Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainThe former 21-acre Hollenbeck estate donated to LA in 1892, where a century of sightings describe 'The Woman in Black' appearing near the park bridge — believed to be Elizabeth Hollenbeck mourning her son and husband.
415 S St Louis St, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public park, free to access at all times.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved paths throughout the park and around the lake; the bridge area is accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1892 · Donated to City of Los Angeles in 1892 by Elizabeth Hollenbeck · One of earliest formal public parks in east Los Angeles · Boyle Heights History Studios — Walking Ghost Tour stop · Boyle Heights Paranormal Project investigation site documented 2010
John Edward Hollenbeck was a Sacramento banker and Los Angeles real estate developer who, along with his wife Elizabeth, accumulated a substantial estate in the area east of downtown Los Angeles that would become Boyle Heights. By the mid-1880s the couple had developed roughly 21 acres into a private residence and grounds along the site of a natural depression that would become the park's central lake.
John Hollenbeck died in 1885. Their son also died within a short period, leaving Elizabeth Hollenbeck as the surviving family member. In 1892, Elizabeth donated the 21-acre estate to the City of Los Angeles with conditions requiring it remain a public park. The city accepted the donation and developed the grounds as Hollenbeck Park, one of the earliest formal parks in the city's east side.
The Boyle Heights Walking Ghost Tour documentation notes that the adjacent Hollenbeck Palms retirement facility also occupies land that was part of the original estate. The park has remained in continuous operation since the 1890s, with the lakeside bridge as its signature feature and the site most associated with the Woman in Black legend.
The LA Eastside blog's 2010 documentation of the Boyle Heights Paranormal Project confirmed that Hollenbeck Park was one of the neighborhood's primary documented investigation sites, with community members reporting the Woman in Black across multiple generations.
Sources
The Woman in Black is Hollenbeck Park's singular and long-running paranormal tradition. For more than a century, community members have described encounters with a figure in black Victorian mourning attire appearing near the park's lakeside bridge — the area most central to the original Hollenbeck estate grounds.
The LA Local's coverage of Boyle Heights haunted sites identifies the apparition as believed to be Elizabeth Hollenbeck, who donated the estate to the city after losing her husband in 1885 and their son shortly after. The mourning-dress detail connects directly to the Victorian convention of prolonged widow's wear; in this reading, Elizabeth remains on the grounds she surrendered to the city, still grieving.
The LA Eastside blog's 2010 documentation of the Boyle Heights Paranormal Project records community investigators treating Hollenbeck Park as one of the neighborhood's more active sites, with the bridge area as the focal point. The Woman in Black sightings reported to the project described a figure that appeared briefly and then was gone — no sound, no interaction, present and absent in the space of a moment.
The LA Local noted that sightings of the Woman in Black continued to be reported as recently as 2017, suggesting an ongoing rather than historical tradition. The Boyle Heights History Studios walking ghost tour includes the park as a stop, presenting the legend within the documented context of Elizabeth Hollenbeck's estate history.
Notable Entities
Walk the park's paths to the lakeside bridge, the area most associated with sightings of 'The Woman in Black.' The park's design reflects its Victorian estate origins; the bridge and lake are the focal points of both the historic landscape and the paranormal tradition.
Boyle Heights History Studios includes Hollenbeck Park on its organized neighborhood ghost tour, connecting the Woman in Black sightings to the estate's documented history and the Hollenbeck family's philanthropy.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Mammoth Cave, KY
Mammoth Cave is the world's longest known cave system with over 426 surveyed miles of passages. The cave was developed as a tourist site beginning in the 1810s and is internationally significant for the work of enslaved African American guide Stephen Bishop, who mapped much of the system in the 1840s and 1850s. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve.
Gatlinburg, TN
Great Smoky Mountains National Park preserves 522,427 acres of southern Appalachian terrain across Tennessee and North Carolina. The land was the heart of the Cherokee Nation before forced removal in 1838 along what became the Trail of Tears, and home to Appalachian Scots-Irish and English settler communities through the early twentieth century. Congress authorized the park in 1926; it was formally dedicated by Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 2, 1940.
Bowling Green, KY
Lost River Cave is a seven-mile system in Bowling Green, KY, used as a major Union Army camp from 1862 to 1865. Soldiers carved their names in the limestone walls. The cave later became the site of one of Kentucky's largest illegal dump operations before a major remediation effort.