@lahistory.bsky.social
Jogging the collective memory of Los Angeles through social media since 2009. Some people think LA has no history. They just don't know where to look.
Frank Gehry was interviewed for Alta Journal's recent Art & Architecture issue. Acc’g to this interview, Diane Disney Miller (daughter of #WaltDisney) played a critical role in securing the #DisneyHall commission for #FrankGehry. www.altaonline.com/culture/arch... #Architecture
05.12.2025 21:07 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0🕊️ RIP Frank Gehry! 🕊️
"For Gehry, this seemingly chaotic [Los Angeles] cityscape represented a kind of openness, and freedom..." LA Times obit: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
In 2023, #FrankGehry received a standing ovation during the 20th anniversary celebration for the Walt Disney Concert Hall:
Raising a glass in honor of #RepealDay, as Prohibition officially ended #onthisday in 1933. Los Angeles Times (December 6, 1933):
05.12.2025 18:16 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Helms Bakery "is set in a historic #CulverCity bldg that served as a wholesale baking operation from 1931 to 1969. 'By 1969, rising costs & the rise of mass-produced supermarket bread brought the bakery to a close,' Yoon writes in the Instagram post." @eater.bsky.social: la.eater.com/restaurant-c...
05.12.2025 17:35 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
"Based in Los Angeles for most of his life, Parker is known for his landscapes and depiction of postwar suburban homes celebrating indoor-outdoor living and a burgeoning consumer culture." #NEH (2012): www.neh.gov/divisions/pr...
05.12.2025 05:32 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A black & white photo of the Richfield building (at night) in downtown Los Angeles as photographed by Maynard L. Parker, courtesy of the Huntington Library's Maynard L. Parker collection. https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll5/id/20012/rec/508
A black & white photo of the Ambassador Hotel as photographed by Maynard L. Parker. Photo comes from the Huntington Library's Marynard L. Parker collection: https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll5/id/18525/rec/1066
A black & white self portrait of Maynard L. Parker photographing the bedroom of the Hilda Boldt Weber residence in 1939. Photo comes from the Huntington Library's Marynard L. Parker collection: https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll5/id/18785/rec/573
“Today only a small circle of scholars & mid-twentieth century architecture enthusiasts know the name Maynard L. Parker. Yet at the height of his career in the postwar era, Parker’s byline appeared everywhere." books.google.com/books?id=XTz...
#Architectural photog Maynard Parker was born #OTD.
Dec 20: Last Address Tribute: Los Angeles "honors sites, people, & histories of #DTLA & #EastLA critical to understanding artistic, community-based narratives of the #AIDS epidemic, with a focus on queer Chicanx artists & activists." #LGTBQhistory
Few tix left -> www.eventbrite.com/e/last-addre...
ACT UP/LA's vigil outside Los Angeles General Hospital in July 1988. The image of a person wearing a skeleton mask laying on a cot comes from the ONE Archives, archived at USC Libraries (https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/Share/5376gk327m8ox4s260cg26151g0p836s). The person is holding an orange sign that reads "Silence = Death / AIDS Unit Now"
Dec 4, 1987: AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power/Los Angeles (ACT UP/LA) met for the first time in #WeHo.
"Hundreds of demonstrations later, ACT UP/LA has had a major impact on #AIDS care in LA County and Southern California." Info via ##ONEArchives: www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:... #LGBTQhistory
Dec 13 @ 1pm: Ofelia Esparza and her family will lead “The Matrilineal Power: Ofelia Esparza and Family Walkthrough” at the Vincent Price Museum (VPAM). vpam.org/event/the-ma... #DiadelosMuertos #DayoftheDead
04.12.2025 19:24 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
VPAM's exhibition "pays tribute to the full breadth of [Ofelia] Esparza’s work — which includes not just the altars for which she is known, but also drawings, prints, paintings, & installations that push the format of the altar to its limits," @cmonstah.bsky.social. email.kcrw.com/ofelia-espar...
04.12.2025 19:20 — 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
"When the original Santa’s Village was in operation, it was common for Santa to snip a lock of his visitors’ hair." 🎅🏽✂
"10 Things You Didn't Know About #SantasVillage" -> skyparksantasvillage.com/10-things-yo...
☃️ Santa’s Village turned 70 this year. The Lake Arrowhead theme park opened Memorial Day weekend in 1955 (weeks before Disneyland). skyparksantasvillage.com/parks/santas...
#SantasVillage brochure via @lapubliclibrary.bsky.social: dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/cali...
Took this photo of the Grier Musser Museum during my 2014 tour of this Victorian landmark.
Sun @ 1pm: The Grier Musser Museum is hosting its annual Victorian Christmas House Tour (located here -> maps.app.goo.gl/uNpo7iqQizsx...). Info via Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/11716... #victorianarchitecture #HouseMuseums
03.12.2025 17:56 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Ben Steinberg "began contacting the theater’s owner for updates, photographing the blighted Dome facade, and speaking to the scant workers at the theater site. It became clear to Steinberg that the #CineramaDome was languishing." mashable.com/article/cine... [h/t @esotouric.bsky.social] #LosAngeles
02.12.2025 17:15 — 👍 11 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
"In his latest book, 'Liberals with Attitude: The Rodney King Beating and the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles', Goldberg chronicles the ultimately successful effort to make #DarylGates step down & reform the city’s charter..." @capitalandmain.bsky.social: capitalandmain.com/accountable-...
02.12.2025 16:31 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane Model Railroad Society will be open for the December 6th Lighting Ceremony (and every Saturday in December). Info via Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/27707... #modeltrains #Altadena
01.12.2025 21:05 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Image about the Christmas Tree Lane Lighting Ceremony comes from Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DO1HqFfkYWW/
Sat @ 6pm: This year is the 105th anniversary of Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane Lighting Ceremony. It's amazing how the #ChristmasTreeLane organizers/volunteers were able to continue this 105-year-old tradition despite all that was lost in the #EatonFire. #Altadena
01.12.2025 19:13 — 👍 8 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Tonight @ 6:30pm: The 32nd Noche de las Memorias at Plaza de La Raza will feature a performance by Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles. www.thewalllasmemorias.org/noche_de_las... #WorldAIDSDay
01.12.2025 17:34 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Took this photo of The Wall Las Memorias AIDS Monument in Lincoln Park in 2021.
Took this photo of The Wall Las Memorias AIDS Monument in Lincoln Park in 2021. The text reads: The Wall Las Memorias is an eternal monument to honor our loved ones who have died from AIDS. Las Memorias is a place for family and loved ones to be joined by the community. It is here, we grieve and restore honor to our dead. It is here, we heal and through acceptance, destroy denial and ignorance. It is here, we awaken to reclaim an understanding of self, ancestry and culture. It is here, we free ourselves from the teaching of guilt. We unite as one people in our vision, our teaching, and our truth. Trough truth we live, through knowledge we survive By Anna Contreras and Richard Zaldivar, 1995
On this #WorldAIDSDay, a look at The Wall Las Memorias AIDS Monument in Lincoln Park.
On December 1, 2004, "the first publicly funded AIDS monument in the nation was dedicated before thousands of supporters and community leaders." www.thewalllasmemorias.org/monument
The legendary Vin Scully was born #onthisday in 1927.
"There was another reason fans felt compelled to bring their portable radios to the ballpark: #VinScully instantly captivated the Southland," #SABR. sabr.org/bioproj/pers...
UCLA and USC's football teams “first competed against each other in 1929, with USC winning 76-0,” @ddavisla.bsky.social (from Davis' book “Play by Play: Los Angeles Sports Photography, 1889–1989). #UCLA #USC #collegefootball
Los Angeles Times (September 29, 1929):
Yes! And prepared with this Thrifty's ice cream scoop (image from Ralphs: www.ralphs.com/p/thrifty-ol...)
27.11.2025 18:06 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Was inspired to share this thread when I saw that the Thrifty’s sign on my local Rite Aid had been taken down. 💔
Before & after:
“Norman [Levin] had the idea to put tables next to the soda fountain and people would have lunch or dinner there. It didn’t make much money, but it was successful in bringing people into the store.” www.lamag.com/digestblog/t...
27.11.2025 17:35 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
In addition to selling food, household items, toys, clothes & toiletries, Thrifty's also served 89-cent dinners at its Fountain Grill.
◼️ Thrifty's in #DTLA via @usclibraries.bsky.social: digitallibrary.usc.edu/Share/y3s1k1...
◼️ LA Daily News ad (1949):
“There’s No Dinner Finer Than Thrifty’s Eighty-Niner!”
A Thrifty’s appreciation post on this #ThanksgivingDay. The LA Times’ “Where to Dine: Thanksgiving” (1950):
A photo of a wild turkey taken by iNaturalist user kylenessen.
An illustrated depiction of M. californica.
🦃 Happy Thanksgiving! Did you know the wild turkey has fossil roots in L.A.? #TarPits researchers uncovered nearly 12,000 bones of a now-extinct turkey species from the Ice Age!
Discover which turkeys walked the same ground we do today: bit.ly/TarPitsTurke...
The Gold Rush Steak House at the legendary Madonna Inn is all dressed up for the holidays (this was my first time having dinner here)! #madonnainn #california
25.11.2025 17:43 — 👍 11 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Dec 5 & 6: As part of its “Radical Histories: Chicano Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum” exhibit, the Huntington Library is hosting a 2-day conference -> www.huntington.org/event/histor... #ChicanoHistory
24.11.2025 20:27 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
ICYMI: "The Stahl House stayed in the Stahl family for decades. Now, for the first time in its history, the Stahl House is for sale." @archpaper.com: www.archpaper.com/2025/11/stah... #casestudyhouses #PierreKoenig #StahlHouse
24.11.2025 17:52 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
