A Park with a View

 

The tower at Hilltop Park on Signal Hill mists each hour, representing the smoke signals once sent by the Gabrielino Indians from this spot to communicate with tribes on Catalina Island. The tower also symbolizes the oil that used to be pumped here. The highest of three reservoirs serving Signal Hill is beneath Hilltop Park. The mist tower is surrounded by a rock that creates a ripples that give the impression of motion. Photos courtesy of City of Signal Hill.

Hilltop Park was once barren of vegetation and heavily populated with oil wells pumping around the clock. Jon Cicchetti, a Long Beach landscape architect, designed the 3.2-acre park. He and the team of T.W. Weir and Craig Stone created three freestanding walls with windows frame three of the most spectacular views. Panels on each side of the windows explain what the viewer is seeing. The park offers views of the Pacific coastline from Huntington Beach, across Long Beach to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Catalina Island is visible many days of the year as well as downtown Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign and the Santa Monica Mountains.

The park incorporates the early history of the hill through the craftsman style architecture and stone walls of past hilltop mansions in the construction of the viewing wall, picnic shelters and restroom building. The Park was funded by developer impact fees at a cost of $414,000 and completes another part of the city?EUR??,,????'???s park master plan designed by Signal Hill residents.