Los Angeles: Climbing the Hidden Stairways: Mt. Angelus

Number of stairs- 16

As I mentioned in the Locked Stairways, the Mt. Angelus area of Highland Park has many stairways and the stairways were named after well known activists in the women’s suffrage movement and abolitionists.

Sterling- Mt Angelus Dr. to La Follette Dr.- 68 steps.

La Follette- Wayland to Lamont- 32 steps down.

Andes- Lamont to Garrison 47 steps down.

Grimke-Lamont to Wayland 46 steps up.

Monte Vista-Wayland to La Follette 24 steps down.

Avenue 55 Stairs-Avenue 55 to Raber St.

23 steps

These next four stairs are between Ave 50 and Ave 54 and York and Monte Vista.

Salient Stairs.-50th Ave to Montezuma St.

132 steps.

Abbott Stairs-Abbott Place to Shipley Glen.

56 steps.

Raphael Stairs- 54th Ave. to Raphael St

27 steps.

Granada Stairs- 54th Ave to Granada St

127 steps

Ave 58 Stairs-Connects Benner St. to Figueroa St.

80 steps

Ave 64 Stairs- Marmion Way to Ave 64

A partial Y shaped staircase. After reaching the top of the 45 steps, if you go to the left there are 22 more steps, if you go to the right, there is a sidewalk. Take the stairs!!

45 steps

22 steps

Ave 66 Stairs -Marmion Way to Ave 66

23 steps

Myosotis St. - Kirby St. to Saylin Lane

116 steps

Ave 64 to Lantana Dr

50 steps

That building in the background in the above picture, is the Church of the Angels.

Hough St-Ave 67 to Ave 66

125 steps

There are many locked PUBLIC stairways in the city of Los Angeles. The stairways on this blog are all public stairways, which mean they are, or should be, open to the public!! Hopefully this blog will inform the public about these locked staircases. If anybody knows of other locked staircases or the reason why some staircases are locked, please email me.

The questions about these locked public stairways that need to be asked are:

Why are some PUBLIC stairways locked?

Who makes the decision to lock PUBLIC stairways?

Are these locked PUBLIC stairways illegally locked by homeowners and residents who live nearby?

How can the public get the illegally locked staircases, reopened?

Highland Park/ Mt. Angelus

In the Mt. Angelus area of Highland Park, there are five locked staircases that were locked by the city of Los Angeles years ago. In 2011 neighborhood activitist, Louisa Van Leer, was able to get four of the five locked staircases opened for a day. The streets and staircases in Mt. Angelus are named after well known activists in the women’s suffrage movement and abolitionists.

This staircase starts at the corner of Figueroa and Piedmont and goes up to Mt. Angelus Place. The day I went and took pictures the bottom gate, the first picture below, was unlocked. But, when I took the picture at the top on Mt. Angelus Place, the gate was locked. I was also informed by Bob Inman, that this staircase is usually opened on Saturdays.

This staircase goes from Mt. Angelus Place to Mt. Angelus Drive. As you can see this staircase has been closed for a long time. Even the top entrance gives the impression there is a house. But as you can see there is a staircase, behind that locked gate!

The Hosmer staircase goes from Mt. Angelus Dr. to La Follette Dr. There is another staircase that also goes from Mt. Angelus Dr. to La Follette St, that is open but a mean barking dog welcomes you at the bottom of that staircase.

The Lower Monte Vista staircase goes from La Follette St. to Livermore Terrace.

The Emerson staircase goes from Garrison Dr. to Lamont Dr. Pictured below is the locked staircase at Garrison.

Cypress Park

York Hill Pl to Banbury Pl.

Silver Lake

This staircase starts at Rockford Rd and goes up to Fargo St. Rumors are that this staircase is illegally locked. If this is true, why does the city of Los Angeles allow PUBLIC staircases to be illegally locked?

This staircase goes from Effie to Mohawk and as you can see is locked. When I took this picture at the top of this locked staircase on Effie, some old hag asked me what I was doing. I told her it's none of her damn business. As I was leaving, she told me "The city locked those gates." Well if the city did legally lock that gate, why is she so worried that somebody took a picture of that locked gate? Why didn't she just mind her own damn business? Typical snotty arrogant resident of Silver Lake.