Building your house out of whatever you can find close by made a lot of sense a hundred years ago. Take Sun Valley, for instance. It's near the foot of the Verdugo Mountains, where winter storms wash rocks and boulders down into the wash. Bill Robertson, director of L.A.'s Bureau of Street Services, says there's a street in Sun Valley that explains it all:

"Stonehurst. Most of the homes were built out of stones because of the river rock that was available up there, so it just made sense. That's the road that leads to all the rock homes, so we'll just call it Stonehurst."

There are nearly a hundred homes in Sun Valley built mainly between 1923 and 1925 by Dan Montelongo, a local stonemason. The Stonehurst neighborhood boasts L.A.'s highest concentration of homes built mainly from local river rock. Their craftsman-like style has been dubbed "Stonemason Vernacular."

(Airdate: 12/13/2008)