May is the month of garden tours! One of the best is our very own local tour presented by the Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society. Sunday, May 1 from 2 to 6 p.m. the 11th annual Los Angeles Garden Tour will showcase five private gardens featuring the theme “Living Alfresco.” Wine and food pairings will be featured at each garden illustrating entertaining in the garden.
This year’s tour will feature the newly renovated garden at Getty House, the official residence of the Mayor, along with five gardens along three blocks on Irving Blvd in Windsor Square. Fittingly, the event will honor Amy Elaine Wakeland, community activist and First Lady of Los Angeles.
Suz Landay, garden tour chairman, said the cost is $60 per person and $100 for couples. Students and WSHPHS members are $50. Tickets can be purchased the day of the event at the Getty House, 605 S. Irving Blvd. or online at wshphs.org. Proceeds from the tour have supported local landscape projects at our local fire and police stations and neighborhood schools. Premier sponsors are of this year’s tour are Paramount Pictures and CIM Group.
A bit about Irving Blvd and Windsor Square. According to the WSHPHS, the exterior of Norma Desmond’s home in the film noir classic movie “Sunset Boulevard” was actually a home at the corner of Irving Boulevard and Wilshire Blvd. The mansion was razed and is now the site of a six-story office building. Irving Blvd is located in the Windsor Square neighborhood of 1,100 homes developed in the early 1900s by the R. A. Rowan Company. The streets were named after English towns such as Plymouth, Windsor and Arden. Irving was named after Rowan’s banker, Irving Hellman.
For more information, go to wshphs.org.
