Robert Petersen was looking for a headquarters to consolidate his publishing company and thought the department store building was a good choice. However, upon inspecting the building he realized it would be a great place a for a car museum, given its lack of windows. The museum opened in June 1994. It underwent extensive renovation in 2015, giving it its unique facade that evokes speed and emotion, two sentiments often associated with cars.

The Petersen Automotive Museum opened in 1994. It is one of the largest car museums in the world.

The museum is located in a former department store built in 1962. The building retained this appearance until 2015.

The museum features over 100 cars on display and houses many more in the Vault, a storage area in the basement, which visitors can tour.

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Founded in 1994, the Petersen Automotive Museum is one of the world's largest car museums, featuring over a 100 cars on display and many more located in a storage area in the basement called the Vault. Publisher Robert Petersen and his wife, Margie, donated funds and led the effort to create the museum, which is housed in a former department store that was built in 1962. The museum offers changing and permanent exhibits that explore the development of the automobile and its effect on Southern Californian and American culture. Visitors will also learn about how cars work, create their own virtual cars (by painting and personalizing them in interactive exhibits), and try racing simulators.

Petersen Automotive Museum

Los Angeles, or simply LA, is a vibrant and diverse city located in southern California, USA. With its stunning coastline, beautiful weather, and cultural attractions, LA is a popular tourist destination for people from all over the world.

There are many things to see and do in LA, and some of the must-visit attractions include:


Although the museum was established in 1965, its origins date back to the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, which was founded in 1910. The museum originally began with only three buildings designed by William L. Pereira Associates. The Ahmanson building, the largest of the three buildings that were also built in 1965, holds the original collections the museum started with. The Hammer Building which was built to expand and displays the special exhibitions. The Bing Center holds the library, a children’s gallery, a 600 seat auditorium, and the cafeteria for tourist hunger. The Art of the Americas Building (formerly known as the Robert O. Anderson Building, 1986) that contains the museum’s modern art collection.The museum holds art from around the world including Africa, Korea, China, and the Islamic world. The art dates from 10,000-500 BC to the 21st century and the museum presents the art in categories. For example, the Japanese exhibit features the Edo Society and Textile formed art. Each exhibit organizes each piece by classifications such as furnishings, sculpture, prints, and ceramics.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art was established in 1965 and has grown to include a collection of over 120,000 works of art, becoming the largest art museum in the western United States. The museum's art collection includes works from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas-including works that predate the arrival of Columbus. The museum boasts one of the largest and most important collections of modern and contemporary art, and also holds an award-winning collection of art from the Middle East.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The land on which the museum stands was once part of a large 4,400-acre property called Rancho La Brea owned by Antonio Jose Rocha. Local residents were allowed to have access to the pits for personal use. Over time, the ranch was subdivided. The last owner of the tar pits was George Allan Hancock (for whom the park is named). He donated land for the park on the condition that the pits be preserved and studied. Interestingly, it took quite some time for people to realize the significance of the pits. The earliest written record of the pits came in 1769 when a Franciscan friar wrote about them. The first published mention of ancient animals found at the pits came in 1875. Finally, the significance of the pits was fully recognized in 1905. Amateur and professional excavations took place in the coming years, the most of important of which occurred in 1913-1915 when the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (under its previous name) conducted thorough excavations that revealed 750,000 specimens. The most recent excavations came in 2006, which were collectively called Project 23. The nearly complete Columbian mammoth and numerous other specimens were discovered and are still being studied and processed.&nbsp;

Located in Hancock Park, the La Brea Tar Pits Museum is one of the city's more unique attractions. It is named for a group of natural asphalt tar pits ("brea" is the Spanish word for tar) that have been seeping tar, and trapping animals and plants, for tens of thousands of years. As such, the pits have been a treasure trove paleontologists who have recovered an estimated one million (and counting) well-preserved specimens—231 species of invertebrates, 234 species of vertebrates, and 159 species of plants—since 1906. These include large animals such as saber-toothed tigers, mammoths, dire wolves, and smaller creatures such as rodents, insects, and mollusks. The museum features many of these on display, including a nearly complete Columbian mammoth skeleton. The museum also offers tours and features a lab where visitors can see paleontologists process fossils. The tar pits site is National Natural Landmark and a California Historical Landmark. 

La Brea Tar Pits Museum

The history of the museum begins in the 1960s when a group of survivors of the Holocaust realized they each had photographs and other artifacts that needed to be preserved, in addition to stories they wanted to share for generations to come. Randy Schoenberg, Dr. Vladmir Melamed, and Joanna Chenn helped lead the effort to turn this idea into a museum that has won multiple awards for programs, exhibits, and architectural design. Implementing features such as lower ceilings and darkened rooms for certain parts of the museum, architecture and artifacts work together to offer a sense of tragedy while interpretive signs help to convey the scope of the Holocaust.Highlights of the museum include an exhibition called Tree of Testimony that offers around 70 screens that display over 50,000 survivors sharing their memories of life before, during, and after World War II. Museum patrons can use headphones to listen to any of the survivor stories while the screens rotate different between survivors to help convey the scope of the Holocaust.

Established in 1961, Holocaust Museum LA is one of the oldest establishments in the United States dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the Holocaust. The museum was also the first to be established by Holocaust survivors. The museum building, designed by architect Hagy Belberg, was completed in 2010 thanks to donors and supporters. In addition to exhibits drawn from a vast collection of artifacts, the museum offers exhibits that blend technology and oral history to allow visitors to experience conversations with Holocaust survivors. The museum also offers educational programs for youth and intergenerational conversations with survivors. In addition to the museum galleries, residents and visitors can experience the Goldrich Family Foundation Children’s Memorial and the outdoor Martyrs Memorial.

Holocaust Museum LA

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Gilmore Oil Company formed after oil was discovered on
the dairy farm of Arthur F. Gilmore. Earl Gilmore, Arthur’s son, became the
company’s president in 1918.1 Earl Gilmore built Gilmore Stadium which opened
in 1934.2 Gilmore Stadium served the home field for Loyola University football.3 The Stadium was also the home field for the Los Angeles Bulldogs, a team that
competed in several different leagues. Beginning as an independent team, the
Bulldogs joined the second American Football League for one year in 1937. The
Bulldogs joined the American Professional Football Association in 1939.4 A
professional team called the Los Angeles Bulldogs competed in the Pacific Coast
Football League at a time when the National Football League did not allow Black
players. Jackie Robinson played for the Bulldogs briefly in 1941. Kenny
Washington and Lenny Strode, two of Robinson’s teammates at U.C.L.A. played for
the Hollywood Bears that year. The Bears won the league title that year. Jackie
Robinson went on to break the color barrier in baseball while Washington and
Strode would sign with the Los Angeles Rams , breaking the color barrier in the
National Football League.5 Gilmore Stadium also hosted &nbsp;NFL All-Star Games for the 1939 and 1940
seasons.6

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Football was not
the only sport hosted by Gilmore Stadium. Midget Car racing at the stadium was
extremely popular. Auto Sports was a natural fit for an oil company and Gilmore
Stadium proved to be a primary venue.&nbsp;&nbsp;Many of auto sports top names competed at Gilmore Stadium including Bill
Vukovich, Walt Faulkner, Perry Grimm,&nbsp;and Roger Ward. At least five&nbsp;drivers died while racing at the stadium.
Midget car races frequently filled the stadium to its capacity of 18,000
spectators.7&nbsp;

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Other
events held at the stadium included aquatic shows, baseball, boxing, and
cricket. Harry Truman delivered his “Stiff Upper Lip” at Gilmore Stadium.8 The stadium was also the setting for the Three Stooges movie "Three Little Pigskin's". 9&nbsp;The
stadium would experience a decline in the late 1940’s and eventually closed in
1950. The Hollywood Stars minor league baseball team of the Pacific Coast League&nbsp;played at Gilmore Stadium in 1939 while Gilmore Field, which was&nbsp;located next to Gilmore Stadium, was under construction. In 1947 actress Katharine Hepburn delivered a speech in support of the Progressive Party's presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace.&nbsp;The stadium was demolished in 195110 and the site later became a parking
lot for CBS television city.

    Built in 1934, Gilmore Stadium hosted many sporting events including football, midget car racing, rodeos, and boxing matches. Built by Earl Gilmore, the son of the company’s founder AF Gilmore, on the property owned the Gilmore Oil Company. Gilmore Stadium became the home of Loyola University football and several professional football teams. The stadium also hosted movies and presidential addresses. 

Gilmore Stadium

It was the mid-1930s and vaudeville was a dying art, usurped by the bright lights of Broadway and the booming movie industry in Hollywood. Vaudeville stars were turning their attentions to different ventures. One of those names was Dave Chasen, an immigrant from the Ukraine who landed on the shores of America when he was 8 years-old. Chasen asked his friend from the New Yorker, Harold Ross, for a $3,000 loan to open his own Hollywood restaurant with his wife Maude. Ross loaned Chasen the money, never imagining this quaint restaurant would become the biggest hit in town.The first item listed on the menu when Chasen's opened in 1936 was Dave Chasen's own secret chili recipe. Elizabeth Taylor would come to so love Chasen's chili that when she was in Rome filming Cleopatra she had it shipped to Italy. For many years Chasen kept the chili recipe a top-secret, spending time in the kitchen every Sunday preparing for the week ahead. A few short years after it opened, Chasen's American/Continental cuisine was the hottest restaurant in Hollywood.Some of Chasen's earliest frequenters included Charles Lindbergh and Howard Hughes. Chasen's became known for a strict-dress code, which included no open-back shoes for men or women, only Hughes could get away with breaking that rule. Chasen had another strict policy that was adhered to in its nearly 60 years of business: no credits cards, please. The options were cash or sign the tab and have it mailed to your address.  Many of Hollywood's elite would waltz through the giant wood doors bearing a "C", including: Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Ava Gardner, Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball, and many more. Frank Sinatra was known to rent-out the whole back room for parties, including his and Barbara Sinatra's anniversary party in 1988. Politicians such as Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon were regulars at Chasen's, the latter preferring the "hobo steak," a New York strip lathered in butter and broiled in salt. When Ronald Reagan was president he brought British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to Chasen's with him as his guest. Into the late 80s and early 90s old timers like George Burns and Dean Martin were still regulars, but a younger crowd had joined them, such as Quentin Tarantino and Sharon Stone. Donna Summers wrote the song She Works Hard for the Money on bathroom toilet paper.As Chasen's health began to fail, he turned over the operations of Chasen's to his wife Maude. Dave Chasen passed away in 1973 at the age of 74. After operating under her guidance for another 22 years, the aging clientele and her own declining health caused Maude to close Chasen's. In 1997, Grady Sanders purchased the Chasen's name from the Chasen family and re-opened a Chasen's on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. The restaurant thrived at first, bringing back nostalgic customers, but its success soon fizzled out and Sanders closed the doors in 2000.Now a Bristol Farms grocery store, a few of the high-back leather booths from the original Chasen's sits in the cafe, and the famous chili can still be purchased by customers. If curious tourists and visitors look hard enough they will find a small marker outside the cafe explaining the historical restaurant that graced the corner of Beverly and Doheny for 60 years.Though the restaurant is gone and few reminders of the glittery past that once took place there remain, the legendary tales live on...and so does the chili.

Chasen's Restaurant, now the location of a Bristol Farms grocery store, was a premiere restaurant located on the border of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. In 1936, Dave Chasen, a vaudevillian trying to survive in a dying art, decided to go into the restaurant industry and opened a new joint on Beverly Boulevard. The first item on the menu would become Chasen's trademark recipe: the chili. Over the next 60 years, well-known figures and celebrities frequented Chasen's. After Dave Chasen's death in 1973, his wife Maude operated the restaurant for another 22 years until the restaurant closed its doors in 1995. Now operated by Bristol Farms, there are a few remnants of the old Chasen's Restaurant including some of the booths and the original dark wood wall paneling. The cafe in Bristol Farms continues to offer the most famous chili recipe in America. If walls could talk the wood panels of Chasen's would have a thousand tales to tell of Hollywood's Golden Age. 

Chasen's Restaurant (1936-1995)

Constructed in 1929, this three-story West Hollywood building originally served as a storage facility for Mitchell Camera Company. At the time, most of its inventory consisted of motion picture cameras owned by 1920's Hollywood motion picture executive William Fox- one of the company's largest shareholders. In 1941, Mitchell Camera Company expanded the building, likely to make room for increased production of bombsights which the US government contracted the company to make during World War II. Mitchell Camera Company remained at this location until 1946, when the building was sold and used as a military salvage depot, then a furniture factory. The furniture factory operating on the first floor inspired the name of the building's next tenant- an exclusive nightclub called The Factory. Opened by wealthy attorney, architect, and artist Ron Buck in 1967, The Factory immediately gained a following among Hollywood elites thanks to its extravagant style and gourmet dining. Paul Newman, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford sat on the club's board of directors. Despite its A-list patrons, The Factory began losing money in the early 1970's, forcing Buck to sell the establishment. The building hosted several short-lived business tenants until 1974, when Scott Forbes- an optometrist and openly gay party promoter from Beverly Hills- purchased it in 1974. The same year, Forbes opened Studio One, a massive gay discotheque with two dance floors and a downstairs cabaret. Open seven nights a week from 9 PM to 2 AM, Studio One became one of West Hollywood's most popular gay male establishments. Live performances, male erotic dancers, and themed party nights drew crowds of up to 1,000 people on the weekends. The nightclub frequently entertained and hosted performances from celebrities such as Liza Minelli, Sylvester, Bernadette Peters, Ike &amp; Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle, Wayland Flowers with his puppet Madame, and Joan Rivers. Studio One was also renowned in the Los Angeles LGBTQ+ community for more unsavory reasons. Ever since its opening, the club catered almost exclusively to upper-class, white gay men. This was particularly evident in its door policy, where ID was asked only once for the white gay male regulars, but was asked for and refused multiple times when women (particularly lesbians) or Latinix and Black gay men tried to enter. Discriminatory practices at Studio One were so well-known that the Los Angeles Times ran a story on it in 1976. In the article, Scott Forbes doubled down on his position, stating that his nightclub simply had strict standards and that it was “probably the finest run establishment in the city as far as control of people is concerned”. Throughout the mid-1970's, the Gay Community Mobilization Committee held demonstrations outside of Studio One in protest of the club's policies and Forbes's remarks. According to oral history accounts, Studio One was just one of multiple nightclubs who employed these practices to ensure an exclusively white male patronage. This led to the creation of other West Hollywood LGBTQ+ clubs such as Jewel's Catch-One and Circus Disco, which catered to more diverse crowds. In 1988, after 14 years of business, Studio One closed its doors. Scott Forbes later died in 2002 at the age of 57. Today, the building is still used as a nightclub. Currently, it shares the same name as the first nightclub to open there- The Factory.

Built in 1929 as a manufacturing storage building for the Mitchell Camera Company, this building was first turned into a nightclub called The Factory in 1967. The club was incredibly popular among Hollywood's elites and celebrities, with a board of directors that included Paul Newman and Sammy Davis Jr. Despite its glamorous status, The Factory closed only four years after opening. In 1974, the building was then purchased by Scott Forbes- an openly gay Beverly Hills optometrist and party promoter. Renamed as Studio One, the discotheque became one of the most well-known gay nightclubs in the United States and hosted celebrities such as Joan Rivers, Liza Minelli, Bernadette Peters, Tina Turner, and Patti LaBelle. Studio One was also known for its discriminatory door policy, which notoriously excluded most women, racial minorities, and lower-class people. Forbes closed Studio One in 1988. The space is still used as a nightclub today under the original name "The Factory".

The Factory (Studio One)

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Troubadour has seen the start of many popular artists throughout the years. In the 1960s, the nightclub was a big part of the folk music scene with the likes of Joni Mitchell,the Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield. During the 1970s, the Troubadour was a sight of many historic performances including Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis, Carole King, James Taylor, and Steve Martin. In 1970, Elton John made his U.S. debut. The Troubadour went in a hard-rock direction in the 1980s with bands like Metallica, Pearl Jam, and Guns n' Roses.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Throughout the 70s and 80s, the Troubadour featured a lot of new wave and punk genres. Guns n' Roses played their first show there and was discovered by David Geffen, a music producer in Hollywood. There is still a very wide variety of music played at the Troubadour and is considered one of Hollywood's most respected place to hear live music.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Opening its door in 1957, the Troubadour bar has become one of the most popular destinations for any up and coming music talent. It was first opened as a coffee house on La Cienega blvd, but moved to its current location shortly after opening. In the 1960s, the Troubadour was host to many of the big names in the music scene at that time. 

Doug Weston's Troubadour

The Beverly Wilshire Hotel was built on the site that was once a popular auto racetrack in the early 1920s. Real-estate developer Walter McCarty built the Hotel and architects Walker and Eisen designed it in the Italian Renaissance style. The Beverly Wilshire was the most luxurious hotel on Wilshire Boulevard west of Los Angeles's Ambassador Hotel. At the time it opened in January 1928, it was known as the Beverly Wilshire Apartment Hotel. The Hotel was slow to get off its feet, Hollywood stars were either residing in Beverly Hills or staying elsewhere and the population of the town was under 1,000. That would soon change.The clientele grew exponentially in the 1930s and 40s. So much so, at one point the Hotel covered an entire block in Beverly Hills. Once the tennis courts were built, they were used to host tennis championships featuring professionals such as Bobby Riggs and Pancho Gonzales. In 1969, Welton Becket and Associates designed a fourteen story addition, making the Beverly Wilshire the tallest building in Beverly Hills at that time. The wings located on El Camino Real are joined by an exclusive cobblestone driveway consisting of lanterns that were imported from an Edinburgh castle. The latest pool was modeled after the actress Sophia Loren's private pool at her home in Italy.The Beverly Wilshire has stood the test of time, thanks to its sturdy structure and able architects, surviving strong earthquakes and serving as an air raid shelter during World War II. The Hotel features high-class restaurants such as Wolfgang Puck's "CUT" that opened in 2006 and was designed by the same architect who designed the Getty Museum, Richard Meier. Famous faces who have enjoyed luxury meals at "CUT" include Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Will Smith, Elton John, and Steven Spielberg. A choice site for filming, the Beverly Wilshire has been featured in films Valentine's Day, Sex and the City: The Movie, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and the most popular, Julia Roberts' and Richard Gere's Pretty Woman. Throughout its illustrious history, the Beverly Wilshire has played host to names like Emperor Hirohito of Japan, the Aga Khan, Michael Caine, Farrah Fawcett, and many more. Thousands of Elvis fans sent letters to the Hotel when he lived their while filming movies and department store heiress Barbara Hutton lived and died there in 1979. In June of 1987 the Beverly Wilshire was recognized for its rich history and was officially placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Four Seasons has managed the Hotel since 1992 and in 2006 it became the Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel. With two-story suites, fine restaurants, exclusive shopping, and a rooftop terrace that looks out over Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills, the Beverly Wilshire continues to offer the luxury it was designed for in 1928. On a major street in a city that is constantly evolving, the Beverly Wilshire prevails.

Located in the heart of downtown Beverly Hills, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel has served as a staple in the city since 1928 and has become known to people all over the world thanks to it being a prime film location for movies and television. The Italian Renaissance structure built of Tuscan stone and Carrara marble was first called the Beverly Wilshire Apartment Hotel. Under new ownership in the 1940s, the name was changed to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and an elaborate renovation took place, adding a grand ballroom to host big bands as well as tennis courts and an Olympic sized swimming pool. The next renovation to take place occurred under the ownership of Hernando Courtright, who doubled the size of the hotel in the early 1970s by adding a new wing. Notable entertainers who called the Beverly Wilshire Hotel home for a period of time were Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Warren Beatty. Notable guests include the Dalai Lama, President Barack Obama, Al Pacino, and Elton John. The 1990 movie "Pretty Woman" starring Julia Roberts was primarily based at the Beverly Wilshire, earning it a prestigious place in hotel history.

Tour of Los Angeles, CA

Petersen Automotive Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information