Saving The L.A. Times Buildings, Part 2: Here's How YOU Can Help!

Gentle reader...

It's that time again, lovers of L.A. architecture and newspaper history: on September 20, we're heading back to the Cultural Heritage Commission for the second and final hearing on declaring the Los Angeles Times compound a landmark.

Larchmont Chronicle preservation columnist Christy McAvoy says: "If there ever was a site to preserve intact, this is one." We agree!

Please help ensure that these iconic Downtown buildings are treated with respect when they are redeveloped for new uses. You emailed message (by 9/17) or in-person comments (at City Hall on 9/20) are urgently needed. Click here to learn more about the campaign, and how you can join us and be part of preserving the city’s rich, complicated and evolving history. And please: pass it on!

Are you interested in Richard's 50th Birthday Bus Adventure in association with The Huntington? You aren't alone: this special event is filling up fast. To ensure your spot on and off the bus reserve soon.

We're back on the bus on Saturday with the Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice tour, a deep dive into dark crimes and gorgeous time capsule architecture. Join us, do!

SUPPORT OUR WORK

If you enjoy all we do to celebrate and preserve Los Angeles history and would like to say thank you, please consider putting a little something into our digital tip jar. You can also click here before shopping on Amazon. Your contributions are never obligatory, but always appreciated.

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.

RECOMMENDED READING

Happy publication day to crime fiction historian and ace researcher Sarah Weinman. The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World reveals Vladimir Nabokov's hidden-in-plain-sight true crime obsession and the tough, tragic kid who survived just long enough to be a double heartbreak. Some crimes vibrate with the intensity of mythology. To make art out of them is a delicate act of showmanship well worth dissecting.

COMING SOON

HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 9/15... 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: CURSE OF THE SHE-DEVIL: A TRUE STORY OF REVENGE, BETRAYAL, BOMBS AND REAL ESTATE IN 1919 LOS ANGELES - SAT. 9/22... In this sequel to his popular tour about the 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times, arson and bomb detective Mike Digby takes us on a scrupulously researched journey through early Los Angeles, exposing a brazen conspiracy to kill, maim or terrorize anyone who stood in the way of a beautiful young woman inheriting the fortune of her estranged husband. While following the forensic leads of the unfolding case on a route rich in time capsule crime scenes, Mike will compare and contrast the historical investigation to the modern crime analysis methods he has used in his law enforcement career. And every passenger gets a copy of Mike's new book about the case. Plus: a visit to the Villa Guasti / Busby Berkeley Mansion. (Buy tickets here.)

CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S L.A. - SAT. 10/6... 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. (Buy tickets here.)
ECHO PARK BOOK OF THE DEAD - SAT. 10/13... 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. 10/20... 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.)

Additional upcoming tours: The Real Black Dahlia (10/27), Special Event: Elmore Leonard in Hollywood (11/10) and Special Event: Richard's 50th Birthday Bus Adventure (11/24).

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

Episode #130: A fun side effect of our efforts to landmark the L.A. Times is getting to know folks who were part of L.A. newspaper history. Meet two in the latest episode: Once Upon A Time At Times Mirror Square with Harry Chandler & LAT historian Carolyn Strickler. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Video Vault: Holy Hollywood Regency! Mrs. Purple Jumpsuit leads us on a tour of her brand new home in Trousdale Estates, 1961.

Thanks to the efforts of community preservationists, one of the coolest streamline moderne residences ever built in L.A. might survive to see its centennial.

As demolition begins, our Richard Schave goes on Take Two to talk about what made Welton Becket’s 1955 Parker Center such a progressive LAPD HQ. (interview starts at 40:00). See also this LAist story.

The CHC determines which buildings merit preservation designation. City Council’s PLUM Committee makes land use decisions. So why did PLUM play judge, jury & executioner for four recognized landmarks?

Video Vault: Catching up on last Summer’s LAVA Sunday Salons, here’s Cranky Preservationist Nathan Marsak on his favorite lost Art Deco landmark, the black and gold Richfield Building. (Plus a short subject on a happy surprise in West Adams.)

As the half empty Skid Row Baltimore Hotel is reactivated, discover a site packed with weird history and at least one iguana.

The short documentary about our L.A. history tours and preservation activism received the Special Jury Prize at the Sidewalk Film Festival!

Those of us who have been boycotting the L.A. Weekly suspected, but this lawsuit reveals a whole lot of sleaze.

The spirits of old Chinatown are smiling: the Golden Pagoda is coming back to life!

Troubling rumblings Langer's Deli may not be around much longer, despite the owner’s attempt at positive spin.

Why is a great chain like OSH shutting down? Venture capitalists need a cash infusion, so bye bye to 99 stores, 4300 jobs and 87 years of California history.

Requiem for an L.A. bookman.

For 162 years, St. Vincent's Hospital has cared for L.A.'s neediest patients. A speculative tech hustle by the Los Angeles Times' new owner might end that.

A little bit of Lucky Baldwin's boozy ranch history is revealed by eager Santa Rose bottle collectors.

The trouble with one-size-fits-all density policies: historic rent controlled multi-family housing is getting demolished.

The Jergins Tunnel lives!

The Cultural Heritage Commission has strong feelings about the loss of the landmarked Sportsmen’s Lodge landscape, won't sign off on the usual drought tolerant hardscape.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric