Herman Silver, a city water commissioner, gave the Silver Lake Reservoir its name when the city built it in 1907. The Silver Lake Reservoir was built in 1907 by the city water department and named for Herman Silver, a city water commissioner. The neighborhood that grew up around it in the early twentieth century attracted artists, writers, and bohemians who found the hills and canyons affordable and removed from the film industry machinery of Hollywood.
In the 1920s and 30s, Silver Lake became the center of the gay community in Los Angeles, with bars and social clubs that operated discreetly in an era when same-sex relationships were criminalized. The neighborhood attracted architects as well: Richard Neutra built his famous VDL Research House here in 1932, and Rudolph Schindler built his experimental cooperative live-work house on Kings Road in 1922, both still standing. The area produced the punk and post-punk scenes of the 1980s, with clubs like Madame Wong's and the Silverlake Lounge.
Walk the path around the reservoir; the view of the water against the hillside neighborhood is one of the quieter pleasures of the city.