From the category archives:

Angeleno Sights

Scenic Snapshot: Shades of the Past

Angeleno Sights

A shrouded figure keeps its mournful, graveside vigil at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery. Countless old monuments like this lend the historic boneyard an “authentic” atmosphere that you won’t find in our modern commercialized cemeteries.
Los Angeles’ first “fully integrated” graveyard, Angelus Rosedale dates to the 1880s and is the final resting place of many of the city’s [...]

View full item →

Double Blast From the Past

Angeleno Sights

Angeleno sightseers rejoice! Below you’ll find two more posts on the city’s heritage. The first, Fr. Crespi’s Beautiful Storm Drain, is a brand-new one dedicated to our mighty flood control channel, aka the “Los Angeles River.” The second, At Least You’ll Die Laughing, is another favorite from my former Website that recalls one of L.A.’s [...]

View full item →

Fr. Crespi’s Beautiful Storm Drain

Angeleno Sights

This month in 1769 a small but intrepid band of Spanish explorers encamped in the L.A. basin near present-day Elysian Park. Led by Gaspar Portola and accompanied by Padre Juan Crespi, the contingent was charged with surveying the vast California wilderness between Mission San Diego and Monterey Bay. Their long trek met with many discoveries, [...]

View full item →

At Least You’ll Die Laughing

Angeleno Sights

It’s not the safest landmark to visit, but this lonely obelisk recalls a significant milestone in movie-making history. Here in Echo Park, along the 1700-1800 blocks of Glendale Blvd., once stood the five-acre Keystone Pictures Studio of Mack Sennett, silent filmdom’s King of Comedy.
Before the rise of Hollywood, the Echo Park/Silverlake area (then called Edendale) [...]

View full item →

Tarts and Misdemeanors

Angeleno Sights

As the $14.6-million rehabilitation of Los Angeles’ Hall of Justice progresses, August seems a fiitting month to recall a long-lost chapter in the building’s colorful past.
I’m not talking about the trial of legendary 1930s “Trunk Murdress” Winnie Ruth Judd, or the proceedings involving mobster Bugsy Siegel, or even the autopsy of Marilyn Monroe, all of [...]

View full item →

No Bull: The Ring Was Here!

Angeleno Sights
Thumbnail image for No Bull: The Ring Was Here!

Next time you visit L.A.’s Chinatown, stroll to the northwest corner of College and Hill, close your eyes, open your mind, and listen ever so carefully. If you’re psychic enough, you just might hear shouts of “Ole!” echoing from the past.
That’s because within a few yards of here, on the grounds of the Pacific Alliance [...]

View full item →

This Week’s Preservation Setbacks

Angeleno Sights

It hasn’t been a good week for preservationist-minded Angelenos. First came the word that the historic downtown Herald Examiner Building now faces demolition. Then came news of the actual destruction of the oldest home in Van Nuys. (Originally built circa 1911, the old Sylvan Street bungalow was first erected to attract potential suburbanites to the [...]

View full item →

Another L.A. Landmark to Bite the Dust

Angeleno Sights

This past year saw the demolition of L.A.’s celebrated Ambassador Hotel. Sadly, the coming year may see the destruction of another historic downtown landmark. LAObserved reports that the classic Julia Morgan-designed Herald-Examiner Building now faces the wrecking ball. (In a town already widely known for bulldozing its architectural heritage at every turn, this news can’t [...]

View full item →

Next Entries →