Skip to main content

History

Support Provided By
Parker Center rendering
Parker Center’s empty corridors and offices are filled with memories, many of them painful.
Braly Block (header)
Upon its completion in 1904, the Braly Block was hailed as L.A.'s first skyscraper.
Pico Heights on an 1894 birdseye city view
During the 1970s, the name Pico Heights was erased from maps and today the name is all but forgotten.
La Cienega oil derrick
If a picture is worth a thousand words, so are the stories behind how this massive collection came to be.
Harris Newmark, circa 1900-10
L.A. was an adobe town when Harris Newmark arrived in 1853. It was a metropolis when he died there in 1916.
winnemem-wintu-dancers-10-27-16.jpg
If we see Native people as expert colleagues instead of historical figures, we all stand a greater chance of working together.
A Saloon
To many in the late 19th century, these "hatcheries of sin" were an unwelcome reminder that the City of Angels did not always live up to its name.
 Clydesdale draft horses pull a fire wagon as they enter the 1958 Rose Parade in Pasadena | Photo by Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
How horses caused a break with tradition.
El Segundo
El Segundo was officially incorporated nearly six years after the arrival of Big Oil, on January 18, 1917 – making this coming January the city’s official centennial. Here are five of this oil town’s greatest contributions to the Southland.
Victor Gruen smoking
Seventy-five years ago, Victor Gruen arrived in Los Angeles and forever changed our collective shopping experiences.
La Pastorela (1931)
Still performed today, La Pastorela was among the first theatrical productions staged in Southern California.
California as an Island (no border)
With their fanciful imaginings and their deliberate distortions, these six maps of California will challenge your preconceptions about the Golden State.
Active loading indicator