Avila AdobeThis adobe house was built ca. 1818 by Don Francisco Avila, alcalde (mayor) of Los Angeles in 1810. Used as Commodore Robert Stockton's headquarters i... [click for more]
Bella Union Hotel SiteNear this spot stood the Bella Union Hotel, long a social and political center. Here, on October 7, 1858, the first Butterfield Overland Mail stage fr... [click for more]
Brand Park (Memory Garden)Brand Park, also called Memory Garden, was given to the city for a park November 4, 1920. It is a part of the original land grant of Mission San Ferna... [click for more]
First Jewish Site in Los AngelesThe Hebrew Benevolent Society of Los Angeles (1854), first charitable organization in the city, acquired this site from the city council by deed of Ap... [click for more]
Hancock Park La BreaThe bones of thousands of prehistoric animals that had been entrapped during the Ice Age in pools of tar that bubbled from beneath the ground were exh... [click for more]
Los Angeles Memorial ColiseumThis stadium was originally completed in 1923. It was partially redesigned and enlarged for the 1932 Olympic Games. Both designs were by architects Jo... [click for more]
Los Angeles PlazaA part of the original pueblo lands of El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula founded in 1781 under the Spanish Laws of the Indies during... [click for more]
Lugo Adobe Historical MarkerThe Lugo Adobe, said to have been built in the 1840s by Don Vicente Lugo, was one of the very few two-story houses in the pueblo of Los Angeles. In 18... [click for more]
Merced TheatreThe Merced Theatre, erected in 1870 on North Main Street next to the Pico House, was the first building built expressly for theatrical purposes in Los... [click for more]
Navy and Marine Corps Reserve CenterDesigned as the largest enclosed structure without walls in the world by noted California architects Robert Clements and Associates, this Art Deco bui... [click for more]
Nuestra Señora La Reina De Los AngelesLa Iglesia de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles-the Church of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels-was dedicated on December 8, 1822 during Californi... [click for more]
Old Santa Monica Forestry StationIn 1887, the State Board of Forestry established the nation's first experimental forestry station. Located in Rustic Canyon, the station tested exotic... [click for more]
Portolá Trail Campsite (i)Spanish colonization of California began in 1769 with the expedition of Don Gaspar de Portolá from Mexico. With Captain Don Fernando Rivera v M... [click for more]
Santa Anita Assembly Center and Pomona Assembly Center, Temporary Detention Camps for Japanese AmericansThe temporary detention camps (also known as 'assembly centers') represent the first phase of the mass incarceration of 97,785 Californians of Japanes... [click for more]
Serra SpringsThe Portolá Expedition of 1769 encamped at this spring, and it is reported that in 1770 Father Serra said Mass here to the Indians of this area... [click for more]
St. Vincent’s PlaceThis was the site of Saint Vincent's College from 1868 to 1887. The college, now Loyola University, was founded by the Vincentian Fathers in 1865 and ... [click for more]
The Los Angeles Star Newspaper (original site)Southern California's first newspaper, The Los Angeles Star, was founded in this block on May 17, 1851 and for many years exerted a major influence up... [click for more]
The Mirror Building (site of Butterfield Stage Station)The Butterfield Overland Mail Company took an option on this piece of property in August 1858 and acquired it on December 7, 1859. A large brick build... [click for more]
Watts Towers of Simon RodiaThe Watts Towers are perhaps the nation's best known work of folk art sculpture. Using simple hand tools, cast off materials (glass, shell, pottery pi... [click for more]