Architecture

#257: San Dimas Hotel / Walker House (San Dimas)

#257: San Dimas Hotel / Walker House (San Dimas)

May 20, 2025

In its original incarnation as a hotel, this exuberant 30-room Queen Anne mansion never had a paying guest. But it would house six generations of the Walker family, pioneers of the San Dimas citrus industry. Its upper floor is now occupied by the San Dimas Historical Society, which helps to preserve all the history that happened here.

#256: Stahl House / Case Study House 22 (Hollywood Hills)

#256: Stahl House / Case Study House 22 (Hollywood Hills)

May 13, 2025

The Stahl House is one of the great works of mid-century modernism, and one of two Case Study Homes designed by Pierre Koenig. Its story is inextricable from the family that commissioned it, and the Julius Shulman photo that made it famous.

#255: Pegfair Estates Historic District (Pasadena)

#255: Pegfair Estates Historic District (Pasadena)

April 21, 2025

The Pegfair Estates Historic District is a collection of 22 single-family homes in Pasadena's high-end Linda Vista neighborhood, all built in the contemporary ranch style from 1961-1967.

#254: Vermont Square Branch Library (South LA)

#254: Vermont Square Branch Library (South LA)

April 10, 2025

South LA's Vermont Square Branch was a pioneer within the LA public library system: the first purpose-built library building owned by the City of LA, and the first of six funded by a $210,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie.

#253: Edmund Blinn House (Pasadena)

#253: Edmund Blinn House (Pasadena)

April 2, 2025

The Blinn House has had a hell of a life: once the mansion of lumber magnate Edmund Blinn, it was the clubhouse for the Women's City Club of Pasadena for 75 years, and is now a beacon of preservation as the headquarters of Pasadena Heritage. It's also the only residence west of the Mississippi River designed by Prairie School architect George W. Maher.

#252: 20th Street Historic District (West Adams)

#252: 20th Street Historic District (West Adams)

March 24, 2025

The 20th Street Historic District comprises an uncommonly unified group of 10 intact (mostly) craftsman homes from the early 1900s. As delightful as the architecture is in this district, it's the stories of the families that lived here early on that make the history of this block come alive.

#251: Parkhurst Building (Santa Monica)

#251: Parkhurst Building (Santa Monica)

March 13, 2025

Here's an elegant Spanish colonial revival confection in Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood, used for retail and office space since it was built in 1927. It was named after its commissioner, former Venice mayor Clinton Parkhurst, and once housed a location of the famous Van de Kamp's Bakery.

#250: Queen Anne Cottage & Coach Barn (Arcadia)

#250: Queen Anne Cottage & Coach Barn (Arcadia)

March 4, 2025

While these two whimsical Victorian confections don't quite "fit in" with the organic beauty of the LA County Arboretum, they're vital to the history of the San Gabriel Valley. Built around 1885, they were once the center of a vast ranch owned by Elias "Lucky" Baldwin, a landowner whose influence is still felt today.

#249: Long Beach Professional Building (Long Beach)

#249: Long Beach Professional Building (Long Beach)

February 12, 2025

The Long Beach Professional Building is an art deco high-rise, designed by William Douglas Lee during Long Beach's 1920s boom years. Originally it housed the offices of dozens of doctors and dentists. Now it's an assisted living facility.

#248: Episcopal Church of the Ascension (Monrovia)

#248: Episcopal Church of the Ascension (Monrovia)

February 1, 2025

The Episcopal Church of the Ascension is Sierra Madre's oldest religious building. Its bells have welcomed the locals to prayer since 1888.

#246-247: Blair House & Brossart House (Monrovia)

#246-247: Blair House & Brossart House (Monrovia)

January 26, 2025

These two homes were built in 1887, part of a huge building boom during Monrovia's explosive first year. Their stories are reminders that historic preservation stretches across generations – and sometimes, it even requires a change of scenery or two.

National Register Landmarks We Lost (and Didn’t Lose) in the LA Fires

National Register Landmarks We Lost (and Didn’t Lose) in the LA Fires

January 12, 2025

It's been a tough week, LA. Here are the landmarks on the National Register of Historic Places that we lost in the Eaton Fire & Palisades Fires – and those that are still with us.

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

#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.

#242: King Edward Hotel (Skid Row)

#242: King Edward Hotel (Skid Row)

December 8, 2024

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)

#241: Washington Irving Branch Library (West Adams)

November 26, 2024

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.