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An Introduction to LA's Private and Gated Neighborhoods

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Like everyone, the rich people of Los Angeles prize privacy and security. Unlike everyone, they can live in guarded, gated communities, from beachfront Malibu Colony to Los Feliz's star-studded Laughlin Park. Inspired by LA Home & Style's recent roundup of gated houses, we've mapped LA's most notable and notorious gated neighborhoods and streets, where you'll find everyone from Eli Broad (in a Gehry-designed mansion) to Reese Witherspoon (three-house compound), to Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen (megamansion with a moat), just to name a few. Enjoy.

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Beverly Park

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There are approximately 80 homes within the confines of this "fortress-like development" off Mulholland, east of Benedict Canyon Drive. To live here, you pretty much have to make (or inherit) bank: according to the American Communities Survey, it is the richest neighborhood in Los Angeles. (There is both a North and South Beverly Park, and both area gated; they once went to war and it was amazing.)

Malibu Colony

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It's not exactly Billionaire's (Carbon) Beach, but Malibu Colony (just east of Perenchio Golf Course) has a notable roster of past and present luminaries and just-plain-rich residents. When it was built in the 1920s, it was called Malibu Beach Motion Picture Colony, a reference to, duh, the motion picture types buying its waterfront spreads.

La Brea Terrace

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Behind the gates on La Brea Terrace, you'll only find about a dozen houses, but they're all class, like the historic-cultural monument Atkinson-Farnum-Swain House. The gated 'hood is off La Brea north of Franklin in the Hollywood Hills.

Laughlin Park

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Throughout the ages, Cecil B. DeMille, WC Fields, Natalie Portman, and Kristen Stewart have all called Laughlin Park home. The gated community between Los Feliz Boulevard and Franklin Avenue is also where you'll find the oldest house in Los Feliz. There are only about 60 properties in the 'hood.

Valley Oak Drive

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"The only one of Los Feliz’s 'Oak' streets to be gated," LA Home and Style says, is home to some outrageous houses (the largest Craftsman in the US anyone?)

Brentwood Country Estates

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This gated mansion farm has only 14 estates on its spacious 250 acres. It's the kind of neighborhood where Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady spend five years building a megamansion (with moat!) and then put it up for sale a year after it's finished. What's so hot about this place? The super-tony 'hood has the perfect combo of privacy and incredible vistas.

Brentwood Circle

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The gates went up at Brentwood Circle in the mid-'90s in response to the nearby Getty Museum's expansion (all that museum-going riff-raff). Recently, the neighborhood has been in the news because Reese Witherspoon liked it so much, she bought three properties there. (There are less than 70 in the whole community.)

Fremont Place

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There are 73 houses in the oldest gated community in Los Angeles, dating back to 1916 according to the development's site. In the its early days, it was home to King C. Gillette, the razor manufacturer; the founder of Bank of America; and America's sweetheart Mary Pickford. Later, Mohammed Ali, Elizabeth Taylor, and Prince all resided here.

Oakmont Drive

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This supremely exclusive enclave prized for its "secluded setting, large mansions and light traffic" is the private street where LA's most noteworthy philanthropists, the Broads (as in Edythe and Eli), have their enormous Gehry-designed estate.

The Summit

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Robert Pattinson's cheesy rental was inside the gates of this six-street enclave, along with about 80 other properties. The houses are a mish-mash of pricey "Mediterranean, Colonial, Traditional, Tudor, contemporary and others," says Luxury LA Homes.

The Oaks

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The Oaks attracts the kind of people you're glad are gated off from the rest of the world—Kardashians, Justin Bieber, and Piolín among them—plus non-awful celebs like Selena Gomez and Keyshawn Johnson.

Hidden Hills

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Crazy-wealthy Hidden Hills is an incorporated city that lies entirely behind gates, like some kind of holdover from medieval times. You can find Drake and his insane pool there, plus Jessica Simpson, LeAnn Rimes, and many many other celebs.

Bel Air Crest

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Bel Air Crest's 286 houses are not actually in Bel Air—it overlooks the 405 north of the Getty—and is most famously home to a long remodeling project by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

Rolling Hills

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Horsey Rolling Hills—another fully-gated city—is for more low-key and rural types of rich folk, with about 680 houses and lots of riding trails down on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Bradbury Estates

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Bradbury Estates is sort of like that country only rich people know about; it accounts for a large portion of the very rich, very tiny city of Bradbury, and lots come at a minimum of five acres. Here's a sample of the kind of low-key real estate you'll find there. In-N-Out owner Lynsi Torres is also a resident.

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Beverly Park

There are approximately 80 homes within the confines of this "fortress-like development" off Mulholland, east of Benedict Canyon Drive. To live here, you pretty much have to make (or inherit) bank: according to the American Communities Survey, it is the richest neighborhood in Los Angeles. (There is both a North and South Beverly Park, and both area gated; they once went to war and it was amazing.)

Malibu Colony

It's not exactly Billionaire's (Carbon) Beach, but Malibu Colony (just east of Perenchio Golf Course) has a notable roster of past and present luminaries and just-plain-rich residents. When it was built in the 1920s, it was called Malibu Beach Motion Picture Colony, a reference to, duh, the motion picture types buying its waterfront spreads.

La Brea Terrace

Behind the gates on La Brea Terrace, you'll only find about a dozen houses, but they're all class, like the historic-cultural monument Atkinson-Farnum-Swain House. The gated 'hood is off La Brea north of Franklin in the Hollywood Hills.

Laughlin Park

Throughout the ages, Cecil B. DeMille, WC Fields, Natalie Portman, and Kristen Stewart have all called Laughlin Park home. The gated community between Los Feliz Boulevard and Franklin Avenue is also where you'll find the oldest house in Los Feliz. There are only about 60 properties in the 'hood.

Valley Oak Drive

"The only one of Los Feliz’s 'Oak' streets to be gated," LA Home and Style says, is home to some outrageous houses (the largest Craftsman in the US anyone?)

Brentwood Country Estates

This gated mansion farm has only 14 estates on its spacious 250 acres. It's the kind of neighborhood where Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady spend five years building a megamansion (with moat!) and then put it up for sale a year after it's finished. What's so hot about this place? The super-tony 'hood has the perfect combo of privacy and incredible vistas.

Brentwood Circle

The gates went up at Brentwood Circle in the mid-'90s in response to the nearby Getty Museum's expansion (all that museum-going riff-raff). Recently, the neighborhood has been in the news because Reese Witherspoon liked it so much, she bought three properties there. (There are less than 70 in the whole community.)

Fremont Place

There are 73 houses in the oldest gated community in Los Angeles, dating back to 1916 according to the development's site. In the its early days, it was home to King C. Gillette, the razor manufacturer; the founder of Bank of America; and America's sweetheart Mary Pickford. Later, Mohammed Ali, Elizabeth Taylor, and Prince all resided here.

Oakmont Drive

This supremely exclusive enclave prized for its "secluded setting, large mansions and light traffic" is the private street where LA's most noteworthy philanthropists, the Broads (as in Edythe and Eli), have their enormous Gehry-designed estate.

The Summit

Robert Pattinson's cheesy rental was inside the gates of this six-street enclave, along with about 80 other properties. The houses are a mish-mash of pricey "Mediterranean, Colonial, Traditional, Tudor, contemporary and others," says Luxury LA Homes.

The Oaks

The Oaks attracts the kind of people you're glad are gated off from the rest of the world—Kardashians, Justin Bieber, and Piolín among them—plus non-awful celebs like Selena Gomez and Keyshawn Johnson.

Hidden Hills

Crazy-wealthy Hidden Hills is an incorporated city that lies entirely behind gates, like some kind of holdover from medieval times. You can find Drake and his insane pool there, plus Jessica Simpson, LeAnn Rimes, and many many other celebs.

Bel Air Crest

Bel Air Crest's 286 houses are not actually in Bel Air—it overlooks the 405 north of the Getty—and is most famously home to a long remodeling project by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

Rolling Hills

Horsey Rolling Hills—another fully-gated city—is for more low-key and rural types of rich folk, with about 680 houses and lots of riding trails down on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Bradbury Estates

Bradbury Estates is sort of like that country only rich people know about; it accounts for a large portion of the very rich, very tiny city of Bradbury, and lots come at a minimum of five acres. Here's a sample of the kind of low-key real estate you'll find there. In-N-Out owner Lynsi Torres is also a resident.