DK Travel : Los Angeles : History & Culture

Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Hollywood Heritage Museum

This museum is housed in the 1895 barn where Jesse Lasky and Cecil B. De Mille set up Hollywood’s first major film studio in 1913. Originally located at Selma Avenue and Vine Street, De Mille shot Hollywood’s first full-length feature The Squaw Man here in 1913–14. Exhibits include a recreated studio as well as plenty of photographs, props, and memorabilia from the silent movie era.
Hollywood Sign

From the very beginning, the shiny white Hollywood sign atop Mount Lee was meant to attract attention, originally for the real estate developer and publisher Harry Chandler. Built in 1923 at a cost of $21,000, the sign was once illuminated by 4,000 bulbs and had its own caretaker. Each letter is 50 ft (15 m) tall and is made of sheet metal. In 1932, unemployed actress Peggy Entwistle immortalized herself by leaping to her death off the H. It’s illegal to hike to the sign, but the top of Beachwood Drive gets you fairly close to LA’s most recognizable landmark.
Huntington Library, Art Collections, & Botanical Gardens

This treasure trove of high culture is the legacy of railroad baron Henry E. Huntington. He made his vast fortune as a real estate speculator and owner of LA’s first mass transit system, the Big Red Cars (see Henry Huntington’s Big Red Cars).
Junípero Serra (1713–84)

Spanish missionary and founder of 21 California missions, including LA’s Mission San Gabriel.
Little Tokyo

The Japanese have been a presence in LA since the 1880s, but radical redevelopment in the 1960s replaced most of Little Tokyo’s original structures with bland modern architecture. The few surviving buildings on East First Street are now protected as a National Historic Landmark. Stop at the Japanese American National Museum, and check out the MOCA Geffen Contemporary close by, and the Japanese Village Plaza.
Long Beach Museum of Art

This small community museum mounts several temporary exhibits annually in addition to showing selections from its permanent collection. A tour of the galleries yields encounters with paintings and drawings by early 20th-century European and Californian artists along with furniture and decorative objects from throughout American history. The museum is distinguished by a waterfront location with great views of Long Beach’s famous offshore oil wells.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

It’s impossible not to marvel when touring the galleries of this well-respected art and culture museum. A virtual cornucopia of paintings, sculpture, furniture, and objects that would take several days to peruse awaits in six buildings. LACMA also hosts international touring exhibits.
Los Angeles Maritime Museum

This Art Deco museum celebrates LA’s seafaring tradition through displays of ship models, photographs, nautical equipment, and memorabilia. A highlight is the exhibit about the USS Los Angeles, a navy cruiser that saw battle in China and during the Korean War. A recreated 18-ft (5.4-m) model of the ill-fated Titanic is a crowd pleaser.
Lummis House

Now the headquarters of the Historical Society of Southern California, this was once the home of the eccentric Charles Fletcher Lummis (1859–1928), who walked the entire 3,000 miles (4,830 km) from Ohio to LA in 1885. Best known as an outspoken California booster and preservationist, Lummis built his house with his own hands out of concrete and found materials, including boulders and railroad rails. The house is also known as El Alisal, the Spanish name for sycamore, which once grew here in abundance.
Malibu Adamson House & Malibu Lagoon Museum

Located on a bluff overlooking the Malibu Lagoon, this Spanish Colonial-style mansion was built by Rhoda Rindge Adamson and her husband, Merritt, in 1928. The complex showcases hand-painted ceramic tiles manufactured by Malibu Potteries, owned by the Rindge family. The Rindges also built the Malibu Colony, a celebrity enclave now home to Tom Hanks and Barbra Streisand. The Malibu Lagoon Museum next to the Adamson House chronicles Malibu’s history, from its Chumash Indian origins to its position as movie star Shangri-la.

Intricate tile detail in Adamson House