From the category archives:

Angeleno Sights

Detail Shot: Million Dollar Bison

Angeleno Sights
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A close-up of the many bison and gargoyle reliefs adorning the old Metropolitan Water District (MWD) headquarters at 307 S. Broadway, Los Angeles. Designed by architect Albert C. Martin and dating to 1917, the MWD tower was part of the Million Dollar Theater complex, which also housed Edison Co. offices. The fanciful sculptures are the [...]

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Time Warp: Hollywoodland’s Immortal Gates

Angeleno Sights
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Brand spanking new 87 years ago, the Hollywoodland real estate development welcomes a handful of vintage automobiles through its Beachwood Canyon gates in this 1923 Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) digital archives photo. Likely carrying property buyers, the cars are parked outside the new neighborhood’s sales headquarters.
Although not visible, the world-famous “Hollywoodland” Sign loomed over [...]

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Hollywood’s Legendary Bronson Caves Are Just a Stone’s Throw Away

Angeleno Sights
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Recognize this gaping oriface in the Hollywood Hills? If you don’t, you obviously weren’t a fan of the 1960s Batman television series or numerous other Hollywood productions hearkening back to the Silent Era.
This is one of a handful of man-made excavations at the southwestern corner of Griffith Park known as the Bronson Caves. Featured prominently [...]

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Tripping Out to Pentecostalism’s Birthplace

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Believe it or not, this little Victorian in Los Angeles’ historic Filipino Town is widely recognized as the birthplace of Pentecostalism.
Yes, before Aimee Semple McPherson’s celebrity revivalism, the Spirit took hold of a small band of fervent religionists here at 216 N. Bonnie Brae in 1906, allegedly inspiring them to speak in tongues not heard [...]

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Friday Forum: Name Your Lost Landmark

Angeleno Sights
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From the Temple Theater, to the Brown Derby, to the Garden of Allah, Southern California seems to boast more bulldozed landmarks than living historical structures. (Joni Mitchell’s 1970 pop lyrics, “They paved paradise to put up a parking lot” make a really apropos Angeleno theme song.)
Starting today, I’d like to introduce a new Friday Forum [...]

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Then and Now: Temple City’s Lost Theater

Angeleno Sights
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Opened circa 1940 and named for land developer and Temple City founder Walter P. Temple, this proud single-screen theater once stood on the corner of Rosemead and Las Tunas Blvds. Seating 750, it was designed by S. Charles Lee, a prolific Southern California architect with more than 70 movie houses to his credit, almost all [...]

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That’s Our Lady: Needing a Hand in Echo Park

Angeleno Sights
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Though locals call her “Our Lady of the Lake,” this WPA-commissioned statue overlooking Echo Park Lake was actually entitled Nuestra Reina de Los Angeles (Our Queen of the Angels) when designed in 1934 by Ada Mae Sharpless.
In this Art Deco depiction, our city’s patroness stands atop a pedestal featuring iconic reliefs of the harbor, City [...]

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The Bricks and Mortar of Feminist Power

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Who says L.A. has no history? Open your eyes (or in this case your camera lens) wide enough, and you’ll literally discover it in the most out-of-the-way corners of town.
While shooting the Broadway viaduct the other day, I parked my Jeep in front of this old brick building on N. Spring Street, thinking little of [...]

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L.A. in Quotes: An Ironic Reflection on the River

Angeleno Sights
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“The Los Angeles River was a beautiful, limpid little stream with willows on its banks….it was so attractive to me that it at once became something about which my whole scheme of life was woven. I loved it so much.” — William Mulholland, 1855-1935.
You have to admit there’s a certain irony to this quote. Thanks [...]

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Tripout to Charles Lummis’ El Alisal Hideaway

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Imagine trekking more than 3,000 miles to take a job. Yet that’s exactly what Charles Fletcher Lummis did in 1884 after accepting a reporting position at the Los Angeles Times.
In what has to be one of the greatest early promotional stunts in L.A. Media history, Lummis journeyed on foot from Cincinnati to the City of [...]

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Weekend Matinee: Remember Marineland?

Angeleno Sights
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The aquatic park entertained millions of visitors to the Palos Verdes Peninsula from 1954 to 1987. Opening a year prior to Disneyland, it was then the world’s largest oceanarium and arguably California’s first major theme park.
But the whales, dolphins and performing seals are all history now, along with the ruins shown in this video [...]

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That’s Our Lady at 6th and Union Drive

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Time now for the second installment in this blog’s occasional That’s Our Lady photo series, bringing you random depictions of Our Lady of the Angels from throughout the region.
Yes, I know that technically this colorful mural at 6th and Union Drive represents Our Lady of Guadalupe, but I don’t mind stretching the series definition to [...]

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Driveby Shot: Crossroads of the World

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Now an office building, Sunset Blvd.’s Crossroads of the World opened in 1936 as L.A.’s first themed shopping mall. (Many believe it’s America’s first such mall as well.)
The shipshape design was the brainchild of Robert V. Derrah, well known for his Streamline Moderne Coca Cola building across town on Central Avenue.
Here at Crossroads, a twirling [...]

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That’s Our Lady: Depictions of L.A.’s Namesake

Angeleno Sights
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Los Angeles is known throughout the world as the City of Angels, a fact reflected in this blog’s title. But as your humble blogger has pointed out before, the city’s founders didn’t really name their pueblo for the angels, but for the Virgin Mary (aka, Our Lady of the Angels).
As a reminder of this oft-forgotten [...]

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Photo Op: Pasadena’s City Hall

Angeleno Sights

This building ranks as one of Southern California’s true gems. Completed in 1927, it was designed by the San Francisco firm of Bakewell and Brown. The red tile roofing, cast stone details and massive six-story dome recall 16th Century Italian architectural cues.
When I set out to snap my night photos, I began with the much [...]

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Rediscovering an Elysian Valley Treasure

Angeleno Sights

Sometimes it feels like I just don’t get around as much as I used to.
How else to explain my embarrassing ignorance of a splendid little pocket park practically in my own backyard?
Acting on a tip from a source that will remain nameless (OK, it was this month’s issue of Sunset Magazine), your humble blogger set [...]

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Pop Quiz: Freeway Firsts

Angeleno Sights

Dateline>City of Angels hasn’t served up a Pop Quiz in a while, so let’s revive the feature with a relatively easy question, shall we?
The Question: Los Angeles has long been known as the epicenter of Southern California’s car culture. Not surprisingly, the state’s first freeway was born here. (Many claim it’s actually the first freeway [...]

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Photo Op: Grand Avenue’s Artsy New School

Angeleno Sights

My regular readers may be wondering where I’ve been lately. The answer is all over town.
Two magazine writing gigs, plus continued work on my book have kept me plenty busy. Add to that a documentary film class that I started at the Echo Park Film Center a couple of weeks ago, and you’ve got the [...]

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Photo Op: Seeing the Lights in Altadena

Angeleno Sights

Still in a holiday mood? That’s OK, because technically the Christmas season runs the next twelve days until January 6, when the Christian world celebrates Epiphany, or the Feast of the Magi. So, if you’re looking for something to do this second night of Christmas (or the third or fourth, for that matter), why not [...]

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Cryptic Sights No. 3: Monument to a Wireless Operator

Angeleno Sights

Among the things I enjoy most about old graveyards are the many untold tales they contain.
Let yourself wander amid all the monuments to the rich and famous, and you’ll also find countless revelations about the life-and-death struggles of us common folk, whose stories would otherwise be lost to time.
A case in point is this riven [...]

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