Etan Does LA

#269: House at 1141 North Chester Avenue (Pasadena)

October 18, 2025

Built in 1914, the modest house at 1141 North Chester Avenue has all the wood, rock and wraparound porches you'd expect from a classic Pasadena craftsman. It's a great example of an "airplane bungalow" – a craftsman with a smaller second story.

#268: Palomares Adobe (Pomona)

October 8, 2025

Pioneers & Settlers

The Palomares Adobe was home to the first non-indigenous family to settle in the Pomona Valley. In the 1850s the Adobe was the seat of a successful cattle-ranching business run by Don Ygnacio Palomares. It served as a general store, a place of rest for weary travelers, and an occasional Roman Catholic chapel. Today you can visit the fully-restored Adobe for a window into the long-gone rancho era.

#267: Padua Hills Theatre (Claremont)

September 28, 2025

Entertainment

For over 40 years, the Padua Hills Theatre was a unique space where Mexican folklore was shared, by Mexican performers, with a largely white audience. It played an important role in Claremont’s development as a center for arts & culture, and its story offers a window into the complicated race relations of Los Angeles in the 1930s.

#265: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Exposition Park)

August 28, 2025

Architecture

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)

August 15, 2025

Architecture

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)

August 6, 2025

Asians

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)

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)

July 3, 2025

Architecture

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)

June 24, 2025

Architecture

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)

June 10, 2025

Architecture

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)

June 2, 2025

Architecture

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)

May 20, 2025

Architecture

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)

May 13, 2025

Architecture

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)

April 21, 2025

Architecture

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)

April 10, 2025

Architecture

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.