Gentle reader,
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while and thinking “one of these Saturdays, I ought to take an Esotouric tour,” why not this Saturday?
We still have some tickets available for the very popular Know Your Downtown L.A. walk, an outing that’s different from most of our culture and history tours, because we’ll be taking you inside several usually inaccessible landmarks.
If you are a fan of Arts & Crafts-era architecture and art tile, the quirky Dutch Chocolate Shop murals created by Ernest Batchelder and friends will beguile you.
Curious about how sleazy Prohibition-era kicks were kept hidden in subterranean tunnel systems in the shadow of City Hall? Then you’ll want to visit the basements of the King Edward and Barclay Hotel.
Want to hear about how communion with a dead brother inspired the design of the most beautiful Victorian office block in the west? Come with us to visit the Bradbury Building and explore its lore.
All of this, and more, will send you away with a renewed excitement about how L.A.’s past still feels alive the amazing buildings where it happened.
And since you’re coming Downtown, don’t miss out on a last opportunity to patronize Cole’s Pacific Electric Café before it closes on Sunday.
Operators Pouring with Heart have indicated that they are in discussions with potential new owners who could reopen the landmarked restaurant (est. 1908), but who and when and how are uncertain.
So if you want to visit Cole’s while you still can, make a plan! All weekend, the restaurant is partnering with L.A. chefs (and See’s Candy) to serve riffs on the iconic French Dip sandwich.
Last summer, when Cole’s first announced it had to close due to financial pressures—we’ve heard that landlord Essex Property Trust will not adjust rent downward to reflect the challenges faced by businesses in historic Skid Row—we put out a plea for them to sell rather than shutter.
It would be a pity if any business founded 118 years ago switched off the lights forever without giving somebody else the opportunity to keep its heritage alive.
Happily, the folks behind Cole’s agree and we’re hopeful about the new Cole’s.
Over in Echo Park, Taix French Restaurant (est. 1927) is also shuttering on Sunday, prior to demolition of its so-called “landmarked” building.
We’re skeptical of the promised revival of Taix in a tiny (and shrinking!) space in the proposed new tower, incensed by this assault on L.A.’s landmarking ordinance, perplexed by the mysterious #SaveTaix website that just went online years after this preservation battle was fought and lost, and sad there was no chance for an operator who understands 21st century neighborhood demographics to turn Taix into a thriving multi-use venue.
For all that, we do love the joint, and encourage Angelenos to stop in and soak up the mid-century Continental charm while they still can.
You can also scout some of the items that will be up for bid in the restaurant auction that closes on 4/7, including ceiling tiles, art and other relics. Le sigh…
You’ve already had your sleeve pulled to this week’s Know Your Downtown L.A. Next Saturday’s tour is Christine Sterling & Leo Politi: Angels of Los Angeles, a walk that celebrates a couple of poor dreamers who fell in love with the raggedy old section of the city and helped shine it up into a jewel we can all enjoy nearly a century later. The annual Blessing of the Animals ceremony happens that afternoon, which means you’ll get to meet some of the sweet critters waiting to be blessed as they hang out on the Plaza. This is an especially magical day in old Los Angeles and we hope you’ll join us, do!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles’ past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city’s soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• Know Your Downtown L.A.: Bradbury Building, Basements of Yore & the Dutch Chocolate Shop (3/28) • Christine Sterling & Leo Politi: Angels of Los Angeles (4/4) • John Fante’s Downtown L.A. (4/11) • Early Hollywood’s Silent Comedy Legends (4/18) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers (4/25) • Highland Park Arroyo (5/2) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (5/7) • The Run: Gay Downtown History (5/23) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (5/30) • The Real Black Dahlia (6/6) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (6/13) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (Sunday, 6/21) • Westlake Park (6/27)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
After a questionable vote was reversed after citizen-shot video evidence caught councilmembers Nithya Raman and Bob Blumenfield unlawfully yapping through public comment about the threat to a Gabrieleño/Kizh Nation archeological site, the PLUM Committee will again hear the appeal by Angelenos For Historic Preservation against demolishing the landmark Barry Building for no new project. The hearing will be on April 14 at 2pm. This is the most significant preservation and Indigenous rights case Los Angeles has ever seen. We hope you’ll read up on it then speak up for preserving the landmark, in person or by submitting written public comment.
KTLA was the first to pick up our Olvera Street burro eviction ruling scoop, with quotes from operator Richard Hernandez, councilmember Ysabel Jurado and Mayor Karen Bass. The space on the Plaza will be open for competitive bidding—we hope quickly, and without evicting Jorge the Burro while a winning vendor is selected—and Angelenos can support the legacy vendor family here.
Speaking of legacy Olvera Street businesses: please support La Luz del Dia in the Simpson Building, right behind the burro. Gregory writes: “My family has run a restaurant on Olvera Street since 1959. We might not make it another year.”
There’s something new and painfully cute at the Heritage Square Museum: baby owlets hopping around inside Hale House’s upper roof gable! Visit soon to learn all about Victorian Los Angeles life and architecture and meet the babies. Our next Highland Park Arroyo tour visit isn’t until May 2. Wonder if they will have left the nest by then?
Mr. Bunker Hill Nathan Marsak revisits Death Race 2000 (1975) and finds that a stalled redevelopment zone makes a great exploitation film location. SPLAT!
When politicians violate Section 1090, property owners are enriched and communities blighted. Every illegal contract can be reversed, every bribed official fined and banned from serving. Coachella’s Mayor Steven Hernandez paid the piper. Why not L.A.?
After six+ years, the William S. Hart Mansion, the only intact Golden Age silent film star’s house museum, reopens for interpretive tours on 4/10/26. Paul Reubens was a preservation pal supporting our stewardship advocacy. We wish he could be there on this happy day!
Watch: D.A. Nathan Hochman is giddy to share the blatant texts exchanged by alleged co-conspirators Hong “Grace” Peng (LAUSD) and Gautham Sampath (Innive), accused of laundering millions in contract kickbacks.
As it’s announced the Oscars will be moving from the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live (in indicted Curren Price’s CD9), breaking the contract keeping the show in its purpose-built Hollywood home through 2033, we have a lot of questions about how this happened and who stands to benefit. We’re also furious because it shows that Hollywood redevelopment has failed, with hundreds of millions in tax dollars squandered and a once-thriving commercial district, including the legendary Book Row and C.C. Brown’s original hot fudge sundae fountain, was displaced for nothing.
In 2018, Steve Edrington’s Book Castle / Movie World (est. 1967) shuttered in beautiful downtown Burbank and the storefront is still vacant. The building’s for sale, a barren shell, but look what it could be for someone who cares!
The Conzevoy family’s Golden State Casket Co.(est. 1933) sells to the public under the first-in-the-phone book moniker ABC. The coffin factory compound just hit the market! Where will filmmakers and penny pinching mourners go now?
A sweet Thai Town half bungalow court (1917) is for sale, and we’ve added it to the Bungalow Court Housing in Los Angeles map—gotta catch ‘em all!
The 626 Wilshire building (Oscar de La Hoya’s Golden Boy/Central City Association) sidewalk was the birthplace of Occupy LA, which Kim writes about in “What I Did In The Chalk Wars.” Now the whole tower is in receivership. Seems like a great spot for a museum of protest history.
