The Travel Angel keeps watch over travelers in a dingy corner of the Original Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax.
Author Archives: Tom Fassbender
Los Pobladores: The 44 Founders of Los Angeles
Los Angeles was founded on September 4, 1781 by 44 people (known as Los Pobladores) who traveled from Sonora and Sinaloa to establish a pueblo for the Spanish empire.
Birth of the Cheeseburger
Back in 1924 teenage cook Lionel Sternberger accidentally created the culinary staple we know today as the Cheeseburger at a roadside restaurant called the Rite Spot on Colorado Boulevard.
Vermonica: The Original Vintage Los Angeles Streetlight Exhibit
The best vintage streetlight art installation in Los Angeles isn’t at LACMA. No, the best public art focused on historic street lamps is called Vermonica and this Urban Candelabra now sits along the border of Silver Lake and East Hollywood.
A.W. Ross Statue
In a small traffic triangle in the Mid-Wilshire district, you’ll find a head-and-shoulders statue of one A.W. Ross, the almost forgotten mastermind of the Miracle Mile.
Sidewalk Clocks of Los Angeles
In the days of a more walkable Los Angeles, jewelry stores would install free-standing clocks on the sidewalks outside their storefronts. Today, only a few of these historic sidewalk clocks remain in Los Angeles.
Babyland at Forest Lawn Cemetery
Inside Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale you’ll find a small section that serves as the final resting place of infants and children. It’s known, of course, as Babyland.
Faces of Elysian Valley (The Riverside Roundabout)
A series of nine egg-like sculptures featuring random faces of area residents keeps vigil over the first true roundabout in Los Angeles.
‘Hitting the Wall’ — Restored!
“Hitting the Wall: Women and the Marathon,” an epic 1984-era mural celebrating the first women’s Olympic marathon, has recently been uncovered in Downtown Los Angeles.
Chiune Sugihara Memorial Statue
In Little Tokyo you’ll find the bronze statue of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who single-handedly helped more than 2,000 Jews escape Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
Los Angeles Explorers Guild 