Alta Loma Terrace

Alta Loma Terrace is a hillside enclave of nineteen houses reachable only by a steep, funicular railway or a long flight of concrete stairs. The neighborhood exists because the narrow, vertical terrain defied the standard grid of Los Angeles streets. In nineteen twenty-three, developers installed the private incline railway to ferry residents up the slope from Franklin Avenue. Silent film actress Ann May once lived here, using the tiny train to bypass the arduous climb while maintaining the neighborhood’s quiet, isolated charm.