Etan Does LA - I'm visiting every Los Angeles landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.

#283: La Casa Nueva (City of Industry)

#283: La Casa Nueva (City of Industry)

May 21, 2026

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)

#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)

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

April 18, 2026

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)

#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)

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

March 16, 2026

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)

#278: Friend Lacey House (Pasadena)

February 28, 2026

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)

#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)

#276: Standard Oil Building (Whittier)

January 10, 2026

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)

#275: Bradbury Building (Downtown)

December 25, 2025

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.

#274: House at 1487 Loma Vista Street (Pasadena)

#274: House at 1487 Loma Vista Street (Pasadena)

December 9, 2025

This house is a great example of how Asian design influenced the craftsman architecture of the early 1900s. You'd think that something this distinctive would be the work of a well-known architect. As it turns out, it was probably ordered from a catalog.

#273: Subway Terminal Building (Downtown)

#273: Subway Terminal Building (Downtown)

December 1, 2025

For 30 years the magnificent 12-story Subway Terminal Building downtown was the end point for LA's first subway, built by Pacific Electric Railway in 1925. After two rounds of renovation, the above-ground part now serves as luxury apartments. But it's the mothballed passenger concourse and tunnel that still excites the imagination of LA history buffs, 100 years later.

#272: Hotel Hoover (Whittier)

#272: Hotel Hoover (Whittier)

November 19, 2025

For 95 years now, the old Hotel Hoover has housed travelers, permanent residents and low-income elderly folks. The building itself is a fine (if loose) interpretation of Spanish colonial architecture. Also worthy of your attention is the story of the Oak Room, the steakhouse downstairs that gave Whittier its first cocktail lounge, helping to lubricate this formerly dry town.

#271: John L. Hartwell House (Pasadena)

#271: John L. Hartwell House (Pasadena)

November 6, 2025

The John L. Hartwell House is a fine example of a modest Victorian home in Pasadena, representative of the growth of the city's northwest neighborhoods in the 1880s. But way more interesting than the architecture is the colorful cast of characters who've called this place home.

#270: El Campo Santo Cemetery (City of Industry)

#270: El Campo Santo Cemetery (City of Industry)

October 30, 2025

Pioneers & Settlers

El Campo Santo was the private family cemetery for the Workman and Temple families, two dynasties who made massive contributions to the growth of Los Angeles in the 19th and early 20th century. Generations of family members, employees and influential friends are buried within its walls. But the most fascinating part is how the cemetery's evolution over 175 years parallels the tumultuous history of the people who are buried there.

#269: House at 1141 North Chester Avenue (Pasadena)

#269: House at 1141 North Chester Avenue (Pasadena)

October 18, 2025

Built in 1914, the modest house at 1141 North Chester Avenue has all the wood, rock and wraparound porches you'd expect from a classic Pasadena craftsman. It's a great example of an "airplane bungalow" – a craftsman with a smaller second story.