by Kim Cooper | Jun 6, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
To go directly to the 3-D Angels Flight tour, click here. It has been 1005 days since Angels Flight Railway, the beloved funicular that is, with the exception of a stone retaining wall, the last remnant of the lost Victorian neighborhood of Bunker Hill, suffered a...
by Kim Cooper | May 29, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
Earlier today the Smell, the legendary all-ages club in Los Angeles’ historic Skid Row, shared a photograph of a demolition permit application notice posted on their building. Even at the start of a holiday weekend, the response from incensed patrons...
by Kim Cooper | May 17, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
It was 1995 when arson claimed the derelict Hotel Californian at the corner of 6th and Bonnie Brae in the Westlake District. But before the grand old H-shaped structure was demolished, the city removed its massive twin neon roof signs and placed them behind a chain...
by Kim Cooper | May 7, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
Most Saturdays, we host a few dozen “gentle riders” on the Esotouric tour bus, revealing the lost lore of Los Angeles through visits to landmarks both notable and obscure. Because most of our passengers are Southland locals, we don’t offer tours during the...
by Kim Cooper | May 4, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
Here’s something new under the sun: a searchable database of 19th century California trademarks, including some delightful Los Angeles oddities. Whether your tastes run to sporting man’s club life or electrically-charged cordials, underpants full of flea...
by Kim Cooper | Apr 14, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
One of our favorite Los Angeles buildings is the Barclay Hotel (originally the Van Nuys), a Beaux Arts gem constructed in 1896 on the northwest corner of 4th and Main Streets by pioneering architects Morgan and Walls. We love the hotel because it’s beautiful,...
by Kim Cooper | Apr 9, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
Most Saturdays, we host a few dozen “gentle riders” on the Esotouric tour bus, revealing the lost lore of Los Angeles through visits to landmarks both notable and obscure. Because most of our passengers are Southland locals, we don’t offer tours during the busy...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 31, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
In the early morning hours of December 6, 1959 in a handsome Spanish-style mansion in hilly Los Feliz, California, Dr. Harold Perelson took up a hammer and murdered his wife Lillian in her bed, then attempted to kill his sleeping daughter Judy. But his aim was poor,...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 30, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
A couple of weeks ago, we trekked down into a trash filled drainage tunnel off the Los Angeles River with graffiti scholar Susan Phillips and 3-D photographer Craig Sauer to document a wordy folk art environment created by an obsessive 1940s-era hobo known only as JK....
by Kim Cooper | Mar 29, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
Most Saturdays, we host a few dozen “gentle riders” on the Esotouric tour bus, revealing the lost lore of Los Angeles through visits to landmarks both notable and obscure. Because most of our passengers are Southland locals, we don’t offer tours during the busy...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 28, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
We were nearly ready to head back to Los Angeles, after a full day exploring Helena Modjeska’s country house and other interesting Orange County canyon sites, when Richard suggested we pay a visit to historic Cook’s Corner. There’s been a building on...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 23, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
The rumors are true: this year’s wildflower bloom is really something to see! Come tag along with us as we leave Los Angeles at 4:30am to reach the canyons of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park while the shadows are still long on the land and the temperatures are...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 17, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
When our friend Susan Phillips–the graffiti scholar who recently took us to the Confluence of the Los Angeles River and Arroyo Seco to see century-old hobo inscriptions–told us about a riverside tunnel that had been elaborately carved by one...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 16, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
On a cool, spring day we left Los Angeles early, bound for the Orange County canyon home of Helena Modjeska, the great 19th century Polish actress who learned English in mid-life and tirelessly toured America, bringing culture and emotional honesty to the people. Our...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 10, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
Today we bid farewell to the old Long Beach Courthouse, designed by Kenneth S. Wing and Francis J. Heusel, 1960, demolished March 2016. These photos taken earlier this week are by architectural historian Dr. Louise Ivers of Long Beach Heritage, a great voice in the...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 8, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater needs your help! Click here to send an email of support. THE STORY: A developer wants to build a big apartment building on the site of this historic landmark. We believe that there can be apartments, but also a working puppet theater...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 4, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
Most Saturdays, we host a few dozen “gentle riders” on the Esotouric tour bus, revealing the lost lore of Los Angeles through visits to landmarks both notable and obscure. Because most of our passengers are Southland locals, we don’t offer tours...
by Kim Cooper | Feb 28, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
Long on our list of iconic Southern California sites to see was Rancho Camulos, the Spanish land grant rancho in the Santa Clara River Valley near Piru that inspired Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel of old Californio life, Ramona (1884). On Sunday, we had a chance to...
by Kim Cooper | Feb 1, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
If you read our most recent newsletter, you know how excited we are to have learned that some 102-year-old hobo graffiti survives on the undersides of bridges in the L.A. River. Today, we descended into the concrete channel with historian Susan Phillips to see some of...
by Kim Cooper | Jan 2, 2016 | The Esotouric Blog
This weekend* is your last chance to take a stroll across the iconic Sixth Street Bridge, that grand Art Deco passage between Boyle Heights and the Arts District. We were there tonight in the golden hour, along with dozens of bridge lovers armed with cameras,...
by Kim Cooper | Dec 31, 2015 | The Esotouric Blog
Gentle reader… As we slam the door on 2015, it’s time for that annual Esotouric tradition: our very opinionated list of the past year’s Top Los Angeles Historic Preservation Stories. Because preservation is never as simple as buildings being...
by Kim Cooper | Oct 6, 2015 | The Esotouric Blog
Update 10/8/2025: A decade after we wrote this post chronicling the sad state of the empty El Mirador Apartments, there are now (very expensive, less lovely than they used to be) units available for lease. Thanks to Janet “Houses of Hollywood” Grey for taking the tour...
by Kim Cooper | Sep 18, 2015 | The Esotouric Blog
Did Los Angeles poet and novelist Charles Bukowski ever have a childhood? Well, he was small here, in this Spanish style house in the West Adams district, where his brute of a father made him mow the lawn with a precision that no human boy could master, then beat him...
by Kim Cooper | Aug 20, 2015 | The Esotouric Blog
For many years, the only way to see any part of the interior of Claud Beelman’s magnificent Art Deco Garfield Building (1928-30), a National Register and Los Angeles landmark, was through a grubby glass door behind a metal grate. Despite a million dollar...
by Kim Cooper | Jun 8, 2015 | The Esotouric Blog
Oak Grove is a private cemetery opened in 1922, and owned and managed by Marilyn Stanza, who married into the founding family. Cemeteries without large perpetual care endowments can become difficult to maintain with time, and in recent years there have been complaints...
by Kim Cooper | Mar 14, 2015 | The Esotouric Blog
High in the Hollywood Hills, the 1927 Spanish castle that top cinematographer Oliver Marsh built was in pretty shabby shape by 1967, when wrestler/actor/carpenter George Ehling picked it up. Instead of restoring, he transformed the place into something brand new. Over...
by Kim Cooper | Jan 8, 2015 | The Esotouric Blog
Gentle reader… As we slam the door on 2014, it’s time for that annual Esotouric tradition: our very opinionated list of the past year’s Top Los Angeles Historic Preservation Stories. Because preservation is never as simple as buildings being lost...
by Kim Cooper | Nov 27, 2014 | The Esotouric Blog
On this Thanksgiving Eve 2014, in memory of absent friends, we share the photographs of Derek Hutchison, from the March 2010 edition of the Esotouric bus adventure Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice. Music: “Just Gone” by the Loud Family. If you...
by Kim Cooper | May 6, 2014 | The Esotouric Blog
When the Bahooka tiki restaurant in Rosemead closed in March 2013, there was one burning question on longtime patrons’ minds: what would happen to Rufus, the enormous, elderly, carrot-eating Pacu fish who welcomed guests from his tank beside the cash register?...
by Kim Cooper | May 2, 2014 | The Esotouric Blog
On the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the opening of L.A.'s grand Union Station, we bring you a psychedelic flashback from the building's 31st year, when the editors of The Los Angeles Times' "Home" section sent a trio of...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Oct 8, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
Over the Labor Day weekend, the Esotouric gang set off to explore some gems off California's beaten paths, bound for neon signage, petrographs (so much more delicate than their cousins, the -glyphs), peculiar Victorian mansions, thrift shops, mid-century time...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Sep 12, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
Over the Labor Day weekend, the Esotouric gang set off to explore some gems off California's beaten paths, bound for neon signage, petrographs (so much more delicate than their cousins, the -glyphs), peculiar Victorian mansions, thrift shops, mid-century time...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Jul 15, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
At the end of May, the Esotouric crew had a rare opportunity to tour a Southern California landmark which has long obsessed us: Sister Aimee Semple McPherson's 1929 Moorish-style castle, perched high above Lake Elsinore.The property has been in private hands for...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Jun 26, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
In late May, the Esotouric gang embarked on a California desert journey more demanding than many border crossings. It proved more rewarding, too. Our destination was Little Petroglyph Canyon, a National Historic Landmark located deep inside the Naval Air Weapons...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Jun 10, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
In early June, the Esotouric gang set off on a tour of Villa Aurora, the sprawling Spanish-Colonial Revival estate in Pacific Palisades that was for decades the home of the German emigrés Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger–he a journalist and novelist, she an athlete....
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Jun 4, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
In late May, the Esotouric gang set off on a desert road trip, with our compass set to points unusual and mysterious. You won’t find many stranger, or more awe-inspiring, attractions in Southern California than the Trona Pinnacles, the towering remnants of...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | May 28, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
In mid-May, the Esotouric gang set off to hike in one of the most sacred and seldom-visited of California’s 49 State Historic Parks: Tomo-Kahni. Located at the end of a steep dirt road on a ridge of the Tehachapi Mountains, Tomo-Kahni was for centuries the...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Apr 23, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
UPDATE – June 2020 Driving by to check on the Tamale, we noticed the door was open, and spoke with a man working on the interior. He says it will be available for rent around mid-July! UPDATE – March 2020 We reached out to the new owner numerous times in...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Mar 8, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
We complained about graffiti on the terrazzo in front of Clifton's Cafeteria in late February. The City's 3-1-1 service responded immediately: "On behalf of the City of Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and your City Council, thank you for...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Feb 22, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
It’s been a peculiar, and a sad few days. On Tuesday, a missing Canadian traveler, Elisa Lam, was discovered inside the rooftop water tank of the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. That hotel happens to be one of the stops on Esotouric’s tour Hotel...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Feb 11, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
Take a peep inside one of the strangest geothermal oddities in Southern California.If you want to see this strange place for yourself, put on shoes you don't much care about, and head for the intersection of Schrimpf and Davis Roads in Calipatria, California.For...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Jan 7, 2013 | The Esotouric Blog
In October, the Esotouric gang set off to enjoy four days of adventuring in northern New Mexico, in search of Mission-era adobe churches, dilapidated neon signage, hot springs, horned toads, piñon coffee, funky graveyards, folk art environments and chiles relleño. (We...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Dec 30, 2012 | The Esotouric Blog
As 2012 ticks down to its inevitable conclusion, we're introducing a new annual Esotouric tradition: our very opinionated list of THE TOP LOS ANGELES HISTORIC PRESERVATION STORIES OF 2012. Because preservation is never as simple as buildings being lost...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Dec 24, 2012 | The Esotouric Blog
The Acid Doll was sitting on a sidewalk outside a junk shop in Victorville, just begging someone to take him home and love him. That somebody was us. The Acid Doll might look like he wants to give you nightmares, but deep down inside he's just a big, sweet...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Nov 7, 2012 | The Esotouric Blog
In October, the Esotouric gang set off to enjoy four days of adventuring in northern New Mexico, in search of Mission-era adobe churches, dilapidated neon signage, hot springs, horned toads, piñon coffee, funky graveyards, folk art environments and chiles relleño. (We...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Feb 10, 2012 | The Esotouric Blog
On a drizzly February day, your intrepid Esotouric / 1947project gang (Kim, Richard and Nathan) set out for a road trip in our own backyard, seeking out the most beguiling and delightful examples of domestic architecture from Pasadena to Silver Lake, the Hollywood...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Feb 8, 2012 | The Esotouric Blog
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Sep 29, 2011 | The Esotouric Blog
Gentle reader, There exist in this world those rare places where souls can linger, each one alone in their thoughts but feeling part of a lively community. Unlike so many contemporary spaces with their hard surfaces and excess of rules (read: Pershing Square), these...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Jun 15, 2011 | The Esotouric Blog, Uncategorized
Once a year, the Los Angeles tour company Esotouric makes a very special excursion – CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA; TOM WAITS' L.A. In this brief clip from the 2011 tour, host David Smay shows off the unassuming Echo Park alley where legendary cinematographer...
by Esotouric Bus Adventures | Jun 1, 2011 | The Esotouric Blog
LINK: 7 Days in L.A. LOS ANGELES- America’s second largest city just got easier to navigate, with today’s launch of 7 Days in L.A., a one-stop website calendar featuring the city’s most interesting guided bus, car, bike and walking tours. Why 7 Days...
