History
How LA addressed its housing shortage with a single megadevelopment
In the 1950s, Park La Brea was built to house 10,000 residents in 18 high-rises and dozens of garden apartments.
Amazing original Disneyland designs included a working farm
Disney’s plans for the park were even more ambitious than what was actually built.
The LaBianca house of Manson notoriety is for sale
The Los Feliz home where the LaBiancas were murdered by the Manson "family" is for sale for $1.98 million.
An urban oasis
Village Green is an affordable "garden city" in the heart of Los Angeles.
How the aviation industry shaped Los Angeles
The fascinating, strangely forgotten history is recounted in a new four-part documentary produced by KCET.
1959 ad shows where in LA you could get on a ‘funliner’ bus
The advertisement emphasizes the strength of LA’s bus system at a time when the city’s once-bustling streetcar lines were being slowly taken out of service.
How LA’s health craze birthed modernist design
In her new book, author Lyra Kilston connects the city’s wellness culture to its streamlined, sun-drenched homes.
The 1899 plan to build a bike highway from Pasadena to Downtown
It’s a bittersweet tale of what might have been.
Dolores Huerta deserves more than a square
Compared to Cesar Chavez, Huerta is still vastly under-honored in Los Angeles.
A century of Los Angeles summer fun
Before TV, the internet, and air conditioning, the young LA park system provided crucial space for summer recreation. Here’s a look at what summer was like 100 years ago in three of LA’s most beloved parks.
The sunshine cure
Long before celebrities recuperated in Malibu, LA’s climate was promoted to East Coast and Midwestern residents sick of brutal winters and sweltering summers.
Filed under:
- Map
Mapping LA’s Zoot Suit Riots
The riots are one of the darkest chapters in LA history.
The designer who gave Googie its flair
With Armet and Davis, Helen Liu Fong designed some of the most iconic cafes and diners in LA.
The abandoned movie ranch where Manson launched Helter Skelter
Spahn Ranch was Manson’s kingdom.
In 1974, buses painted like submarines took kids to LA beaches
The "Street Fleet" lasted for one sweet summer.
Life, death, and bathing in LA’s first water system
LA’s earliest attempt to harness water was a system of irrigation ditches called zanjas, and they were the lifeblood of the booming pueblo.
How Crenshaw became black LA’s main street
"Crenshaw Boulevard is the main street of black LA. Has been, still is, and hopefully always will be."
The notorious Los Feliz murder house is looking for a new owner
Cash offers only.
LA has ‘the best Koreatown outside of Korea’
How one immigrant’s enterprising vision transformed the neighborhood into a bustling Korean-led mini city.
Watch the only extant footage of Union Station’s 1939 opening
Incredibly, color footage of the fanfare still exists.
What really happened at Rustic Canyon’s rumored Nazi ranch?
Rumors abound about the Murphy Ranch ruins. This is the true history.
The modernist enclave that tested a utopian vision of LA
In the 1940s, four friends set out to build a community where the houses were affordable and stylish and neighbors shared similar beliefs in progressive ideals.
Family photos from the 1970s capture a vanishing LA
"I hope that people who see my photos get an appreciation for the ephemerality of life."
The fabulous Florence Yoch
To design the shaded splendors of Tara, producer David O. Selznick had only one person in mind: Florence Yoch.
Glitter, glam, grit
The Sunset Strip in the 1980s was nothin’ but a good time—and tight leather and teased hair.
Capturing the soul of the city he loved
Street artist Leo Politi chronicled a changing Los Angeles.
Rebellion and rock ‘n’ roll: The Sunset Strip in the 1960s
How go-go dancing teens—and the underage clubs that embraced them—turned the Strip technicolor.
Filed under:
- Map
These real-life Green Book locations still stand in LA
They were the only safe places for black travelers in Jim Crow-era Los Angeles.
The fearless newspaper publisher who crusaded for fair housing
Charlotta Bass used the power of the pen to fight racist housing laws.
Filed under:
- Map
The neon sign maker that lit up California
Electrical Products Corp. dominated the West Coast—then it disappeared.
When mobsters and movie stars ruled the Sunset Strip
The end of Prohibition signaled a new outlaw era on the Strip—one that was both dangerous and glamorous.
The dam collapse that ruined Mulholland’s career
William Mulholland was LA’s water demigod—until disaster struck.
The Downtown LA that just won’t quit
These then-and-now photos show off buildings and public spaces that have endured for decades.
Filed under:
- Map
The Black Dahlia’s Los Angeles, mapped
Elizabeth Short frequented every major nightclub, hotel, and restaurant still standing from postwar-era Los Angeles.
The early, Wild West days of the Sunset Strip
How a dusty road became the Sunset Strip—the most famous place in LA to misbehave.
Take a drive through Downtown LA—then and now
A short film shows how much Bunker Hill has changed since the 1940s.
The musical heyday of Laurel Canyon
In the 1960s, there was an "amazing tribal life" among musicians like Joni Mitchell and Carole King.
9 views of the LA River before and after it was paved in 1938
One photographer painstakingly reshot old photos of the once-volatile waterway.
Curbed LA’s 13 best longreads of 2018
From Pepperdine’s evacuation plans to Los Angeles’s magnificent streetlights.