HCM #657. A 1924 public stairway climbing the Los Feliz Heights hillside, engineered by John A. Griffin as a shortcut for a new subdivision.
What are the Los Feliz Heights Steps?
The Los Feliz Heights Steps are a 1924 public concrete stairway that climbs the hillside of the Los Feliz Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles 90027, connecting Bonvue Avenue with Cromwell Avenue and the streets above. Engineered by John A. Griffin, the steps were built as a pedestrian shortcut for buyers in a new hillside subdivision, and they were designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #657 on October 14, 1998. Today they are a favorite of stair-walkers and a rare, well-preserved survivor of the city's early pedestrian era, still doing the job they were built to do.
Wait, most people think, a set of stairs is a landmark? In Los Angeles, the best of them are. Before the car took over completely, the hills were laced with public stairways that let people on foot reach the streetcar and the shops, and the Los Feliz Heights Steps are one of the finest surviving examples. They are the kind of hidden feature a Los Feliz realtor uses to explain why a quiet hillside block feels the way it does, and why some streets in the Heights hold their value through every kind of market.
A stairway built to sell a hillside
The Los Feliz Heights Steps were built in 1924, engineered by John A. Griffin, as part of the development of the Los Feliz Heights subdivision. In the early 1920s a hillside lot was only worth what a buyer could reach on foot, so the developer built the steps to give new homeowners a direct walking route down to the markets and the streetcar line along Vermont Avenue. The stairway was infrastructure and sales tool at once, a promise that life up the hill would be convenient. It is easy to forget how radical that convenience was: a family could buy a lot with a view, send someone down the steps for groceries, and be back up top in minutes, all without a car. The steps made the hillside a place you could actually live, not just admire from below.
That origin is worth getting right, because the steps are sometimes described as Spanish Colonial Revival with decorative tilework. That style belongs to the houses around them, not to the stairway itself, which is a piece of engineered public works designed by a city engineer, not a styled building. The steps climb in several connected sections, and walked end to end from Cromwell up toward Glendower they add up to well over four hundred individual stairs. It is one of the details that makes this stretch of the hills feel like the walkable Los Feliz people fall for, the same quality mapped in our guide to walkable Los Feliz near Griffith Park.
Why the steps still matter to a block
A century after they were poured, the Los Feliz Heights Steps have found a second life. What began as a practical shortcut is now a beloved fitness route and a fixture of the Los Angeles stair-walking culture that treats the city's public staircases as an open-air gym and a way to read the hills on foot. On a good morning the steps are busy with neighbors and visitors climbing for the view, trading the car for the same route a 1924 homeowner would have walked to catch the streetcar. Few pieces of everyday infrastructure get a second act like this one.
For the surrounding homes, that is quiet gold. A designated, well-loved stairway at the end of the street is exactly the kind of feature that makes a hillside pocket desirable and durable, the sort of thing buyers weigh when they are choosing a Los Feliz neighborhood or comparing Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and Atwater. The steps sit near other Los Feliz Heights landmarks, including the Durex Model Home, and they are part of the wider fabric of Los Feliz architecture that gives the area its character.
What does HCM #657 mean for the neighborhood?
Historic-Cultural Monument status is the oldest form of landmark protection in Los Angeles, and it is not reserved for buildings. The 1998 designation of the Los Feliz Heights Steps recognizes them as a significant piece of the city's early pedestrian infrastructure, worth preserving for the same reasons a fine old house is. It also means the steps are maintained as a protected public asset rather than left to decay.
For homeowners nearby, a landmark like this shapes value in ways that are easy to feel and hard to fake. A protected historic stairway signals a stable, cared-for neighborhood, and it is the kind of intangible a good agent knows how to translate into a listing. It is worth understanding how designation works on the built side too, which our look at how historic designation affects a Los Feliz home's worth and our guide to selling a Mills Act or HCM home both cover in detail.
Homes on a walkable, landmark-anchored hillside street tend to hold interest through slow markets. Proximity to a beloved public stairway is the kind of quiet amenity that rewards an agent who knows how to price character, and that a new development can never manufacture.
This is the kind of neighborhood knowledge Debbie Pisaro is built on. She works these hillside blocks as an architectural homes specialist across the east side. Her brokerage, Coastline 840, is an independent boutique built on the belief that small teams outperform the big-box brokerages. She tells the story of why she built it on the Coastline 840 blog.
If you own a home near the steps and are weighing a sale, the first step is a real number grounded in current comps, which you can request through a private Los Feliz home valuation. If you would rather buy in the Los Feliz hills, a Los Feliz realtor who works these streets keeps a quiet list of off-market Los Feliz homes that never reach the open market. Either way, the best real estate agent in Los Feliz is where the search should start. For the full neighborhood, our Los Feliz HCM guide maps every designated landmark.
Los Feliz Heights Steps questions, answered
Where are the Los Feliz Heights Steps?
The Los Feliz Heights Steps climb the hillside of the Los Feliz Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles 90027, connecting Bonvue Avenue with Cromwell Avenue and the streets above. They are a public stairway, free and open to walk, and a popular route for neighbors and visitors exploring this part of the Los Feliz hills on foot.
When were the Los Feliz Heights Steps built and by whom?
The steps were built in 1924 and engineered by John A. Griffin as part of the Los Feliz Heights subdivision. They were designed as a pedestrian shortcut so buyers in the new hillside tract could walk down to the shops and the streetcar along Vermont Avenue, a common feature of 1920s Los Angeles hill developments.
Why were public stairways built in the Los Feliz hills?
In the early twentieth century, before cars were universal, hillside neighborhoods relied on public staircases to connect homes to transit and shops below. Developers built them to make steep lots livable and sellable. The Los Feliz Heights Steps are one of the best surviving examples of that lost pedestrian infrastructure.
What architectural style are the steps?
The steps themselves are engineered public works, not a styled building, so they do not carry an architectural style in the way a house does. Some accounts attach Spanish Colonial Revival details to them, but that style properly describes the surrounding 1920s homes rather than the concrete stairway itself.
How many steps are there?
The stairway climbs in several connected sections, and walked end to end from Cromwell Avenue up toward Glendower Avenue it adds up to well over four hundred individual steps. The exact count depends on the route you take, since the system includes branches that link several streets in the Los Feliz Heights hillside.
Why are the Los Feliz Heights Steps a Historic-Cultural Monument?
The City of Los Angeles designated them Historic-Cultural Monument #657 on October 14, 1998, recognizing them as a significant surviving piece of the city's early pedestrian infrastructure. The designation protects the steps as a public historic asset and marks their role in how the Los Feliz hills first developed.
Can you walk the Los Feliz Heights Steps today?
Yes. The steps are a public stairway, free and open to everyone, and they are a well-known route among Los Angeles stair-walkers who use the city's historic staircases for exercise. The climb rewards you with hillside views, and the steps connect quiet residential streets you would otherwise miss by car.
What other landmarks are near the steps?
The Los Feliz Heights Steps sit within a hillside pocket rich in history, near the Durex Model Home (HCM #1025) and within reach of Griffith Park and the Griffith Observatory. The area is one of the most walkable and architecturally layered parts of Los Feliz, which is a large part of its enduring appeal to buyers.
Who is a good Los Feliz real estate agent for hillside homes?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz and the surrounding neighborhoods. She specializes in architectural and historic homes and knows the hillside streets, the stairways, and the pockets that make each Los Feliz block distinct.
Talk to Debbie
Twenty-four years of Los Angeles luxury real estate, with a specialty in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes.
debbie@coastline840.com
DRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published July 2026.
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com
