After his brother’s death in 1924, the German millionaire and collector of Asian art, Adolph Bernheimer, retired to Pacific Palisades. Here he commissioned New York architect Franklin Small to build a Sino-Japanese style mansion and gardens, reminiscent of the home he left behind in Hollywood. This house contained Adolph’s oriental collection, and would become one of the most visited tourist attractions in the Los Angeles area during the 1920s and 1930s. The area is now home to the Pacific Gardens Apartments.
The Eames House is a modern post-World War II home located in Pacific Palisades, California. It was designed and built in 1949 by husband and wife Charles (1907–1978) and Ray (1912–1988) Eames. The house is now managed by the Charles and Ray Eames Foundation. It is still often used as a private home for the Eames' descendants but the foundation does offer exterior and interior tours. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and named a National Historic Landmark in 2006. It was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1988.
The house behind the wrought iron gates at 102 Ocean Way in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood is the Bradbury House. Overlooking Ginger Rogers Beach, the house was badly damaged in 1994 by the Northridge earthquake and has been restored. The adobe house with blue tiles surrounding the entryway was designed for Lewis L. Bradbury, Jr. and built in 1922. Bradbury was a son of Lewis Sr., a wealthy mining businessman who had the Bradbury Building constructed in downtown L.A. An interior courtyard was inspired by a 16th-century Spanish courtyard at El Greco Museum. The Bradbury House became a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument in 1994 and was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2010 for its architecture. The home is a private residence and not open to the public.
The Sovereign Hotel in Santa Monica has towered above Washington Avenue since 1928. Grand apartment hotels like the Sovereign sprang up in the 1920s for the growing population of resort visitors and local residents. Built in Spanish Colonial Revival style, the five-story exterior features cast stone detailing, decorative metal work, and a red tile gable roof. Damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Sovereign was rehabilitated to historic preservation standards in 1996. In 1997, the Sovereign Hotel became a National Register of Historic Places listing; it was designated a Santa Monica Historic Landmark in 1986. The building is now Sovereign Apartments.
The Santa Monica Pier has been a leading destination for tourists and local families since its first construction in 1909. The area has faced its share of difficulties from economic challenges to storms. In each instance, local residents and business leaders worked to revive or rebuild the pier, preserving what has become a national icon. One attraction on the pier, the carousel hippodrome, is a National Historic Landmark. The pier has been seen in many movies and TV shows.
The Pacific Ocean Park Pier was a pier opened in 1958. This pier was located on the water in Santa Monica, CA. When the pier opened it was a huge hit, it was a place buzzing with people from all around that came to have fun at the amusement park on the sea. Due to reconstruction of the city and road closer it became hard to access the pier. The amount of people that visited the pier became much lower which lead to the closer of the Pacific Ocean Park Pier in 1967.
The historic hotel at 1910 Ocean Way in Santa Monica opened in 1926 as Club Casa Del Mar. The popular, private beach clubhouse and hotel has gone through a number of different uses since the 1940s, including military housing for soldiers, a rehabilitation facility, and a spa. The Italian Renaissance Revival style five-story building has been restored to its 1920s appearance and is now a luxury hotel, Hotel Casa Del Mar. The U-shaped beachfront building's elevated courtyard is on the ocean side, with several rooftop pools and an arcaded, curved entrance. The Club Casa Del Mar was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 for its architecture and its ties to local social and entertainment history in its heyday, from 1926 to 1941.
The building on the southwest side of the Main St./ Pier Ave. intersection in Santa Monica is the Parkhurst Building. The two-story structure with a two-and-a-half-story tower was built in 1927 for Clinton Gordon Parkhurst, a realtor and former Mayor of neighboring Venice. The design of the quirky-looking structure with an octagonal corner tower topped by finials and a cupola blends Mission and Spanish Revival styles. The first floor was meant for commercial shops and the second floor was built to hold offices for doctors and dentists. The Parkhurst Building became a National Register of Historic Places listing in 1978 for its architectural style. The ground-floor commercial space is now a fitness and workout studio named Aviator Nation RIDE; the upper floor contains professional office spaces.
This Victorian home was built in 1906, a time when the beachfront tourist town that was created from the salt marshes was called "Venice of America." The house features a two-story entryway with curved openings and a second-story open-air balcony reminiscent of Renaissance Italy. The house is topped by an Islamic-style dome on its hipped roof. Venice of America became part of the City of Los Angeles in 1925. This home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and it became a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument the following year. The canal in front of the house was paved over to become the street around 1929. The house is a private residence.
In 1911, Warren Wilson had a two-story, Craftsman bungalow style beach house built in the resort town known then as Venice of America, founded in 1905. The building is now the Venice Beach House, with nine guest rooms and suites. It features a room named after Wilson and its own gardens. Wilson was publisher of an L.A. newspaper and a friend of the founder and builder of Venice of America, Abbot Kinney. The friends' children became married couples. Venice of America was annexed into the City of Los Angeles in 1925 and became the Venice neighborhood. The Warren Wilson Beach House became a National Register of Historic Places listing in 1986.
This Tour is a Driving or Biking Tour.
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Drive along the California coast beginning in L.A.'s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, where you'll see the outside of several historic mansions. Next, head south to Santa Monica to visit its famous oceanside pier, amusement park, and historic hotel and commercial buildings. End in Venice, where you'll view a couple of early 20th-century homes near Venice Beach.
