It was during the Victorian era, from 1837 to 1901, that Los Angeles transformed from a small, dusty Mexican outpost into a Gilded Age American boom town. Thousands of homes were built during this ...

Two stray pit bulls swaggered like old pals toward the intersection of Florence and Normandie. On the northeast corner was Tom’s Liquor, on the southeast corner sat a Unocal station, and the northwest ...

In the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, wholesome American families embarking on road trip vacations actually wanted to stay in motels. They weren’t just affordable and convenient—they were in fashion. They ...

On some nights, the small islands off the shore of Long Beach shine with bright Vegas-style lights: orange, yellow, red and blue. Rising around a quarter mile off the coast, they feature colorful ...

Deep dives on cities, architecture, design, real estate, and urban planning. Part of The beginner’s guide to Los Angeles People who don’t know any better like to say Los Angeles has no seasons, but ...

In 1978, Los Angeles agreed to host the 1984 Summer Olympics and, as described in the official report of the games, a small, secretive organizing committee formed to oversee the delivery and ...

As a child, Glen Norman had a streetlight directly in front of his family’s house in Westchester. It was a simple concrete post-top model, crowned with an acorn-shaped luminaire. He remembers how, ...

It’s Christmas Eve. As most of Los Angeles is tucked in bed waiting for Santa, hundreds of FBI and Los Angeles Police Department officers swarm around the gleaming Nakatomi tower, a half-built example ...

Los Angeles’s noir reputation is hard-earned: From the early days of the film industry, it’s seen murder after lurid murder, often made more lurid by the voraciousness of a press that can’t pass up a ...

There’s a black-and-white photograph taken in 1953 that shows a crowd of enraptured onlookers staring through the bullet-riddled windows of a Los Angeles diner, one woman cocking a painted fingernail ...

Today, the LA River is an “oddball” mash-up of concrete and nature. David McNew/Getty Images The Los Angeles River is on the verge of a new era. In the few years since the flood control channel was ...

The Los Angeles skyline might not be as famous as Chicago’s or New York’s. But thanks to Hollywood and the movie business, LA’s got plenty of buildings that are instantly identifiable (regardless of ...