Heritage Square Museum

When we arrived here in January, Bree and I were startled to notice these colorful Victorian houses as we drove along the Arroyo Seco Parkway (CA-110) into Pasadena. It turns out that theses houses are part of the Heritage Square museum (wiki), a sort of sanctuary for old Los Angeles architecture. The Square is home to eight buildings from the century 1850-1950, rescued from demolition and transported (!) to the site.

Our curiosity piqued, we biked there today, following the channel of the Arroyo Seco from Pasadena. Upon arrival we were rewarded with an excellent tour. One striking aspect to me was that here these structures from the late nineteenth century are a museum, yet in Rochester I lived in such a house! Several of the houses at the Square are fully restored; but others are in very early stages of restoration, with old carpet just scraped off, exposing again, at long last, the original flooring, and so on--which reminds me of our own simple efforts in our century-old co-op house! These houses in Los Angeles are gems, some of the best and last remaining examples of their kind in this city--and yet I think of all the beautiful architecture in Rochester languishing with neglect. (I couldn't help but daydream about someday being rich and buying up awesome architecture in the East for restoration.) Does conservation always start when it's nearly too late?

Tellingly, both Los Angeles and Rochester lost some of their most-missed architecture in the name of "urban renewal." In Rochester, Corn Hill was razed and with it, the city's prized architecture; in Los Angeles it was Bunker Hill. It's hard to imagine a Victorian Los Angeles.

To get home we pedaled to the nearby Southwest Museum stop (I didn't realize there was an even closer station, Heritage Square) on the Metro Gold Line and put our bikes and ourselves on the train for a quick ride back to Pasadena. Bree and I thoroughly enjoyed our tour; if you're in Los Angeles, it's an interesting place to visit. (If you're in Rochester, check out the Landmark Society.)