Hancock Park

In 1939, the Federal Writers' Project American Guide to Los Angeles described Hancock Park as a district bounded by "on the north side of Wilshire Blvd. between W. 6th St., Curson Ave., and Ogden Dr." ==Features==

The park has urban open spaces and landscaped areas for walking, picnicking, and other recreation. Located on Wilshire Boulevard just east of Fairfax Avenue, it extends across a large city block and around two museums. The landmark Park La Brea complex is across 6th Street on the north. The Hancock Park neighborhood, is approximately to the northeast. in the park Hancock Park is the location of the La Brea Tar Pits, the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries overseen by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) campus of buildings and sculpture gardens. The Pit 91 fossil excavation, also reopened in 2014 for excavations and public viewing, had closed in 2006 to focus on fossils newly uncovered during excavation for LACMA's new subterranean parking garage in the park's western area. The skeleton of a near-complete Columbian mammoth was among the excavated discoveries there. The Pleistocene Garden recreates the original prehistoric landscape habitats in the Hancock Park area, representing the native vegetation of the Los Angeles Basin 10,000 to 40,000 years ago. The plant list was created from 35 years of research in the Pit 91 fossil excavation. It represents four ecoregions, Coastal sage scrub, Riparian, Deep Canyon California oak woodlands, and California montane chaparral. ==History==

Hancock Park was created in 1924 when George Allan Hancock donated of the Hancock Ranch to the County of Los Angeles with the stipulation that the park be preserved and the fossils properly exhibited. Until 1875, bones found in the asphalt deposits were considered remains of domestic stock and native mammals of the region. In that year scientist William Denton published the first mention of the occurrence of extinct fauna at Rancho La Brea. who examined bones he personally collected. The park is registered as California Historical Landmark #170. The La Brea Tar Pits are a designated U.S. National Natural Landmark. ==California Historical Landmark Marker==

California Historical Landmark Marker NO. 170 at the site reads: • NO. 170 HANCOCK PARK LA BREA - The bones of thousands of prehistoric animals that had been entrapped during the Ice Age in pools of tar that bubbled from beneath the ground were exhumed from this site. First historic reference to the pools, part of the 1840 Rancho La Brea land grant, was recorded by Gaspar de Portolá in 1769 - first scientific excavations were made by the University of California in 1906. The site was presented to the County of Los Angeles in 1916 by Captain G. Allan Hancock to be developed as a scientific monument. in Hancock Park. ==See also==