Creating advocates for history through the stories of greater Los Angeles.
by Paul R. Spitzzeri In its significant study of the early history and development of City of Industry, the Stanford Research Institute spent a good deal of time looking at existing conditions through 1963 and, to an extent, to the next several years to 1970. The fourth part of the report than moved to "Projected... Continue Reading →
by Paul R. Spitzzeri Just a couple of weeks ago, media firm Meredith, which just purchased last November the parent company of the venerable news magazine, TIME (yes, it's all caps), for $2.8 million, announced it was selling the empire, which includes such magazines as People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and Entertainment Weekly. Meredith's deal, which included selling $650 million... Continue Reading →
by Paul R. Spitzzeri The first presentation of our three-part series on early greater Los Angeles photography was this afternoon, given by Philip D. Nathanson, a long-time collector of pre-1890 regional images with a tremendous amount of knowledge about the subject. Phil gave his talk with many illustrations of views and supplemented that with much... Continue Reading →
by Paul R. Spitzzeri In order for the Homestead to carry out its mission of "creating advocates for history through the stories of greater Los Angeles," the museum relies heavily on volunteers. These dedicated advocates give tours, care for our collections and buildings, assist with administrative work of all kinds, and provide a great deal... Continue Reading →
by Paul R. Spitzzeri Today being Easter, it seems like as good a time as any to introduce a new series of posts called "Take It On Faith," highlighting artifacts from the Homestead's collection dealing with religion and spiritual matters. There have been a few posts in the past that have dealt with some of... Continue Reading →
by Paul R. Spitzzeri It's sometimes too easy to get trapped inside the office and forget that the Homestead had a remarkable landscape, thanks to the financial support of the City of Industry, the general oversight of our facilities coordinator Robert Barron, and the day-to-day care provided by contractor Square Root Landscaping. Obviously, much of... Continue Reading →
by Paul R. Spitzzeri In rural, agricultural portions of Los Angeles County, such as the eastern San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire, much of which was part of a citrus belt at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, citrus raising was a mainstay of the economy for decades in the late 19th through mid... Continue Reading →
by Paul R. Spitzzeri It is pretty amazing that, within the fifty years of 1850-1900, greater Los Angeles went from having no public schools or institutions of higher learning to having a well-developed public education system and some excellent colleges and universities. In many ways, this development mirrored transformations in education throughout the United States,... Continue Reading →
by Paul R. Spitzzeri Today's "Striking a Chord" entry on greater Los Angeles era music is a striking photograph by Miles F. Weaver of the summer class of the Earl and Olive Valentine Studio of Music and Art in Los Angeles for the 1927-28 year. The husband-and-wife proprietors stand at the center of the first... Continue Reading →
