Etan Does LA - Page 2 of 16 - I'm visiting every Los Angeles landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.

#265: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Exposition Park)

#265: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Exposition Park)

August 28, 2025

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has witnessed countless milestones in international sports, politics and culture. It's the only stadium to have hosted the opening and closing ceremonies at two Olympics, with a third on its way in 2028. But the stories behind the building itself – its evolving architecture, the goals of its construction, its governance, its preservation – are every bit as important to its history as what’s happened inside it.

#264: Frank Thomas House (La Cañada Flintridge)

#264: Frank Thomas House (La Cañada Flintridge)

August 15, 2025

This gorgeous mid-century modern residence was once the home of Frank Thomas, one of Disney's elite group of animators called the "Nine Old Men." Thomas worked on key scenes in Snow White, Bambi, Pinocchio, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book and more. And when he was done with another day of making 2D drawings come alive, Thomas came home to this light and wood-filled nest, designed by architect Ted Criley.

#263: Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden (Pasadena)

#263: Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden (Pasadena)

August 6, 2025

Pasadena's Storrier Stearns is a masterwork of Japanese garden design. While it'd be easy to get swept away by the tranquility here, if you’re inclined to seek it out, you can also find a complex narrative embedded in the landscape at Storrier Stearns: the stories of its maker, its benefactors and stewards, and the confluence of forces that brought a 1500-year-old tradition to a private estate in Pasadena in the late 1930s.

#262: Claremont Depot (Claremont)

#262: Claremont Depot (Claremont)

July 13, 2025

Art & Literature

The Claremont Depot hosted the Santa Fe Railway's passenger & freight service for 40 years. After 25 years of vacancy, the depot was restored in 1992 and converted into a transit center and Metrolink stop. Today it's the home of the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art.

#261: National Bank of Whittier Building (Whittier)

#261: National Bank of Whittier Building (Whittier)

July 3, 2025

The National Bank of Whittier building (aka the Bank of America Building) is a handsome beaux arts office tower by the great father-son duo John & Donald Parkinson. It housed four important Whittier financial institutions, plus the first law office of future POTUS Richard Nixon!

#260: Oviatt Building (Downtown)

#260: Oviatt Building (Downtown)

June 24, 2025

The Oviatt Building was commissioned by James Oviatt, haberdasher to the stars. It once housed LA's finest luxury department store – and in his 12th floor penthouse, Oviatt had LA's first art deco residence.

#259: Frederick Mitchell Mooers House (Westlake)

#259: Frederick Mitchell Mooers House (Westlake)

June 10, 2025

Here's an exceptionally creative Queen Anne/Eastlake Victorian, built in 1894 and owned from 1898-1900 by a wealthy prospector who discovered a successful gold mine in the Mojave Desert.

#258: Higgins Building (Downtown)

#258: Higgins Building (Downtown)

June 2, 2025

The 1910 Higgins Building pioneered the use of reinforced concrete in LA. Its occupants over the years included famed attorney Clarence Darrow, the socialist leader Job Harriman, General Petroleum Co. and the LA County Bureau of Engineering.

#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.