LOS ANGELES -- Every tourist destination has its so-called hidden attractions: off-the-beaten-path sites that visitors have to put some effort into finding. Several such locations are in Los Angeles, but it's impossible not to stumble across them.
They're the staircases woven through the hilly areas adjacent to downtown Los Angeles. Some are only a few steps, some are hundreds, and there may be upward of 400 staircases.
They were built a century ago when Los Angelenos actually walked places instead of hopping into a car.
"They really got their boost in the teens and 1920s," said Charles Fleming. "They were built as shortcuts to get pedestrians from their homes down the hill to where they could grab a streetcar."
Fleming, a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, has written "Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles." The book features 42 walks, each incorporating several of the stairways that have survived. There also is a website (secretstairs-la.com) devoted to the subject.
Construction, landslides and neglect have taken a toll. Some of the survivors, though, have interesting histories. The Music Box steps in the Silver Lake neighborhood are where Laurel and Hardy hauled a crated piano in their 1932 Academy Award-winning short "The Music Box." Another set of steps was used in a Three Stooges short.
Fleming said the steps "are sort of the bastard stepchild of city property." They're owned by the city but not maintained by it. "The city's attitude seems to be the stairway is like a sidewalk. It's not your property, but if you want them to look nice, it's up to you."
So some are nicely maintained, kept clean and beautifully landscaped. Others are dirty and neglected. Still others have been padlocked by homeowners or the city. But Fleming said residents have learned that if you spruce up nearby staircases, they're safer.
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