Hancock Park sits above a natural asphalt deposit that trapped animals during the last ice age.
Centuries later, that same ground would produce the fortune that built one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
Before the Tudor mansions and the tree-lined streets, there were 71 working oil wells — and a family that, once the oil ran dry, decided to subdivide the land and sell it off as lots.
A Tar Pit That Predates the City
The story begins long before Los Angeles existed.
The natural asphalt deposits now known as La Brea Tar Pits have been seeping to the surface for thousands of years. During the Pleistocene epoch, they trapped and preserved mammoths, dire wolves, and saber-toothed cats.
The first written record dates to 1769, when Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola documented the pits during an expedition through the region.
In 1828, the Mexican government granted 10,970 acres of Rancho La Brea to Antonio Jose Rocha and Nemesio Dominguez, with the condition that the asphalt remain available for public use.
That cattle ranch, used for grazing for decades, is the same land where the neighborhood stands today.
From Cattle Ranch to Oil Field
Engineer Henry Hancock purchased the rancho in 1863.
For years, the family raised cattle and grew grain on it, and not much else. The turning point came with the next generation. His son, George Allan Hancock, inherited the property in 1883 after his father’s death, when he was just eight years old.
Hancock formally entered the family business in 1907 and, working alongside geologist William Orcutt, drilled 71 oil wells across the property.
The operation, known as the Rancho La Brea Oil Company, made the Hancocks one of the wealthiest families in Los Angeles during the first decade of the 20th century.
When the Oil Ran Out, the Mansions Moved In
The boom did not last.
By 1916, the wells were producing crude that grew thicker — and less profitable — with each passing year. That same year, Hancock donated 57 acres surrounding the tar pits to Los Angeles County, with the explicit condition that any fossils found there be excavated and displayed for scientific purposes.
That donation is today a public park, the George C. Page Museum, and the LACMA campus.
As for the rest of the land, Hancock made a business decision of his own: beginning in 1919, he subdivided it into residential lots.
He imposed strict rules to preserve the neighborhood’s prestige. No house could be built within 49 feet of the street. Electrical wiring had to be buried underground. Streets had to be paved with concrete.
He also deeded 104 acres to the Wilshire Country Club, which still operates at the heart of the neighborhood today.
Through the 1920s and ’30s, the architects arrived. Wallace Neff, John Austin, and others designed the Tudor, Spanish Colonial, and Italianate mansions that still define the neighborhood’s character.
Actors including Howard Hughes and Mae West moved in during the following decades, drawn by its proximity to Hollywood’s studios.
The Neighborhood That Tried to Keep Nat King Cole Out
The image of elegance that Hancock Park cultivated from its earliest days came with one explicit condition: the race of its residents.
In 1948, musician Nat King Cole purchased a Tudor-style mansion in the neighborhood for $65,000, making his the first Black family to live there.
The Hancock Park Homeowners Association attempted to block the sale, and when that failed, organized a harassment campaign against the Cole family that included acts of vandalism.
The association did not succeed in reversing the purchase, and today that same organization — founded in 1948, in part as a reaction to this incident — acknowledges the episode as part of the neighborhood’s history.
Hancock Park is now a historic preservation zone.
Since 2007, nearly 90 percent of its structures have been protected, and any modification visible from the street requires approval from a local review board.
The tar pit that started it all is still there, on the same ground where the Hancock family home once stood, still bubbling quietly as visitors come to see the museum.
