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The greatest historic preservation loss in Los Angeles was the 1960s eminent domain seizure of Bunker Hill, with almost 150 acres of homes, hotels and businesses demolished for a failed redevelopment scheme. While City Hall smeared the doomed neighborhood as a blighted slum, 21st century Angelenos look longingly at photographs of Victorian buildings like The Castle and The Melrose Hotel and lament all we lost.

We can’t return to old Bunker Hill except in our imaginations, but some remarkable pockets of Victorian residential architecture still can be found in the historic neighborhoods of Los Angeles and in the outdoor museum Heritage Square.

Join Esotouric, L.A.’s most eclectic sightseeing tour company, for an immersive webinar celebrating some of the most beautiful and fascinating Victorian Los Angeles survivors, and the dedicated preservationists who restore and bring the histories of these special buildings to life.

Featured on this webinar:

• A virtual visit to Carroll Avenue in the city’s first Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ), Angelino Heights, where we’ll meet Kevin Segall and Steph Rogers, who are currently restoring The Historic J.B. Winston House (Joseph Cather Newsom, 1889, Los Angeles Historical-Cultural Monument No. 189), and historian Nathan Marsak will tell the story of the Newsom Brothers as builders and promoters of a highly recognizable style of Victorian residential architecture.

• We’ll talk about Heritage Square, an outdoor museum created to house architecturally significant Victorian houses whose owners wanted to redevelop the land on which they sat. You’ll hear how this narrow strip of city-owned property along the Arroyo Seco Parkway was populated with refugee landmarks, and Gordon Pattison shares the tragic tale of his family’s two Bunker Hill Victorians that were moved to Heritage Square only to be lost to arson. Plus highlights from Kevin and Stephanie’s wedding there!

• Nathan Marsak will provide an overview of the work of influential Los Angeles architect R.B. Young, and Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein will share their experience restoring and obtaining historic designation for their Queen Anne-style Young-Gribling Residence (R.B. Young, 1885, Los Angeles Historical-Cultural Monument No. 1017). The home is the architect’s only surviving residence and a prominent landmark perched high above Lincoln Heights. What used to stand above it on the hill will amaze you!

• Plus a virtual visit to the remarkably intact National Register South Bonnie Brae Tract in the Pico-Union neighborhood.

And more Victorian survivors to be revealed! This webinar is an illustrated lecture packed with rare photos that will bring the architectural treasures of Los Angeles to life. And you’ll find the look of an Esotouric webinar is a little different than your standard dry Zoom session, with lively interactive graphics courtesy of the mmhmm app.

After the presentations, Kim, Richard, Kevin, Steph, Paul, Dydia, Nathan and Gordon will answer your questions, so get ready to be a part of the show.

About Dydia DeLyser: Dr. Dydia DeLyser is a feminist cultural-historical geographer and associate professor in the Department of Geography & the Environment at California State University, Fullerton. Her research focuses on issues of landscape, memory, and preservation in 19th-21st century California. Her book, Ramona Memories: Tourism and the Shaping of Southern California won the 2005 Globe Book Award and she has published some fifty scholarly articles and book chapters. Her research is often auto-ethnographic and participatory – drawing herself and her community together in her research – as in her most recent book, Neon: A Light History, co-authored with her husband Paul Greenstein (who makes and restores neon signs), for which a portion of profits benefit the Museum of Neon Art on whose Board DeLyser serves. She is a native Angeleno, and lives in Victorian house in Lincoln Heights together with Paul and their fox terrier Archie Leach.

About Paul Greenstein: Paul Greenstein is an independent scholar of Los Angeles and California history. He is lead author (with Lionel Rolfe and Nigey Lennon) of the only book about Llano del Rio’s history, “Bread an Hyacinths: The Rise and Fall of Utopian Los Angeles,” and has been leading tours of the Llano area since the 1980s. He often integrates his research with his expertise in other areas: he has restored dozens of antique cars and motorcycles, and has published articles about those vehicles and the restoration process. His most recent book (co-authored with Dydia DeLyser), draws from Paul’s forty-five years of experience making an restoring neon signs in the first book to tell neon’s history through a focus on Los Angeles The book was written to benefit the Museum of Neon Art in the pandemic, and is available on their website: https://store.neonmona.org/collections/books-media/products/preorder-book-neon-a-light-history

About Nathan Marsak: Nathan is the author of the books “Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Essence of Sunshine and Noir” and “Los Angeles Neon” and can be found spitting tacks in the character of The Cranky Preservationist. His blog is http://bunkerhilllosangeles.com.

About Gordon Pattison: Gordon Pattison is a native son of Bunker Hill. His family owned the Salt Box and the Castle, the last two homes standing after the neighborhood was cleared for redevelopment. To learn more, see Gordon’s LAVA Sunday Salon presentation Old Bunker Hill: One Family’s Perspective. Gordon can also be found talking about Angels Flight Railway on Off-Ramp, visiting the few remaining pieces of his family’s houses at Heritage Square Museum, on KCET’s Lost L.A. series Lost Hills episode, L.A. As Subject’s funicular feature and remembering novelist John Fante at his square dedication and atop Bunker Hill. He can also be found on Esotouric’s The Lowdown on Downtown tours, sharing memories of lost Bunker Hill.

About Kevin Segall and Steph Rogers: They are presently restoring and researching the history of Joseph Cather Newsom’s 1889 J.B. Winston House on Carroll Avenue. Follow their preservation journey online at http://historicwinstonhouse.com and on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/historicwinstonhouse) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/historicwinstonhouse)