The town of Garvanza was originally part of the Rancho San Rafael, owned by Jose Maria Verdugo. Its name comes from the fields of garbanzo beans that once flourished in the area. Andrew Glassell and Albert Beck Chapman bought the land in 1869. Glassell and Chapman sold the land to Ralph and Edward Rogers, real estate developers and brothers. In 1886 the Rogers brothers subdivided the land and began to sell lots in what they called the "Town of Garvanza". The town was annexed by the city of Los Angeles in 1899. Garvanza was the site of the Pisgah Home mission. Garvanza was served by Henry Huntington's Los Angeles Railway as early as 1902, and the LARY had a direct line from Garvanza to Downtown Los Angeles by 1904. By 1907, Huntington had extended the Garvanza line in two directions: along York Blvd. and along North Figueroa Street. Two bridges connecting Los Angeles and South Pasadena originate in Garvanza. One, the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad railroad bridge spanning the Arroyo Seco, was first built in 1885, and has been rebuilt twice since then. The York Boulevard bridge over the Arroyo Seco Parkway, one of the most picturesque to span the Arroyo Seco, was built to replace a small wooden toll bridge that became too rickety to support the ever-increasing traffic between South Pasadena and Los Angeles. The old toll house still exists on the South Pasadena side. The Judson Studios, which created much of the stained glass that graced Craftsman and Mission structures in Southern California, have been located in Garvanza since 1911. Garvanza, along with South Pasadena and Pasadena, is generally considered to be the birthplace of the Arts & Crafts movement in Southern California. Garvanza had lost its identity as a neighborhood by the 1940s. In the 1990s, local residents Tina Gulotta Miller and Rosa Rivas decided to revive the nearly century old to lead an effort to preserve the history and improve the neighborhood in partnership with the and the city of Los Angeles to officially bestowed the name "Garvanza" on the area in 1997. Garvanza is incorporated into the City of Los AngelesHighland Park-Garvanza HPOZ Preservation Plan area adopted by the Los Angeles City CouncilDecember 9, 2010. On July 25, 2019 the Garvanza Improvement Association], led by Tina Gulotta Miller and Rosa Rivas, was awarded by the Los Angeles Conservancy citing their "visionary approach serves as a model for historic neighborhoods across Los Angeles, and proves that density and preservation can and should coexist."
