In the opening decades of the 20th century, in the era of silent movies, Edendale was widely known as the home of most major movie studios on the West Coast. The district’s heyday as the center of the motion picture industry was in the 1910s but by the 1920s the studios had moved elsewhere, mostly to Hollywood, which would come to supplant Edendale as the “movie capital of the world.” In the years prior to World War II, Edendale had a large artist community and a large communist community. Many of its residents were transplants from the Eastern United States or the Soviet Union. When the Edendale red car line ceased operations in 1940 and the Glendale Freeway was built, the neighborhood was essentially split into two distinct sections overnight. What to call this new neighborhood south of the 2? Well, because of the neighboring park below it, Elysian Heights seemed to make the most sense. Elysian Heights as we know it today began to develop in the early 1900s when the Semi-Tropic Spiritualist’s Association laid out their first tract in 1905. They left portions of land intentionally empty as a public space to hold their revivals and seances and drinking parties. The Spiritualists who lived on the hills surrounding the campground would come down and gather in the field to drink and dance the night away. Since the 1910s, Elysian Heights, along with what was once known as Edendale, have been home to many counter-culture, political radicals, artists, writers, architects and filmmakers in Los Angeles. Elysian Heights is also known for architecturally notable and historic homes such as the Paul Landacre House, the Klock House, the Judd-Atwater bungalows, the Ross House (Al Nozaki, the famed art director who designed the martian war machines in George Pal’s 1953 sci-fi classic “The War of the Worlds”, lived there during the 1950’s and 1960’s), and Rudolph Schindler’s Southall House. It is also home to Salkin House (1948), the “Lost Lautner” on Avon Terrace, pictured. Elysium in Greek means Paradise.