Gentle reader,

Greetings from your friendly historic Los Angeles sightseeing tour company, now offering digital programming until we can again organize groups to gather and explore the city we love.

‘Tis the season for matters of the spirit, and that’s why we’ve spent the past weeks deep in L.A. preservation advocacy with a faith focus. It’s only today we can come up for air and let you know all that’s been happening!

Richard enjoys a tasty jelly donut after helping to set up the heavy Hanukkah menorah outside the Breed Street Shul

First, Richard was struck by a vibrant vision of the Jewish festival of lights Hanukkah being celebrated at the Breed Street Shul in Boyle Heights. Then our preservation pal David Silvas from the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council graciously agreed to take the lead on bringing his vision to life, working with the city, the non-profit that owns the historic temple and is transforming it into a community center, local rabbis, musicians and bakeries. And with very little time and a lot of hard work, it all came together into a first-ever festive Hanukkah party in the shadow of a beloved landmark.

Guests in holiday garb include the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles (right)

And when the band started to play their lilting mix of Klezmer and Mariachi music, we stopped racing around for a beat and were so happy to see some of you adorable people there! If you missed it, or want to hear the sounds of the Ellis Island band again, the livestream is here. And David has a mailing list for future events.

But even as the last Hannukah song was echoing down Breed Street, a crisis was brewing in the Hollywood Hills. We were approached months ago by good friends of the cloistered Dominican nuns who live at The Monastery of the Angels with whispered worries that after being hard hit by the pandemic, the nearly 100-year-old community was about to be shuttered and the surviving, aging nuns shipped off to other states or nursing homes.

These friends knew of our involvement in historic preservation battles—and certainly, the 1947 campus by master architect Wallace Neff is worthy of preservation. But they also hoped we might have ideas about keeping the monastery in Hollywood and the nuns together. Could we help? As trained medievalists who care about community, Hollywood history and vulnerable old people, how could we not at least try?

So we’ve been talking with experts and advocates, learning the governing structure of Catholic religious orders, how Canon Law dictates the fate of the people and the property under its control, that recent U.S. Federal law prohibits landmarking places owned by religious groups, and the difference between the Supression (closure) of a monastery and any subsequent sale of its real property.

Thanks to the friends of the Dominican sisters, a petition is circulating demonstrating support for them remaining in Hollywood. We signed, and hope you will, too.

Although we’re not Catholic, we’re sweet on the monastery. Years ago, we brought a tour group to hear the nuns sing in the chapel, and to shop for their famous pumpkin bread and other delights.

Esotouric guests at Monastery of the Angels on author Erik Davis’ Visionary Hollywood tour in 2008

We’re fascinated by the wide variety of old religious sites dotting Beachwood Canyon, from the Hindu ashram Vedanta to the Theosophical commune Krotona, from Monastery of the Angels to the Protection of the Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church. Together, they reflect back some of the luminous light of possibility that drew seekers to Hollywood when it was just a sleepy country village on the edge of the city.

These seekers looked forward and backward: at Krotona they developed vegetarian recipes and studied Esperanto dreaming that a single world language could bring world peace; at the Monastery, modern American women chose a medieval lifestyle behind iron grates. Although the Krotonan Theosophists soon moved on to Ojai, they left esoteric apartments behind. The nuns, however, stayed put in Hollywood and held fast to their ancient traditions.

Today in the Los Angeles Times, spirituality reporter Deborah Netburn has a wonderful story (archive link) that describes the monastery’s possible closure, some of the people who are advocating for it, and what could happen next. We’re grateful that the worried whispers have reached the press, and that we were able to suggest a solution based on what we’ve learned:

After meeting with canonical law experts Thursday, Schave and Cooper said there may not be much the community can do to keep the remaining Dominican nuns from leaving the monastery. However, they do see a path forward. “It is our sincere hope that Archbishop Gómez can be empowered to invite another contemplative community to make a home at the Monastery of the Angels, so that there can continue to be a spiritual Catholic presence in the Hollywood Hills,” Schave said.

Although the Dominican leadership told the Times that the decision had already been made, we understand they have yet to hold a final vote on shutting down the monastery, but that it will happen very soon. This decision will be made now not in darkness and obscurity, but with the awareness that the whole world is watching. A little sunlight can never hurt. And neither can a prayer or two. We’ll let you know what happens.

Anthony family scrapbook, Huntington Library

Parenthetically, since we began advocating for the nuns at Monastery of the Angels, several people have mentioned the nuns displaced from Earle C. Anthony's house in Los Feliz. Contrary to popular belief, Katy Perry did not buy their convent.

If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you know that City Hall regularly breaks the law to shut the public out. Unlike the Dominicans, elected Los Angeles officials answer to us and are supposed to make their decisions openly and fairly. This doesn’t always happen, especially when it concerns a landmark occupying valuable real estate, and a developer eager to fire up the bulldozer.

One might think that with a Federal racketeering trial pending for their erstwhile colleague Jose Huizar, City Council would be on its best behavior. Nope!

At least three times this year, City Council has rejected landmarks while blatantly and illegally excluding supporters from making public comment. So two preservation non-profits have asked the courts to step in and make the city abide by the Brown Act—Silver Lake Heritage Trust (Taix French Restaurant, Stires Staircase Bungalow Court) and the Los Angeles Conservancy (Chili Bowl).

The city really doesn’t want a judge to weigh in, so it has scheduled a very important hearing on Tuesday, December 7 at 2pm. Here’s the agenda.

At this hearing the PLUM Committee will hold do-over votes on landmarking the giant Chili Bowl (agenda items 13-14) and Taix (agenda items 15-16). Our Friends of the Chili Bowl petition has instructions for making public comment in writing, and we’d be grateful if you take a moment to do so. It’s an incredibly cool and useful building that if landmarked could be easily picked up and moved somewhere safe, rather than demolished.

The Chili Bowl is simple: either it’s made a landmark, or it’s not. Taix is much more complicated, because councilman Mitch O’Farrell sabotaged and hijacked the nomination, instead of rejecting it. His corrupt act, which builds on what Jose Huizar did to our L.A. Times HQ nomination, sets a disturbing precedent and must be reversed.

Friends of Taix explains the weird situation, with talking points if you’d like to make written public comment here. Anyone who cares about historic buildings and removing corruption from local government should pay close attention to what’s happening next week in City Hall.

Although not up for a revote on Tuesday, The Stires Staircase Bungalow Court is a redevelopment horror story. These ten homes strung along a stair should have been landmarked, but real estate has corrupted Los Angeles City Hall. We recently found it boarded up but still decorated for Hallowe'en with icons of dead Angelenos displaced for profit.

Next Sunday, December 12 at 4pm, we’re delighted to present a program with historian Colleen Adair Fliedner, based on her remarkable and hard-to-find book Rancho Centennial: Ranchos Los Amigos Medical Center, 1888-1988. Joining us will be historian Paul Rood to talk about life on Skid Row in the late 19th century and the kind of people and problems that Rancho Los Amigos was created to serve.

As the hour of scheduled demolition approaches for these beautiful and still useful buildings, the ancient trees and the timeless vistas, we invite you to get to Know Your Los Angeles County Poor Farm / Rancho Los Amigos (1888-?), and to explore ideas for saving some of the historic campus. It’s still not too late!

yours for Los Angeles,

Kim & Richard

Esotouric

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CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS

Corruption Corner: There are new Jose Huizar RICO filings and they're not pretty at all. We did a read through and noted the ugliest nuggets…. A vintage Huizar sound byte that cracked us up… It's not often Mayor Garcetti shows his face on Skid Row, but his policies harm the residents every day. When he came down for a Thanksgiving photo op, the locals made their thoughts known… Good citizenship can be obnoxious—and that's okay. Katherine Tattersfield is irked she didn't know John Lee was implicated in accepting bribes with his boss Mitch Englander when Lee ran for the CD12 council seat. So she's made it her business to show up at Lee's photo ops and ask him about his criminal activity. Her group is calling for Lee’s removal from PLUM, and we agree… Obsessive, transactional, vindictive: on the latest episode of The Sellout podcast, Francine Godoy says no to boss Jose Huizar's sexual demands and he goes terrifyingly off the rails…. Did you know that the Dream in Hollywood illegally removed two floors of required guest parking—and the city let them? Unite Here and Citizens for a Better LA call out the corruption, demand the hotel's permits are pulled.

The scourge of Reno, Jeffrey Jacobs demolishes cool old buildings and turns poor people out onto the street. Their City Hall thinks he's just swell.

All the UC Berkeley detective fiction curator wants for Christmas is a 1st edition of Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Velvet Claws.

La Vida Liquor was a Hollywood legacy business, serving Sunset Boulevard from 1938 to January 2020, when they were forced to close due to years old redevelopment plans which haven’t happened yet. Call the original number, HO-4-5035, but don't hold your breath.

We gasped to see this ghost sign! Zellman's clothing store (archive link) closed in 1999 after serving the Boyle Heights community for 78 years, but their name is still (mostly) there on the back of 2306 Cesar Chavez, ahem, Brooklyn Avenue! (Vintage photo is from LAPL c. 1935.)

LACMA trustee Bobby Kotick actively covered up sexual assault at Activision Blizzard. With amoral "leaders" like him making decisions, it any wonder the museum has gone off the rails? We hope to Save, and change, LACMA.

A visit to the Huntington is also an opportunity to window shop for your own garden and to see a very big tree. Peace & Harmony is Tom Carruth's newest hybrid rose, available bareroot in the new year.

RIP to the Denny's at Sunset and Van Ness, established 1976, and notable for its full bar and excellent Bloody Mary, a perfect pick me up after a night of clubbing. Like so many cozy places that matter to Angelenos, it's rubble now.

A San Pedro original since the 1940s, Walker's Cafe (previously Cuddles Tavern) is now shuttered with its future unclear. We’re helping the local advocates with this cause, and hope you’ll sign the petition to landmark and reactivate this community treasure!

Redevelopment threatens the A-1 Trailer Park, where Black Dahlia murder suspect Leslie Dillon tried to erase his info in the guest register. Where will the residents go?

Seeing Julie Green's Last Supper installation at AMOCA just before the world shut down left us speechless: she painted and fired ceramic images of the meals of those executed, so intimate and humane. After 1000 plates, Green's work is done.

In our noir pal Duane Swierczynski's newsletter, he finds the cute Hollywood pad where David Goodis was a very odd house guest.

There's one Japanese-American farm remaining on the Palos Verdes Peninsula but the lease is up. We think RPV needs to do right by Mr. Martinez and keep James Hatano's farm alive. If the city hadn’t been unwilling to make an unpopular decision, Martinez would have had the opportunity to seek other paths, and might own his own farm by now.

If you dig John Bengtson's books that sleuth silent film locations from hints in surviving L.A. architecture, you'll want to bookmark his new YouTube channel for short then and now time travel trips. We did a webinar with him, too.

There was a deadly tree collapse in Encino Sunday night. Comparing that tree to others on the block in historic Google streetview images, it looks like it got sick sometime between 2015-18. So many big trees have been falling in Los Angeles, but there’s no organized system for tracking their health and removing dead ones.

Here's one pandemic restaurant closure we're not sad to see: the Subway which polluted the Bradbury Building's 19th century charms with its mystery baking stench is gone, and the space is for lease. Will it be an oyster bar, a soda fountain, or...?

Due to the ongoing pandemic, this year's Los Angeles County Burial of the Unclaimed Dead ceremony was closed to the public, but was accessible via livestream.

Have you missed the replica of David on your visits to Forest Lawn? He's back... and he's green now!

Just demolished in Los Feliz. the Kuromi-Ito Residence, which is not just a Japanese-American landmark that was denied by the Cultural Heritage Commission, but site of artesian springs that are being harmed by this demolition. The street out front is soaking wet all day long!

The Beverly Press checks in on the unpermitted alterations to Hollywood historic contributor Pig 'n Whistle and its stalled transformation into a tacky Mr. Tempo cantina. See our blog post, too.

News from Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles

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