Author Archives: Nathan Marsak

Since you’ve read Bunker Hill, Los Angeles and Los Angeles Before the Freeways, you are aware that early Los Angeles was shaped by an impressive array of top-shelf architects, most of whom have receded into obscurity. Antonio Gonzalez, a distinguished librarian and devoted chronicler of early Los Angeles, seeks to deepen your understanding of thisContinue reading “New Book on Early L.A. Architects!”

Greetings, faithful Bunker Hill blog reader! Having perused my posts here, you know I criticize incompetent “journalists” who befoul the mainstream press, and routinely malign those propaganda-pushing “historians” who infect the internet with their mortifying twaddle. But then I’m sure you roll your eyes and say “well, Nathan, anyone can deride AI, or pick onContinue reading “Chavez Ravine in John Laslett’s “Shameful Victory””

For reasons now lost to me — I spend way too much time falling down internet rabbit holes — I came across the 1964 Loyola High School yearbook, on classmates.com. Their theme that year was “Communication” and as such begins with this sterling image: Which is, of course, the tower atop the Bell Telephone buildingContinue reading “The First Microwave Tower, 1962-1967”

The other day I did a post about Artificial Intelligence. In the comments on the accompanying Instagram post, CC DeVere of Frenchtown Confidential hipped me to this commiserating post of hers, wherein she’d asked ChatGPT about French influence in early Los Angeles, and was rewarded with a bunch of nonsense. Apparently that sort of thingContinue reading “Let’s Ask ChatGPT Some Stuff!”

James Oviatt lived on Bunker Hill, before he became the greatest haberdasher in Los Angeles history, and before he built Los Angeles’s greatest building. I talk about him at length here, but, in a nutshell: Even if James Oviatt wasn’t a Bunker Hill boy, you’d still really, really want to go to the Oviatt BuildingContinue reading “Incredible Oviatt Talk!”

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to make us smarter — which we know to be true, because when I asked an AI chatbot if that were true, it said yes. I’m glad that in the future we’ll all have 200 IQ and shall live in peace and harmony, our giant AI-augmented intellects having solved allContinue reading “Bunker Hill, AI, and the End of Intelligence”

The other day my buddy Bryan Moore (whose aunt you’ll remember from this post) sent me a link to a 1957 episode of Official Detective called “Pork Pie Hat.” Hey, he said, sure looks like Bunker Hill to me, but I’ll leave that up to your expert eye. Holy-freakin’ heck. It isn’t every day somethingContinue reading “Bunker Hill in “Official Detective””

Greetings! Though this is a Bunker Hill blog, I will on occasion cover tangentially-related subjects (like Chavez Ravine or Cooper Donuts, or even Disneyland), especially if there’s debunking to be done. Today’s debunking, though, is altogether unrelated to Bunker Hill. After being told for the millionth time that Roger Rabbit is a documentary, I’m finallyContinue reading “No, Everyone, there was No Los Angeles Streetcar Conspiracy”

Remember how I recently had the good fortune to uncover some previously unseen Astoria images? Well, something similarly rare and unknown just bubbled to the surface again, and it’s a doozy. An image was posted by famed Angels Flight operator Will on his saturdaystationagent Instagram account; you might remember my shout out to him andContinue reading “Incredible New Court Flight Image!”

Ok, I know this is really off the topic of Bunker Hill, and I am well aware there is zero reason to get worked up about something posted in the reeking cesspool that is TikTok. But I write about Chavez Ravine because of Bunker Hill, so now I’ll write about Disneyland because of Chavez Ravine,Continue reading “Disneyland Gets the Chavez Ravine Treatment”