Author Archives: Nathan Marsak

UPDATE! Due to overwhelming demand, the ADSLA has added ANOTHER tour! Yes, tickets for a November 6th ‘encore tour’ are now available. Buy soon: we anticipate them to sell out rapidly! Click here! https://artdecola.org/events-calendar/spooky-oviatt-tour-2022-encore It is the Spooky Month! There’s certainly no dearth of spookified going-ons around town, but if I may make a suggestion:Continue reading “A Haunted History of the Oviatt Penthouse!”

There are many disparate, interconnected elements to the study of Old Bunker Hill. Component parts include the Hill’s architecture, and stories of its residents, and the famous tale of its slash-and-burn urban renewal. Then there’s crime. The true-crime genre often casts an eye on Bunker Hill—heck, there’s a website, and book, devoted solely to theContinue reading “A Serial Killer on Bunker Hill”

You read that right, I have in fact secured gainful employment. Which is tough since I’m basically unemployable: there are evidently few wishing to engage my kind, whose lot in life is one endless discourse involving Bunker Hill. (That, coupled with this relentless need to go on and on about community mausolea and Richardsonian RomanesqueContinue reading “I Got a Job!”

I picked up a nifty old photo the other day and thought what the heck, I’ll give it a quick scan and toss it on the blog, you know, just to share. Of course one thing lead to another, and here we’ve ended up with 2800 words and about as many pictures. Ladies and gentlemen,Continue reading “The Richelieu”

The good folk at Esotouric—who, with the rest of the world, have been huddled in the collective basement these last couple years—are back with a vengeance! There are new tours to be had, and among the first is a walking tour of Bunker Hill. As in, sign up for the tour, meet the group nextContinue reading “Bunker Hill WALKING TOUR!”

Most of Bunker Hill’s lost houses are known, and beloved, for being Queen Anne. The Hill had some two-dozen first rate Queen Anne structures, famed for their asymmetrical facades and profusion of gingerbread. Bunker Hill’s “top five” (if their appearance and reappearance on those “Old LA” Facebook groups is any indication) are the Crocker, Rose,Continue reading “The Wills Mansion”

I hate to be that guy, but I mean, come on. The Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council passed a letter requesting City leaders to formally recognize the site of the Cooper Do-Nuts Riot, specifically, at 215 South Main: Irrespective of issues to be had with the alleged Cooper Do-Nut Riot (covered at length here andContinue reading “Cooper Do-Nuts, Pt. III”

While Bunker Hill was famously wiped clean, it does contain a small quantity of interesting archaeological sites. The telling soil contours at Second and Hill. A remaining bit of retaining wall at Fourth and Olive. Less known (or at least not as yet mentioned by me) is the retaining wall at Fourth and Hill. YouContinue reading “The Great Wall of Bunker Hill”

Googie architecture, in all its flamboyant space-age grandeur, has as its namesake the Lautner-designed 1949 Googies coffee shop at Sunset and Crescent Heights. There were four Googies in the coffee shop chain; the second of the four was designed by legendary coffee shop architects Armét & Davis, with all the atomic-era exuberance that had comeContinue reading “Bunker Hill GOOGIE!”

Gas up your jalopies, throw on your raccoon coat and make a beeline for USC—this Sunday!—where I’ll be beneath the statue of Tommy Trojan, signing books as part of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Among all that bibliomania, find the Angel City Press booth, #119, right here: Download your festival map here. SeeContinue reading “Book Signing!”