Accomplishments/ Sponsorships

• The Highland Park Heritage Trust sponsored the 2009 Lummis Day Festival and has awarded a grant to the Lummis Day Community Foundation to fund the Festival’s activities in the areas of education and preservation advocacy.

In making the grant, Highland Park Heritage Trust President Carmela Gomes said: “Through the poetry readings and workshops and the hands-on, children-oriented activities during the June 7 Lummis Day Festival as well as outreach to schools and community organizations, we believe we are working toward a common purpose: to instill a “sense of place” in the youth and families of Northeast Los Angeles. We believe Lummis Day is worthy of this grant.”

•Received the 1998 President’s Award from the California Preservation Foundation

• Received awards for work on the historic Sante Fe Arroyo Seco Railroad Bridge

• Produce annual events including an architectural home tour and a community awards celebration for the past 15 years.

• Established the largest historic district (the Highland Park HPOZ) in Los Angeles, with over 2,500 Contributing Structures.

• Nominated over 50 properties as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments. First nomination was the Northeast Police Station on York Blvd that has now been restored and will re-open as the Los Angeles Police Museum. In 1999, we worked with The Judson Studios on their National Register Listing.

• 2000 – Produced a 15-minute video on the History of the Lower Arroyo Seco, used for a bus tour at the National Trust for Historic Preservation annual conference in Los Angeles.

• 1999 – Created the McAvoy Education Fund that provides books on preservation and architectural to local elementary schools.

• 1998 – Operation Save was born; HPHT assisted in moving and rehabilitating two houses from Figueroa Street to 326 N. Avenue 53 in Highland Park with owner John Nese. HPHT produced a video on the project, “The House That Moved Twice” for public education on preservation.

• 1997 – successfully advocated for the erection of Garvanza district signage from City of Los Angeles. A ceremony, held at the Judson Studios, celebrated the first town in Northeast Los Angeles and LA’s first art colony. This act alone has brought back the historic name for community residents.

• 1996 – Celebration of the rehabilitation of the Sante Fe Arroyo Seco Railroad Bridge – the transportation link that connected Chicago to LA and brought emmigrants from the east at the turn of the Century.