We take a break from our regularly scheduled posts (or not so regularly, lately) for a quick plug for West Adams, yet another local history compendium from our favorite South Carolinians, Arcadia Publishing (the company has published more than 4,000 of these books – just scan the Los Angeles-related editions if you need to kill an evening).
Suzanne Tarbell Cooper, Don Lynch, and John G. Kurtz have done a fantastic job assembling West Adams, all about the neighborhood that, “by the end of the 20th century… had become one of the first bedroom communities in fast-growing Los Angeles.” The authors, pictured above, all live in West Adams, and the work they’ve done here covers the gamut from cottages to mansions, from St Vincent de Paul’s to St Paul’s. And there are more than a few Historic-Cultural Monuments highlighted.
(If the L.A. City Nerd were still with us, he could tell us why so many of the HCMs in West Adams are not in the designated planning community of West Adams, but rather South Los Angeles.)
A book signing was held on Saturday, November 22, at the Miner Residence next to Chester Place, thanks to the West Adams Heritage Association. The Miner Residence, named for Randolph Huntington Miner and his wife, Tulita Wilcox Miner, was also home to Theda Bara and Fatty Arbuckle. Joseph Schenk and Norma Talmadge owned the mansion, too. Today the home is the AMAT House.
Congratulations, Suzanne, Don, and John on a job well done.
Buy your copy of West Adams on Amazon here.
An eagerly anticipated (and just-purchased) book, because who doesn’t love West Adams? Well, probably plenty of people, but certainly no-one who reads this blog.
ReplyDeleteRecent books from Arcadia include Historic Hotels of Los Angeles and Hollywood, and a book on Angels Flight, which’ve got some pretty choice images of Bunker Hill. (There I go again always making with the Bunker Hill—hey, I’m just trying to keep your West Adams book all snugly-like on the shelf.)
(I’d also recommend the Highland Park book published earlier this year, for no other reason than to further my shameless, naked boosterism. Highland Park! The land of yesteryear…today!)
Nathan, they're all on my Christmas list, thanks. Just send them to my estate here in the Valley - the land of today... tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteWest Adams is an excellent photo book of this area of L.A. What I was really pleased to see was that Arcadia Publications has finally used better paper to provide photos that are no longer "fuzzy". If you're in a store, notice the "new" books are thicker than the "old" ones. Unfortunately, they seem to be $2 higher, too. :-)
ReplyDeleteFrom Rosedale Cemetery to Berkeley Square and more--it's in the book.
Congratulations to the authors for a well-done historical journey!