Nathan Masters
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A writer specializing in Los Angeles history, Nathan Masters serves as manager of academic events and programming communications for the USC Libraries, the host institution for L.A. as Subject.
Questions? Story ideas? Email him at nmasters[at]usc.edu.
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My KCET.org Activities
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Thanks, Eric! I actually do have those numbers, which you can find in "Green Spaces in the Auto Metropolis" by Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, part of the 2012 book "Planning Los Angeles." It would seem that Griffith Park does not make up...
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When Los Angeles created Westlake Park in 1886, the site's use as a neighborhood dump had marred the beauty of its naturally occurring lake.
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Many of the city's earliest parks were created out of marshes, hills, and other lands then considered worthless.
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For as long as Southern Californians could remember, Castle Rock and Arch Rock stood sentinel along the shore between Topanga Canyon and Santa Monica.
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Winged rats? Until destroyed by a flood in 1914, a Los Angeles pigeon farm home to 100,000 of the birds was a big tourist draw.
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Wildflowers once blanketed hillsides and plains throughout the Los Angeles area where strip malls, suburban homes, and industrial warehouses prevail today.
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Spreading giants imported from Australia, Moreton Bay fig trees have become a cherished part of Southern California's arboreal heritage.
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The original canals of Abbot Kinney's Venice of America are lost to history, long ago filled in, paved over, and converted into residential streets.
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It must be at least 140 years old now. I snapped a photo of it a few months ago: http://instagram.com/p/MtuSQaNBJb/...
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It must be at least 140 years old now. I snapped a photo of it a few months ago: http://instagram.com/p/MtuSQaNBJb/...
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Posted Why Did a 1542 Spanish Voyage Refer to San Pedro Bay as the 'Bay of the Smoke'?
in SoCal FocusWhen Spanish explorers first visited the Los Angeles shore in 1542, they named the area the "Bay of the Smoke." -
In 1786, a sergeant in the Spanish army sketched what was likely the first map of Los Angeles.
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Thanks for the comment, Brady. You're right that the sketches cover other parts of California and do include a few views from outside the Golden State. And you're in luck, for they actually have been collected into a book. The...
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Well said, Massiel. You're right about the church and the Avila Adobe....
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The Los Angeles sketched by William Rich Hutton in July 1847 is virtually unrecognizable today.
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Its origin story is something of a mystery. Who took the photo, and when?
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Once the site of a two-story Victorian house and the original Vons grocery store, the intersection of Figueroa and 7th will soon host the tallest building on the West Coast.
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From Anaheim to Catalina Island, Southern California once hosted major-league baseball teams' preseason training camps.
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Early photographs of Los Angeles surprise for many reasons, but often what's most striking is how empty the city looks.
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Native to Southern California, the oak tree has been a powerful force in shaping the region's human history.
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"Never Built: Los Angeles" presents an alternate history -- and an alternate present -- for a place where inspirational solutions to the city's problems have often been downscaled, defeated, or altogether forgotten.
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During World War II, Catalina Island reinvented itself as a training camp for the U.S. armed forces, including the forerunners to today's CIA and Navy SEALs.
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These train depots, long since vanished, provided tourists' and emigrants' first introduction to Los Angeles, helping shape their ideas about the city.
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With "Gangster Squad," the world's attention turns to the criminal underworld of postwar L.A. and its pugilistic boss, Mickey Cohen.
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Mission bells along Highway 101 imply that motorists' tires trace the same path as missionaries' sandals. But much of El Camino Real's story was imagined by regional boosters.
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Although best known today for whisking tourists up San Francisco's hilly streets, cable cars were once a widely used public transit solution in cities across the U.S., including L.A.
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Every November beginning in 1928, elaborate holiday decorations transformed Hollywood Boulevard into Santa Claus Lane.
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This month, Manhattan Beach celebrates its centennial. Known for its lively seaside promenade, the Strand, and for its associations with surf culture, the city has its origins as a coastal resort built atop shifting sand dunes of the South Bay.
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With streetcars likely returning to downtown L.A. after a five-decade absence, take a look back at the city's very first streetcars -- diminutive, horse-drawn vehicles that spawned L.A.'s first suburbs.
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Southern Californians have long maintained a complicated relationship with the Santa Ana River, accepting its life-giving water but fearing its wrath.
Recent Actions from Nathan Masters
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Thanks, Eric! I actually do have those numbers, which you can find in "Green Spaces in the Auto Metropolis" by Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, part of the 2012 book "Planning Los Angeles." It would seem that Griffith Park does not make up...
-
It must be at least 140 years old now. I snapped a photo of it a few months ago: http://instagram.com/p/MtuSQaNBJb/...
-
It must be at least 140 years old now. I snapped a photo of it a few months ago: http://instagram.com/p/MtuSQaNBJb/...
-
Thanks for the comment, Brady. You're right that the sketches cover other parts of California and do include a few views from outside the Golden State. And you're in luck, for they actually have been collected into a book. The...
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Well said, Massiel. You're right about the church and the Avila Adobe....
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Great piece on a complicated subject. I recently wrote an essay myself about the myth of the Los Angeles desert. It's remarkable how common the notion is -- even among L.A.'s most incisive commentators -- that under our freeways and...
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Commented on El Aliso: Ancient Sycamore Was Silent Witness to Four Centuries of L.A. History
in SoCal FocusFinding El Aliso in those old photos was simply a matter of triangulation, and the tree certainly stands out among the city's one and two-story buildings. The 1857 date for that photograph comes from a caption by C.C. Pierce on... -
Thanks for the fascinating information, Paul!...
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Really interesting trivia, Walt. Thanks for sharing!...
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Thanks so much for your kind comments, Ryan and Philip! I'm glad you enjoyed the piece....
Responses to Comments from Nathan Masters
No recommendations yet.
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When Los Angeles created Westlake Park in 1886, the site's use as a neighborhood dump had marred the beauty of its naturally occurring lake.
-
Many of the city's earliest parks were created out of marshes, hills, and other lands then considered worthless.
-
For as long as Southern Californians could remember, Castle Rock and Arch Rock stood sentinel along the shore between Topanga Canyon and Santa Monica.
-
Winged rats? Until destroyed by a flood in 1914, a Los Angeles pigeon farm home to 100,000 of the birds was a big tourist draw.
-
Wildflowers once blanketed hillsides and plains throughout the Los Angeles area where strip malls, suburban homes, and industrial warehouses prevail today.
-
Spreading giants imported from Australia, Moreton Bay fig trees have become a cherished part of Southern California's arboreal heritage.
-
The original canals of Abbot Kinney's Venice of America are lost to history, long ago filled in, paved over, and converted into residential streets.
-
Posted Why Did a 1542 Spanish Voyage Refer to San Pedro Bay as the 'Bay of the Smoke'?
in SoCal FocusWhen Spanish explorers first visited the Los Angeles shore in 1542, they named the area the "Bay of the Smoke." -
In 1786, a sergeant in the Spanish army sketched what was likely the first map of Los Angeles.
-
The Los Angeles sketched by William Rich Hutton in July 1847 is virtually unrecognizable today.
