A tagged and tattered war memorial shines like new in Elysian Park.
Gentle reader...
A century ago, Los Angeles sent her sons away to fight in the Great War. After the fighting was over and the bodies laid to rest, a great number of memorials were erected all around the town, so citizens might always remember.
Some of these, like Memorial Coliseum and Victory Boulevard, are such familiar landmarks that we forget the sacrifice they represent. Others, like a plaque dense with names on library or post office wall, are noticed only in passing.
And some have slipped entirely into obscurity, like Victory Memorial Grove.
A century after the war, with the mothers and sweethearts who tended it long passed, this living memorial, with its trees and seasonal flowers set around an inscribed stone, Victory Memorial Grove was just a scruffy patch of Elysian Park... and so it remained, until our friend Courtland Jindra took an interest.
Courtland is L.A.'s dedicated head of the World War One Centennial Commission, a volunteer body that has been marking the anniversary with pomp and preservation all across the nation. Yearning to create something permanent in the midst of ephemeral events, he researched the history of Victory Memorial Grove, obtained civic permission to restore it, and gathered a dedicated team to bring a once-treasured piece of the Los Angeles landscape back from the dead.
Tomorrow, at 11am, we will be at Victory Memorial Grove to remember the Angelenos who died in the Great War, and to thank all the passionate volunteers who helped bring Courtland's preservation vision to life. Perhaps we'll see you among the poppies?
We're back on the bus on Saturday with a nearly sold out Desert Visionaries tour of the Antelope Valley, just one of our special 10th Anniversary events. Next Saturday, it's Eastside Babylon, our most unhinged crime bus tour. Join us, do!
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RECENTLY TOURED
At the Siege of Fort Anthony event at Central Library, presenters spoke truth to power about historic preservation and eminent domain abuse. L-R: Nathan Marsak, Gordon Pattison, Richard Schave, Big John Maljevic, Elona Anthony and Chris Anthony.
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
Martin Turnbull isn't a native Angeleno, but his passion for our cultural history and built environment have earned him honorary status. The Red Scare-themed Tinseltown Confidential is #7 in his Garden of Allah novel series, tracking a trio of ambitious youngsters through the trenches of 20th century Hollywood success. Start at the beginning and get caught up on a time travel trip you might not want to end.
COMING SOON
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. (Two seats left, to reserve 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.)
CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S L.A. - SAT. 7/22... 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.)
RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 7/29... Follow in the young writer's footsteps near his downtown oil company offices to sites from The Lady in the Lake and The Little Sister, meet several real inspirations for the Philip Marlowe character and get the skinny on Chandler's secret comic operetta that we discovered in the Library of Congress nearly a century after it was written. Plus a stop at Scoops for noirish gelato creations and a visit to Larry Edmunds Bookshop. (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: 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
Dearden’s shuts its doors after 108 years. The “Downtown revival” has been tough for a lot of Downtowners.
More on the hidden Millard Sheets mosaic at the Marciano Art Foundation, subject of our recent preservationist’s eye blog post.
The hot nut racket.
Coastal accessibility policies can help preserve historic motels and cabins, too.
A striking block of late moderne storefronts, transformed into jazzy Slapsy Maxie’s in Gangster Squad, threatened with demolition.
A racy surprise discovered in a trove of railroad history papers at the Huntington. Charlie Hull was a dirty bird.
In search of lost Stockton with Fat City author Leonard Gardner. (With comments worth reading, even.)
You can’t keep a good landmark down: the Formosa Cafe now safely in the preservation-minded care of 1933 Group.
In these troubling times, a piece of daffy patriotic folk art leaves us feeling a little better about America.
At the landmark modernist Chase Knolls garden court apartments, residents file suit over civic neglect as ancient trees are felled.
Explore time capsule Laguna Beach while you still can: some historic buildings might look very different next year.
The City of L.A. sure bent over backwards to keep Skid Row from getting its own Neighborhood Council.
A rare Bancroft mile marker stands alongside a Pasadena fast food joint (there’s one by the Rives Mansion in Downey, too).
A video tour of that very weird, and very wonderful, monster-faced house in Beachwood Canyon.
Very sad. The end of the line for the promised revival of Tail o’ the Pup is a static museum display.
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric