How we discovered the Bradbury Building basement hoard of early Los Angeles architectural drawings and steered them into harbor
Gentle reader...
We love archives. The cool, climate-controlled air. The quiet. Unexpected discoveries. How nicely people dress and behave when they visit. The card catalogs and finding aids. And the time traveller's thrill of thinking about all the interesting brains that have consulted a document in the past, and will do so in the unknowable future. We love archives.
And when we got wind of a cache of late 19th century architectural drawings and blueprints that had been salvaged from the basement of the Bradbury Building 32 years ago, we shared our love of archives with the interesting brain that had found them. Our love must be convincing, because this week, as our 12th (linen) wedding anniversary present to Los Angeles, we delivered this incredible collection to its permanent home, the Huntington Library.
The whole story and some photos can be found on our blog. We hope you find it as thrilling and happy an ending as we did.
We're on the bus on Saturday with a (nearly sold out) Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour, a deep dive on the dark side of Crown City history, with a special section on "Strange Angel" Jack Parsons. Join us, do!
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RECOMMENDED READING
Out in two weeks, and already a best-seller, The Annotated Big Sleep reveals the real noir bones beneath the skin of Raymond Chandler's sly and seductive debut novel. Old Los Angeles was full of finks and nuts, and Chandler skewered them expertly. Our Kim Cooper joins a selection of L.A. writers reading favorite sections from the novel, followed by a discussion with the annotators, at Skylight Books in Los Feliz on July 17. And keeping it a very Philip Marlowe summer, our tour about Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles rolls again on July 28.
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 9/23
Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State L.A. to explore the history and future of American forensic science. On September 23, join us for an inquiry into the Southside Slayer cold case serial killer investigation. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research.
COMING SOON
PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL - SAT. 6/30... 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. 7/14... 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. 7/21... Sorry, this edition of the Buk bus has been cancelled. Stay tuned for future dates.
RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 7/28... 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.)
MANSONLAND - SAT. 8/4... Sorry, the debut excursion is sold with waiting list.
THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN - SAT. 8/18... This is not a tour about beautiful buildings—although beautiful buildings will be all around you. This is not a tour about brilliant architects--although we will gaze upon their works and marvel. The Lowdown on Downtown is a tour about urban redevelopment, public policy, protest, power and the police. It is a revealing history of how the New Downtown became an "overnight sensation" after decades of quiet work behind the scenes by public agencies and private developers. Come discover the real Los Angeles, the city even natives don't know. Features a visit to the Dutch Chocolate Shop, a tiled wonderland not open to the public. (Buy tickets here.)
Additional upcoming tours: Boyle Heights & Monterey Park (8/25), Curse of the She-Devil (9/22)
OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST
In Episode #127, Fighting For the Soul of Los Angeles: historic preservation battles in hyper-gentrifying Hollywood and one man asks "why are these private security guards shaking down street vendors and homeless people?" Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!
AND FINALLY, LINKS
This is neat: the massive Tiffany windows from the demolished First United Methodist Church in Downtown L.A. survive at Lake Merritt UMC in Oakland. Not so neat: for some reason, the church is encouraging the public to touch the priceless glass!
What does the future hold for Boyle Heights’ 123-year-old “Blue House”? The Eastsider asks good questions about the slow return of the lovely Tudor home we helped save through a viral social media campaign.
Mysterious decision by the board of directors to shutter the Pasadena Museum of California has recent Executive Director fuming. (Mystery solved: the board wasn’t raising money.)
What is London without her bells? Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, a captivating time line of lost things dredged from the canal silt.
Ron Burkle asks $23 Million for Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House. We hope the next owner honors the preservation easement requiring 12 days of public access each year. Every interested Angeleno should be able to visit!
Ricardo Lara's progressive street vending bill SB 946 is moving ahead in Sacramento, opposed only by one of the loonier members of the California Assembly, Randy Voepel.
Can this charming Atwater Village ghost sign be saved?
Super sleazy: developer Jason Illoulian (Faring) has co-opted the name of the community preservationists that fought for the Factory in West Hollywood. "Save the Factory," brought to you by the guy who is partially demolishing the landmark.
Here's one Pereira in Peril--no more! Cheers to our pal Alan Hess, who wrote the LA Conservancy's successful landmarking nomination for CBS Television City, and to CBS for coming to the table to craft a preservation solution for the future of its historic broadcast production campus.
Blessed are the architectural salvagers, who took bits of Detroit's abandoned Michigan Central Station away over the decades, and are giving them back to be included in Ford's restoration. “Thank you for believing in Detroit.”
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric