Etan Does LA

#289 – Malabar Branch Library (Boyle Heights)

September 3, 2026

Malabar Branch Library has served the ever-evolving Boyle Heights since 1927. This simple brick building has witnessed the neighborhood change from a center of Jewish life to the working class Latino neighborhood that it is today.

#288: Pacific Electric Building (Downtown)

August 18, 2026

Social History

The Pacific Electric Building was the central hub of LA's legendary streetcar system for more than half a century. Built in 1905 for Henry Huntington, it witnessed the evolution of LA's complex transportation history, and even hosted a couple major food milestones.

#287: Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District (Mid-Wilshire)

August 3, 2026

Architecture

The Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District is basically an open-air museum of great residential architecture from the 1920s-1940s. Beyond its 1,000+ beautifully-preserved dwellings, this District set new standards for how architecture and urban planning can work together to build cohesive, perpetually desirable neighborhoods.

#285: Saban Theatre/Fox Wilshire (Beverly Hills)

July 11, 2026

Architecture

Opened in 1930, the opulent Fox Wilshire helped to cement Beverly Hills' identity as an entertainment destination, distinct from downtown and Hollywood. It was a first-run movie palace for decades, and hosted the premieres of Animal Crackers, How to Marry a Millionaire and Sleeping Beauty. Now known as the Saban Theatre, it's frequently used for concerts, comedy shows and other lease events.

#286: Holly Street Livery Stable (Pasadena)

June 29, 2026

Commerce

The Holly Street Livery Stable has housed horses, floats, car shops, restaurants and offices, all inside one of the most unusually-shaped buildings in Old Town Pasadena. Its long history has a lot to tell us about how transportation within the city (and the city itself) has evolved.

#284: The Deco Building / Security-First National Bank (Miracle Mile)

June 6, 2026

Architecture

The Deco Building on Wilshire & La Brea is one of just two LA buildings covered in black tile and gold ornamentation, and DANG is it slick looking inside and out. It debuted in 1929 as a bank, just as the Miracle Mile was hitting its stride. Today it hosts a colorful collection of Indonesian vendors.

#283: La Casa Nueva (City of Industry)

May 21, 2026

Architecture

There are many ways to interpret La Casa Nueva. It's one of the most vibrant Spanish colonial revival homes in LA County, and a fascinating expression of how Angelenos romanticized the mission era in the 1920s. It's also a case study for how architecture and family histories can intertwine, and a model for how local governments should value historic preservation.

#282: Wilmington Branch Library (Wilmington)

April 27, 2026

Art & Literature

The Wilmington Branch library building served the working class harbor town for 61 years, and now houses the Wilmington Historical Society. The building's story is emblematic of the growth of LA's public library system in the 1920s, which in turn is a reflection of the growth of the city itself.

#281: ATSF Locomotive No. 3751 (Los Angeles)

April 18, 2026

Transportation

The ATSF 3751 was a pioneering steam-powered locomotive in active service for the Santa Fe Railway between 1927 and 1953. Its speed, power and efficiency helped to advance and define train travel in the 3751's heyday. Following its full restoration in the early 1990s, the 3751 has enjoyed a long second life as a popular train for rail events and private excursions across the southwest.

#280: Casa Alvarado (Pomona)

April 4, 2026

Pioneers & Settlers

Built in 1840, Casa Alvarado is one of the oldest homes in LA County that's been continuously occupied as a home. While the house has evolved in parallel with Pomona itself, decades of thoughtful stewardship have preserved traces of every era of its history.

#279: Young’s Market Company Building (Westlake)

March 16, 2026

Architecture

The Young's Market Company Building in Westlake was the flagship store and HQ for a pioneering supermarket chain turned liquor distributor. Its story teaches us a lot about how food and beverage retail evolved in the early 20th century. Despite major interior changes and damage in the 1992 LA Riots, the building itself remains a grand exercise in Italian Renaissance Revival refinement. It's now a shoe store.

#278: Friend Lacey House (Pasadena)

February 28, 2026

Architecture

The modest Friend Lacey House is representative of the middle-class housing that sprouted up in Pasadena in the 1890s, a period of huge growth for the newly-incorporated city. It was built in 1893 by Robert Lacey (the namesake of De Lacey Avenue) for his son Friend, and occupied by various factions of this pioneering family for decades.

#277: Workman Adobe (City of Industry)

February 21, 2026

Pioneers & Settlers

The Workman Adobe was built in the early 1840s for William Workman and his family, some of the earliest non-Hispanics to immigrate to Southern California under Mexican rule. This family made huge contributions to LA’s development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And as their fortunes waxed and waned over the decades, the adobe changed dramatically too. Its history is a reflection of both the people who lived there, and the broader story of Los Angeles.

#276: Standard Oil Building (Whittier)

January 10, 2026

Architecture

The Standard Oil Building is one of Whittier's oldest office buildings, dating from an era when the hills just east of Whittier were covered in oil derricks. Since Standard left in 1930, it's had a second and third life as a college dorm and a restaurant/retail complex. But it's still got many of the charms of its original mission revival design.

#275: Bradbury Building (Downtown)

December 25, 2025

Architecture

The Bradbury Building is the oldest commercial building in Los Angeles, and yet it still feels like a vision of the future. Its interior is music as much as it is architecture, with endless rhythms of balconies and balustrades, archways and staircases, composing and re-composing themselves as your eye moves around the atrium. If you haven't gazed up at the Bradbury's glass canopy, you haven't lived.