Etan Does LA

#173: Ralphs Grocery Store (Westwood)

September 28, 2023

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.

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

July 20, 2023

Architecture

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.

#163: John Lautner – Harvey House (Hollywood Hills)

July 16, 2023

Architecture

John Lautner's Harvey House from 1950 represented the first time that this idiosyncratic architect could carry out his unique ideas about spatial geometry and texture with a sizable budget. In the late 1990s it was purchased by Kelly Lynch & Mitch Glazer, and lovingly restored by several of Lautner's most trusted collaborators.

#162: Second Church of Christ, Scientist (University Park)

July 10, 2023

Architecture

This grand neoclassical edifice was designed by Alfred Rosenheim for the second Christian Science congregation in LA. Built in 1910, it was sold to the Art of Living Foundation in 2009.

#161: Wilshire Federal Building (Westwood)

July 4, 2023

Architecture

The 1969 Wilshire Federal Building is a 17-story, late modernist office tower that houses some of the unsexiest branches of the American government. Compositionally, it's a pretty spectacular work by Charles Luckman Associates. It's also been the site of numerous major protests staged here over its 50+ year history.

#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.