Los Angeles Conservancy

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Los Angeles Conservancy We are a member-based nonprofit that works to save historic buildings and educate the community about preservation. County's array of historic resources.

We are a member-based nonprofit that works to save historic buildings and educate the community about L.A.

Mel’s Drive-In, the iconic diner that marks the end of Route 66 in Santa Monica, is under threat of demolition. The 1959...
10/13/2026

Mel’s Drive-In, the iconic diner that marks the end of Route 66 in Santa Monica, is under threat of demolition.

The 1959 Googie-style building was originally known as The Penguin and is the only Armet & Davis-designed coffee shop in Santa Monica. The Penguin operated for over 30 years before closing and being converted to medical use in 1991. In 2018 after a meticulous rehabilitation, the site reopened as Mel’s Drive-In, restoring the site to its original use with a penguin sitting atop its neon sign as a nod to its past.

The property was listed for sale in 2025, raising alarm bells for Modernist fans and preservationists. The Santa Monica Conservancy and the Los Angeles Conservancy submitted a joint nomination to designate the building a Santa Monica Landmark, which would create meaningful protections for the site.

After our application was deemed complete by the City, the property owners filed an application to demolish Mel’s and build an 8-story mixed-use building in its place.

On December 14, the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission will consider our local landmark nomination to preserve Mel’s Drive-In/The Penguin.

Read the full Los Angeles Times story here: https://lat.ms/4jVjtBu

Learn more about this historic coffee shop here: https://bit.ly/4B5plOI

On October 15, the Canyon Country Store will go before the Cultural Heritage Commission for consideration as a Los Angel...
10/11/2026

On October 15, the Canyon Country Store will go before the Cultural Heritage Commission for consideration as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument!

The New York Times recently profiled the Canyon Country Store, documenting its significance to Laurel Canyon and to Los Angeles’s folk and rock music history.

Built in 1924, the Store has been a community anchor for generations—a place where musicians, neighbors, and visitors have gathered, and where the canyon’s history continues to live. In the 1960s and ’70s, Laurel Canyon became a center of West Coast folk rock, with the Canyon Country Store serving as an unofficial hub.

Today, it still functions as a kind of town square for the community. As Spike Stewart, who designed the Store’s iconic signage, put it in the NYT piece: “There’s a vibe. And you can’t buy vibe. You either get this place, or you don’t.”

Working with local advocates, the Los Angeles Conservancy nominated the Canyon Country Store as a local landmark. Landmark designation isn’t about freezing the Store in time. It’s about preserving the features and character that make it the Canyon Country Store, while allowing it to evolve, operate, and remain part of the community.

Want to help conserve this special piece of Los Angeles history? We encourage community members to attend the October 15 hearing to provide public comment or submit comments in support of the nomination by Wednesday, October 14 at [email protected].

Read the full New York Times story here: https://nyti.ms/4B2Dmgb

Learn more about the Canyon Country Store here: https://bit.ly/4iD9Kzb

10/09/2026

One more week until LAST...REMAINS 🎬🌟 Come along with our Getty Marrow Summer Education Intern, Aidan Gonzales, as he takes us on a trip through L.A.’s historic Broadway to the 108-year-old Million Dollar Theatre.

And...we couldn’t forget ! Let’s put your theatre know-how to the test. Sid Grauman is best known for his Chinese Theatre and Egyptian Theatre, but Broadway was actually the location of his first venue in Los Angeles 👀 Which theatre was it?

Name that theatre for your chance at FREE tickets to CLUE or THE SHINING on October 17! 🎟️✨ Winner will be chosen at random on Monday.



Getty Foundation Getty

What an incredible evening celebrating Paul Revere Williams's extraordinary work and legacy at the magnificent 1936 Jay ...
10/09/2026

What an incredible evening celebrating Paul Revere Williams's extraordinary work and legacy at the magnificent 1936 Jay Paley House this weekend! 💫

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Los Angeles Conservancy's 2026 Benefit at this Revered Residence. It was an unforgettable evening surrounded by the beauty of the Paley House and the people who came together to celebrate its architecture and history, and the importance of preserving L.A.'s historic places.

Proceeds from this event directly support and fuel the Conservancy's mission and ensure we are there when it matters most—to educate, advocate, and make a case for the historic, architectural, and cultural places and spaces across Los Angeles County.

A special thank you to our honorary benefit committee, our dedicated volunteers, and our incredible sponsors who made this event possible. We couldn't do this work without you!

✨ Dazzling Design Sponsors ✨
Carolwood Estates.
Linda May Properties

✨ Architectural Acme Sponsors ✨
Willow Bay & Robert A. Iger
Dan Castellaneta & Deb Lacusta
Eric & Maxine Greenspan
Margaret Morgan & Wesley Phoa
Trina Turk
Total Environmental Management

📸: Photos by Wadley Wadley.

L.A.'s Council District 9—also known as the “New Ninth”—includes many historic and diverse neighborhoods and communities...
10/08/2026

L.A.'s Council District 9—also known as the “New Ninth”—includes many historic and diverse neighborhoods and communities, as well as international destinations. The district extends from the L.A. Convention Center and L.A. Live Complex at the northern edge, to Vermont Square to the west, the Central-Alameda Corridor to the east, and Green Meadows to the south.

As Angelenos gear up for the general election on November 3, the Los Angeles Conservancy is pleased to share Preservation Perspectives—a series of pre-recorded interviews with candidates from Council District 9, Estuardo Mazariegos and Jose Ugarte.

Mazariegos and Ugarte share their views on preserving historic places in Los Angeles and CD9, and the role of historic preservation as a tool in addressing issues like development, housing, supporting legacy businesses, community building, and more.

Preservation Perspectives is out now on the Conservancy's YouTube channel! 🎥 Watch here: https://bit.ly/3VURjN1

📸: Dunbar Hotel. Photo by Sana Ahmed/L.A. Conservancy.

10/07/2026

We’re thrilled to share L.A.’s Woman’s Building is now officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places! This long-overdue national recognition honors a historic place and affirms the importance of telling the full, complex story of women in Los Angeles.

From 1975 to 1991, the Woman’s Building at 1727 North Spring Street was home to the Feminist Studio Workshop, the nation’s first independent art school for women. It became an extraordinary center for feminist and le***an art, activism, performance, writing, and cultural exchange, offering women artists a place to create boldly, organize, challenge exclusion, and envision new possibilities.

Housed in a 1914 Beaux-Arts style building designed by Myron Hunt, this place reflects a powerful layered history: architecture, art, feminism, LGBTQ+ history, and the determination of generations of women to make their voices visible. In 2018, the Conservancy successfully designated the Woman’s Building locally as a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

Thank you to everyone who helped champion this landmark over the years, including the artists, former participants, advocates, historians, community members, and preservation partners who made this recognition possible. We are proud to have sponsored the nomination, and thank the National Trust for Historic Preservation for providing funding and to Architectural Resources Group for preparing the nomination. Thank you also to the California Office of Historic Preservation and the State Historical Resources Commission!

This recognition further advances our ongoing efforts to address the significant underrepresentation of women and their contributions to Los Angeles landmarks through the .
🔗: https://bit.ly/LAWomensLandmarksProject

🔗 Learn more about the Woman’s Building here: https://bit.ly/4rVe5jU

🎥: LGBTQ Historic Places in L.A. - a film project from the L.A. Conservancy released in partnership with PBS SoCal, produced by Form follows Function, and made possible through funding provided by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Historic preservation is gaining ground. On the legislative front, preservation has secured some important wins—but seri...
10/06/2026

Historic preservation is gaining ground. On the legislative front, preservation has secured some important wins—but serious threats remain.

Governor Gavin Newsom has signed AB 1265 (Assemblymember Matt Haney), extending California’s Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit through 2031. This is a major win for preservation, housing, climate action, and the revitalization of communities across the state. Rehabilitating historic buildings is often complicated and expensive; the tax credit helps close critical financing gaps, making it possible to convert underused buildings into desperately needed housing and breathe new life into downtowns and neighborhoods. The next priority is appropriating at least $100 million to capitalize this powerful program.

AB 2576 (Assemblymember John Harabedian) also delivers an essential preservation fix to SB 79. The new law broadens historic resource exclusions in transit-oriented development areas to include qualifying individually listed resources and contributing buildings within State Historic Resources Inventory districts.

We are deeply thankful to the bills' authors and to the California Preservation Foundation—especially retiring Executive Director Cindy Heitzman—for their leadership and persistence.

Advocacy is essential. As Californians consider Proposition 45, we must reject any effort to streamline environmental review by silencing the public, shortchanging analysis, or sacrificing cultural and historic resources. The Conservancy strongly opposes this measure because it would severely weaken the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

At the federal level, the stakes could not be higher. An existing proposal—now compounded by a newly released Senate permitting reform bill—would fundamentally dismantle Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, the nation’s essential safeguard for historic places. Section 106 requires federal agencies to identify and consider impacts to historic resources, consult with Tribes, communities, and preservation partners, and give the public a meaningful voice before irreversible decisions are made.

As proposed, these changes would hollow out that process, putting countless historic places at risk, weakening accountability, and silencing the public’s voice when participation matters most.

Stay tuned as we’ll keep you posted on how you can support efforts, advocate, and next steps. 🔗 Sign up for the Conservancy's Action Alerts and get more info here: https://linkin.bio/laconservancy/

📸: Herald Examiner Building. Photo courtesy of Gensler/Ryan Gobuty.



National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, Preservation Action, National Alliance of Preservation Commissions

LAST...REMAINS is right around the corner which means is BACK! We’re stepping into a little piece of Los Angeles horro...
10/03/2026

LAST...REMAINS is right around the corner which means is BACK!

We’re stepping into a little piece of Los Angeles horror movie lore this Friday. Let's see if you have ✨the shine✨ to win?

As the story goes, when The Shining premiered in Los Angeles in 1980 at the Fox Westwood Village Theatre (now known as the Directors Village Theatre), the audience is said to have seen something that no future audiences saw... 👀

Take your best guess of what they saw:
A. A two-minute epilogue after the ending
B. Jack Nicholson eating popcorn in the back row
C. A child actor pedaling a Big Wheel tricycle down the aisle

Drop your answer in the comments for a chance to win FREE TICKETS to our spooky screening of THE SHINING at the Million Dollar Theatre on October 17! Winner will be chosen at random on Monday.

And remember....all work and no play makes Halloween a dull holiday. We’ll see you at Last…Remains! 👻

📸: The Shining at the Fox Westwood Village Theatre, 1980. Photos by Richard DuVal.
🎨: Last...Remains artwork by Ellen Surrey. Clue © Paramount Pictures/Photofest. The Shining © Warner Bros./Photofest.

We're on the trail of the legendary architect, Paul Revere Williams! On Saturday, November 21, join the Los Angeles Cons...
10/02/2026

We're on the trail of the legendary architect, Paul Revere Williams! On Saturday, November 21, join the Los Angeles Conservancy, SoCalNOMA, and LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art for Paul Revere Was Here, a special driving tour celebrating architect Paul Revere Williams.

Building on the opening of LACMA’s 'Paul R. Williams: Architect for Living' exhibit featuring materials from the Williams's archive, this driving tour visits seminal spaces which reflect a variety of Williams’s work. From a single-family residence to places of worship and an unforgettable office building, these places speak to Williams’s creative design as well as his dedication to service and community.

Tickets are on sale now! 🔗 Visit the link for more info and to book your spot: https://bit.ly/3W3vNpj

📸: 1. Founder’s Church of Religious Science. L.A. Conservancy Archives.
2. J. Phyromn Taylor Residence. Photo by Sarah Locke.
3. Second Baptist Church. Photo by Adrian Scott Fine/L.A. Conservancy.
4. First African Methodist Episcopal Church. Photo by Laurie Avocado, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
5. Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building. Photo by Paul Turang Photography.

09/30/2026

You might be familiar with L.A.’s Lincoln Heights Jail, but do you know the layered women’s, LGBTQ+, and Latinx history behind this site?

On this , we’re exploring the women’s and LGBTQ+ history of Lincoln Heights Jail—from the inmates who were incarcerated here for violating Morality Laws, to the trailblazing journalist Agness “Aggie” Underwood who reported on these stories, and the founding of the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts by pioneering Latina artists, Estela Scarlata, Carmen Zapata, and Margarita Galban.

As part of the L.A. Women’s Landmarks Project—a partnership between the Los Angeles Conservancy and the National Trust for Historic Preservation—the Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) nomination for Lincoln Heights Jail was evaluated for its inclusion of women’s history. USC Master of Heritage Conservation graduate Mel James shares their work assessing the original HCM nomination—which had limited mention of the site’s impact on women, LGBTQ+ people, and BIPOC communities—and researching the many women’s contributions to this site.

Learn more about the at the link below, and stay tuned for more L.A. Women’s History!
🔗: https://bit.ly/LAWomensLandmarksProject

Address

500 South Grand Avenue, Suite 1640
Los Angeles, CA
90071

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+12136232489

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