About the Burbank, California Area 

Famous around the world as a global movie making capital, Burbank is an affluent city with a thriving entertainment industry, upscale shopping, dining, and nightlife, and a wealth of cultural and recreational resources. Covering 18 square miles and with 106,000 residents, Burbank is small enough to have its own distinct identity, set apart from the hustle and bustle of downtown LA but close enough to enjoy all the world-class cultural and sporting events that this great world city has to offer. 

Quaint deco and 1940’s style Spanish Revival homes bring character to Burbank. Plentiful parks and the nearby Wildwood Canyon set it apart from the rat race. The city has a nationally acclaimed recycling program and uses reclaimed water to irrigate town gardens and parks. Schools in Burbank are absolutely excellent and there are plentiful facilities for children, from ballparks and swimming pools to dance and drama classes. The Los Angeles Zoo is in Burbank, and the Pickwick Gardens Ice Center and superb Los Angeles Equestrian Center are nearby. 

Location
Just 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles, Burbank lies between Griffith Park and I210 in the eastern part of the San Fernando Valley. Burbank is part of Los Angeles and is only 12 miles from downtown. San Diego is about 120 miles south down the Pacific Coast and Ventura is about 60 miles north. 

Geography/Terrain
Burbank is in a lovely part of Los Angeles, higher up in the hills above the coast. While most of the city is flat, the north end of Burbank has some stunning homes in the hills affording spectacular views of the San Fernando Valley. The city is dry like the rest of the region, but planted with trees and scattered with parks. Griffith Park is the largest in the city and it encompasses the superb Los Angeles Zoo. 

Jobs
Burbank is an affluent city with a strong local economy firmly based in the entertainment industry. Arguably the world’s media capital, Burbank is home to major motion picture studios including the Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros, and many television stations and production houses, including NBC, KCET, and Nickelodeon Studios. Long-term financial stability has brought a wealth of services to Burbank and these also provide employment in many sectors including financial, retail, information technology, education, and health care. 

Housing
Burbank architecture is well known for its charm. Most homes were built in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Many of these are pretty stucco dwellings, in the Spanish revival style. There are also quite a number of houses from Burbank’s early days in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and these delightful deco homes are mostly adobe or stucco. Gardens are lush and there are plenty of trees — a welcome addition to any LA backyard. 

Most homes have 2 or 3 bedrooms, although there are larger ones available, and there are plenty of apartments in a range of sizes and price brackets. Real estate prices range from about $425,000 to over a million dollars; average prices sit around $550,000. 

Recreation
Burbank is a well established city, with 22 lovely parks and excellent recreational facilities, including 2 municipal swimming pools, 20 tennis courts, 13 ball fields, and a good municipal golf course. The city has 3 community centers and 2 senior citizen centers, and a historic outdoor concert amphitheater, the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. The Burbank Park, Recreation and Community Services Department offers citizens a wide range of fitness and recreation classes and programs.  

The city run golf course, De Bell, covers almost 115 acres and has an 18-hole course spread out over canyon style surroundings, an interesting 9-hole course, a 3-par course, and a driving range. 

Griffith Park is the wider region’s largest park. This lovely green space and wilderness area encompasses the Los Angeles Zoo, 2 museums, and the superb Los Angeles Equestrian Center, which offers classes and camps for all ages and skill levels. Pony rides are also offered at the park. 

Locals also enjoy visiting Pickwick Gardens on Riverside Drive. A popular wedding location, the center has two and a half acres of beautifully landscaped gardens, with flowers, fountains, and winding paths, and six elegant banquet facilities serviced by professional caterers and decorators. Parents like to bring their kids to play amongst the flowers on weekends. Pickwick Gardens is also home to an excellent ice center for skating and a top-notch bowling rink.  

The Stough Canyon Nature Center and Wildwood Canyon Park is a short drive away and is a great place to go hiking in the hills on weekends. The Nature Center offers fantastic nature craft events for kids and their guardians. 

The Verdugo Mountains are a great place to hike on weekends, and the Starlight Bowl, nestled in the foothills, is a great place for summer concerts and entertainment. 

Special Attractions/Events
Burbank is an exciting city with a lot going on, but it is also a community with its own identity and close ties to nature. If you want to get out in the sunshine (and there’s plenty of it in LA), you can spend the day hiking, ice skating, horseback riding or playing ball with your kids, all without having to go outside Burbank. 

The city has its own chorale, philharmonic and ballet, and a wealth of further cultural treasures.  

You can take a studio tour of Disney or Warner Bros, or attend the filming of your favorite TV show, enjoy up-market shopping, eat out at one of the many top restaurants in the area, or attend a movie premiere.  

The Los Angeles Zoo is in Burbank and its sensitively housed creatures are a wonderful sight for children. The zoo is at Griffith Park, one of the Valley’s largest open spaces; the park is also home to the Travel Town Museum and the Museum of the American West. The Burbank Aviation Museum in nearby Valhalla Memorial Park honors the city’s earlier history as an aviation center. 

Historic Buildings and Places
While Burbank was founded on May 1, 1887 and incorporated on July 8, 1911, very little real estate was built until the 1920s, when aircraft and movie making companies began to buy up land there. Prior to this time the area was mostly orange groves, orchards and farms. 

In the 1920s, Lockheed Aircraft Company built a production plant in Burbank, drawing working families. By the time America entered World War II, Lockheed had 94,000 employees producing planes and Burbank had 53,000 residents.  

Movie studios also started buying up land in Burbank in the mid-twenties and by the late 1930s, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures and Walt Disney all had production studios there. Warner Bros. made motion picture history from Burbank with the release of the first “talkie”, The Jazz Singer, on October 23, 1927.  

The post World War Two real estate boom saw Burbank’s remaining farms and orchards in the area developed into homes and commercial districts. A beautiful marble City Hall was built in 1943; today it is on the National Register of Historic Buildings. 

Much of Burbank’s charm comes from its mid-twentieth century homes. Many homes are charming art deco, but the majority are 1940s and 1950s Spanish Revival. 

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