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I go looking for murals in Los Angeles the way some people go looking for proof. It forces you to tilt your face toward the sun-bleached walls, to step outside your private weather and remember that this city existed long before your small orbit took shape.

You start to wonder who stood here first, who painted their stories onto concrete in a place that forgets so quickly and builds over even faster.

That’s what Highland Park does to me. I walk its streets scanning for color, for the remnants of someone else’s heartbeat on brick. Each time I come back, I brace myself—hoping the walls haven’t been rolled over, hoping the past hasn’t been erased in the night.

Hoping history is still there, waiting for me to notice.

Highland Park murals are special in a way that is difficult to name without feeling like you’re giving something away. They carry the weight of lived-in stories, the kind that don’t ask for interpretation so much as attention.

You see it in the sun-faded blues, in the brushstrokes that have survived decades of weather and indifference, in the way a face painted on a stucco wall can feel more permanent than the businesses that open and close beneath it.

These murals tell you who loved this neighborhood enough to mark it, who insisted their history be seen even if the city forgets. And as you walk past them—slowly, almost defensively—you realize you’re not just searching for art. You’re searching for memory, for proof that something here endures.

Highland Park Is as Unique as Its Murals

I’d choose Highland Park over South Pasadena any day. South Pasadena borders Highland Park, and while it’s undeniably beautiful, it can feel a little one-note—very much the same type of environment and the same type of people.

Highland Park, on the other hand, is a working-class neighborhood with real variety.

It’s interesting, unique, and a bit unpredictable in the best way. You see that personality reflected everywhere, especially in the Highland Park murals, which capture the neighborhood’s history, culture, creativity, and the diversity that makes it so special.

If you’re searching for the best Highland Park murals, you’re in the right place. This Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood is one of the city’s most historic and artistic pockets — a stretch where Mexican heritage, creative expression, and evolving identity collide in technicolor across brick walls, alleys, storefronts, and community centers.

Highland Park is full of bold imagery, cultural storytelling, and unexpected bursts of color, making it one of the most rewarding places in LA for mural hunting.

I’ve walked York Boulevard, Figueroa Street, and the surrounding Avenues more times than I can count.

And with every visit, I’m reminded how much murals reveal about a neighborhood: its history, its tension, its pride, its changes, and the stories people refuse to let disappear.

All you have to do is look up, and something colorful and magical appears.

Let’s go!

📍 Location: Eastside Los Angeles
🚗 Parking: Street parking available; best on the side streets
🌊 Vibe: Vintage and vibrant
☕️ Must-try: Villa’s Tacos
📸 Best for: Street art, vintage shopping, indie coffee shops, creative neighborhood vibes
🕒 Best time to visit: Late morning to sunset

1. “The Wall That Talks (Tenochtitlan)”

Location:

📍 6103 N Figueroa St (at Ave. 61) right across from Villa’s Tacos

This is one of Highland Park’s most iconic and historically important murals — a sprawling, immersive visual that honors Indigenous roots, Mexican heritage, and Chicano identity.

Painted in 1977 and restored over time, it’s the kind of mural that feels less like street art and more like a living document.

The visual density is breathtaking: serpents, pyramids, warriors, and symbols woven together in a story that predates Los Angeles by centuries.

When you stand in front of it, it feels like standing before an archive. Visitors often linger longer than planned here — there’s so much to take in, so many layers to understand.

If you’re arriving via the Metro, this is your welcome mat to Highland Park’s artistic energy.

2. Highland Park Car & Truck Mural

Location:

📍 5516 N. Figueroa, Los Angeles, CA 90042 @ Auto Zone building

This large-scale mural captures a nostalgic snapshot of daily life in Highland Park, painted across an aging brick wall that gives it a lived-in, vintage feel. The scene blends neighborhood landmarks, local businesses, classic cars, palm trees, and residents moving through a busy street. It feels like a memory of the community in motion — kids on bikes, families walking, mechanics working, and storefronts that once defined the area.

Although weathered and cracked in places, the mural beautifully preserves the spirit of a past era in Highland Park, honoring the rhythms and character of the neighborhood as it once was.

If you’re exploring the neighborhood on foot, this mural is a must-stop. It gives viewers a foundation for understanding the layers of Highland Park beyond its boutiques and brunch spots.

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3. Untitled and I Couldn’t Find the Title

Location:

📍Meridian @ Avenue 56

Wrapping around the corner of a building at Meridian and Avenue 56, this expansive sepia-toned mural depicts scenes from Highland Park’s past.

Painted in warm browns and golds, it shows families, neighborhood kids, vintage cars, and tree-lined streets, blending everyday life with moments of memory and nostalgia.

The monochrome palette gives it a timeless, almost cinematic feel, making the entire building read like a historical scroll. It’s one of the longest murals in the neighborhood and a quiet tribute to Highland Park’s layered history and community roots.

4. “Earth Mother 2021” (Elisabeth Condon)

Location:

📍 Marmion Way near Metro Gold Line – Highland Park Station

The mural titled “Earth Mother” (2021) is a vibrant and significant public artwork that celebrates community, care, and the connection between people and the natural world.

Painted on a tiled wall along a local Highland Park street, it blends figurative and abstract elements in a way that feels both soulful and uplifting.

At the center is a tender scene of a woman helping a child pour water onto a growing plant — a symbolic moment that honors nurturing, future generations, and stewardship of the earth.

The figures are surrounded by bright sunbursts, protective hands, flowing shapes, and organic color blocks in warm reds, greens, yellows, and blues.

These elements give the mural a sense of energy and movement, echoing themes central to Highland Park’s artistic tradition: community resilience, environmental respect, and intergenerational wisdom.

Highland Park has strong roots in Mexican and Chicano muralism, and while this mural isn’t explicitly tied to one cultural iconography, it carries forward the neighborhood’s commitment to storytelling through public art — honoring the people who care for each other, the land, and the community. It does so in a way that feels inclusive, gentle, and celebratory rather than appropriative or reductive.

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5. “MRBBABY”

Location:

📍 5122 1/2 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA

This bright and cheerful mural features a traditional doll figure painted in vibrant colors, set against an orange backdrop with bamboo-like green stalks rising behind her.

Her oversized ribboned headdress and embroidered dress give the wall a playful, welcoming feel, while a small white rabbit at her feet adds a touch of sweetness. 

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6. “Read Books, Not Boys”

Location:

📍 5052 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042

This one is instantly Instagrammable — a punchy, bold, feminist statement splashed across a wall near Figueroa.

It’s tucked away right across the street from Gloria’s Cafe, which is one of the best Latin restaurants for breakfast I have ever been to.

It’s the kind of mural that always has someone posing under it, and it’s a fun addition to your Highland Park mural walk.

Out of all the Highland Park murals, I found it’s in the best condition.

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7. Untitled

Location:

📍 105 Avenue 56 & Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042

This striking untitled mural on Avenue 56 spans the entire façade of the building, blending portraiture, symbolism, and natural imagery to create a scene that feels both rooted in heritage and expansive in its storytelling.

The artwork centers three women standing together inside a circular frame, each depicted with distinct features, clothing, and adornments that suggest individuality while highlighting their shared strength and presence.

Surrounding the women are vivid symbols from the natural world: a leopard, a white horse, a colorful bull, and a green serpent winding across the composition.

These animals appear alongside birds, flowers, and flowing water, giving the mural an almost mythic sense of harmony between humans, animals, and the environment.

Behind the central figures, a landscape unfolds — bridges, rolling rivers, trees, and mountains — grounding the mural in place and community.

The far-right section features a serene depiction of a long-haired figure with an open hand and a radiant heart, adding a spiritual, protective tone to the overall composition.

The use of warm tones, intricate linework, and bold symbolic elements reflects the longstanding tradition of public art in Highland Park — art that celebrates resilience, interconnectedness, and cultural identity without reducing any one figure or motif to a single meaning.

The mural feels like a tribute to the neighborhood’s diversity and the shared stories that shape it.

8. Untitled

Location:

📍5000 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042 @ Cafe De Leche

Right outside Café de Leche, this striking abstract work blends graffiti, calligraphic lines, and layered geometric forms. 

The mural feels kinetic—full of sweeping curves, intersecting grids, and bold strokes of red, black, and cream.

It doesn’t depict a recognizable scene; instead, it creates an energetic, almost hypnotic composition that echoes the movement and creativity of York Blvd.

More street art than traditional mural, it adds a modern, urban edge to the block and is one of the most eye-catching pieces near the café.

9. “Scribble”

Location:

📍56th and York Blvd.

This cheerful Highland Park mural stretches across the façade of a small building and feels like a love letter to creativity itself. Painted on a bright turquoise background, the wall bursts with cartoon-style characters — kids and teens reading, painting, dancing, photographing, and playing music as if the whole block has come alive in one big arts-and-culture parade.

Along the top, musical staff lines run horizontally like a playful horizon, with figures perched on oversized piano keys.

A painter stands at her easel, a child kneels with a book larger than his lap, and a pair of dancers spin mid-step in a burst of color. Nearby, a girl with binoculars studies the world, while a small yellow bird flutters by, adding to the mural’s whimsical tone.

Below, the scene becomes even more animated: an accordion player pushes a cart overflowing with instruments; books float in midair; and a row of young musicians strum guitars, pluck ukuleles, and tap on drums. Everything is buoyed by giant white piano keys that curve like waves, making the entire mural feel musical even in stillness.

It’s a joyful, community-driven piece — the kind of mural that reminds you how alive Highland Park feels, especially in the small neighborhood corners where art and everyday life meet.

On Whitewashing in Highland Park

Many of the murals I went to find are no longer on the walls they once adorned.

There is a certain kind of silence that appears when color is taken from a wall — a silence that is not passive but pointed.

In Highland Park, that silence arrived in the form of white paint. Murals that once spoke for the community were muted, softened, erased in ways that seemed almost casual, like a landlord painting over a “problem.”

People noticed. People always notice when the stories of a neighborhood begin to disappear.

LA Taco wrote about the ‘whitewashing‘ of Highland Park murals — the quiet removal of cultural imagery beneath the larger machinery of renovation and reinvention. It is the kind of act that seems small, almost administrative, until you understand the mural was the only record some people had left of their history.

And in a place like Highland Park, history clings to walls long after it has vanished from leases.

On Gentrification in Highland Park

We tell ourselves stories in order to live, Joan Didion wrote — and in Los Angeles, the story often begins with a neighborhood that becomes desirable before anyone realizes how quickly desire can turn into displacement.

Highland Park is no exception.

You see it in the rising rent signs, the new developments, the cafés serving lavender oat lattes where mechanics once worked, the boutiques replacing family stores that stood for forty years.

None of this is inherently sinister, and yet there’s a tension that hangs in the air like a marine layer — a reminder that cities shift whether we are ready or not.

The murals become markers. What remains, what gets covered, what gets repainted — these are the breadcrumbs left behind as Highland Park writes its next chapter.

Best Areas to Explore Murals in Highland Park

York Boulevard

Walkable, lively, lined with boutiques, vintage shops, and cafés. Several murals are tucked between storefronts.

Figueroa Street

Historic, busy, and full of culture. Many murals here reference Chicano identity and community.

The Avenues (Ave 50–Ave 60)

Quieter, residential, artistic — home to small but meaningful murals.

Near the Gold Line

Bright, modern pieces around the station.

For a full feel of the neighborhood, pair your mural walk with my guides:

• Highland Park Los Angeles (full neighborhood overview)
• Villa’s Tacos Highland Park (perfect post-mural meal)
• Is Highland Park Los Angeles Safe? (breakdown of the safest areas to explore on foot)

FAQs About Highland Park Murals

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