When The "Street Artist" Got His Hands on the 1911 West Adams Mansion, Preservationists Despaired. But Then...

Gentle reader...

Kim's new project with our longtime collaborator Nathan Marsak is a series of short videos starring Nathan's alter-ego, The Cranky Preservationist.

This week, for episode #9, we visited a handsome 1911 West Adams mansion that has seen much better days. Two years ago, "street artist" Hanksy wrecked the interior with a garish all-over paint job, and on a recent Weird West Adams tour, we were horrified to see that the "art" was spreading.

But when you care about old buildings, not every surprise is an unhappy one. And as you'll discover if you watch The Cranky Preservationist in Street Art Doesn’t Belong On Houses Blues, all is not as it seems up on Sugar Hill. (See it on Facebook or YouTube.)

Have you heard our newest podcast episode, Once Upon A Time in French-Speaking Los Angeles & Early Days of Angels Flight on Old Bunker Hill?

We still have room for you on Saturday's tour of Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice, taking us deep into the beauty and terror of the heart of Downtown. Next Saturday's special event tour on The 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times looks like it will sell out. Join us, do!

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RECENTLY TOURED

At Forest Lawn on the Birth of Noir tour, where Duck Baby and Frog Baby can't wait for their pond to be refilled.

LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 11/5

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 November 5, 2017, join us for From the SLA to DNA, an afternoon of insights into historic investigations and new crime science. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. Sold out with waiting list. Click here for more info.

RECOMMENDED READING

What's just the right size to slip inside your pocket or into a copy of The Long Goodbye and packed with tidbits of lost Los Angeles lore delivered in the loveliest of packages? Why, it's the art deco Raymond Chandler Map, designed by acclaimed illustrator Paul Rogers with text by our own Kim Cooper and available from Amazon, or directly from us by mail and on tour days. You'll find it's just the ticket for armchair tourists, or to get in the mood for our next Raymond Chandler tour on October 21.

COMING SOON

HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 9/16... 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: 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.)

THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON & BROADWAY ON MY MIND WALKING TOUR - SUN. 9/24... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market with a walk to follow. September's Salon: Lost French Los Angeles with C.C. de Vere. (Free, reservation required.)

HOLLYWOOD! - SAT. 9/30... This tour reveals the unwritten history of the sleepy suburb that birthed the American dream factory, a neighborhood packed with fascinating lore and architectural marvels. You won’t see the stars’ homes or hear about their latest real estate deals, but we’ll show you where some colorful characters breathed their last, got into trouble that defined the rest of their lives and came up with ideas that the world is still talking about. So for unforgettable stories you won’t hear on anyone else’s Hollywood tour, climb aboard and tour noir landmark Cross Roads of the World (Robert V. Derrah, 1936) and much more. (Buy tickets here.)

THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 10/7... 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.)

ECHO PARK BOOK OF THE DEAD - SAT. 10/14... On a crime bus tour honoring the lost souls who wander the hills and byways of the "streetcar suburbs" that hug Sunset Boulevard, see seemingly ordinary houses revealed as the scenes of chilling crimes and mysteries, populated by some of the most fascinating people you'd never want to meet. Featuring the Hillside Strangler, the Bat Man's Love Nest and a visit to Sister Aimee Semple McPherson's exquisite Parsonage, now a museum. (Buy tickets here.)

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 10/21... 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.)

NEW! WILSHIRE BOULEVARD DEATH TRIP - SAT. 10/28... Wilshire Boulevard is an iconic Los Angeles thoroughfare—from its prehistoric origins as a path forged by extinct megafauna to the spectacular Art Deco monuments of the Miracle Mile. It’s also ground zero for some deeply strange, only-in-Los Angeles crimes and oddities that played out against the backdrop of the boulevard. The deceptively simple route contains a multitude of mysteries, from cruel plots, divine inspiration, historic preservation, love gone sour, lucky breaks and weird tales, Wilshire Boulevard Death Trip, a dark day’s out among the city’s most glittering architectural gems. (Buy tickets here.)

THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON & BROADWAY ON MY MIND WALKING TOUR - SUN. 10/29... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market with a walk to follow. October's Salon: Mid-Century Art and Architecture of the Civic Center, with Clare Haggarty, the Deputy Director of Collections for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and special guests to be announced. (Free, reservation required.)

FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR AT CAL STATE LOS ANGELES - SUN. 11/5... Professor Donald Johnson hosts "From the SLA to DNA," a program on vintage and cutting edge crime investigations. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (Buy tickets here.)

Additional upcoming tours: Weird West Adams (11/4), Eastside Babylon (11/11), Charles Bukowski's L.A. (11/18), Special Event: In Search of Imperial California / Richard’s Birthday Bus (11/25)

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

In Episode #121: Once Upon A Time in French-Speaking Los Angeles & Early Days of Angels Flight on Old Bunker Hill, historian C.C. de Vere previews her free LAVA Sunday Salon and Nathan Marsak talks funicular. Plus Neutra trouble, landmark filings, fantasy houses, & more. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Another fine 1920s commercial building noted by SurveyLA falls for no reason at all. RIP, 838-844 South La Brea.

Preservationists and Cultural Heritage Commission express concerns about proposed Crossroads of the World mega-project.

A ride on the restored Angels Flight, where time slows just enough that you notice where you are. "From now on, no visit to LA will be complete without a ride.”

Boyle Heights historian Shmuel Gonzalez was assaulted, then arrested at Laguna Beach fascist rally. He would appreciate support at his arraignment on 9/18.

First renderings of the adaptive reuse project at Santa Monica’s gorgeous 1947 Sears store strip much of its moderne charm away.

A nearly lost archive of Japanese-American L.A. photography is in good hands at CSU Dominguez Hills.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric