One of the key challenges in understanding LGBTQ history is deciphering changes in word choice and language over time. Words that are common among community members and scholars today may have had vastly different meanings (or not existed at all) in the past. We recognize that there are many different interpretations of, and a sensitivity […]

Throughout the 1980s, much of the Los Angeles basin and San Fernando Valley were being built out. Open agricultural land and undeveloped hillsides had once offered a blank slate for development; in the 1980s the emphasis of development shifted to the challenge of infill projects, additions, redevelopment for denser uses, and preservation. Yet even the […]

Etan Rosenbloom is a blogger on L.A. history, a lifelong Angeleno, and a proud L.A. Conservancy member!

The former Cathedral of St. Vibiana was one of the Conservancy's toughest battles and greatest victories.

How to find historical information about the places you care about

Southern Californians sensed that the astonishing future they had eagerly anticipated since the 1920s had finally arrived in the 1960s. The boom of the 1950s had been the launching pad; by 1964 California became the largest state in the union; its aerospace, oil, electronics, tourist, and entertainment industries dominated the nation; its economy became one […]

This courtyard apartment is one of the only multi-family residences designed by famed builder William Mellenthin.