Hidden gems

Museum of Jurassic Technology

9341 Venice Boulevard, Culver City, California 90232

The Museum of Jurassic Technology at 9341 Venice Boulevard in the Palms district of Los Angeles, California, United States, was founded by David Hildebrand Wilson and Diana Drake Wilson in 1988. While it calls itself "an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic", the relevance of the term "Lower Jurassic" to the museum's collections is left unexplained, and "Jurassic Technology" is likewise undefined. The museum's collection includes a mixture of artistic, scientific, ethnographic, and historic items, as well as some unclassifiable exhibits; the diversity evokes the cabinets of curiosities that were the 16th-century predecessors of modern natural-history museums.

Photo: Museum of Jurassic Technology (photo credit: Jennifer Bastian) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Wattles Mansion

1824 N Curson Avenue

The Wattles Mansion, formally known as Jualita, is a former estate in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California. The mansion is a Mission Revival style mansion built in the estate in 1907 for wealthy Omaha banker Gurdon Wattles as his winter home; the estate contains a complex of gardens. It was sold to the city in 1968 and became the Wattles Garden Park, operated by the Department of Recreation and Parks.

Photo: McGhiever / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Venice Canals

The Venice Canal Historic District is embedded in the residential Venice suburb of Los Angeles, California. The historic district is noteworthy for possessing man-made wetland canals, built in 1905 by developer Abbot Kinney as part of his Venice of America. Kinney sought to recreate the appearance and feel of Venice, Italy, in coastal Los Angeles County.

Photo: Carol M. Highsmith / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Bronson Caves

Bronson Canyon, or Bronson Caves, is a section of Griffith Park in Los Angeles that has become known as a filming location for many films and television series, especially Westerns and science fiction, from the early days of motion pictures to the present.

Lake Shrine

17190 Sunset Blvd, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272

Local favourite in Santa Monica, Los Angeles.

Ennis House

2607–2655 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles, California

The Ennis House is a residence at 2607–2655 Glendower Avenue in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles in California, United States. Designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the Mayan Revival style for the businessman Charles Ennis and his wife Mabel, it was completed in 1925 on top of a hill in Los Feliz. The house is the largest of four concrete textile block houses that Wright designed in Greater Los Angeles in the 1920s, the others being La Miniatura, the Storer House, and the Freeman House.

Photo: Mike Dillon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art

There are two art museums named after Frederick R. Weisman: Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, part of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, California, part of Pepperdine University.

Heritage Square Museum

3800 di Homer Street

Heritage Square Museum is a living history and open-air architecture museum located beside the Arroyo Seco Parkway in the Montecito Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southern Arroyo Seco area. The living history museum shows the story of development in Southern California through historical architectural examples. The museum focuses on interpreting the years 1850 to 1950, a century of unprecedented growth in Los Angeles.

Photo: Los Angeles / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Spadena House (The Witch's House)

516 N Walden Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

A storybook-style cottage built in 1921 as a movie set/office for Willat Studios in Culver City, then relocated to its current Beverly Hills residential lot in 1934. Its crooked roofline, warped windows, and overgrown garden give it a fairy-tale, almost sinister look that earned it the nickname 'The Witch's House.' It is a private residence listed on the Beverly Hills Register of Historic Properties and can only be viewed from the street.

Bradbury Building

304 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Completed in 1893, this modest brick exterior conceals an extraordinary Victorian-era interior atrium of exposed cast-iron railings, open-cage elevators, and glazed brick walls illuminated by a skylight. Designed by draftsman George Wyman, it is the oldest commercial building still standing in downtown Los Angeles and a designated National Historic Landmark. It has appeared in numerous films, most famously Blade Runner, and its ground-floor lobby remains open to visitors during business hours.

Chapman Plaza (Chapman Market)

3465 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020

Built in 1929, this Spanish Colonial Revival complex was one of the country's earliest drive-through marketplaces, allowing motorists to pull into a central courtyard ringed by shops. Its most recognizable feature is an ornate hexagonal pagoda-like tower at the corner of the property. Designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, it has been restored and now houses restaurants and retail while retaining its original architectural character.

Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site

4600 Virginia Rd, Long Beach, CA 90807

This 1844 Monterey Colonial-style adobe ranch house was once the center of a sprawling cattle and sheep operation spanning over 27,000 acres of Rancho land. Preserved as a historic house museum and surrounded by period gardens, it offers a rare, intact look at 19th-century Californio and rancho-era life. The site is owned by the City of Long Beach and operates as a free public museum with docent-led tours.

Point Dume Natural Preserve

Cliffside Dr, Malibu, CA 90265

A rocky headland jutting into the Pacific, this preserve protects coastal sage scrub habitat atop dramatic sandstone bluffs overlooking the ocean. A short trail leads to an overlook popular for whale watching in winter and views stretching from Point Vicente to the Santa Monica Mountains. Managed by California State Parks, it offers a quieter, more rugged alternative to Malibu's better-known beaches.

Colorado Street Bridge

Colorado Blvd at Arroyo Seco, Pasadena, CA 91105

Completed in 1913, this graceful Beaux-Arts concrete arch bridge spans the Arroyo Seco with a distinctive curved alignment and ornate lampposts. Once the main gateway into Pasadena and part of old Route 66, it earned the somber nickname 'Suicide Bridge' due to a history of jumps, particularly during the Great Depression, which led to the installation of protective railings. It remains an active roadway and pedestrian walkway, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Santa Monica Camera Obscura

1450 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90401

Tucked inside the Santa Monica Senior Recreation Center in Palisades Park, this camera obscura uses a small rotating mirror and lens to project a live, real-time image of the ocean, pier, and park onto a circular table in a darkened room. Built in 1898 and rebuilt several times since, it is one of the few public camera obscuras still operating in the country. Admission is free, though hours are limited, and it is maintained by the City of Santa Monica.

Music Box Steps

923-935 Vendome St, Los Angeles, CA 90026

This steep public staircase became famous as the filming location for the 1932 Laurel and Hardy short 'The Music Box,' in which the duo comically struggle to haul a piano up the 133 steps. A historical plaque at the site commemorates the film, which won the first Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. The stairway remains a functioning neighborhood pedestrian path and a pilgrimage site for classic film fans.

Windward Avenue Arcades

Windward Ave, Venice, CA 90291

These colonnaded, Venetian-Renaissance-style storefront arcades date to Abbot Kinney's original 1905 development of 'Venice of America,' designed to evoke the canals and architecture of Venice, Italy. Though most of the original network of arcaded streets was later demolished, the surviving stretch along Windward Avenue retains its historic columns and arches above modern shops and restaurants. It anchors the Windward Avenue Historic Commercial District near the Venice boardwalk.

Yamashiro Hollywood

1999 N Sycamore Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90068

Built in 1911 as a private estate by the Bernheimer brothers to house their Asian art collection, this hillside compound replicates a Japanese mountain palace complete with pagodas, koi ponds, and terraced gardens overlooking the city. It later served as a private club and now operates as a restaurant, with its gardens open to visitors for dining, tours, or simply taking in the panoramic views. It is a contributing property of the Yamashiro Historic District.