Palms is bordered by Culver City to the southeast, Rancho Park to the north, West Los Angeles to the northwest, and Mar Vista to the southwest. The district's boundaries are the Rosa Parks Freeway (I-10) on the north, Venice and Washington Boulevards on the southeast, and the San Diego Freeway on the southwest. Principal thoroughfares include National, Palms, Venice, and Sepulveda Boulevards and Overland and Motor Avenues.
The portion of Palms bounded by Overland, Sepulveda, National, and Charnock Road was developed just before World War II as Westside Village and is considered by its homeowners' group (the Westside Village Civic Assn.) to be a distinct neighborhood. Westside Village was made a part of the Mar Vista Community Council on the request of the homeowners association but that decision is being challenged.
The oldest community on the Los Angeles Westside, Palms was founded in 1886 at a midpoint on an electric rail line (which later became part of the famous Pacific Electric "Red Car" system) between Los Angeles and Santa Monica. In 1915, during the short term of Los Angeles mayor Charles E. Sebastian, the residents of Palms voted to be annexed to Los Angeles.
Until the early 1960's, most of Palms was single-family homes, many of which were built in the Craftsman and Spanish Revival styles that dominated Southern California in the first quarter of the 20th century. At that time, the city of Los Angeles rezoned most of the district for multifamily dwellings. (Homeowners' associations in Westside Village, Mar Vista, Rancho Park, and Beverlywood successfully banded together to fight against any such rezoning in their neighborhoods.) This had the result of most of Palms' historic housing stock being razed and replaced with two-story (or larger) apartment buildings; very few original houses remain, and many of those are on lots where additional housing units have been built on what were once backyards.
The late 1990's and early 2000's saw a considerable upturn of Palms' fortunes, with the revival of adjacent Culver City adding new life to the area. Palms' growth will probably continue well into the 21st century with the arrival of a Metro light-rail line. Slated to open in 2009, the line will connect downtown Los Angeles and Culver City and may eventually be extended to Santa Monica, passing through Palms on a portion of its route.
Originally dominated by bungalows and frame houses, the housing stock in historic Palms is now almost completely composed of apartment buildings (92% of the population there are renters). The upscale Westside Village district contains the only significant remaining concentration of single-family homes, almost all constructed by developer Fritz Burns in assembly-line style just before World War II, although some have been replaced in recent years by bigger, two-story dwellings. Even Westside Village has a large number of apartments, including UCLA family housing and two large complexes of cooperative units on Sepulveda Boulevard. Other apartment strips in Westside Village are on Palms Blvd., Rose Ave., Overland Ave. and National Blvd.
Palms' diversity is reflected in its landmarks. Its major religious sites are the headquarters complexes of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and the Iranian-American Muslim Association of North America (IMAN). The Lycée Français de Los Angeles, a French school that boasts actress Jodie Foster among its alumni, occupies several buildings in various parts of the neighborhood. Palms boasts a large number of Indian and Pakistani restaurants and businesses. In addition, it is also one of the centers of the Brazilian community in Los Angeles, with a number of Brazilian-oriented restaurants, shops, and nightclubs. The area is host to two unusual museums, the Museum of Jurassic Technology and the Center for Land Use Interpretation.