For everybody who ever drove to the Automobile Club HQ to renew their registration or pick up maps for a road trip, or cruised by at 70 mph on the 110, here’s a chance to slow down and explore an early Los Angeles neighborhood that rewards a pedestrian’s pace.

Join Esotouric for an immersive time travel trip beginning with the Automobile Club of Southern California itself, to admire the mini museum of vintage highway signage and two of the southland’s great trees. Then we’ll stroll along West Adams Boulevard, once the city’s most elegant address for interesting Angelenos like oilman Edward and bookworm Carrie Doheny, screen vamp Theda Bara and tragic comic Fatty Arbuckle. You’ll see early irrigation infrastructure, elegant clubhouses, esoteric faith centers, homeless shelters, gay archives, the surveyor’s edge of Spanish Los Angeles and our first gated community, discover a lost mansion that lives on in Hollywood’s Magic Castle, and take a spin through the elegant St. James Park National Register District to admire gorgeous homes and learn about the ongoing battle to preserve this pocket of 19th century Los Angeles from insensitive development.

This walking tour is illustrated with rare photos and maps you can view on your smartphone.