Etan Does LA

#245: Alvarado Terrace Historic District (Pico-Union)

December 25, 2024

The Alvarado Terrace Historic District includes 12 well-preserved mansions built in the early 1900s, designed by prominent architects for some of LA's most prominent citizens. Plus a small park, and the shortest street in LA.

#243-244: Point Fermin Lighthouse & Historic District (San Pedro)

December 15, 2024

Commerce

Point Fermin Lighthouse has stood sentry over the San Pedro harbor since 1874. It’s the oldest standing lighthouse between San Diego & San Francisco, and still a beloved tourist destination, 80+ years after it last shone its beam out to sea.

#242: King Edward Hotel (Skid Row)

December 8, 2024

Architecture

The King Edward Hotel was one of four hotels designed by John Parkinson along a three-block stretch of 5th Street in the early decades of the 1900s. It's home to the infamous dive bar the King Eddy Saloon, and housed a subterranean speakeasy during Prohibition – still intact, a century later.

#241: Washington Irving Branch Library (West Adams)

November 26, 2024

Architecture

Designed by the firm of Allison & Allison, the Washington Irving Branch was one of a wave of libraries built in the 1920s to meet the needs of a growing LA. It's been vacant since the late 1990s, when the branch moved a few blocks westwards.

#240: E.A.K. Hackett House (Pico-Union)

November 19, 2024

Architecture

The E.A.K. Hackett House is an intact example of a "transitional craftsman" home, bridging the Victorian and craftsman eras of LA architecture. It once housed a prominent figure in LA's religious life. AND: there's a mysterious research conundrum about its provenance...

#239: Judson Studios (Highland Park)

November 9, 2024

Architecture

In this quirky 1911 building, Judson Studios crafted the stained glass in most of your favorite old buildings in LA. And they're still at it.

#238: Grand Central Air Terminal (Glendale)

October 12, 2024

Aviation

Glendale's Grand Central Air Terminal was the first commercial airport in Los Angeles. While it’s been closed to air traffic since 1959, GCAT’s beautiful terminal building – restored by Disney to its near-original condition – is one of the best-preserved emblems of the birth of commercial aviation in Los Angeles.

#234-237: Whole Bunch o’ Bungalow Courts, pt. 5 (Pasadena)

October 7, 2024

Architecture

These four bungalow courts officially complete my survey of the 30 Pasadena bungalow courts on the National Register of Historic Places. They’re great examples of how architects and developers played around with the bungalow court form, given the constraints of the lots that they were working with.

#233: Highland Park Masonic Temple

September 13, 2024

Architecture

Built in 1923, this handsome brick and terracotta building witnessed 60 years of ritual and fraternity as the Highland Park Masonic Temple. Since 2017, it's housed the music venue the Lodge Room and an adjoining restaurant, Checker Hall. All the original Masonic symbols are still intact, and EVERYWHERE.

#232: Fire Station No. 30 (Downtown)

September 1, 2024

Social History

Fire Station No. 30 once housed one of LA's two all-Black units during an era when Black and White firefighters were segregated. After a restoration in the 1990s, the old station building was reopened as the African-American Firefighter Museum, dedicated to preserving and retelling the story of Black firefighters in LA and beyond.

#231: Villa Carlotta (Altadena)

August 23, 2024

Architecture

Villa Carlotta is a fine example of architect Myron Hunt's residential work, and one of Altadena's first homes designed for electricity from the get-go. It was built for Francis R. Welles, who oversaw European operations for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone company for over 30 years.

#230: Mariposa Street Bridge (Burbank)

August 18, 2024

Recreation

Since 1939, Mariposa Street Bridge has connected the equestrian neighborhoods of Burbank & Glendale with the bridle trails of Griffith Park. It’s a reminder that, even though this is a car town, cowboy culture is still alive in LA.

#224-229: Whole Bunch o’ Bungalow Courts, pt. 4 (Pasadena)

August 11, 2024

Architecture

The bungalow court blossomed in Pasadena between 1910 & 1930. For part four of my tour of all 30 Pasadena courts on the National Register of Historic Places, we're focusing on six that are known only by their addresses. I call them: THE NAMELESS.

#223: Rancho Los Alamitos (Long Beach)

August 6, 2024

Native Americans

Rancho Los Alamitos compresses 150+ years of Los Angeles history into a single site. It went from Tongva village and sacred site, to Spanish land grant, to Yankee cattle and sheep ranch, to the center of a massive agricultural operation, and now a beautifully-preserved educational site, open to the public for free.

#222: LAX’s Hangar One (Inglewood)

July 23, 2024

Aviation

Hangar One was the first building constructed for the LA Municipal Airport (now LAX), and the only one still standing from the airport’s earliest days.