Glenwood

Herbert Hoover High School, Glendale’s main high school in its northern section, stands at the heart of Glenwood. Herbert Hoover High School is a strong school with a diverse student body. The school has a strong academic program with almost two dozen Advanced Placement classes. The high school also has a strong sports program including a water polo team, football team and a very good girls soccer team. Social clubs include a debate team, a business club, and a jazz ensemble. Also well regarded, Toll Middle School and Keppel Elementary school are just to the south of Hoover, perfectly located so that parents have a one stop shop for children of all ages.

North of the high school the palm lined streets front long front lawns leading to large manors, some of them extravagant to the point of looking like southern plantations. Architectural styles throughout this northern area vary, but several unusual versions of Mission Revival and Mediterranean styles mix with the high pointed roofs of wide winged Tudors. Many of the homes have squat towers as if they were mini-castles, while others prefer the privacy provided by high, leafy hedges. Even the smaller homes in the area have quaintly landscaped gardens and little touches of authenticity like curving front steps or a maze of trees and bushes along the front lawns—this is definitely not the typical southern California Ranch home neighborhood.

Up in the hills, near Brand Park, you find a couple art galleries and dance studios as well—a reminder that much of the Los Angeles economy is based on the marketing of artistic ability.

Just around Hoover, the homes tend to be far more modest and middle class, though you still find a sprinkling of squat, pointy-roofed Tudors to break up the plethora of Ranch and Mission homes. To the south of Hoover, there are rows of boxy seventies style apartments and fortress like condos. Most renters tend to live in this southern area where rents tend to average about $700 to $800 per room. As one nears Glen Oaks Blvd.—the southern border of the neighborhood—the homes become more typical of the older neighborhoods in the LA area, with small lots, patchy lawns, and tiny borders.

Glen Oaks Blvd. is a beautiful wide lane with a grassy meridian and palm trees marking the lanes like light poles. The two story Prairie style homes look onto the boulevard from both giving a very western feel and making you aware of your So Cal location at all times. Glen Oaks is also the main commercial thoroughfare of the neighborhood, being where residents can find everything from dry cleaners to fast food. Despite the wealth of the homes to the north, however, you will not find boutique stores or fancy restaurants here, though you will find buses to bring in workers who do not have cars of their own.