Avocado Street Residents Bark Up Right Trees

What would Avocado Street be without avocado trees?

Posing that question, residents persuaded the Los Angeles City Council Friday to declare as historic landmarks the eight avocado trees lining the 4400 block of their street by that name.

The trees, estimated to be about 100 years old, are the only ones remaining from a huge avocado grove that once stretched across much of the Los Feliz area, said Donna Matson, an Avocado Street resident who crusaded for the landmark designation.

Matson began her campaign last year to save the trees after they were threatened by a street widening project.

“One of our main points is the name of our street is Avocado Street,� she said. “We didn’t want to lose our namesake.�

Dined on Avocados

To help win win landmark status for the trees, Avocado Street residents invited each member of the Cultural Heritage Commission to dine on avocados from the trees.

“Some of them really are very, very delicious,� Matson said.

Matson said that residents of the street have pledged more than $2,000 to plant additional avocado trees and to take care of the existing trees, which, according to arborist Jim Barry who examined them, “could probably live another 100 years� if properly cared for.

Although they are the first avocado trees to be declared landmarks in Los Angeles, they are not the first trees. A 1,000-year-old oak in Encino, cedar trees on Los Feliz Boulevard and coral trees on San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood are among the city’s 300 cultural and historic monuments.

The designation provides protection from demolition or removal for one year. Usually, preservationists are able to negotiate with developers to preserve landmarks longer.

A spokesman for the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission said she believes that the avocado trees will be permanently saved because the street widening project was instigated by the city as a requirement for a developer to build condominiums on the street. The spokesman said the city now will probably drop the requirement.

Also declared historic-cultural monuments by the City Council Friday were:

First African Methodist Episcopal Zion Cathedral and Community Center, 1449 W. Adams Blvd. The cathedral is an “excellent� example of the late 1920s Mediterranean revival style, according to a report sent to the council by its Cultural Affairs Committee.

Santa Fe Arroyo Seco railroad bridge, 162 S. Ave. 61, Highland Park. The bridge, built in 1895, is the highest railroad bridge in Los Angeles County and possibly the oldest one still in use, according to an application filed by the Highland Park Heritage Trust.

Masonic Temple, 227 N. Avalon Blvd. Built in 1882, the temple is the oldest known non-residential structure in Wilmington, according to a report by the council’s Cultural Affairs Committee, and “it is a fine example of Renaissance revival architecture.�