Gentle reader,
One of the ugliest data feeds we track is the Los Angeles Fire Department’s incident report. Each morning, we hold our breath before looking to see what ignited overnight.
LAFD does a great job containing fires and protecting people in surrounding buildings from harm, but so many of these blazes are foreseeable and preventable, involving historic buildings held vacant for years by speculators and regularly accessed by squatters, vandals and urban explorers.
Yesterday, fire erupted at 1216 South Menlo Avenue, the historic Japanese Language School and Red Cross facility originally constructed on spec by City Hall architect John C. Austin and Woodbury C. Pennell in 1911 for the Westmoreland Place development.
We’ve been keeping an eye on this charming mansion because, like so many other large parcels in Koreatown, it was fenced and empty, with promises of future affordable housing development growing stale.
As new projects go, the one that Cypress Equity Investments (CEI) pitched wasn’t horrible. Yes, it required demolition of a handsome 1930s rent controlled building to the south to the clear the way for the upzoned new apartment house—but it also called for keeping the 1911 mansion to serve as offices and amenities for the complex.
And it was on this promise that the project received special upzoning perks in January 2021.
Well, it’s been nearly five years, and no new affordable housing units have been built. During this time, the rent controlled tenants have been displaced, their building boarded up, and the historic mansion subject to repeated break ins and vandalism.
And yesterday, the neighbors’ worst fears were realized when the attic of the mansion exploded in flames, the roof collapsing as firemen frantically doused the inhabited building to the north to keep it from catching fire.
When we visited today, we found 1216 South Menlo heavily damaged, but with a mostly intact facade and twin brick chimneys standing tall.
On Thursday morning 11/21 at 10am, as they do every couple of weeks, the Cultural Heritage Commission will be meeting to consider supporting landmark status or approving renovations for several unique Los Angeles buildings. This hearing (agenda link) promises to be a lively one, including discussion of Anaïs Nin's house in Silver Lake, the Arby's sign on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood’s Theosophical apartments Krotona and the Hermoyne and Du Barry Apartment houses.
Won’t you please take a moment just after 10am Thursday to log into the meeting via Zoom or telephone—or attend in person in room 1010 at City Hall if you can—and make a one minute public comment during the General Public Comment section (agenda item 3) asking that 1216 South Menlo be saved and not demolished.
And please pass it on!
To participate via Zoom, log in to https://planning-lacity-org.zoom.us/j/86811488984
and use meeting ID 868 1148 8984 and passcode 858481, or by phone (213) 338-8477 or (669) 900-9128 and use Meeting ID No. 868 1148 8984 and then press #. Press # again when prompted for participant ID. Use Meeting Passcode 858481.
Below are some basic talking points you can shape to your own point of view—and please include the first sentence right at the start, asking the CHC to request a staff report:
I’m asking that you instruct Office of Historic Resources staff to report back on options for preserving 1216 South Menlo Avenue. The Craftsman mansion, designed by City Hall architect John C. Austin and Woodbury C. Pennell in 1911, is a contributor to the Menlo Avenue-Westmoreland Avenue Multi-Family Residential Historic District that has been held vacant since 2019. Owner CEI obtained entitlements for an affordable housing complex that would have preserved the mansion in 2021, but has not started construction. The mansion has been overrun with squatters and on November 19, caught fire. The property with entitlements is presently for sale, including eight vacant rent controlled units next door. Please don’t allow this historic property to be demolished by neglect—save 1216 South Menlo Avenue!
In addition to calling, Zooming or personally appearing before the CHC, you can send an email or call the office of Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez and convey your wish that her office ensure that 1216 South Menlo Avenue is saved. Email Councilmember.Hernandez@lacity.org / (213) 473-7001.
It seems a small thing to do in honor of the architects who made Los Angeles so beautiful for us to enjoy. 1216 South Menlo Avennue has served honorably for more than century and still has a lot of life in it, so let’s save it.
Saturday’s tour is a new one, a trek around the historic Westlake Park neighborhood in the footsteps of poet, novelist and barfly Charles Bukowski. Although more closely associated with East Hollywood, where he lived as his career took off in middle age, “Hank” found his voice in Westlake, day drinking and brawling with his first great love Jane Cooney Baker. We’ll conjure their ghosts in bungalow courts and neon lit taverns—join us, do!
And a gentle reminder that we got subpoenaed for third party discovery in the lawsuit by the Marilyn Monroe house owners, and are fundraising to cover our legal expenses with a 20% off holiday sale on bulk gift certificates. Or just buy one ticket or some merch—it all helps!
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 and a subscriber edition of our main newsletter, 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
• Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (Sat. 11/23) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 12/7) • Know Your Downtown L.A. (Sun. 11/8) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 12/14) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (Sun. 12/22) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher (Thurs. 12/26) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 1/18) • Broadway (Sat. 1/25) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sat. 2/1) • Film Noir / Real Noir (Sat. 2/8) • The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 3/1) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice Downtown L.A. (Sat. 3/8) • Bunker Hill, Dead and Alive (Sat. 3/15) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 3/22) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood (Sun. 3/30) • John Fante’s Downtown L.A. (Sat. 4/5) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 4/12) • Leo Politi Loves Los Angeles (Sat. 4/19) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers (Sat. 4/26)
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