Pioneers & Settlers

#223: Rancho Los Alamitos (Long Beach)

#223: Rancho Los Alamitos (Long Beach)

August 6, 2024

Native Americans

Rancho Los Alamitos compresses 150+ years of Los Angeles history into a single site. It went from Tongva village and sacred site, to Spanish land grant, to Yankee cattle and sheep ranch, to the center of a massive agricultural operation, and now a beautifully-preserved educational site, open to the public for free.

#221: Michael White Adobe (San Marino)

#221: Michael White Adobe (San Marino)

July 11, 2024

Pioneers & Settlers

Constructed ~1845, the Michael White Adobe is one of just 39 historic adobes left in LA County, and the second oldest building in San Marino. Its first owner was a sailor, shipbuilder and rancher who unwittingly took part in some of the most significant events in 19th century Los Angeles history.

#192: Doctors House (Glendale)

#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.

#188: Campo de Cahuenga (Studio City)

#188: Campo de Cahuenga (Studio City)

January 14, 2024

In the shadow of Universal Studios is a crucially significant site for California history: Campo de Cahuenga, where in 1847 Andrés Pico & John C. Frémont signed a treaty ending California hostilities in the Mexican-American War. While the original adobe where they met was demolished ~1900 the site has yielded important archaeological evidence about the many eras of people who lived and worked there.

#183: House at 1360 Lida Street (Pasadena)

#183: House at 1360 Lida Street (Pasadena)

December 6, 2023

The well-preserved Victorian house at 1360 Lida Street is one of the few 19th century remnants in Linda Vista, Pasadena's wealthiest neighborhood. It was built in 1888 at a critical juncture for the neighborhood, as it was transforming from sleepy rural farmland to an exclusive bedroom community of entrepreneurs and working professionals.

#182: The Homestead Acre / Minnie Hill Palmer House (Chatsworth)

#182: The Homestead Acre / Minnie Hill Palmer House (Chatsworth)

November 30, 2023

Pioneers & Settlers

This humble 1911 cottage was once home to the Hill family, some of Chatsworth's earliest settlers. Now called the Homestead Acre, it's one of the few physical connections we still have to the west Valley’s pioneer days.

#178: Hollywood Forever Cemetery (Hollywood)

#178: Hollywood Forever Cemetery (Hollywood)

October 31, 2023

Pioneers & Settlers

Hollywood Forever cemetery is the final resting place of countless entertainers, and many of LA's all-time most important citizens. But its significance extends way beyond who was buried there.

#174: Lasky-Demille Barn (Hollywood)

#174: Lasky-Demille Barn (Hollywood)

October 5, 2023

The Lasky-DeMille Barn is the earliest surviving structure from the beginnings of the Hollywood movie biz, and the place where the first feature-length Hollywood film (The Squaw Man) was shot. And its significance extends both before and after that. The barn was connected to some of the pioneering citizens of Hollywood, and in its current reuse as the Hollywood Heritage Museum, it serves as a cultural citadel, safeguarding Hollywood's history.

#166: Miller & Herriott House (University Park)

#166: Miller & Herriott House (University Park)

August 3, 2023

The Miller & Herriott House is a primo Eastlake Victorian, built ca. 1890 as a model home for the North University Park neighborhood, near USC. As the oldest standing home in the Harper tract, it has a lot to teach us about how the area has developed over time.

#164: William Wrigley Summer Cottage / Mt. Ada (Avalon)

#164: William Wrigley Summer Cottage / Mt. Ada (Avalon)

July 20, 2023

Built in 1921, This was the summer home of the Wrigleys, the first family of chewing gum and developers of Catalina Island. The colonial revival-style mansion is now a high-end inn called Mt. Ada, named after the matriarch of the family.

#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.

#155: Great Hall/Long Hall (West Hollywood)

#155: Great Hall/Long Hall (West Hollywood)

June 2, 2023

Great Hall/Long Hall in West Hollywood’s Plummer Park was built in 1938, on land that was owned by the colorful Eugenio “Captain” Plummer. The building was one of many projects in LA funded by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. It’s served West Hollywood's diverse communities for decades, most notably as a meeting space for the advocacy group ACT UP, which shaped the federal government’s response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.

#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.

#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.

#140: The Lanterman House (La Cañada Flintridge)

#140: The Lanterman House (La Cañada Flintridge)

March 2, 2023

The unique kinda-sorta craftsman home was one of the first houses in Los Angeles made of reinforced concrete. It was the home of Roy and Emily Lanterman, scions of La Cañada Flintridge's first family. One of their two sons, Frank Lanterman, would establish a legendary career in the California State Assembly.