Gentle reader,
After writing about our vision for The Next Los Angeles, we felt as if a great, rusted gear had shifted inside, and our perspective with it.
The recovery efforts for the fire ravaged communities of Altadena and the Pacific Palisades will be the work of years—if not decades. It’s our nature to want to be of service, push for better public policy and effect positive social change, which was hard work before huge swaths of Los Angeles turned to ash. In this changed environment, we feel that being optimistic and celebrating our shared cultural history is how we can do that best.
Are you on Nextdoor? We’re trying to establish an Esotouric channel on that community app, and would appreciate it if you recommended our page.
This is a change for us, since we’ve long played Cassandra and called out corruption and incompetence in Los Angeles City Hall. We even got a shout out (see page 20) in the public filings for councilmember Jose Huizar’s RICO case.
We don’t intend to give the crooks and the schnooks a pass, but will make an effort to share content that skews more positive and hopeful, as we all struggle with the pain of vast scars across the landscape, wounds that have cut our friends and neighbors to the bone and left so many unmoored from home.
Honestly, we were feeling pretty beat when Daniel Miller of the Los Angeles Times reached out to ask what we, as preservationists used to fighting to save individually threatened landmarks, were thinking and feeling as we assessed the vast losses across the southland.
That interview helped us shape our message for that last newsletter and give context for his story, which appeared on Page 1 of Monday’s newspaper, "In ‘a mass erasure of heritage,’ numerous historic landmarks lost in L.A." (Yahoo version, sans paywall.)
We’re still learning what’s been lost to the fires, and may never know the true extent. Reporting that a building no longer exists is simple—you can see it from the street or aerial photos. Less visible are the cultural, creative and archival materials held by small institutions, private collectors and artists.
When speaking with Daniel Miller, while mourning beloved landmarks like Andrew McNally House, the Bunny Museum, Will Rogers Ranch and the Reel Inn, we expressed particular agony over the destruction of the Theosophical Library Center, a lesser known archive of spiritual and esoteric knowledge that was housed in a modest two story converted garage on Altadena’s Lake Avenue.
We first, and last, visited this place on June 30, 2019.
The librarians who apparently lived on site seemed nonplussed to receive unfamiliar visitors, especially ones as enthusiastic as us. (Reader, we can be a lot.) It wasn’t entirely clear if they were cool with us shooting cell phone images out of public domain publications, which is a big part of our research process and something we do in archives across the country. We didn’t want to make them uncomfortable, and we felt awkward, so Kim just snapped a few reference photos while Richard sought to make a human connection. We figured we’d come back and try again.
Then came the pandemic, and so much urgent historic preservation advocacy, and relaunching our tour company with all new walks to replace our bus tour excursions, and we just never made it back.
And now all of that knowledge—the original manuscripts, letters and artwork, and the offbeat titles that nestled side by side on deep institutional shelves for browsing and unexpected discovery—all of it is floating on the wind.
There are other Theosophical libraries, in buildings and scanned online, but this particular collection in this unique community will never exist again.
We very much hoped to come back and browse, after seeing that one of the few books we opened had glued inside it the bookplate of the Theosophical University Library at Lomaland, the influential art colony and spiritual commune near San Diego whose otherworldly glass domed Academy Building and Temple of Peace were themselves lost to wildfire in 1952, after a Naval Douglas Skyraider aircraft crashed into the point in heavy fog.
HEADLINE COLLAGE
This artifact from the fairyland that gave the west Yoga and avocados felt like holding a passport to Oz. And it reminded us that nothing is ever really lost.
So this newsletter’s tone will remain cantankerous, as we continue to complain about public corruption, shuttered landmarks, demolition by neglect, chronically vacant buildings, illegal Airbnbs, developer enabled vandalism, arson, secret demolition deals and other threats to the city we love.
But we’ll also try to express to you some of the faith and optimism that powers all our work, and to share positive stories of resilience, survival, hope and service. Scroll down below upcoming tours to find some news you can use.
Loving Los Angeles was hard enough before the fires, but at least it’s just not a handful of scrappy activists fighting for the city and yelling into the void—now we are truly all in it together. Skid Row is Los Angeles.
It hurts. It feels exhausting and scary and gross and overwhelming. Even if you have not personally lost your home or business, you probably know people who have. Quoting our dear friend, Rev. Dylan Littlefield, it’s okay not be okay.
As we wrote in June 2021, about an instance of blatant corruption and landlord lobbyist lies that doomed a west L.A. landmark vote in City Hall: Do you ever think that loving Los Angeles is like staying in an abusive relationship, hoping they'll change? Well, Los Angeles has changed, and City Hall is going to have to change, too. And also: “We intend to stick around long after this criminal, dysfunctional syndicate is broken up, and be part of putting this beautiful town back together, even better than she was before. We hope we can count on YOU to join us on the janitorial crew.”
There has never in our lifetimes been a better opportunity to remake this burned and broken City of Angels into something worthy of its name. And there’s no place in the world that we’d rather be than right here, with you, taking it on the chin, telling the stories nobody else can, believing in and not giving up on this city.
About the video at the top of this newsletter: When we wrote our walking tour about how Charles Bukowski, a masochistic barfly who sought out violence to numb his psychic pain, transformed himself into a serious poet while living in the Westlake district, we wanted tour guests to see one of the neighborhood’s East Coast style residency hotels.
While Bukowski never lived in the Olympic Hotel, he lived in similar buildings, and it’s just around the corner from the dive bar where he met his great love and muse, Jane Cooney Baker.
Our friends who run the Olympic recently let us onto the roof to see the neon sign, which while it no longer lights up, is a neighborhood landmark. We brought our pal the Preservation Imp, who expressed his impish wish that this handsome sign might once again glow over MacArthur Park. We hope you enjoy the vista and the close up look at a great sign that just needs a little work to beguile once more.
Another way we can show hope for the future is by celebrating the lessons of the past in person. So this Saturday, we’ll kick off our 2025 walking tours with Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue, a stroll around the Victorian streetcar suburb where grand mansions rub shoulders with noirish bungalow courts and heritage trees, a neighborhood packed with weird history, preservationist moxie, ghost stories, horrible crimes, hidden secrets and great beauty. And because the tour starts and ends at Guisados taco shop, you can support two local businesses and enjoy a tasty brunch when you join us, do! Next week: Broadway!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
Are you on social media? We’re on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, Substack Notes, TikTok and Reddit sharing preservation news as it happens. New: we’re on Nextdoor now, too.
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
• Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 1/18) • Broadway (Sat. 1/25) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sat. 2/1) • Film Noir / Real Noir (Sat. 2/15) • 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)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
Grotto of Lourdes, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, Altadena before the fire. This lovely spot is outside the burn zone. Wishing peace, healing and safe passage to all who are suffering and homeless now.
Social media at its best: climatologist and Eaton Canyon park aide Edgar McGregor saved countless Altadenans when he warned members of his Facebook group Altadena Weather And Climate to stay awake on fire watch, then to "Get out!"
Angels Flight Railway operator Will Campbell crowdfunded the digitization fee for Good Night Nurse, a 1916 silent short held by the Library of Congress. Here's our beloved funicular as no living soul has seen her! Stay tuned for announcement of a public screening of this gem.
Free California Preservation Foundation webinar on Thursday 1/16: Public Landscapes and the Preservation of Brick and Concrete: Exposition Park & MacArthur Park. The concrete railings along Wilshire Boulevard are a wreck and they need some love. General Otis agrees!
Preservation superhero James Dastoli has nominated another lovely apartment as a landmark: the Spanish Colonial Revival Dover (Hillier & Sheet, 1929) at Beverly and Western. 30 RSO units would be doubly protected with this designation.
Thrilled that Thelma Todd's Beach Cafe survived the Palisades Fire incursion along PCH in Malibu. Here's our 2017 blog post about this real life L.A. noir compound and the gut renovation which hardened it against fire.
Benjamin Kahle, realtor and Commissioner on the Los Angeles Historical Records and Landmarks Commission, is putting out a call for preservation architects and design professionals who can build Altadena back as an historic district.
A victim of the Santa Ana winds during the Eaton Fire was the bootleg "Now Entering Van Halen Country" monument sign at the end of the 110 Freeway in Pasadena. We can rebuild.
A lovely gesture as the Huntington Gardens reopen on 1/15 with a new Neighbors in Need initiative, offering free admission for those who've been displaced, evacuated, or experienced loss during the wildfires from 2–5 p.m., Weds-Mon, through January 31.
The 57th Annual California Antiquarian Book Fair, scheduled for the Pasadena Convention Center 2/7-2/9 has just been cancelled. The convention floor is housing hundreds of Eaton Fire refugees, while FEMA and the Red Cross provide aid out of the facility.
An Empty Los Angeles PSA: We Need All of our Empty Spaces to House Our People. "This is NOT the time to leave habitable spaces sitting empty when thousands of people have been displaced. So what are our elected officials going to do about it?"
At Parva Sed Apta, Nathanael West's Hollywood digs, where he wrote and set The Day of the Locust, the century old false half timbering recently rotted off the facade. The Preservation Imp approves of the replastering. It's not the same, but looks good! See for yourself on our Franklin Village Old Hollywood tour.
RIP Jeffrey Rouze, who helped clean up the Yucca Corridor in the 1990s and believed the El Capitan Theater and Hillview Apartments made good business sense to restore. Normal capitalists like him got the shaft when LA sought out foreign investment for Hollywood.
Just added to the bungalow court housing map: two courts on W. 49th in South LA, 19 units with very low rents. At $131k/unit, there should be a way for tenants to own and protect their RSO housing!
Spotted on our Raymond Chandler walking tour: a lovely early manhole cover for Pacific Bell ancestor the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, installed in St. Vincent Court c. 1902, when TPT&T Co's new downtown offices were being constructed on Hill Street.
Heartbreak in Santa Ana: the California champion brown-woolly fig tree was chopped down to meet deadline for Library restoration grants, hours before new councilmembers could weigh in. Brianna Rigg watched, drew the carnage. RIP old giant. Sorry, parrot pals.
We're nutty for California's Mayan Revival and sweet on the seldom recognized role of porn in historic preservation, so we're thrilled to be quoted in Paula Mejía's SF Gate story about Downtown L.A.'s magnificent Mayan Theatre!
Elmer! Our beloved Main Street Skid Row mummy, the arsenic-cured Oklahoma train robber Elmer McCurdy (1880-1911-1976), is the subject of an acclaimed new musical that's headed to Broadway in April.
You encounter the most interesting people at the Burial of the Unclaimed Dead, and one of them, Karina Wilson, was taking notes for a moving essay on the history of Potters' Fields and how Los Angeles' little corner of care fits into that tradition.
16 months after we broke Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition's bombshell allegations that Los Angeles bureaucrats script land use votes for politicians to rubber stamp, the Los Angeles Times finally picks up the story.
A holiday gift from LA's dysfunctional government: LADBS spells out a path for reporting abandoned projects, insurance to demolish firetraps, mandating No Trespass orders (now voluntary, flippers don't care) and CRIMINAL CHARGES! The motion is in response to the derelict construction site which, after multiple small fires ignored by authorities, burned completely and displaced tenants from three Chinatown apartment buildings. See our video here.
Dwell cites our Norms La Cienega campaign as proof that preservation advocacy is exploding online, reaching a new audience, and making a real difference. KCRW reports on Angelenos’ love for 3:00am breakfasts at Norms La Cienega and what would be lost if the Googie landmark became a Raising Cane's.
Late night at the library: LAPL Central is open 'til midnight for an immersive storytelling happening on February 1. Bob Baker's Marionettes will be there, but no kids allowed!
Cool job alert: Associate History Curator at the Natural History Museum. There are many unknown treasures in deep storage (like Kay Martin's Bunker Hill paintings) and this is an opportunity for fresh scholarship and interpretation.
Russell Brown is founder of FORT: LA, advocating for the preservation of residential architecture. His new play evokes the uncanny forces that might protect a modernist landmark from the wrong buyer's bad taste. Listing opens 1/16 at Theatre 40.
Bunker Hill historian Nathan Marsak and Charlton Heston's The Omega Man both benefit from a pandemic to capture great views of Downtown Los Angeles landmarks and vistas with no pesky living souls in the shot. Part of his new series on post-apocalyptic Bunker Hill.
Share this post