A Holiday Wreath of Lab Grown (Nearly) Landmarked Olympic Oak For You
Gentle reader,
Our preservation efforts have expanded from-made buildings and businesses and signage and archives to seeking to save and celebrate several significant Los Angeles trees—among them El Pino, the Eagle Tree and the Rancho Los Amigos Bunya Bunya. Today, we can share a hopeful and futuristic update. Consider this a virtual holiday wreath, with love from us to you.
Down in Pico Heights, West Adams, the gold medal oak tree that 1936 Olympian Cornelius Johnson brought home after Hitler’s snub has been suffering from neglect since the house was purchased by a real estate speculator and the huge project next door cut its roots.
An attempt to landmark house and tree got as far as a New York Times feature and positive recommendation by the Cultural Heritage Commission, but has been stalled in the civic system since August.
Visits to the threatened oak with our tree guru friend Dr. Donald Hodel were alarming, and we urged the city to please do something before it died. A bridge was built between the property owner and the Huntington Gardens, and a simple drip irrigation system installed in September. Since then, the oak is looking a bit better!
But it’s still stressed and neglected with an uncertain future, since none of the charitable foundations mentioned during the landmark hearings have yet emerged to purchase the property and dedicate resources to bringing the tree back to health.
There is, however, hope. Back at the Brody Botanical Center at the Huntington Gardens, Cryopreservation Research Botanist Raquel Folgado has dedicated one of her lab shelves to growing samples from the threatened Olympic oak in sterile tissue culture jars, with the aim that even should the original tree die, it can live on as a genetically identical clone. (Something similar is happening in Fresno, where their beloved Christmas Tree Lane is feeling its age.)
Standing in Raquel’s chilly lab gazing at these tiny green sprouts that are so lovingly tended, we pictured Cornelius Johnson tenderly carrying his sapling of honor home from Berlin to his parents’ yard, and the generations that had cared for and sheltered beneath it, until the speculators came.
We don’t know what the future holds for 1156 South Hobart Boulevard, but we’re grateful to know there’s a sprig of life growing in a lab in San Marino. Perhaps in the future there will be many young Olympic oaks placed around Los Angeles, as a living tribute to Cornelius Johnson’s grace, skill and tenacity.
May the season bring health and new growth for you and yours, and the future and the past co-exist as a joyous present.
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 to stream, in-person walking tours, gift certificates and a souvenir shop you can browse in. Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• Saturday, January 14 - Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases
• Sunday, January 29 - Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness
• Saturday, February 11 - Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess
• Saturday, February 18 - Evergreen Cemetery, 1877
• Saturday, February 25 - Westlake Park Time Travel Trip
• Saturday, March 11 - Downtown Los Angeles is For Book Lovers
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
If you’re still in need of holiday gifts, let us make it easy for you with a printable gift certificate good for an Esotouric walking tour. We’ve also got gift subscriptions available for our streaming deep Los Angeles history video channel, featuring more than forty long form webinars exploring offbeat lore in lovely places. And it’s not too late to put a little printed matter in the mail.
The Clifton's Cafeteria Fruit Nut Torte still delivers! We tweeted the recipe in 2016, and last night @R6Rider tweeted back: "it tastes great. sort of like a non-cinnamon coffee cake. crispy on the top and bottom but chewy on the inside." If you make one, let us know how you like it!
Richard’s birthday stroll along the lower Arroyo, from Lummis House to Heritage Square, included a stop for cake and frolics at the Arturo and Mabel Bilderrain House (1912), newly restored by California historian and neon sign maker Paul Greenstein. Sneak a peek at the fun!
R.I.P. to Golden Saddle Cyclery (2011-December 1, 2022), evicted by new landlord Casetta Group ahead of long threatened redevelopment of Bethany Presbyterian Church property at Griffith Park and Lucile into a boutique hotel.
LADBS fail! A remodel permit was issued for recently sold 801 S. Stanley just south of Wilshire. After a month, they flagged the lack of historic district approval and it was revoked. But the sweet duplex is already gutted, with original windows gone!
In a sudden and unilateral decision made by Rec and Parks General Manager Jimmy Kim, the historic Griffith Park Pony Rides concession was evicted yesterday, to the sorrow of dedicated operator Steve Weeks (who offered to give his business to the city!) and thousands of L.A. families. The park advisory board is not happy at being left out of the discussions. The Cultural Heritage Commission too has raised the alarm, since it is a character defining feature of the larger landmark, and will be discussing the matter on 1/5/2023. And a community group is still trying to save the Pony Rides.
Pereira in Peril, no more? After fighting entrenched bias to preserve the underappreciated architect’s LACMA, L.A. Times and M.W.D. HQ, the tide turns as GSA seeks a preservation buyer for the Chet Holifield Ziggurat in Orange County and the Transamerica Pyramid gets an updated restoration.
A drive-by tweet captures mysterious facade work to the landmarked Hollywood Reporter Building. Any work on a protected landmark must be done with consultation from Office of Historic Resources, and with approved permits.
A once in a century opportunity to be caretaker of a rare Angelino Heights landmark, the never remodeled Mission Revival Daggett Residence (R.L. Gifford, 1910, HCM #222). Built for $12K, bidding opens at $1.4 Million.
Looking for a special gift for the Los Angeles street light lover on your list? Eddy S. Feldman's essential 1972 Dawson's Book Shop monograph is currently on eBay for the bargain buy-it-now price of $100. It's a beautiful little book and hard to find at any price!
San Diego preservationists scramble to halt a deranged plan that character defining streetlights must be replaced with modern fakes because they have... lead paint?!
New Southern California landmark nominations for the National Register: Eva K. Fudger House (Roland E. Coate, 1926), Fullerton College Historic District, New Lynn Theater in Laguna Beach, plus Hatano Farms, the last Japanese grower in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Paul Koretz' last words in public office were profane, and disgraceful. Constituents respond it would be a sick joke to name the Westwood Neighborhood Greenway in his honor, after he failed to support this volunteer endeavor. The city did so anyway.
A thrift score for the ages! Cineclark Cinemas bought an 8mm filmstrip documenting a ride on Angels Flight Railway during Bunker Hill redevelopment, had it digitized, and read the included narration for a perfect poignant time travel trip.
We’re glad of the L.A. Times and Fox 11 reporting on the Hotel Cecil, still vacant despite offering tiny SROs for anyone with a voucher, but sorry they repeat the leaseholder’s claims of millions in renovation work. There’s no evidence this is true.
Big news from the Huntington Library: it has acquired Thomas Pynchon's archives to be open to researchers within the year. We expect this trove to attract some curious characters. As for a Pynchon's L.A. tour...?
We checked in on the ancient Moreton Bay Fig that was moved off old Bunker Hill to the front of Angelus Plaza retirement apartments opposite Grand Central Market. Mondo grass ground cover was stealing its water, and we asked for it to be removed. Now there is lots of new growth and many figs!
The beautiful Broadway Trade Center has been victim of East Coast real estate hype, foreclosure auctions dodged with nonsensical claims of crypto bailouts. But for pedestrians, it's no longer an imminent threat. Just sold in foreclosure, we’re hopeful for its future.
Preservation alert for the historic 23rd Ave Venice lifeguard tower, owned by the city of Los Angeles, which the County is seeking to tear down. The first floor is in constant use and not in danger of collapse. The demolition cost is $1.2 M—instead, they should restore it as a museum.
After reaching out to her office about our concerns, we are grateful for new CD1 Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’ letter pausing the December 15 City Planning Commission vote on large projects that Gil Cedillo pushed through despite valid community appeals. It’s so refreshing to have someone working for L.A. and not for developers in City Hall!
How sketchy does a development project have to be to inspire three separate community appeals? Meet Tripalink's 1840-1848 W. Adams Boulevard, a giant USC co-living dorm masquerading as new town homes.
There’s an uncanny element to Griffith Park puma P-22's ultimately fatal automotive hit and run... it happened outside the Philosophical Research Society, shortly after Guy Blakeslee played his new compositions made after he was struck by a car.
Infuriating new scoops from Save LACMA, gleaned from the museum's public tax filings: they fired 20% of staff and gave Michael Govan a huge raise ($2 Million a year!), donations for the new building are stalled, and can they even get the steel to build it with?
This lovely, possible Paul R. Williams Bel-Air Colonial at 315 N. Carmelina hasn't been on the market since 1976, but it's still an urgent preservation alert: a demolition permit was issued on Friday!
Our preservation pal Joe Hilliard contributes a dark and loving riff on his personal Los Angeles death trip in the Winter 2022 issue of Still Points Arts Quarterly.
CORRUPTION CORNER: Four years in prison for Arman Gabaee, who when he wasn't bribing L.A. County officials was scheming to ensure demolition by neglect of West Hollywood's greatest streamline moderne building. R.I.P. Dr. Jones Dog & Cat Hospital. The preservationists seeking to save the Art Deco landmark wrote that a homeless man was permitted to live in the abandoned building before he died in an arson fire. Nobody has been tried for this crime of greed and land misuse… In CityWatch, Caroline Aguirre claims that one of the Thanksgiving turkeys purchased with Kevin de Leon's CD14 discretionary funds was eaten by indicted ex-CM Jose Huizar… The Silver Lake Heritage Trust delivers a bombshell in the form of conspiratorial emails city planners never thought the public would see. We called in to warn the PLUM Committee, who ignored us as usual. But when a judge gets a look, these scrappy preservationists might just save Taix after all… Busted! The L.A. Ethics Commission popped Brian Silveira for unregistered lobbying. His projects include demolishing affordable Venice bungalows to upzone as condos… On Eric Garcetti's last day as Mayor, Jose Huizar filed documents seeking to be tried separately from Garcetti’s Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan, due to Chan's "second prosecutor" defense strategy: "Chan intends to posit Huizar as a ringleader and criminal foil... to argue that he is merely an innocent bystander caught in the blast radius of Huizar’s egregious criminality." But Chan was known to be among the LADBS administrators who had covered up corruption when Garcetti elevated him… Here’s our annotated preview of Huizar’s trial in 75 pages of government exhibits… Powerful analysis by Sahra Sulaiman for Streetsblog: "The Kevin de León heard on the Fed recording—defiant, resentful, anti-Black, and willing to throw Black and brown Angelenos alike under the bus to advance his own political career—is consistent with the person the world is seeing now"… Meanwhile, as Garcetti moves out of the mayor’s mansion, it’s getting fumigated.