The Diverting History of John Gilpin." 


 

 
  One of the Mount Washington neighborhood signs                    A typical Mount Washington street

This here episode is all about Mount Washington -- a hilly and almost entirely residential neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles (NELA). Its neighbors are Highland Park to the east, Cypress Park to the southwest, Glassell Park to the northwest and Eagle Rock to the north.

 
On this adventure I was accompanied by frequent traveling companion, Tim Shimbles.

Many of the neighborhoods of the area began as small settlements that developed independently and were gradually annexed by LA. Highland Park became part of LA in 1895, Garvanza followed in 1899, Occidental in 1916 and Eagle Rock in 1923. It's gone through many changes but has always maintained a unique vibe that distinguishes it among LA regions. It's especially well-known for its many fine Craftsman homes. Currently, the population is roughly 63% Latino, 17% white, 16% Asian and 2% black.