Search

December 30, 2022

Photo Essay: What People Were Reading in 2022

I know that the most popular things in life aren't necessarily the best things.

But I also know that some people only really pay attention to what other people already like. 

And if you don't have enough time to read everything on my blog, you might appreciate knowing what other people have been reading.

So once again, here's my ranking of the top posts on Avoiding Regret in 2022, in descending order from most views. 


 

December 27, 2022

How I Wandered SoCal for KCET in 2022

I haven't often reposted the articles I've written for KCET here—often because much of the content that has gotten published here first has eventually made its way into my KCET guides.

But as time has gone on, I've created more and more original content for my SoCal Wanderer column on KCET.org. In fact, probably more in the year 2022 than in any other years prior.

SoCal Wanderer articles are on a little bit of a hiatus—at least, compared to what they've been—since I was hired to work in-house at KCET in actually a different capacity. They may not resume anytime soon. 

So in the meantime, here's a recap of the articles I did contribute over the past year, in case you missed any of them. Click on the titles to open the articles in a new tab/window.

 

December 26, 2022

Year In Review: 2022 Updates to Past Posts

I wish that all this blog was for was to brag about cool stuff I do. 

But I sense a greater purpose in my documenting these places and experiences. It all feels like they'll be gone one day. 

And I feel a duty to report back when they unfortunately do go away. 

It happens more and more every year. 

But thank goodness it's not all bad news. Because sometimes I get to update on a historic place being saved from demolition, rehabilitated, or even reopened. 

I think it's important to keep these entries current with the present condition of the places I've visited. That means sometimes I have to keep going back to check on them. Or to say goodbye. And then share what I've seen (or what can no longer be seen).

So, for the third year in a row, here's a recap of all the updates I made to my Avoiding Regret entries from SoCal and Vegas over the last year—the good, the bad, the ugly, and the complicated.

Closures/Losses/Deaths/Preservation Threats


Chili Bowl 
1. Photo Essay: The Cloistered Nuns of Hollywood and Their Stately Home (Closed—Updated for 2022)
2. Adventures on Pico: From a Chili Bowl to An Oil Well (Updated for 2022)

December 20, 2022

Photo Essay: Nightflying the Skies In the D-Day Doll, a WWII-Era DC-3 Warbird

I typically prefer cars and trains to boats and planes—but I can't resist a good historic excursion on any of 'em.


So I was excited when my friend Charity texted me asking if I'd heard of or done the nighttime DC-3 flights over the city of Riverside, California offered during the Christmas season. My answer? No and no!

December 12, 2022

Photo Essay: The Architectural Jewels of South Coast Plaza, A Mid-Century Modern Mall With a Bright Future

If you were to drive by South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California—or even wheel around its parking lot, looking for a nearby restaurant, as I have—you might think that it's just another mall. 

But this shopping center is a little different. 


Not only is it the largest indoor shopping mall on the West Coast, but it was also one of our first. And it's one of the most successful malls in a country where most shoppers seem to be staying home to make their purchases online.

December 01, 2022

Photo Essay: Julia Morgan-Designed Home of Hearst's Examiner Gets a Facelift For a New Generation of Journalists

The Herald Examiner Building on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles had always been somewhat of a mystery to me.

circa 1937 (Photo: Works Progress Administration Photo Collection, LAPL)

After all, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner ceased its publishing operations 33 years ago, in November 1989.

November 27, 2022

Photo Essay: The Most Vegas-y Football Stadium Ever Is Now Home to the Raiders (And the 2024 Super Bowl)

Once again, football season has rolled around—and although I took the tour of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas back in May 2022, I waited until now to post about it.

 
It was purpose-built (on land that's always been a vacant lot, according to HistoricAerials.com) as the National Football League stadium of the Las Vegas Raiders—formerly the Oakland Raiders (1960–1981 and 1995–2019) and, when I was growing up and watching American football with my dad, the LA Raiders (1982–1994). They relocated to Vegas in 2020, although that year they played to an empty stadium because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

November 25, 2022

A Turkey-Free Thanksgiving at a Storied Mountain Lodge Outside of LA

When I was working as a field agent for Atlas Obscura a few years ago, I really wanted to host a dinner at Saddle Peak Lodge—specifically, a game meat dinner. 

I was fascinated with intimidating foods and thought that a communal experience would create a comfort level that I, and others, might not have alone. 

I couldn't get that event approved, so I finally went to Saddle Peak Lodge on my own a few years ago—but I wimped out both gastronomically and financially and just went to brunch. I don't remember the meal, but I'm pretty sure I had eggs (and not, like, ostrich eggs).

So, I've felt like I hadn't really experienced the restaurant—and when the 2018 Woolsey Fire swept through the area, fortunately sparing it, the urgency to return intensified.


I finally made it back yesterday, for Thanksgiving dinner—not because this colonial holiday is important to me (it's not), but because I felt like I needed the excuse of a special occasion to splurge on it. And since it's a Michelin star-receiving establishment, it also charges Michelin star-level prices.

November 21, 2022

Photo Essay: A Rare Opportunity to Visit the Closed Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Upon Its 150th Birthday

Earlier this month, Pescadero, California was the site of a sesquicentennial celebration for Pigeon Point Lighthouse—built in 1871 (one of eight built that year that are still standing) but first lit at sunset on November 15, 1872. 
 

November 16, 2022

Photo Essay: In Search of Terra Firma in the Mojave Desert, Where Earthquakes Cracked the Earth

I'd been following the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, California ever since I joined them on a tour of the ancient petroglyph site located within the Navy base at China Lake in 2014.

I knew they hosted other field trips—wildflower walks and such—so I was always hoping for an excuse to return to the area, which I usually just pass through on my way to the Eastern Sierra.

But the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station hasn't reopened to the public since the COVID-19 pandemic—and it's still got $2 billion worth of repairs to make, after two earthquakes in 2019 shook it to its core.

That unfortunate situation opened up the opportunity for Maturango Museum to pivot to other field trips—including one that focused on the visible signs of those very same earthquakes that damaged the naval base so badly. 

So, led by geologist (and former BLM desert ranger) Glenn Harris, we caravanned from the museum to multiple sites that were within striking distance from the epicenters of the 6.4 earthquake in Searles Valley on July 4, 2019 (the "foreshock") and the 7.1 in Trona on July 5, 2019 (the "mainshock").

(Although these quakes could be felt in Los Angeles, and even as far north as the Bay Area, at the time I was traveling in Northern California and Oregon for the Fourth of July weekend—in Lava Beds National Monument and Lassen Volcanic National Park on July 4 and Crater Lake and Klamath Falls on July 5.)

 

November 13, 2022

A Desert Failure, A Desert Victory (Or, A Tale of Two Mines)

The thing that got me really hiking through Joshua Tree National Park back in 2009 was the fact that it was the only way to get to the Wall Street Mill site

Back then, I was in shape enough and confident enough—or stupid enough—to trek out there by myself. 

But my hiking abilities have really declined since my car accident in 2014—and so I've had to curtail my adventures and stick to easier hikes, usually with groups. 
   
So I was excited to join the Desert Institute on a field trip back into the park—this time, near the Twentynine Palms entrance—to explore a couple of lesser-known mine sites. 

November 11, 2022

Photo Essay: World Famous Crochet Museum, Joshua Tree

I think I was close to the World Famous Crochet Museum back in 2012. Or maybe in 2009. I remember staying at The Desert Lily and ending up at some kind of event at Art Queen, the art compound that hosts the tiny museum.
   
But I didn't go in back then. I didn't yet know how to appreciate it.

November 07, 2022

Photo Essay: Oviatt Penthouse, Continuing to Return to Its Original Art Deco Glory

Anyone can visit the Oviatt Building and gawk at its ornate Art Deco cornice from across the street or examine the lovely Lalique glasswork from the front entrance. 

But if you enter the building—probably through Cicada, the restaurant that now lays claim to the ground floor once occupied by Oviatt's men's clothing store—you lose nearly all sense of Art Deco.

That's because the building itself is Italian Romanesque, and the interior was designed in the style of English Jacobian.
 
 
However, perched atop the roof of the Oviatt Building, in the form of the penthouse where James Oviatt himself lived until his death, you'll find an Art Deco masterpiece. 

November 05, 2022

Photo Essay: Palm Springs' House of Tomorrow, Exorcised of Its Elvis 'Sideshow'

Although Elvis did have a house in Beverly Hills, Palm Springs seems like it was more like the West Coast home-away-from-Memphis of our dearly-departed King of Rock and Roll.

 
And that's where there's the modernist home leased for him by Colonel Tom Parker for a year starting in 1966—built in 1960 as "The House of Tomorrow" by architect William Krisel.

November 01, 2022

Photo Essay: Golf Carts on Parade in Palm Desert, Rolling Out of a Pandemic Hiatus

When I was researching golf carts for my post on the golf cart museum in La Quinta, California earlier this year, I came across some information about an annual golf cart parade that takes place just before Halloween in the nearby community of Palm Desert, also in the Coachella Valley. 


I knew I had to go.  

October 24, 2022

Photo Essay: Dinny & Mr. Rex Are a Pair of Halloween Treats in Cabazon

I'd seen the Cabazon Dinosaurs dressed up for lots of other holidays, like Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter....


...but I hadn't yet seen them in costume for the ultimate dress-up holiday, Halloween. 

October 19, 2022

Photo Essay: Exploring the Navy's Explosive Island Across the Santa Barbara Channel

I'm a completionist. So of course I've been tracking how many of California's Channel Islands I've been to—and how many I can eventually get to. 

I've already been to Catalina, Santa Rosa, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, and San Nicolas. (Santa Barbara is closed until they can fix the anchorage, and San Clemente is off-limits as a Navy station.)


And as of last weekend, I've crossed yet another off my list: San Miguel. 

October 14, 2022

Photo Essay: Woolsey Fire Recovery Still Continues With the Reopening of Peter Strauss Ranch (Without Its Ranch House)

The last time I tried to check on Peter Strauss Ranch—one of my favorite places in LA—I couldn't get anywhere near it because the November 2018 Woolsey Fire had destroyed the Mulholland Highway bridge you'd normally have to walk across to get to it from the parking area.

 
That was January 2019. 


But the National Park Service had announced that the ranch—part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area—had finally reopened in June 2022, so I went back a couple of weeks ago. (They still haven't replaced the park sign, which was burned to a crisp.)

October 11, 2022

Photo Essay: Monte Carlo Deli & Pinocchio Restaurant, A Red-Sauce Reverie Inspired By A Fairy-Tale Boy Puppet

Walt Disney once considered building Disneyland in Burbank, California instead of Anaheim—on the lot that now houses Walt Disney Animation Studios and ABC, across from Walt Disney Studios. 


But today, the only place in Burbank where the public can get a taste of Disney—since there's no studio tour offered—is at the Monte Carlo Deli and Pinocchio Restaurant on Magnolia Boulevard, in Magnolia Park. 

October 06, 2022

Glendale's Moonlight Rollerway Once Again Lights Up Tuesday Nights With Live Organ Concerts

I recently included Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, California as one of the top places to "feel like a kid again" in LA, in an article published on KCET.org. But that's not exactly accurate for me—because I didn't grow up getting invited to rollerskating birthday parties.

Or, if I had been invited, I wouldn't have been allowed to go. 

So although I had a pair of those metal strap-on skates that I'd wear over my sneakers as I plunked down the sidewalk in front of my childhood home, I never really learned how to rollerskate.

I tried once in college with some high school friends, but I fell so many times—and so spectacularly—that I got ejected from the floor.

 
Still, I can't shake my fascination with rollerskating—probably because of my lifelong love of Xanaduso this year I've made not one but two pilgrimages to Glendale's oldest roller rink, which has operated as Moonlight Rollerway since 1968.

September 28, 2022

An Alien-Assisted Recharge of My World-Weary Battery At the Integratron

I'd hoped to complete my extraterrestrial experience after helping to clean up Giant Rock last weekend by following it up with the alien-architect-designed Integratron, also in the California High Desert town of Landers.  

 

September 27, 2022

Photo Essay: Giant Rock, (Maybe) The World's Largest Freestanding Boulder & Mysterious Alien Beacon

Once thought to be the world's largest freestanding boulder, Giant Rock in the High Desert town of Landers, California has somewhat mystified me over the years...
 
 
...not only as the former site of UFO conventions...

September 22, 2022

A Dream Encounter With the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile (Or, the Day We Had Hot Dogs For Breakfast)

The first time I ever got to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile up close, it was in Palm Springs in April 2021. (I might've seen one in the wild on the freeway or from a distance before that, but I can't quite remember.)
 
circa 2021

September 17, 2022

Photo Essay: St. Vincent Court, The Historic Los Angeles Alley Where Coffee and Kebabs Converge

Between the St. Vincent Jewelry Center on the corner of 7th and Hill and the Burlington (Coat Factory) department store at 7th and Broadway, there's a breezeway that leads to an alley, traversed by two multistory air bridges.

 Photo: Google Streetview circa February 2022 

This is St. Vincent Court. 
 
 

September 14, 2022

Taking My Punishment

Image by Edward Lich from Pixabay 

As a child who was wrongfully accused and convicted of a number of household crimes—from scratching my mother's wooden rocking chair and new bathroom wallpaper to pitting the cover of a borrowed paperback book on the kitchen counter—I learned early on how to shut up and take my punishments.

September 13, 2022

Photo Essay: Inside the Apple Takeover of the Tower Theatre on Broadway in DTLA

Back in 2012, I had what I thought at the time was a "last chance" to get inside the Tower Theatre on Broadway in Downtown LA before it got renovated for some other purpose.

circa 2018

September 09, 2022

From Country to Rock and Glam: The Sunset Strip's First High-Rise Hotel (With the Tallest Rooftop Pool In All of L.A.)

When I would have to visit Los Angeles for my work in the music industry back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it had become passé to stay at the Hyatt House, a.k.a. the Riot House—where bands like Led Zeppelin had famously partied in the 1970s.

But the Sunset Strip was still cool back then, even 20 years ago. We just stayed across the street at hotels like The Standard Hollywood (now closed), the Mondrian, or The Grafton on Sunset (now Hotel Ziggy)—and we felt the Riot House's presence, looming over Sunset Boulevard.

circa 2020

September 07, 2022

Photo Essay: Where L.A. Traded a Racetrack For Rose Bushes (And Almost Dug Them Up For Stadium Parking 60 Years Later)

Despite all the tragedy and inconvenience of it, the pandemic gave me the chance to refocus my efforts on exploring places I'd been putting off for far too long. And one of those was the Exposition Park Rose Garden. 

 

September 05, 2022

Photo Essay: The American Military Museum's Island of Tanks and Stockpile of Surplus Military Supplies

Not far from the former LA-14 Nike Missile Site (L) in South El Monte, just outside the boundaries of Whittier Narrows Recreation Area, there's a 7-acre parcel filled with antique military equipment. 

It's the American Military Museum, fondly nicknamed "Tankland."

Craig Michelson is its current curator (and collector), but it was his father—a former officer in WWII—who founded it six decades ago.



August 31, 2022

A World Without Olivia Newton-John

Pan-Pacific Auditorium, seen in Xanadu (Marvin Rand, Historic American Buildings Survey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
 
I don't remember a time when Olivia Newton-John hasn't been a part of my life.

August 28, 2022

Photo Essay: The Automobiliana and Petroliana of the Segerstrom Shelby Event Center and Museum

I usually don't give up a chance to visit a car museum—whether I'm in Nashville, Tennessee or Las Vegas, Nevada. But sometimes it might take me a little while to get there. 


The Segerstrom Shelby Event Center and Museum opened in October 2021...

August 27, 2022

Virginia & Truckee Railroad Once Again Rolls Out of Virginia City, Thanks to Rebuilt Tracks and Tunnels

My first trip to Virginia City, Nevada coincided with the 150th anniversary celebration of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, a.k.a. "Queen of the Short Lines"—so while I was in the area, I wanted to make sure I could experience as much of the V&T as possible. 

After having ridden a railbike from Carson City towards Virginia City (where a train also runs, though its schedule didn't mesh with mine), I headed to Virginia City to ride a special train towards Carson City to experience the rail from the other end. 

But I had some time to kill before my train departure, so I started snooping around town. 



August 22, 2022

Photo Essay: Boating Lake Arrowhead, Upon the Centennial of Its Neighboring Norman-Style Village

Ever since I took the tunnel tour at Lake Arrowhead a year ago, I've been eager to actually experience the lake from its surface. 

The only problem? You need to be a homeowner to get access to the lake. No land rights? No lake rights. 

There is, however, an exception: the Arrowhead Queen tour boat. 

Regularly scheduled cruises take visitors on an hour-long journey around the lake during daylight hours—but if you book a special cruise through Rim of the World Historical Society, you get a two-hour cruise led by local historian around sunset. 

I was booked on one of those historical cruises last month—but the three-and-a-half-hour drive from home to Lake Arrowhead in Friday night rush-hour traffic made me eight minutes late. I literally missed the boat. And all I could think to do was sit on the dock at Village Point and cry. And watch some ducklings follow their mother across the surface of the lake's Village Bay. 

Fortunately, I came to my senses and decided to get something to eat before getting back into the car and driving back home—so I went to the nearest Mexican restaurant, Papagayos, for a margarita and a steak quesadilla. 

 
What I didn't know then—and what I discovered upon my return to Lake Arrowhead Village a month later for my Arrowhead Queen do-over cruise—was that Papagayos is located in the village's former ballroom (a.k.a. casino building). And it's the only original building of the 100-year-old Norman-style Lake Arrowhead Village that remains—as the rest of the "old" village was demolished by intentional fire in 1979 and rebuilt and expanded in 1980-2.

August 18, 2022

Photo Essay: Diving Into the Brand-New West Hollywood Pool, Inspired By Neon and Sunsets

I'd been swimming at the West Hollywood Pool since before I even moved to California. I started when I was housesitting for a friend in the area back in 2009 or 2010.

It's been a huge part of my time living in the Los Angeles area, since first arriving in January 2011. I still live in the same apartment. It's the longest I've ever lived in one place.

So you can imagine my heartbreak when it never reopened from its COVID-19 closure and was unceremoniously demolished—with zero chance of saying goodbye. 

The only consolation? It was being replaced by a fancy new structure with two rooftop pools.


August 10, 2022

Photo Essay: Paramount Pictures' Star Movie Train & Passenger Car, Revived In Retirement at Nevada State Railroad Museum

If I was going to drive all the way up to Carson City, Nevada all by myself for the Great Western Steam Up, then I was going to ride every train it had to offer while I was there. 
 

And that meant signing up for the special excursion pulled by the Virginia & Truckee Railroad No. 22, Inyo

August 08, 2022

Photo Essay: Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the V&T Railroad at the Great Western Steam Up

I'd been wanting to visit the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, Nevada—but there are just too many train museums to visit.  


August 04, 2022

Photo Essay: A Real Estate Heir-Turned-Recluse Kept His Lake Tahoe Compound To Himself (And Accidentally Conserved Much of the Shoreline)

On my way from California to farther east in Nevada, I stopped along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe (technically in the town of Incline Village, NV) to take a tour of a historic estate known as Thunderbird Lodge.  

 
Locals seem to call it "the old Whittell estate"—named after the eccentric millionaire from San Francisco who built it, George Whittell, Jr.

July 31, 2022

Photo Essay: These Hobbit Houses Are a Long Way from Middle Earth

Its official name is the "Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence and Apartments." 

 
But most people know the complex simply as the "Hobbit Houses."

July 24, 2022

Photo Essay: Tail O' the Pup Once Again Unleashes Frankfurters Out of A Giant Hot Dog—This Time on Route 66

The Tail O' the Pup hot dog stand has been in storage ever since I moved to LA in 2011 (technically it got mothballed in 2005).

But I've always felt something of a connection to it. 

Maybe it's because its prior two locations were both in my neighborhood, at intersections I pass on a nearly daily basis (Beverly and La Cienega, basically where the Sofitel is now, and, after 1986, Beverly and San Vicente).

 
And now it's back in my neighborhood—in a new location on Santa Monica Boulevard, the old Route 66 in West Hollywood. 

July 23, 2022

Photo Essay: Derby House, Lloyd Wright's Mayan Fortress of Yucca In Concrete

I'd seen that the Lloyd Wright-designed Derby House in Glendale, California was for sale last year—and that I'd missed an open house. 

For months, I kept the real estate listing open as a tab on my web browser, just waiting and hoping for another open house to be scheduled. 

And then I gave up—and closed the tab. 

But I still kept my eyes open. 

 
And then, at the end of June, I had my chance again. And I didn't miss it this time. 

July 22, 2022

Photo Essay: Where Gentlemen Millionaires Gathered & Gambled During Virginia City's 'Silver Seventies'

On the Saturday of my 4th of July weekend trip to Nevada, I had a couple of hours after getting back from my Fly Geyser tour and before the sun would set on Virginia City and the landmarks along its nationally-recognized historic district. 

 
I'd decided to make my visit to the Comstock Lode former boomtown as touristy as could be—including a stop at the supposedly haunted Washoe Club, where a ghostly woman in a Victorian blue dress reportedly occupies one of its windows on occasion. 

July 13, 2022

Photo Essay: Spending Two Nights In Gold Hill, A Near-Ghost Town Across the Divide from Virginia City, NV

I first heard of Gold Hill when I was researching a trip to Virginia City, Nevada that I ended up not taking last fall. All the travel guides recommended taking the train from Gold Hill instead of trying to find parking in Virginia City. That piqued my interest.

 Gold Hill train depot, built 1872

July 11, 2022

Photo Essay: Pedaling the Rails of the Comstock Lode

I was in the Carson City, Nevada area for the first time ever last weekend for the Great Western Steam Up, in celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the completion of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, "Queen of the Short Lines."

It wasn't ever a commercial passenger railway—instead being devoted solely to carrying freight for the mining communities of the first major discovery of silver ore, the Comstock Lode. 

Back then, that part of Nevada—mostly centered around Virginia City—was considered the western part of the Utah territory. 

Naturally, I wanted to experience as much of the V&T as I could while I was in the area.

Although 24 miles of rebuilt tracks are active between Carson City and Virginia City, the operation of those rights of way is somewhat fragmented. There's only one roundtrip train departure from Carson City to Virginia City per day, on Saturdays and Sundays only. 
   
I decided to ride the rails from Carson City's V&T Eastgate depot in a different way: on a railbike. 

July 09, 2022

Photo Essay: Nevada's Accidental Rainbow Geyser, Near the Burning Man Playa

I'd had a chance to join a group of friends on a nature walk to Fly Geyser back in 2018, the first year it had opened to the public in over two decades.

But on the date of their trip, I was already making up for another trip I'd missed with that same group of friends. 

I feel like I'm always behind on everything. 

Every opportunity taken is a missed opportunity to do something else. 

 
So only four years later, I managed to nab a reservation through Friends of Black Rock High Rock, the non-profit that controls public access to the natural wonder (with an incredibly restrictive photo policy).

June 27, 2022

Photo Essay: Southern California's Oldest County Courthouse

The Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, California—the county seat of Orange County—is a Richardsonian Romanesque monolith of steel, cement, and brick clad in Arizona red sandstone (with a foundation clad in Temecula granite).  

 
It was dedicated in 1901, just 12 years after the establishment of Orange County (having split off from Los Angeles County). That makes it Southern California's oldest county court building—now recognized as a historic landmark on both the state and federal levels.

June 25, 2022

Photo Essay: Hayward's Japanese Gardens, Built 30+ Years After the WWII-Era Detention of Japanese-Americans

The East Bay city of Hayward, California once had a large population of Japanese-Americans. But during World War II, they were sent to internment camps—like the detention center at the former Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno, on the San Francisco peninsula.

 
You might not ever know it by visiting the city today—were it not for the Japanese Gardens, just beyond the Hayward Area Senior Center. 

June 21, 2022

Photo Essay: A Peek Into the Millard Sheets-Designed Bank That's Becoming Chabad of Beverly Hills

A couple of weeks ago, I joined Hollywood Heritage on a bus tour of some of the Millard Sheets-designed bank buildings in the Los Angeles area. 

I'd already been inside several of them (including the closed Santa Monica location and the to-be-landmarked Sunset and Vine location)—but I was interested in what our guide, Adam Arenson (who literally wrote the book on Millard Sheets and his banks), would have to say. 

Since our tour took place on Memorial Day—a bank holiday—I assumed we'd only be able to admire these structures from the outside and peer through the windows. 

 
But then we got to the former bank on Wilshire Boulevard and Oakhurst in Beverly Hills—which I'd driven by many times.

June 20, 2022

Photo Essay: The Only Surviving Home from the Demolished Desert Inn Country Club Estates, Vegas

I'd been waiting since 2019 to return to Nevada Preservation Foundation's annual Home + History tour—and one of my top destinations this year was the nationally-landmarked Morelli House by architect Hugh E. Taylor.