Etan Does LA

#178: Hollywood Forever Cemetery (Hollywood)

October 31, 2023

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.

#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.

#176: Wilton Historic District (Hancock Park)

October 16, 2023

Architecture

Wilton Historic District comprises 63 well-maintained homes, mostly craftsman & colonial revival, built between 1907 and 1925. The neighborhood's unique, due to the weird-ass layout of the streets and unorthodox siting of many of the homes, and how magnificently it's held up over the past century.

#175: Saddlerock Ranch Pictograph Site (Malibu)

October 9, 2023

Art & Literature

The pictographs at Saddlerock Ranch are the earliest known indigenous documentation of the arrival of the Europeans in the LA area. They are believed to represent an encounter between the Chumash tribe and Gaspar de Portolá's exploration party in 1769-1770.

#174: Lasky-Demille Barn (Hollywood)

October 5, 2023

Entertainment

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.

#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.

#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.

Listen to My Interview with Ryan Seacrest on KIIS FM

September 11, 2023

Press

On 7:20am on Monday, September 11, 2023, KIIS FM listeners driving into work heard Ryan Seacrest interview some random dude with a weird name about three LA landmarks that everyone needs to see. SPOILER ALERT: I was that random dude with a weird name.

#171: Richard Neutra’s Jardinette Apartments (East Hollywood)

September 8, 2023

Architecture

Though they're looking pretty ragged today, the Jardinette Apartments from 1928 marked the first solo commission for Austrian-American modern architect Richard Neutra, and one of the very earliest American works in the influential "international style."

#170: San Pedro Municipal Ferry Building (San Pedro)

August 31, 2023

Architecture

From 1942-1963, this quirky streamline moderne building was the departure point for workers and sailors heading to Terminal Island's shipyards, canneries and Naval bases. It now houses the largest maritime museum on the west coast.

#169: Tuna Club of Avalon (Catalina)

August 24, 2023

Recreation

The Tuna Club of Avalon is an organization of anglers, founded in 1898 and still going strong today, that has had an outsize impact on big game fishing as a sport. And since 1916 they’ve done all their fishy business in this Catalina clubhouse.

#168: Samuel Merrill House (Greene & Greene – Pasadena)

August 16, 2023

Architecture

The one-story Samuel Merrill House in Pasadena is one of the coziest homes by Greene & Greene, undisputed masters of craftsman architecture. The client was a rancher-turned-law-clerk-turned-conservationist who knew John Muir from his days in Indianapolis.

#167: Golden Gate Theater (East LA)

August 11, 2023

Architecture

The Golden Gate Theater has had a hell of a life. For 65 years, this grand movie palace entertained East LA. But after the Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987 forced the demolition of the buildings that surrounded it since 1927, the Golden Gate was left unused for a quarter century, awaiting an uncertain fate. A fierce preservation battle ensued, which ultimately led to its restoration and reuse as a CVS. The story of this place is almost as wild as its Churrigueresque architecture.

#166: Miller & Herriott House (University Park)

August 3, 2023

Architecture

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.

#165: US Post Office – Hollywood Station (Hollywood)

July 30, 2023

City Planning

Hollywood Station was the modern post office that Tinseltown always deserved. Built in 1937 and designed by starchitects Claud Beelman, Allison & Allison, it's an archetypal example of the "starved classical" style that typified 1930s New Deal building design.