Larchmont is a densely populated, highly diverse, half-square-mile neighborhood in the central region of the City of Los Angeles, California, where more than half the residents were foreign-born. Larchmont is notable for its quaint old-town shopping street and well-maintained historic homes. It has four schools and one small park. It has been the site of early and recent motion picture shoots.
According to the Mapping L.A. project of the Los Angeles Times, Larchmont is flanked by Hollywood to the north, East Hollywood to the east, Koreatown to the southeast, Windsor Square to the south and Hancock Park to the west. Street boundaries are Melrose Avenue on the north, Western Avenue on the east, Beverly Boulevard on the south and North Arden Boulevard on the west.
Larchmont Village was developed in the late 1800s. By 1920, it had become a streetcar suburb of Los Angeles. Julius LaBonte (1879-1968), a developer from the midwest, is credited as the visionary who made Larchmont Village what it is today.
The 2000 U.S. census counted 8,631 residents in the 0.49-square-mile neighborhood—an average of 17,747 people per square mile, one of the highest densities in the county. In 2008, the city estimated that the population had increased to 9,195. The median age for residents was 34, about average for Los Angeles; the percentages of residents aged 19 to 49 and above were among the county's highest.
Larchmont was highly diverse ethnically, and the percentage of Asians was comparatively high. The breakdown was Latinos, 37.2%; Asians, 30%; whites, 24.6%; blacks, 3%, and others, 5.3%. Korea (28.3%) and Guatemala (16.8%) were the most common places of birth for the 56% of the residents who were born abroad, a high figure compared to rest of the city.