Venice
Venice is the most architecturally adventurous and culturally distinctive neighborhood on the Los Angeles coast — a place of canals, walk streets, world-class restaurants, and a beachfront unlike anywhere else in America. It was conceived as a fantasy, spent a century becoming something more interesting than that, and has emerged as one of the most sought-after addresses on the Westside.
History
Venice was the creation of one man. In 1905, tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney opened "Venice of America" on what had been coastal marshland, complete with a canal system dredged from the wetlands, gondoliers imported from Italy, an amusement pier, and a miniature railroad. The city was annexed to Los Angeles in 1925, and most of the original canals were filled in for roads in 1929. What survived became the Venice Canals Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and fully restored in 1993 — six blocks of water, footbridges, and gardens in the middle of Los Angeles.
The century that followed layered on everything else. Venice became the West Coast home of the Beat poets in the 1950s, then the birthplace of modern skateboarding in the 1970s, when the Z-Boys turned the neighborhood they called Dogtown into a global export. Muscle Beach made the boardwalk famous. By the 1980s Frank Gehry was building here — the Norton House on the beach, and the Chiat/Day building on Main Street with its four-story binoculars by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.
Living in Venice
Venice is the most walkable neighborhood on this coast and the most social. Abbot Kinney Boulevard carries the restaurants, galleries, and independent retail that made the neighborhood a destination. Rose Avenue and Lincoln handle the everyday. The walk streets — pedestrian-only lanes running toward the beach, with front gardens instead of driveways — are among the most charming residential blocks in Los Angeles. Residents cycle more than they drive, and the beach is a constant rather than an outing.
Real Estate Landscape
Venice has the most varied housing stock on the Westside and no dominant style at all. Original 1920s beach bungalows sit beside architect-designed modern homes; canal-front properties with private docks trade a few blocks from walk-street cottages; and live-work lofts occupy converted commercial buildings east of Abbot Kinney. Lot sizes are small and the streets are narrow, which is precisely why the neighborhood has attracted a century of inventive architecture. Buyers here are typically choosing design and character over square footage — and finding both.
What's Nearby
Ocean Front Walk runs the length of the beach past Muscle Beach and the Venice Skatepark. The Marvin Braude Bike Trail connects north to Santa Monica and south to Marina del Rey and beyond. The Venice Canals, Venice Beach, and the pier at Washington Boulevard anchor the neighborhood, and Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, and Culver City are each within a few minutes.
Education
Venice is served by the Los Angeles Unified School District, including Westminster Avenue Elementary, Broadway Elementary, Mark Twain Middle School, and Venice High School, with a range of independent options nearby in Santa Monica and Marina del Rey.
Venice is not for everyone, and that is the point. For buyers who want architecture, culture, and a genuine sense of place a block from the Pacific, there is no substitute for it anywhere in Los Angeles.