Obscure Los Angeles

Obscure Los Angeles L.A.’s coolest tour company offering unique group and private sightseeing tours.

05/20/2026

No matter how early you have to get up to go to work, there’s always someone who wants to get up earlier. Here are eight LA restaurants that open before 6:30 AM.

I knew the dead sycamore on the side of Route 126, with its vandalized and stolen bronze historical marker, would tell a...
05/14/2026

I knew the dead sycamore on the side of Route 126, with its vandalized and stolen bronze historical marker, would tell a story. Long before California even had designated historical monuments, the tree was a local landmark. It served as a popular resting place for padres traveling the old mission routes, and over the decades, locals utilized the massive shade tree as a temporary post office, an outdoor chapel, and even a rural polling place for early elections. Its biggest claim to fame came in 1846 when General Frémont camped there on his way to Los Angeles to sign the Treaty of Cahuenga, which ended the Mexican-American War in California. I pulled over to take this picture and can confirm that it is indeed a good place to stop for a while.

One of the largest Moreton Bay fig trees in Southern California is located on National Boulevard, right on the Palms/Wes...
05/13/2026

One of the largest Moreton Bay fig trees in Southern California is located on National Boulevard, right on the Palms/West LA border. The tree now shades St. John's Presbyterian Church, but it was originally planted by the property's first owner in honor of his son back in 1875. It actually predates the church by over seven decades. Recognizing its incredible age and local significance, the city officially declared it Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 19 in 1963.

Route 66 officially runs through eight states, but we all know the best stretch is right here in Southern California. Th...
05/11/2026

Route 66 officially runs through eight states, but we all know the best stretch is right here in Southern California. The Route 66 Trailhead in Rancho Cucamonga serves as a perfect microcosm for the history of the area. This small roadside park features original pieces of infrastructure utilized by the mythic Pacific Electric Railway, and pays tribute to the region's origins as a viticultural powerhouse with a recreation of the original "Mother Vineyard." As a final treat for Mother Road purists, there’s even a segment of the original 1920s alignment running right through the park. The vintage pavement was discovered during construction, and the landscape architects wisely decided to preserve it. Standing on that old stretch of road, one can’t help but be reminded of all the people who’ve passed through here—and all the reasons they did.

Slavko's Harbor Poultry has been serving San Pedro’s thriving Croatian community in one form or another for over 100 yea...
05/11/2026

Slavko's Harbor Poultry has been serving San Pedro’s thriving Croatian community in one form or another for over 100 years. The business started out as a market and live poultry supplier that also served barbecue chicken to customers while they waited. According to a 2022 article, when KFC moved in down the street, the shop pivoted to frying their own chicken to compete. A family member claimed they fried the chicken so well, in fact, that KFC actually approached them to demonstrate their methods. The family refused, and the restaurant has carried on as a beloved local eatery ever since. Today, aside from their namesake fried chicken and famous potato nuggets, they continue to serve a not so secret menu of traditional Croatian specialties.

On my mission to visit as many of the remaining adobe structures in Southern California as possible, I’ve discovered tha...
05/11/2026

On my mission to visit as many of the remaining adobe structures in Southern California as possible, I’ve discovered that adobes are all mostly the same, but kind of different—and the differences are the fun part.

There are a few ways Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach is exactly the same as the other adobes. First, it was built on prime land that was originally the site of a native settlement—in this case, the sacred Tongva village of Puvungna. Second, the first American family to move in (the Bixbys) eventually cashed in big time. And third, the house is filled with room after room of old furniture you’re definitely not allowed to sit on.

But here are a few ways it is completely different. To get to it, you literally have to drive past a security guard into the middle of a modern gated community. Architecturally, it’s a Russian nesting doll: instead of tearing down the original 1800s mud-brick structure, the owners just built a sprawling wooden farmhouse completely around it. Finally, it operates as a working time capsule. You step out of suburban sprawl right into a working ranch with a barn full of draft horses and sheep, surrounded by four acres of lush gardens designed by the Olmsted Brothers—the landscape architects who were the sons of the guy who laid out Central Park in New York.

It’s always preferable for a historic structure to stay where it was originally located. When that’s not possible, anoth...
05/10/2026

It’s always preferable for a historic structure to stay where it was originally located. When that’s not possible, another good option some cities utilize is to move the buildings to a designated area and create a park around them. Anaheim Founders' Park has several such buildings oriented around an enormous fig tree from the 1870s.

The Mother Colony House is the oldest wood structure in Orange County and was built by the ill-fated German grape-growing colony. The Woelke-Stoffel House is a relocated Queen Anne Victorian house built in 1894 during Orange County's first big citrus boom. The aforementioned fig tree even served as the inspiration for the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse at Disneyland just down the street. Here are three important eras in Anaheim history represented in one park.

El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach is a natural oasis in the center of suburban sprawl, akin to the mythic city of go...
05/09/2026

El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach is a natural oasis in the center of suburban sprawl, akin to the mythic city of gold for which it takes its name. And although a hike through the park feels like stepping into the untouched wilderness, it’s actually part of a long California tradition of manufactured landscapes, not unlike Disneyland or your favorite big-plate Mexican restaurant.

In the mid-1960s, local park directors visited the Eaton Canyon Nature Center in Pasadena and were inspired to build a similar sanctuary. Their location of choice was an entirely flat agricultural bean field. When the massive 605 and 405 freeway interchanges were being built nearby, the city took the millions of cubic yards of excavated dirt and dumped it onto the bean fields. They used that freeway dirt to sculpt rolling hills, carve out two lakes, and plant an entirely new ecosystem from scratch in 1969.

Today, as those plantings have matured, it’s become a prime showcase of Southern California's native habitats, including riparian, coastal sage scrub, and oak woodlands.

The Chaffey-Garcia House, located in the Etiwanda area of Rancho Cucamonga, is one of the oldest and most historically s...
05/08/2026

The Chaffey-Garcia House, located in the Etiwanda area of Rancho Cucamonga, is one of the oldest and most historically significant surviving structures in the Inland Empire. In 1881, Canadian brothers George Jr. and William Chaffey purchased 1,000 acres of land from Captain Joseph Garcia, a retired Portuguese seaman who had built the house in 1874, established a sheep ranch, and planted the region's very first orange trees. The Chaffeys utilized this land as a "test bed" for their innovative engineering and community planning, eventually subdividing it into a thriving agricultural colony.

Because George Chaffey was a brilliant engineer, the property became the site of several technological milestones. Though it looks like a humble wooden house by today’s standards, in 1882 it hosted the first long-distance phone call in Southern California, as well as the region's very first electric light. The Chaffeys also made massive innovations in regional water management. Like many historic structures, it was eventually saved from demolition by being relocated, and today it sits directly across the street from the now-derelict Etiwanda train depot.

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6727 1/8 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
90028

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