Highland Park Police Station (Los Angeles Police Museum)

The former police station in Highland Park at 6045 York Boulevard dates to 1926 and is considered the oldest remaining police station building in Los Angeles. The abandoned building had been gutted by fire and vandalized by 1994 when the Los Angeles Police Historical Society first leased the building from the city. The group and others converted the building into the Los Angeles Police Museum and Community Center; the grand opening was on June 27th, 2001. In 1984, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, one year after the police moved elsewhere; the city designated the structure a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in xxxx. Jail cells, police equipment, and memoribilia are on display...The museum is open...

When California became a U.S. state in 1850, the City of Los Angeles was incorporated. Less than 2,000 people lived in L.A. then, so the City Marshal - Samuel Whiting - kept the peace within the 28-square-mile land grant. The city's second City Marshal, Jack Whaling, was murdered in 1853; his killer was killed by a bounty hunter. In response, the first volunteer police force was organized, "The Los Angeles Rangers." They were later replaced by "The Los Angeles City Guards" who had their hands full with frequent murders. The first paid city police force came about in 1869 with six officers under the command of City Marshal William C. Warren. By then, the city had grown to a population of 5,000 with hundreds of saloons and gambling halls. The history of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is told within the former Highland Park Police Station, which has been converted into a museum. The Los Angeles Police Museum....

The Highland Park Police Station was built from 1925 to 1926 and is considered to be the city's oldest surviving police station. The grand opening celebration in April 1926 included a banquet in Highland Park for city officials and an officers' party for children. The building exterior's arched central entrance and windows are part of its institutional Renaissance Revival style.

The police force moved out of the Highland Park Station in 1983.

The abandoned building had been gutted by fire and vandalized by 1994 when the Los Angeles Police Historical Society first leased the building from the city. The group and others converted the building into the Los Angeles Police Museum and Community Center; the grand opening was on June 27th, 2001, attended by Chief Bernard C. Parks. The restored building held the headquarters of the historical society, the museum, a police substation, and a community center. Highlights of the first displays were an antique police vehicle and the mobile police museum. In December 2008, the Boeckmann Gallery opened in the museum, dedicated to the memory of long-time L.A. Police Commission officer and businessman Herbert F. "Bert" Boeckmann. The new multimedia gallery told the story of the commission, founded in 1870.

Highland Park is now one of the neighborhoods served by the Northeast Community Police Station on San Fernando Rd. near Atwater Village.

Los Angeles Police Foundation. History of the LAPD, Los Angeles Police Foundation. January 1st, 2023. Accessed March 27th, 2023. https://www.lapdonline.org/history-of-the-lapd/.

Purece, Hayley. Press Release: Los Angeles Police Historical Society Celebrates Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Los Angeles Police Department: Media Relations. June 1st, 2001. Accessed March 27th, 2023. https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/los-angeles-police-historical-society-celebrates-ribbon-cutting-ceremony/.

LAPD Media Relations. New Boeckmann Gallery Opens at Los Angeles Police Historical Society Museum, Los Angeles Police Department: News. December 2nd, 2008. Accessed March 27th, 2023. https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/new-boeckmann-gallery-opens-at-los-angeles-police-historical-society-museum/.