Hoover Walk

Signs are always an issue in L.A. Sometimes they become clutter on the street and in neighborhoods. But, sometimes, they are so obscure, they require a post on this blog. Hoover Walk is one such sign.

If you are on Prospect Avenue, east of Hillhurst in the neighborhood surrounding the Prospect Studios (where Wheel of Fortune was once filmed!), you will notice a sign that makes no real sense. It appears to be a Historical-Cultural Landmark sign, but only in color. Upon closer inspection, you will find it just a sign letting people know there is a walkway - one of fifteen in this Franklin Hills neighborhood. Hoover Walk. Sure, Prospect walkway signs are about 4 blocks east looking like a street sign, but denoting a walkway. Why is the Hoover Walk sign different?

Some signs in the City are posted to be honorary, like the Downtown "Broadway Theater District" signs which designate 12 theaters in 7 blocks that at one time seated 17,000 people (also on the National Historic Registry) or "Gallery Row" signs. Some are regulatory or mandatory. But some signs are ceremonial, like the many "Squares" throughout the city (from Raymond Chandler to Famous Amos to Iyitzhak Rabin to Gene Autry to Amelia Earhart to Bob Hope - and the list goes on.) This ceremonial type is the kind denoting Hoover Walk. Apparently, when built in 1923, people knew where the steps connecting the deadend at Hoover to what was then Hollywood Boulevard were. I guess they need a reminder now.