The Huntington Gardens throws a lifeline to Cornelius Johnson's struggling Olympic oak
Plus, let's take a time travel trip down Broadway.
Gentle reader,
Thank you to everyone on this list who took the time to make public comment before last Thursday’s Cultural Heritage Commission hearing on landmark status for Cornelius Johnson’s Olympic Oak and family residence.
We’re delighted to report that not only did the Cultural Heritage Commission vote unanimously to move the process forward, but our advocacy with Dr. Donald Hodel to alert the CHC to the tree’s desperate condition fell on receptive ears.
Yesterday, we got an email from Ken Bernstein, Principal City Planner with the Office of Historic Resources, outlining an encouraging urgent care plan for the oak organized by the Huntington Gardens, an institution that is very dear to us.
With the owner’s approval, tree specialists will have immediate access to the property, to lay irrigation hoses and monitor the health of the tree, while the property remains on the market, hopefully to find a preservation-minded institutional buyer. What a relief! You can read Ken’s full email at the bottom of our blog post about the oak.
We hope it’s not too late to restore this once beautiful tree to full health, and that in years to come you’ll be able to enjoy its shade and learn about how for one shining day in 1936, the greatest high jumper in the world was an African American Angeleno who called this pretty cottage home.
We’ve got a special tour planned for Saturday, and would love to have you join us on an urban explorers’ trek through the National Register Broadway Theater District in Downtown Los Angeles. Starting at Grand Central Market, we’ll dig into a century of history, mystery, colorful characters, great architecture, cool signs and offbeat lore, peeling back the layers to see hints of the past hiding in plain sight.
Along the way, we’ll honor the visionary developer Ira Yellin, who believed that there was a second life possible for empty early 20th century office buildings, and changed city law so that Angelenos could live in them. At the Bradbury Building, Terry McKelvey turned his dad’s dull commercial real estate business into an incubator for creativity, and dreamed of a Victorian-themed L.A. Gaslight District, until his personal demons pulled that dream out from under him. Down at the United Artists, obtained through a sweetheart deal involving suitcases full of cash and convenient earthquakes, offbeat preacher Dr. Gene Scott raised millions through bizarre televised sermons, for theater restoration, rare books and preservation of the iconic “Jesus Saves” neon sign. And up in City Hall, ambitious councilman Jose Huizar saw Broadway as a political branding opportunity, expending civic resources to organize massive street parties with his name on every marquee, while pushing policies that encouraged speculation at the expense of Broadway’s small businesses—until the FBI came calling.
The great thing about these walks downtown is that while we have a loose script, there’s always room for improvisation, so bring your burning questions about this beautiful, chaotic mess of a neighborhood that is our obsession and we’ll do our best to answer them.
Then next Saturday, August 20, it’s a tour for bookworms and library lovers, as Downtown’s literary landmarks reveal their secrets. Join us, do!
yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available on demand, in-person walking tours, gift certificates and a souvenir shop you can browse in. Or just share this link with other people who care.
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
In loving, eternally freaked out memory of our dear Michael Perrick, who brought Kim's vision of Esotouric's horrible mascot Crimebo the Clown to life and gave hundreds of tour guests an odd balloon and memories to haunt them. We were so lucky to have his weird and fearless brain to spark off of—he had a huge influence on the showmanship and silliness that took the edge off our true crime bus tours, and happy to see him spin the character off into tours and podcasts of his own. (Photo is from an early Pasadena Confidential tour with Nathan Marsak.)
We've eagerly anticipated the launch of Mark Tapio Kines' L.A. Street Names database. Still a work in progress, but the website is live, featuring a section on Pioneering Women and the streets that honor them.
Did you ever want to be a funicular conductor when you grew up? You can—Angels Flight is hiring!
Two great Los Angeles landmarks are teaming up. Displaced by planned redevelopment of the Town and Country Center at 3rd & Fairfax, the preservationists' favorite cafeteria Andre's Italian is moving to the art deco Dominguez Building in the Miracle Mile.
Great research and landmark nomination from our preservation pal Steven Luftman, working with the Conservancy to ensure this remarkable tiki style time capsule home is protected for future generations to marvel at, too.
Since 1990, Kerstin Kansteiner has helped create and nurture Long Beach Retro Row with her wonderful coffee shop and community hub Portfolio, a tale featured on our podcast #67 Berlin & Bukowski. But the landlord got greedy and they ended up in court. Now Portfolio is moving out (but not closing down), and nothing can take its place—but we hope it isn't really nothing that takes its place.
Glad to see the County Supervisors take a small step forward to reactivate the vacant County General as affordable housing, though why it has taken so many years is baffling. Ribbon cutting 2080? At Rancho Los Amigos, demolition continues.
Great news for fans of Pasadena’s legendary Roma Market Sandwich: maestro Rosario Mazzeo is training his nephew to carry on should he ever decide to take a break.
The preservation fairy was smiling as we left a demolition crisis on our watch list: the Reliance/Rockview Drive-In Dairy A-frame at Florence and Ajax, Bell Gardens is getting repurposed as Alaska Bento & Boba! And we are just overjoyed it lives on.
A stop on 2019's Richard’s Birthday Bus Tour—a tradition we hope to revive—was Fullerton's Hunt Library, a Pereira in Peril. In the wake of LACMA's foolish demolition of their 1965 Pereira campus, a tip of the hat to our enlightened Orange County friends. Cool, green, saved! (PDF link to preservation report.)
R.I.P. 779 North Alexandria, a pretty 1922 Hollywood cottage that was home to Margaret Thompson, City Hall clerk killed by a falling rock in Ice House Canyon on Xmas 1924. Illegally demolished, now it has a $9K lien.
Koreatown mega developer Jamison Properties seeks ownership of public alley connecting Coronado with Carondelet behind their 2500 Wilshire adaptive reuse project on vague "public safety" grounds. This is a dangerous precedent and would be a donor giveaway from lame duck councilman Gil Cedillo.
That was fast! Less than a year after accession by the Huntington, Eve Babitz' papers are open for researchers to consult... except Box 19, the red hot Brian G. Hutton love letters, sealed until 2040 at the family's request. (Hmm, maybe the Babitz/Hutton letters aren't sealed due to their erotic content... this case was quickly dismissed by the widow Hutton.)
The Real Deal's Andrew Asch hears from the leaseholder that Hotel Cecil’s 600 rooms will finally be filled. We'll see about that, but covenants signed in June to make it 100% affordable until 2077 are a huge, welcome change. Now fix the sign!
New from Frenchtown Confidential: the wild tale of Charles Chandeau, who arrived from Quebec with a brilliant criminal scheme that nearly saw him gassed like a storage house rat.
The situation escalates around proposed demolition of the 425 South Union Ave bungalow court as an appeal is filed by a preservation minded neighbor over vulnerable tenants misrepresented as owners' family—and a Union Pacific tunnel!
When Japanese residents of J-Flats (now Virgil Village) were sent to internment camps, their Black neighbors cared for their homes—unlike new owner Matin Mehdizadeh, who illegally gutted this occupied Japanese boarding house under landmark consideration.
Urgent alert in Eagle Rock: there's a demo notice on the circa 1915 Standard service station at 1659 West Colorado across on old Route 66. It's a California historic resource listed on Survey LA, has been moved before and must not be destroyed! Sold in May for $2.1 M (photos here). The local Neighborhood Council, historical society and city council office are all pushing back, seeking a halt to the demolition / removal work that has begun and a solution to preserve it in place, or nearby.
We broke the story that the huge Broadway Trade Center in Downtown Los Angeles would be boarded up before auction. Now dot.LA talks to an anonymous broker who spills the tea on the scammy developer, who has filed for Chapter 11. Bring back the sewing machines!
On view in the Barclay, the oldest continuously operated hotel in Los Angeles, is an exhibition about adaptive reuse of historic structures as a quicker, greener, cheaper housing solution. You can tour it Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-6pm.
The most important tool in historic preservation is a community that cares enough to document and speak out. The new owners of Walker's Cafe in San Pedro are acting like no laws apply to this prospective landmark. They're wrong on several counts. There’s a PLUM hearing on August 16.
The gorgeous Hollywoodland home at 1808 N. Canyon sold for $1.6 Million in 2019, but was kept vacant and open to squatters. Now the owner seeks to demolish it.
If the monster could talk, he might tell who signed him out of the Natural History Museum to the Academy—and why, exactly?—then didn't question claims he was later destroyed. So many film props have gone MIA.
The greenest building is the one that's already here—and in the case of 6435 Wilshire, looking great after 70 years. Plans are moving forward to demolish under the fast tracked SCPE designation. But adaptive reuse would better serve Los Angeles.
Clay Bush reports the beautiful 1900 craftsman at 204 N. Union was demolished last week without LADBS permits. AQMD requires a plan for dealing with asbestos, lead paint, too. And indeed, there are no demo permits for the home’s address, but one is hiding under a shadow address nobody concerned about this house would ever search for, and that raises as many red flags as a 100% illegal demolition.
Corruption Corner: In The Real Deal, Isabella Farr reports that Relevant Group is seeking a joint venture partner to invest in the Morrison Hotel project, at up to a 50% ownership stake. It seems like without sketchy EB-5 visas, they're having a hard time finding anyone to finance their projects. Will these potential partners be told about the LADBS investigation?… New filing in the Jose Huizar RICO case includes allegation (on page 15) that certain land use consultants would pay the councilman a kickback when hired to work on a project where a developer was being milked… Ewww. In its opposition to the latest fishing expedition from the City Hall RICO defendants, the government quotes Jose Huizar's crass boast that the L.A. Grand Hotel tower would be his "big dick above the city."