Architecture

#160: Frederick Hastings Rindge Residence (West Adams)

#160: Frederick Hastings Rindge Residence (West Adams)

June 28, 2023

This 1902 French chateau-style mansion was once the home of businessman and philanthropist Frederick Hastings Rindge, the last private owner of Malibu and one of the developer of West Adams Heights. Rindge's wife May Knight Rindge continued to live here for 36 years after Frederick died, and waged an unsuccessful battle to keep Malibu private.

#158 & #159: Malaga Cove Plaza Library & Farnham Martin’s Park (Palos Verdes)

#158 & #159: Malaga Cove Plaza Library & Farnham Martin’s Park (Palos Verdes)

June 20, 2023

The Malaga Cove Plaza Library was the first dedicated library on the Palos Verdes peninsula. Dating from 1930, it's the work of Myron Hunt, and reflects the Mediterranean revival style that Hunt and the Palos Verdes Art Jury planned for the entire peninsula. Adjoining the library since the very beginning is Farnham Martin's Park, a formally landscaped oasis designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. with a multi-tiered fountain as its focal point.

#156: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Anderton Court Shops (Beverly Hills)

#156: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Anderton Court Shops (Beverly Hills)

June 8, 2023

Though the Anderton Court Shops (1954) don’t get the love of Frank Lloyd Wright's other work in Los Angeles, they occupy a singular place in his canon. These six small shop spaces make up the only retail building that Wright designed from the ground up. You'll see echoes of his other work in the spire, the spiraling ramp and the repeated chevron pattern. Mostly though, you'll see the snazziest-looking building on Rodeo Drive by a mil

#154: Memorial Branch Library (Mid-Wilshire)

#154: Memorial Branch Library (Mid-Wilshire)

May 28, 2023

The Memorial Branch Library from 1930 was dedicated by Los Angeles High School to the memory of its 20 alumni who died in WWI. It's a pitch-perfect gothic revival building, highlighted by a heraldic stained glass window crafted by Judson Studios.

#153: Peter Gano House / Holly Hill House (Avalon)

#153: Peter Gano House / Holly Hill House (Avalon)

May 23, 2023

This idiosyncratic Queen Anne Victorian is one of the oldest standing buildings in Avalon. It was built from 1888-1890 by retired civil engineer Peter Gano, and constructed with the help of a former circus horse named Mercury. This is one of the few extant connections to the earliest phase of Catalina's development as a resort destination, decades before the Wrigleys came to town.

#152: Commercial Club (Downtown)

#152: Commercial Club (Downtown)

May 20, 2023

The Commercial Club building was the headquarters of a short-lived social club from the 1920s and early '30s. It was designed by the venerable Curlett & Beelman, whose expertise in handsome high-rises helped define the downtown skyline. After a decade of disuse, it was transformed into the swanky Proper Hotel, while retaining many of its historic quirks.

#151: Casa de Rosas (University Park)

#151: Casa de Rosas (University Park)

May 10, 2023

Built in 1893, Casa de Rosas was the first project by architect Sumner Hunt, who's also credited with the Bradbury Building, the Automobile Club of Southern California and many other classics. It's also housed many important tenants over the years: the Froebel Institute, one of the first kindergartens in LA; a WWII army barracks, LA's first mission catering to women, even the headquarters of L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics Foundation.

#149: Killingsworth, Brady & Smith Office (Long Beach)

#149: Killingsworth, Brady & Smith Office (Long Beach)

April 25, 2023

Long Beach architect Edward Killingsworth honed the mid-century modern aesthetic into 3D poetry, creating sanctuaries out of right angles, high ceilings, open plans, expansive glass and natural light. One of the purest distillations of his design philosophy can be seen in the office he designed for his own firm in 1955.

#148: Christian Science Society (Avalon)

#148: Christian Science Society (Avalon)

April 15, 2023

Built in 1929 by the fabulously wealthy Wrigley family, owners of Catalina Island, the Christian Science Society was the first building in Avalon designed in the Spanish colonial revival style, an aesthetic that would dominate Avalon's look and f for the next half century.

#147: Seaman-Foshay House (University Park)

#147: Seaman-Foshay House (University Park)

April 12, 2023

This exuberant Queen Anne-Eastlake style Victorian home from 1887 was one of the earliest houses built in the fashionable St. James Park neighborhood, just north of USC. We're not 100% sure who designed it, but we know it was home (at different times) to two of LA's most eminent educators, whose professional lives intertwined in a number of ways.

#146: Bungalow Court at 940-948 N. Raymond Avenue (Pasadena)

#146: Bungalow Court at 940-948 N. Raymond Avenue (Pasadena)

April 4, 2023

Back around 1910 - 1930, Pasadena was a laboratory for the bungalow court: a type of multi-family housing that placed a group of small dwellings around a central courtyard, with a driveway leading down to a garage in the back. This here court is one of 28 Pasadena bungalow courts listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it's a fine example of the Spanish colonial revival style applied to the bungalow court genre. Plus its architect has a very silly last name.

#145: Venice Beach House (Venice)

#145: Venice Beach House (Venice)

March 29, 2023

This historic craftsman house has stood in the same spot in Venice since 1911, back when this area was just white sand dunes. It was the summer home of LA Daily Journal editor Warren Wilson, an important early settler of Venice whose daughters married into the family of Venice founder Abbot Kinney. The house was a popular stopover for local politicians, businessmen and the cultural elite. These days it's a posh B&B, beautifully restored with much of the original woodwork and craftsman detailing intact.

#144: Halifax Apartments (Hollywood)

#144: Halifax Apartments (Hollywood)

March 23, 2023

The Halifax Apartments were constructed in 1923 to help address the influx of emigrants attracted to the exploding film industry. It's on the NRHP as a dignified Italian renaissance revival design by Walker & Eisen. But way more interesting is the story of its builder: Leach Cross, a Jewish dentist who moonlit as a mediocre boxer and eventually turned to real estate. And then the restaurant biz. And then back to dentistry and boxing.

#143: Louise C. Bentz House (Pasadena – Greene & Greene)

#143: Louise C. Bentz House (Pasadena – Greene & Greene)

March 17, 2023

This house is a minor marvel from the craftsman starchitects Charles & Henry Greene. It was commissioned in 1906 by Asian art importer John C. Bentz, one of the developers of the fashionable Prospect Park Tract in Pasadena. The house was the very first built on the tract, and it set a sky high quality standard for the neighborhood. It's also a great example of how Greene & Greene could work with more modest budgets and still showcase their architectural mastery.

#142: Citizen Publishing Company Building (Culver City)

#142: Citizen Publishing Company Building (Culver City)

March 13, 2023

Beginning in 1929, the Citizen Publishing Company printed Culver City's most popular local newspaper, The Citizen - a family-owned rag that championed civic reform and boosted the local film industry. Architect Orville Clark based his design on original plans by Kitty Donovan, wife of the paper's owner Eugene Donovan. Since 2020, the building has operated as a swank food court.