A preservationist's eye view of the new Marciano Art Foundation in the old Scottish Rite Temple on Wilshire

Gentle reader...

Yesterday, at long last, we got into one of the L.A. landmarks that has always eluded us: the 1961 Scottish Rite Temple on Wilshire Boulevard.

As you may have heard, this decommissioned fraternal lodge has been converted into a private art museum, the Marciano Art Foundation. We went in knowing that much of architect/designer Millard Sheets' work had been removed, yet determined to seek out all the hints of his mid-century vision that survive.

Won't you come along on an illustrated scavenger hunt, in search of the story of an important building and how it's been erased?

We're back on the bus on Saturday with the once-a-year musical tour of Tom Waits' Los Angeles, from Skid Row's boozy dives to the Hollywood studio where he met his one true love and was transformed. The tour is nearly full, but we can still squeeze you in. And on Thursday, it's the free Siege of Fort Anthony program at Central Library. Join us, do!

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RECENTLY TOURED

Keyhole door at Casa Romantica, the showplace of old, Spanish San Clemente.

LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 8/13

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 August 13, 2017, join us for Bombs & Decomp, an afternoon of insights into historic investigations and how a body changes after death. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. Click here for more info, or to reserve your seat.

RECOMMENDED READING

To fully understand the Scottish Rite Temple's place in Los Angeles, you need to catch up on your Wilshire Boulvard lore, and there are no better native guides than L.A. observer Kevin Roderick and neon-ologist J. Eric Lynxwiler and their Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles.

COMING SOON

SPECIAL EVENT: CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA: TOM WAITS' L.A. - SAT. 6/3... In our very occasional guest tour series, a delightful excursion that only comes around once a year, the Tom Waits bus adventure hosted by acclaimed rock critic David Smay (co-editor with our Kim Cooper of Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, author of Swordfishtrombones). This voyage through the city that shaped one of our most eclectic musical visionaries starts in Skid Row and rolls through Hollywood and Echo Park, spotlighting the sites where Waits was transformed through the redemptive powers of love and other lures: the Tropicana Motel, Francis Coppola's Zoetrope Studios, the raunchy Ivar Theatre and so much more. Join us for a great day out in 1970s Los Angeles celebrating the music, the culture and the passions of Tom Waits. (Buy tickets here.)

SIEGE AT FORT ANTHONY - THURS. 6/8... Join us at Central Library for a program illuminating the greatest eminent domain battle in Hollywood history, when one idealistic ex-Marine took an incredible stand against the motion picture industry and Board of Supervisors, protecting his storybook hillside home and neighborhood from being leveled to build a motion picture museum with gun in hand. Don't miss this a once-in-a-lifetime event, years in the works. (Free, with RSVP.)

HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 6/10... Through the 1940s, downtown was the true city center, a lively, densely populated, exciting and sometimes dangerous place. But while many of the historic buildings remain, their human context has been lost. This downtown double feature tour is meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures of the historic core, and is especially recommended for downtown residents curious about their neighborhood's neglected history. (Buy tickets here.)

SPECIAL EVENT: DESERT VISIONARIES: LLAN0 DEL RIO, ANTELOPE VALLEY INDIAN MUSEUM & ALDOUS HUXLEY'S PEARBLOSSOM RANCH - SAT. 6/17... Just one of the the unique events marking our tenth anniversary as a tour company, this day-long excursion celebrates the dreamers who have reinvented themselves against the particular landscape of the high desert through visits to places where their dreams crossed over into waking life. Featuring folk art, utopian colonies and literary retreats, it's sure to be a delightful day's adventuring. (For more info, or to reserve your seat, click here.)

EASTSIDE BABYLON - SAT. 6/24... 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 in the shadow of the world's biggest tamale. To Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes will shock and surprise. To Montebello, scene of a horrifying case of child murder. That's Eastside Babylon, our most unhinged crime bus tour. (Buy tickets here.)

THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON & BROADWAY ON MY MIND WALKING TOUR - SUN. 6/25... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market with a walk to follow. June's Salon: A visit to the Subway Terminal Station and Tunnel. Free, sold out with waiting list, reservation required.

PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL - SAT. 7/8... The Crown City masquerades as a calm and refined retreat, where well-bred ladies glide around their perfect bungalows and everyone knows what fork to use first. But don't be fooled by appearances. Dip into the confidential files of old Pasadena and meet assassins and oddballs, kidnappers and slashers, black magicians and all manner of maniac in a delightful little tour you won't find recommended by the better class of people. (Buy tickets here.)

THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 7/15... 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 usually sells out, so don't wait to reserve. (Buy tickets here.)

FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR AT CAL STATE LOS ANGELES - SUN. 8/13... Professor Donald Johnson hosts "Bombs & Decomp," featuring Mike Digby on historic bomb cases and Dr. Elizabeth Miller on decomposition of the human body. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (For more info, or to reserve your seat, click here.)

SPECIAL EVENT: THE 1910 BOMBING OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES WITH DETECTIVE MIKE DIGBY - Sat. 9/23... An all new bus adventure follows in the shadowy footstep of the labor activists who plotted the dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times Building, part of a nationwide plot that played out some of its most dramatic scenes in the heart of historic Los Angeles. Included in the ticket price is a copy of guest host Mike Digby's new book on the Southland's most fascinating bombers. (Buy tickets here.)

Additional upcoming tours: Charles Bukowski's L.A. (7/22), Raymond Chandler's L.A. (7/29), South L.A. Road Trip: Hot Rods, Adobes, Googie & Early Modernism (8/6), Weird West Adams (8/12), Boyle Heights & Monterey Park: The Hidden Histories of L.A.'s Melting Pot (8/26), The Birth of Noir (9/9), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (9/16), Hollywood! (9/30).

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

Back from hiatus! In Episode #119: Secrets of Llano del Rio and Utopian Los Angeles, we preview the June 17 Desert Visionaries tour with guest hosts Paul Greenstein & Karyl Newman, plus Lummis House, Lytton Savings and Sinatra Bungalow news. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Santa Barbara, before the red tile roofs. Incredible 1925 earthquake damage photos.

An art world outcry encourages billionaire think tank operator not to evict his Westlake fine art tenants.

Little Tokyo's historic Ninomiya Photography Studio negatives, rescued from the dump after being offered on Craigslist, will be preserved and cataloged. (Michael Risner, who saved the collection, spoke at a LAVA Sunday Salon in 2010.)

Vintage video of the Petersen Museum’s late, great Streetscape exhibit celebrating Southern California car culture.

More trouble for Downey’s lovely Rives Mansion, which can’t catch a break. Why the bank doesn’t take it is beyond us.

Wilshire Boulevard, a designated Scenic Highway, could lose its million dollar vistas if the City of Los Angeles and LACMA get their way.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Chicken Boy, Highland Park’s weirdest landmark.

Be careful when you study L.A. history: you might end up with a big project, and a new sweetheart, like Courtland Jindra did.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric