Pioneers & Settlers

#160: Frederick Hastings Rindge Residence (West Adams)

#160: Frederick Hastings Rindge Residence (West Adams)

June 28, 2023
Architecture
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.
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#155: Great Hall/Long Hall (West Hollywood)

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

June 2, 2023
City Planning
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.
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#153: Peter Gano House / Holly Hill House (Avalon)

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

May 23, 2023
Architecture
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.
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#145: Venice Beach House (Venice)

#145: Venice Beach House (Venice)

March 29, 2023
Architecture
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.
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#140: The Lanterman House (La Cañada Flintridge)

#140: The Lanterman House (La Cañada Flintridge)

March 2, 2023
Architecture
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.
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#136: Villa Francesca (Palos Verdes)

#136: Villa Francesca (Palos Verdes)

January 31, 2023
Architecture
This lovely Mediterranean revival compound in Rancho Palos Verdes was the longtime home of Harry E. Benedict, one of the peninsula's early developers. Though the Great Depression prevented the completion of a planned mansion, the gate lodge and farmstead still stand as fine examples of renowned architect Gordon Kaufmann's work.
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#125: Los Cerritos Ranch House (Long Beach)

#125: Los Cerritos Ranch House (Long Beach)

November 6, 2022
Pioneers & Settlers
Built in 1844 by a yankee-turned-Mexican named John Temple, this house in Long Beach was the largest adobe built in southern California during the period when SoCal was controlled by Mexico. Its layered history tells LA’s transition from barren ranch land, to prosperous agricultural paradise, to a network of subdivisions that eventually coalesced into separate cities. You read into its history the story of Los Angeles becoming itself.

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#105: Ard Eevin (Glendale)

#105: Ard Eevin (Glendale)

July 3, 2022
Architecture
This eclectic 1903 mansion was the home of Daniel Campbell, an Irishman who emigrated to CA with $50, made a fortune in the Klondike gold rush, brought his family out to LA and soon became one of Glendale’s early civic leaders during the city’s first major growth spurt.
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