#213: Glendora Bougainvillea
June 15, 2024
The Glendora Bougainvillea is the largest planting of the vine in the US, and a living connection to the story of the citrus industry that helped to build LA around the turn of the 20th century.
Etan R.
Music omnivore, student of LA history, beer snob and amateur father. Working my way through the canon.
#212: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House (East Hollywood)
June 8, 2024
Completed in 1921, Hollyhock House was Frank Lloyd Wright's first LA commission, and a departure from the prairie style that made him famous. This was one part of a planned theater complex for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall. And while their grand vision was never carried out, the house still stands as one of Wright's most significant buildings.
#211: Washington Building (Culver City)
June 2, 2024
The wedge-shaped Washington Building is one of the few remaining structures from downtown Culver City's heyday in the 1920s. It was commissioned by Charles Lindblade, a real estate developer who, alongside Harry Culver, built Culver City in the 1910s through the early 1930s.
#210: Fox Theatre Inglewood
May 24, 2024
Opened in 1949, the Fox Theatre Inglewood was one of the grandest movie houses in a neighborhood full of them. It was also the final LA-area theater built by Fox before the government consent decree that required the major studios to divest themselves of their theater holdings. It's been closed for 40 years, with all of its original interiors intact – a slowly decaying time capsule, waiting for whatever's next.
#209: Charmont Apartments (Santa Monica)
May 17, 2024
Santa Monica's Charmont Apartments were designed in a unique combination of Spanish colonial & art deco styles by Max Maltzman, one of LA's first Jewish architects. It was lovingly rehabilitated after sustaining damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
#207-208: Historic Downtown LA Fire Stations
May 4, 2024
Fire Station No. 23 & 28 are two historic downtown LA firehouses built around the same time that have ended up in very different places.
#202-206: Whole Bunch o’ Bungalow Courts, pt. 2 (Pasadena)
April 24, 2024
Pasadena was the birthplace of the bungalow court, a unique form of multi-family housing that flourished between 1910-1930. I visited all 30 Pasadena courts on the National Register – batch #2 includes craftsman, colonial revival, English cottage-style and a truly transportive example of a Tudor revival bungalow court.
Inside Richard Neutra’s Jardinette Apartments (East Hollywood)
April 14, 2024
Get a peek inside Richard Neutra's modernist landmark Jardinette Apartments to see how the restoration efforts are progressing.
#201: Beverly Hills Post Office (Beverly Hills)
April 7, 2024
For a Depression-era federal building, the Beverly Hills Post Office is an unusually opulent one, clad in Italianate masonry and terracotta with a lobby awash in marble. After serving Beverly Hillers for over 60 years it was transformed into the beloved Wallis Center for the Performing Arts in 2013.
#200: Lloyd Wright House and Studio (West Hollywood)
March 31, 2024
This distinctive Mayan-inspired home is where architect Lloyd Wright lived and worked for over 50 years. It was built in 1927 during an important transitional phase that found him flourishing as an independent designer after years of collaborating with others – including his dad, Frank Lloyd Wright.
#194-199: Whole Bunch o’ Bungalow Courts, pt. 1 (Pasadena)
March 24, 2024
The bungalow court is a style of multi-family housing that places multiple small dwellings around a central courtyard or walkway. This style of housing flourished in LA between 1910 & 1930, especially in Pasadena, but many of them have been demolished. Here are six of the 30 remaining Pasadena courts on the National Register.
#193: Azusa Civic Center (Azusa)
March 18, 2024
The Azusa Civic Center is a trio of Spanish colonial buildings, built in 1928 with an update in 1975. As it’s grown and evolved, the Civic Center has stayed at the center of the city’s civic life, but also helped Azusa remember its past.
#192: Doctors House (Glendale)
March 9, 2024
The Doctors House is a rare Victorian home in Glendale once occupied by four doctors, a silent movie star and two families of Croatian immigrants. After facing demolition, it was saved by the Glendale Historical Society and moved to Brand Park. It now operates as a house museum.
#191: Gartz Court (Pasadena)
March 1, 2024
Built in 1911, Gartz Court is the second oldest bungalow court in Pasadena, and the oldest one still in its original configuration. Gartz stands apart from Pasadena's many surviving courts for its architectural pedigree, its 1/2 craftsman 1/2 Tudor style and its surprising preservation history.
#190: Warner Grand Theatre (San Pedro)
February 17, 2024
The Warner Grand Theatre is a 1931 art deco neighborhood movie palace in San Pedro, designed by prolific theater designer B. Marcus Priteca. Formerly part of the Warner Bros. chain of theaters, it's now owned by the City of Los Angeles.