Commerce

#213: Glendora Bougainvillea

#213: Glendora Bougainvillea

June 15, 2024
Commerce
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.
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#177: Point Vicente Lighthouse (Palos Verdes)

#177: Point Vicente Lighthouse (Palos Verdes)

October 23, 2023
Commerce
The old keepers of the 1926 Point Vicente Lighthouse used to tell of a ghostly woman that would move across the walkway garbed in a flowing white dress. Though the "Lady of the Light" hasn't been seen since someone applied a fresh coat of paint in 1955, and no keepers have minded the beacon since the early 1970s, the Point Vicente Lighthouse is still an important navigational aid for ships heading into the Ports of LA and Long Beach.
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#173: Ralphs Grocery Store (Westwood)

#173: Ralphs Grocery Store (Westwood)

September 28, 2023
City Planning
The 1929 Ralphs Westwood building is one of the only remaining vestiges of the SoCal grocery chain's early expansion years. It was also one of the very first buildings in Westwood Village, a neighborhood whose growth paralleled UCLA's.
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#172: Pan American Bank (East LA)

#172: Pan American Bank (East LA)

September 16, 2023
Commerce
This small community bank opened in 1966 as the first bank in California to offer fully bilingual services in English and Spanish. For 50 years they served the largely Chicano community of East LA, offering home and small business loans to people that other banks wouldn’t give the time of day, and generally helping the local economy thrive. It's gilded by a mosaic mural that inspired the local Chicano art movement of the late '60s/early '70s.
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 #156: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Anderton Court Shops (Beverly Hills)

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

June 8, 2023
Architecture
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
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#152: Commercial Club (Downtown)

#152: Commercial Club (Downtown)

May 20, 2023
Architecture
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.
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#142: Citizen Publishing Company Building (Culver City)

#142: Citizen Publishing Company Building (Culver City)

March 13, 2023
Architecture
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.
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#138: Greystone Mansion/Doheny Estate (Beverly Hills)

#138: Greystone Mansion/Doheny Estate (Beverly Hills)

February 16, 2023
Architecture
This 55-room mansion in Beverly Hills was designed by Gordon Kaufmann for oil heir Ned Doheny and his family. Over the years it has been a residence and a public park; a popular place to get married or hold a fashion shoot; the site of a still-controversial murder-suicide case; a film school where David Lynch and Paul Schrader honed their chops; and the location of Beverly Hills' largest reservoir.
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#120-122: Garment District High-Rises (Downtown)

#120-122: Garment District High-Rises (Downtown)

October 10, 2022
Architecture
The 1920s-era Garment Capitol Building, Textile Center Building and Maxfield Lofts each have their own thing going for them aesthetically. And they each capture a unique period in the economic and architectural development of the Garment District in downtown LA, which remains one of the city's economic engines to this day.
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#99: Pioneer Oil Refinery (Newhall)

#99: Pioneer Oil Refinery (Newhall)

May 27, 2022
Commerce
From 1877 - 1888, the Pioneer Oil Refinery processed oil from Pico No. 4, the first commercially successful oil well in California. The refinery had a brief heyday, but it was an important part of the birth of the oil industry in California. Today it stands as the earliest extant refinery in California (some say the entire world).
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