With the Cultural Heritage Commission still understaffed, the bell tolls for another doomed Los Angeles landmark
Gentle reader...
This is the cool and quirky 1938 Lee Residence in the Hermon neighborhood of Northeast L.A.. Enjoy it while you can: it will soon be demolished by a developer because the Cultural Heritage Commission is still missing its fifth commissioner.
Last week, despite a strong application by the Highland Park Heritage Trust (PDF link), and two yes votes from commissioners, a single "no" vote from the unbalanced commission defaulted to no chance for protection for this unofficial community landmark.
We warned last month, when William Pereira's 1963 Metropolitan Water District campus was refused protection due to another voting technicality, that all historic Los Angeles buildings are at risk as long as the CHC lacks a full board. This is the second meeting in a row where two commissioners (50% of the board) were in favor of landmark consideration for something threatened by development, and the voting rules voided their opinions.
If you care about historic preservation in L.A., we hope you will join 400 other concerned citizens and sign our petition urging Mayor Garcetti to name a fifth commissioner, before we lose any more significant buildings to technicalities. And please, pass it on!
We're back on the bus this Saturday with a sold out Real Black Dahlia tour (it repeats on January 7). On Sunday, join us for a free LAVA Sunday Salon and walking tour on the endangered architecture of the Los Angeles Times compound. Join us, do!
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RECENTLY TOURED
Happy 99th birthday, Grand Central Market. We went up on the Bradbury Building roof to see how big you've grown!
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 12/11 & 1/22
Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State Los Angeles under the direction of Professor Donald Johnson to explore the history and future of American forensic science. On December 11, 2016 join us for The Spider-Man Bandit & The Artificial Human Head: Breakthroughs in Crime Scene Investigation. Track a fearless cat burglar/killer through the decades, as his 1970s-era crimes are exposed when the cold case unit tests old DNA. Then learn about new research in blunt force injury, with a chance to perform a hands-on assault on a head built for breaking. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. For more info, click here. Then on January 22, 2017, arson detective Ed Nordskog shares his most fascinating recent case, The Hollywood Fire Devil. Click here to reserve.
RECOMMENDED READING
New from death-focused cultural historian Colin Dickey comes this alternate history of America told through visits to some of its most iconic (allegedly) haunted places. By shining a light on popular mythology that thrives on rumor, darkness and obscurity, Dickey lets our nation's celebrity ghosts take their proper place as symbols of shared anxiety and desire. Did your favorite haunting make the cut? Pick up Ghostland this spooky season and find out.
COMING SOON
THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 10/29... Join us on this iconic, unsolved Los Angeles murder mystery tour, from the throbbing boulevards of a postwar Downtown to the quiet suburban avenue where horror came calling. After multiple revisions, this is less a true crime tour than a social history of 1940s Hollywood female culture, mass media and madness, and we welcome you to join us for the ride. This tour is now sold out, with a waiting list. (More info here.)
LAVA SUNDAY SALON / WALKING TOUR - SUN. 10/30... Our free (with RSVP) cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market. For the October Sunday Salon, it's a talk and a walking tour combined, as architect and historian Alan Hess & our Richard Schave shine a light on the closest Pereira in Peril structure, the architect's 1973 corporate headquarters for Times Mirror Square.
WEIRD WEST ADAMS - SAT. 11/5... On this guided tour through the Beverly Hills of the early 20th Century, Crime Bus passengers thrill as Jazz Age bootleggers run amok, marvel at the Krazy Kafitz family's litany of murder-suicides, attempted husband slayings, Byzantine estate battles and mad bombings, visit the shortest street in Los Angeles (15' long Powers Place, with its magnificent views of the mansions of Alvarado Terrace), discover which fabulous mansion was once transformed into a functioning whiskey factory using every room in the house, and stroll the haunted paths of Rosedale Cemetery, site of notable burials (May K. Rindge, the mother of Malibu) and odd graveside crimes. Featured players include the most famous dwarf in Hollywood, mass suicide ringleader Reverend Jim Jones, wacky millionaires who can't control their automobiles, human mole bank robbers, comically inept fumigators, kids trapped in tar pits, and dozens of other unusual and fascinating denizens of early Los Angeles. (Buy tickets here.)
EASTSIDE BABYLON - SAT. 11/12... Go East, young ghoul, to Boyle Heights, where the Night Stalker was captured and to Evergreen, L.A.'s oldest cemetery. To East L.A., where a deranged radio shop employee made mince meat of his boss and bride--and you can get your hair done in a building shaped like a giant tamale. To Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes will shock and surprise. To Montebello, for a horrifying case of child murder. That's Eastside Babylon, our most unhinged crime bus tour. (Buy tickets here.)
CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S L.A. - SAT. 11/19... Come explore Charles Bukowski's lost Los Angeles and the fascinating contradictions that make this great local writer such a hoot to explore. Haunts of a Dirty Old Man is a raucous day out celebrating liquor, ladies, pimps and poets. The tour includes a visit to Buk's DeLongpre bungalow, where you'll see the Cultural-Historic Monument sign that we helped to get approved, and a mid-tour provisions stop at Pink Elephant Liquor. New: souvenir Bukowski's L.A. booklet available. (Buy tickets here.)
SPECIAL EVENT: RICHARD'S BIRTHDAY BUS TOUR - SAT. 11/26...Join us for a full day exploring the the history, landscape and built environment of Long Beach and the South Bay. From Terminal Island to Art Deco landmarks, a giant coffee pot to hidden tiki icons, carnival cuties to delicious birthday cake, it's bound to be a blast. (Learn more about this one-time-only tour, or reserve your spot, here.)
Additional upcoming tours: Pasadena Confirdential (12/3), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (12/10), The Real Black Dahlia (1/7), Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles (1/14), The Birth of Noir (1/21), The Lowdown on Downtown (1/28), South L.A. Road Trip (2/5), Special Event: Two Days in South LA: The 1974 SLA Shootout (2/11), Boyle Heights & The San Gabriel Valley (2/18) and Weird West Adams (2/25).
OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST
Episode #115, Hollywood Book Culture & Downtown’s Chimney Swifts, we talk about the golden age of bookshops with film historian Bob Birchard, then visit the Ornithology section of the Natural History Museum for an insider's look at Vaux' swifts, tiny travelers who nest in landmarks. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!
AND FINALLY, LINKS
When historic preservation meets low income housing development, everybody wins.
It can’t hurt to squawk. Damage to celebrity signature walkway at former Movieland Wax Museum halted after an Esotouric fan raised the alert.
A rare anti-development policy statement from an L.A. city councilman raises slight hope for marvelously mod Lytton Savings, as the PLUM Committee approves a massive project on its iconic corner. You can help.
Recommended Listening: In the Dark, a fascinating and infuriating podcast about a deeply flawed investigation and a monster who got away with murder.
Vice Munchies digs our Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour.
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric