The area known as Ivanhoe to the north of the current reservoir was originally developed by Byram & Poindexter as early as 1887, named for
Sir Walter Scott's book of the same name with many streets in that area referencing other works and characters of British literature such as Herkimer, Rowena, Kenilworth, Locksley, Ben Lomond, Hawick, and St. George. In 1904 the Fletcher Drive Viaduct was constructed at the northeastern boundary of Silver Lake for the Glendale Line of the
Pacific Electric Railway Company, connecting the area to Downtown Los Angeles. Originally constructed of timber, the viaduct was replaced in 1928 by a steel span construction to make way for Fletcher Drive underneath it. It was demolished in 1959 and only its concrete footings remain.
William Mulholland identified the area as an ideal location to place emergency reservoirs for the rapidly growing city, building the upper Ivanhoe Reservoir in 1906 and the eponymous Silver Lake reservoir in 1907. The reservoir was named for influential former LA City Councilman and then City Water Commissioner
Herman Silver, who was instrumental in gaining the approvals to purchase the of land and the funding for the construction of the reservoir. in eastern Silver Lake near the I-5 freeway
William Selig set up what may have been the first permanent film studio in Los Angeles in the Edendale neighborhood to the east of Ivanhoe valley in 1909, soon followed by
Mack Sennett in 1912.
Walt Disney's first studio was at the corner of Griffith Park Boulevard and Hyperion Avenue, currently the site of
Gelson's Market. As a consequence, the name "Hyperion" is used by
The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries, with company entities past and present carrying the name, such as
Hyperion Books and the
Hyperion Theater at
Disney California Adventure Park. The fictional Seattle neighborhood of Hyperion Heights in the
final season of the Disney-owned ABC series Once Upon a Time traces its name to the same origin.
William Fox would buy Selig's former Edendale lot on Glendale Boulevard in the 1917, building a 12-acre (4.9 ha)
backlot called Mixville for
Western film star
Tom Mix. The location is now known as the Mixville Shopping Center and occupied by a
Whole Foods Market. It is rumored that Mix buried his steed "Old Blue" on the property. The neighborhood is crisscrossed by numerous municipal
staircases that provide pedestrian access up and down the neighborhood's signature hills. Among these are the Descanso Stairs, Redcliff Stairs and the Music Box Stairs. The famous flight of stairs in
Laurel and Hardy's film
The Music Box is located between lower Descanso Drive and Vendome Street, as it winds up and around the hill. In the 1940s,
Chinese-American architect
Eugene Kinn Choy sought to build a house for his family in Silver Lake, but due to
racial covenants still in effect prohibiting the sale of property to "any person not of the Caucasian race," he was prevented from doing so. He went door to door to seek the approval of every house in the neighborhood before he was given approval to build in 1949. Choy's groundbreaking efforts opened the door to the
Asian American and
Latino communities in the 1950s and 1960s. Beginning in the 1970s, the neighborhood became the nexus of Los Angeles'
gay leather subculture, similar to the
SoMA neighborhood in San Francisco. Since the late 1990s,
gentrification has changed the area by pushing out
public sex and "
gay cruising" and facilitating the opening of many independent upscale
boutiques,
coffee shops, fitness studios, and restaurants. The community continues to evolve, incorporating its bohemian roots with its racial and sexual diversity of the mid-20th century as architects such as
Barbara Bestor and Gustavo Gubel, artists such as cache and Eric Junker, and musicians like
Moby and
Flea continue to define Silver Lake’s environment as a cultural and creative enclave.
LGBT+ community Early history gay bar, site of a controversial 1967 police raid In the 1930s, Silver Lake and Echo Park still comprised
Edendale and acted as a space where members of the LGBT community were able to express their identities. Prominent female impersonator
Julian Eltinge built his house in Silver Lake and performed until the city passed laws criminalizing cross-dressing, after which he continued to recount his drag performances to audiences. Silver Lake was also home to
Harry Hay, credited with founding the first gay organization, the
Mattachine Society, which began as Bachelors' Anonymous. Hay lived and had meetings in Silver Lake at the time the group began in 1950. Kevin Roderick wrote in his eulogy for Hay in
Los Angeles that many consider the house located near Silver Lake to be the birthplace of the gay-rights movement.
Queer liberation The
Black Cat Tavern, a fairly popular bar that has now become a historic-cultural monument, was the site of a police raid in 1967 that spread to adjacent bars, becoming a full-blown riot, which resulted in more than a dozen arrests. The protests in response to the raid predated the
Stonewall riots by two years. Beginning in the 1970s, the neighborhood became the nexus of Los Angeles'
gay leather subculture. Some bath houses, which acted as social spaces for gay men, were shut down by the city government in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. The ensuing controversy reflected a nationwide debate about whether this type of action constituted public health policy or perpetuation of discrimination against the LGBT community.
Circus of Books was a bookstore and
gay pornography shop that was notable as a
gay cruising spot in the 1980s.
Gentrification held next to an
Erewhon store location, contrasting the longstanding LGBT+ community with recent
gentrification Beginning in the 1990s,
gentrification changed the area by pushing out
cruising for sex. In 1992, about 85 activists protested gay-bashing and violent acts against homosexuals in the area, carrying banners emblazoned with “Stop the Violence” along Sunset Boulevard.
Gay bar Akbar opened on
New Year's Eve 1995. In 2004, fearing displacement through gentrification, the bar's owners purchased the building and converted the neighboring unit into a
dance floor. Since 2006,
Eagle LA has served as a popular gathering point for the local gay
leather subculture. Its location was home to several prior
gay bars: Shed (1968–1972), Outcast (1972–1983), and Gauntlet II (1983–2005). Beginning in 2011, the City of Los Angeles removed anti-cruising
traffic signs installed in Silver Lake, but additional such signs were identified and removed in 2024. In response to
gentrification and the closure of several local
gay bars, the
Off Sunset Festival was launched in 2013 to celebrate the neighborhood's rich
LGBT+ history. In 2019,
Maebe A. Girl became the first
drag queen ever elected to public office in the United States, joining the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. ==Reservoir==