Photo Essay: Every Day Is Memorial Day at Bob Hope Patriotic Hall

[Last updated 11/26/19 7:39 PM PT]

After World War I, a number of veterans' organizations were formed—the American Legion, the VFW, and so on.

But there's one group that predates nearly all of them: the Grand Army of the Republic, formed in 1866, the year after the U.S. Civil War ended.

At its peak in 1890, it consisted of nearly a half-million members, at a time when the Civil War was being commemorated and monuments were being dedicated.

Of course, all of its members have died off.

But there's still a constant influx of veterans coming off duty and trying to make the transition from military to civilian life.

There are veterans' memorials all over Southern California, too—we even have Veteran Avenue here in LA, which runs along the east side of the Los Angeles National Cemetery.

But there's one place that's considered a "living memorial" to LA County veterans.



And that's Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in Los Angeles, part of the Military and Veterans Affairs division of the County of Los Angeles—and originally built specifically to support the Grand Army of the Republic.



A California state landmark, adorned with an exterior mural by Charles Freeman ("Spirit of '76"), it's also known simply as Patriotic Hall...



...but "patriotic halls" have been dedicated all over LA County since as early as 1913.



The first one to be built was on the 10th floor of the old Hall of Records building. There were two separate such halls by 1915—and the First World War didn't even end until 1918.



By 1926, all the veterans' organizations had outgrown every other patriotic hall in LA—so they all moved into this one on South Figueroa Street. At the time, it was the tallest building in the city of LA.



Designed by Allied Architects Association of Los Angeles (a partnership that included Donald and John Parkinson, and a firm also known for its work on the Hall of Justice in the LA Civic Center) in Italian Renaissance style, it was rededicated in 2004...



...and renamed in honor of Bob Hope (in the year after he died) for his work with the USO.



The hall was upgraded during a renovation between 2007 and 2013, after which it was rededicated once again—now LEED Gold-certified and ADA compliant.



The main lobby retains some architectural elements from the 1920s...

...including its arched ceiling, which was hand-stenciled in Gothic-Renaissance style...



...but it also features tryptic murals that were painted as part of the Works Progress Administration in 1942, including A.J. Leitner's "Soldiers and Sailors."



The other WPA-era murals in the lobby—those by Pasadena painter Helen Lundeburg circa 1941, which depicted the Preamble to the Constitution, the Freedom of Assembly, and the Freedom of the Ballot—were damaged in the early 1970s. At some point, they were removed and... well... lost.



They've been replaced by a tryptic of photorealistic painted murals—"We the People: Out of Many, One," by former U.S. Air Force illustrator Kent Twitchell, circa 2011.



In addition to an administrative office and library...



...the main floor also houses a 500-seat auditorium, with preserved architectural features...



...including coffered arches by the doorways.



The opening scene of Patton was shot in there; and the Los Angeles Municipal Court used it (as well as other rooms around town) during the 25 years it was without a courthouse after the Long Beach earthquake of 1933.



The upper floors of Patriotic Hall contain a variety of offices and meeting rooms and halls, including the Theodore Roosevelt Office Suite...



...the Masonic-style John Hancock Room, the Marine Room, the General Grant Room, and the Lincoln Room (some with church pew benches lining the walls, like in the old days).



Artifacts from all those vets organizations abound...



...whether photos, paintings, printed matter, personal effects...



...or uniform items from each of the five service branches throughout history.



There's even a mini museum devoted to the U.S. Navy, including a collection from the U.S.S. Los Angeles (BB-11).



The original "mess hall" has been preserved on the lower level...



...though it was converted into "The Purple Heart Inn" in 1976, when downstairs was also rededicated as the "Bicentennial Level."



At the Veterans Service Center at Patriotic Hall, today's vets can get support services related to housing, counseling, legal issues, and job searches.



Unfortunately, Bob Hope Patriotic Hall isn't generally open to the civilian public—though veterans and members of their immediate families are welcome.

I managed to get in on a tour arranged by LAVA: Los Angeles Visionaries Association. I've heard stories of people being turned away when they've just shown up.

But next time you see it from the 10 freeway or while driving around USC, you'll know what it is!

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The Hills Have Mines

There's not much in the Los Angeles area that you can take at face value. You have to dig a little deeper.



Case in point: Hostetter Fire Road, open only to hikers, dogs, and bicyclists.



It may look like any other emergency access road in the Verdugo Mountains...



...overlooking the 210 freeway and Verdugo Golf Course (including the site of the former Tuna Canyon Detention Station)...

...but it has secrets, ones you can only discover if you know where to look.



And after climbing a bit from the La Tuna Canyon trailhead and where La Tuna Canyon Road splits off, you might find some clues hiding in the brush.



Fortunately, I was with the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley—including some who'd already explored the terrain and figured a few things out.



What we were looking at was some of all that remains of the former Hostetter Mine, including some intact fragments of rails that had once transported ore carts and a wheel of the former funicular, made of solid cast iron. 



An 1891 article from the Los Angeles Times (a printout of which was distributed on our hike) bemoans how Southern California had neglected its mineral resources, despite gold having been first discovered in LA County, and switched all its attention to horticultural resources (presumably, citrus orchards and the like).



The singular exception, of course, was oil.



Of course, you have to acknowledge the challenge of mining SoCal's rugged terrain, which often is so overgrown it has to be cleared first and doesn't have enough water to support mining operations.



With sharp drop-offs making every steep canyon potentially deadly, you really can't blame mining companies for not trying that hard.



Some hikers can't even make it.



But some prospectors did, indeed, try—and a "practically inexhaustible" deposit of graphite was discovered in the Verdugos.



No trace of an actual mine shaft has yet been found in the canyons up there, after the paving gives way to dirt (and what looks like a creekbed).



But there are definite remnants of an industrial operation.



The mine is thought to have closed in the 1920s—it was still operating sometime in the 19-teens.



But by the 1960s, the presence of a graphite mine in the area was nothing more than a "rumor."



Back then, there was a piece of it hiding in plain sight...



...a concrete bunker along Cedar Bend Edison Road, once fully visible from the freeway...

...but now completely consumed and obscured by overgrowth.



According to mining historian Xavier Drenfold, the concrete-and-steel structure was the base of the mill...



...where you can find the old loading area, ore chutes, and even some more railroad track used as rebar.



Still, a lot of questions remain unanswered. But that, too, is typical of Southern California.

Local historian Mike Lawler tells this story better than I do. See his article "More Info on the Mystery Mine of the Verdugos" from the Crescenta Valley Weekly.

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Photo Essay: The 1980s Skyscraper That Ate the San Diego Fox Theatre

[Last updated 3/9/20 5:07 PM PT—new photo added]

Over the last 10+ years since I've been visiting, Downtown San Diego has really sprung up with the high-rises and the condos.

circa 2020, from the tower of the Marriott Courtyard

But it was in 1989 that San Diego's second-tallest building (by a foot) was completed—the 34-story Symphony Towers.



Fortunately, its construction preserved the home of the San Diego Symphony, known as Copley Hall since 1988.

Photo Essay: The Russian Experiment That Helped Siberia's Mutant Foxes Escape the Fur Trade

Visitors to the Chernobyl plant company town of Pripyat in Ukraine (like me) have got a thing for its resident red fox, named Simon. (Of course, I've had a thing for foxes for a while.)



But it turns out a small group of rogue Russian genetic scientists do, too—originally led by Dmitry Belyaev, director of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics and namesake of the so-called Belyaev foxes (a domesticated form of the wild red fox, Vulpes vulpes).



In 1959, he began to try to replicate how dogs (also members of the Canidae family) first became domesticated—but in a much shorter period of time. Instead of millennia, it took 55 years for his team at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to develop a domesticated population.



They're not "tame," a trait that can be acquired through training, but genetically domesticated. Physical traits unique to these "friendly" foxes—but not those in the wild—include spots in their fur coloring, curled tails, and floppy ears. Litter sizes are larger, by one pup each.



Behaviorally, these domesticated foxes are more than just "nice"—they show no fear of humans and even actively seek out our companionship. But as cute and friendly as they are, they reportedly don't make good pets (at least, not yet).

They still mark their territory and guard their resources...



...and are fiercely curious.



But they're highly food motivated, so you can train them to sit and stay—just like a dog.



And treats make them really happy.



And not just the red foxes, but also a dark mutation (the silver fox) and a light-colored mutation (Georgian white) of it.



The selective breeding, however, hasn't yet gotten rid of their musky smell, which comes out of numerous scent glands that can be found from nose to tail. You can't remove the glands to get rid of the odor, the way that ferrets or even skunks can be "de-scented."



And even if you could, it seems cruel to do so. Why remove something that so distinctly makes a fox... a fox?



The Russian genetic experiment, which had continued after Belyayev's death in 1985, lost most of its funding with the collapse of the Soviet Union—and tragically, it only kept going by selling some of its docile foxes to the Russian fur trade.



On the surface, the purpose of domesticating foxes was to make them easier to keep in captivity on fur farms. Keeping them less stressed out around workers would make them easier to raise. (Domestic foxes even exhibit lower levels of the "stress hormone," cortisol, as well as adrenaline.)



But it turns out that was just a cover story to keep Belyaev from getting executed by a government that had outlawed the study of genetics.

In more recent times, foxes have begun to become more valued as pets than as pelts, so the institute now sells the domesticated breeds to individuals as well as organizations like the JAB Canid Education and Conservation Center in Santa Ysabel (East San Diego County).

At least in California, a fur ban is in the works and keeping foxes as pets is prohibited.

But that doesn't mean that people don't break the law.

And I'm not sure that the "fox encounters" offered by JABCECC won't encourage rather than discourage either activity.

American scientists have been working with the Russians to try to continue Belyaev's program—at least to see how far they can take it. But the foxes that have been shipped out of Siberia are fixed, so they can't breed. Apparently, the Russians don't want their genetic material getting spread around in uncontrolled environments.

And that means these Russian domesticated foxes may eventually go extinct.

But maybe wild foxes will eventually choose human companionship, if only for the increased proximity to a food source.

And maybe evolution will render them naturally domesticated in thousands of years, the same way that it did with dogs and cats.

After all, foxes are like the perfect combination of the two—some say they're like dog hardware that's running cat software.

Like both, they appreciate a good scratch (something I now know first-hand).

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