Angelino Heights – real estate for ghosts

Wanted to rent for one night on Halloween: Any house on Carroll Avenue in Angelino Heights, to give out candy to trick or treaters, followed with a candlelit walk through the neighborhood, and an effort to communicate with previous inhabitants with a Ouija board.

Not that there’s any evidence of supernatural activity in the neighborhood that I know of… it just looks the part. As Michael Imlay, a blogger equally interested in the supernatural, wrote, “Despite Angelino Heights’ haunting atmosphere, there are surprisingly few ghost stories floating about.”

After reading his recent entry at Dateline: City of Angels, about Angelino Heights having the highest concentration of Victorian homes in Los Angeles, I zipped on over to discover dozens of homes that would be perfect for any horror film. Old, gas lamp-style light poles line the streets, along with antique hitching posts (which, like some of the houses, were moved to the neighborhood).

Jill Stewart even referred to Angelino Heights as “Echo Park’s historic ‘haunted house’ district” in a May 2007 LA Weekly article. One of the more infamous homes, at 1329 Carroll, is featured on the series Charmed, and you may recognize 1345 as the house Ola Ray hides from Michael Jackson and the zombies in at the end of Thriller (according to some online sources, the same house is supposedly haunted, although I’ve yet to find details explaining this with any detail).

The one home that I saw for sale (pictured above) appeared condemned and kept glued together by ectoplasmic residue, but is actually listed for $1.6 million. For now, all I can probably afford is one night’s rent. But when I die, I promise I’m moving in.

Following is a gallery of photos from my walk as well as links to more info on what should be (on looks alone) L.A.’s most haunted neighborhood. And if you know of any ghost stories from the area, please leave it in the comments.

These and more photos from my visit to Carroll Street can be found here on Flickr.

A great overview of Angelino Heights, including much better pictures than I have, can be found at LAist’s Neighborhood Project entry on the area by Lindsay William-Ross, including trivia about the houses, a history of the neighborhood and its preservation, and, finally, info on tours:

Tours of Angelino Heights, particularly of some of the Victorian homes on Carroll Avenue, are offered on the first Saturday of the month by the Los Angeles Conservancy. Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for members, and must be booked in advance. Visit their website for more information.