Although more sedate and wealthier than neighbouring Silver Lake, Los Feliz is also moving steadily into the hip and arty mode. The former mansions of film stars still stand, and the neighbourhood is a mix of ethnic groups, trend-setting denizens of the Cocktail Nation. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis-Brown House and Richard Neutra’s Lovell house are just two of the standout architectural masterpieces above Los Feliz Boulevard.

Ennis-Brown House, built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924, is an impressive concrete-block, pre-Columbianesque structure. Tours are offered by reservation. The contemporary styling of Richard Neutra’s Lovell House belies its 1929 construction. Neutra’s international design launched the architect’s career as one of Los Angeles’ most prominent Modernist architects.

Walt Disney House unsurprisingly poses like a cartoon-type cottage. The Fantasy Foundation is the strange brainchild of Forrest J. Ackerman, former editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, containing 18 rooms packed with hundreds of thousands of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy-world memorabilia.