Silver Lake
History Collective
 

The History Collective was founded as a committee of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council in 2005 by community activist Bea Gold. Our mission is to preserve the oral histories of long-term residents, business owners, artists and other interesting people in Silver Lake to create an archive of the unique history of our neighborhood for future generations.
 

So far, we have conducted over a hundred interviews involving more than 120 people. The breadth of interviews is extraordinary. We have stories from the great-grandchild of a slave, a Japanese-American doctor who was interned at Santa Anita racetrack during World War II as well as many people who’ve lived all their lives in Silver Lake. From them we learn amazing things about our community. Did you know there used to be a stream bed running down what is now Hoover Street? Do you know who won the Queen of Silver Lake pageant?
 

You can spend hours browsing through our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/HistoryCollective. And the Bob Herzog Memorial Archive is available to the world online via the USC Doheny Library’s Regional Archives Department: SLNC History Collective’s Digital Archive at USC. Bob was the longtime co-chair of the History Collective and a USC graduate who made that possible.
 

Bob was posthumously awarded the SLNC History Collective Award which is given to acknowledge significant contributions to the community and its history. Other recipients include the committee’s founder Bea Gold, Jenna Didier of Materials & Applications, The Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic, Stephanie Vendig, Jenelle Le Vin of the Silver Lake Improvement Association, Nina Sorkin and Jesse Rogg from the Mack Sennett Studios.
 

Do you have an interesting neighbor who’d like to share their history in Silver Lake? A local artist whose story needs to be told? The History Collective would like to talk with them about our archive project. We’d like to get you involved too – join us on this extraordinary ongoing project. It’s incredibly rewarding to meet amazing people, make new friends and learn unexpected things about our neighborhood.
 

Come join us in documenting the unique history of Silver Lake!

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Michael Masterson (213) 760-1176

Cheryl Revkin (323) 662-3987