National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) are historic properties that illustrate the heritage of the United States. The almost 2,600 NHLs found in the U.S. today are historic buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts. Each NHL represents an outstanding aspect of American history and culture. The following table lists NHLs located in Los Angeles County.
Also see: Historical Sites & Structures in Los Angeles County
Landmark | Built / Initiated / Opened | When Designated & Registry# |
Address | City / Community | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Well No. 4, Pico Canyon Oil Field | 1876 | Nov. 13, 1966 #66000212 |
(See Note 1 Below) | Stevenson Ranch | Drilled in 1876 to 376 feet, this was the first commercially successful oil well in California, producing 25 barrels a day. It is considered the birthplace of the California oil industry. Pico No. 4 became the longest continually operating oil well in the world. |
Los Cerritos Ranch House | 1844 | Apr. 15, 1970 #70000135 |
4600 Virginia Rd | Long Beach | Largest adobe home in Southern California built during California's Mexican period. |
Upton Sinclair House | 1942 | Nov. 11, 1971 #71000153 |
464 N Myrtle Ave | Monrovia | Home of novelist Upton Sinclair 1942-1966. |
Landmark | Built / Initiated / Opened | When Designated & Registry# |
Address | City / Community | Description |
Edwin Hubble House | 1925 | Dec. 8, 1976 #76000494 |
1340 Woodstock Rd | San Marino | Home of astronomer Edwin Hubble until his death in 1953. |
Bradbury Building | 1893 | May 5, 1977 #71000144 |
304 S Broadway | Los Angeles | Italian Renaissance building famous for exotic interior wrought-iron, stairways and elevators. Used extensively in films. |
The Gamble House | 1908 | Dec. 22, 1977 #71000155 |
4 Westmoreland Place | Pasadena | House designed by brother architects Charles and Henry Greene. Considered Arts and Crafts movement masterpiece. |
Landmark | Built / Initiated / Opened | When Designated & Registry# |
Address | City / Community | Description |
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum | 1923 | Jul. 27, 1984 #84003866 |
3911 S Figueroa St (Exposition Park) | Los Angeles | Memorial to World War I veterans and only stadium in world to host two Olympiads. Also hosted two Super Bowls and one World Series (1959). |
Space Flight Operations Facility (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) | 1964 | Oct. 3, 1985 #85002814 |
4800 Oak Grove Dr | La Cañada Flintridge | Mission control room at Jet Propulsion Laboratory from where NASA operates interplanetary and deep space missions. Staffed every day since 1964. |
Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) | 1961 | Oct. 3, 1985 #85002812 |
4800 Oak Grove Dr | La Cañada Flintridge | Test cylinder at Jet Propulsion Laboratory for testing spacecraft. All NASA deep space probes tested in this facility. |
Landmark | Built / Initiated / Opened | When Designated & Registry# |
Address | City / Community | Description |
Rose Bowl | 1921 | Feb. 27, 1987 #87000755 |
1001 Rose Bowl Dr | Pasadena | Home field for the annual Rose Bowl Game and host for events for two Olympiads. |
Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome | 1916 | Feb. 27, 1987 #87000766 |
276 Santa Monica Pier | Santa Monica | Amusement facility built by Looff family to house one of their carousels. |
Ralph J. Scott (Fireboat) | 1925 | Jun. 30, 1989 #89001430 |
444 S Harbor Blvd | San Pedro | L.A. Fire Department fireboat serving 1925-2003. |
Landmark | Built / Initiated / Opened | When Designated & Registry# |
Address | City / Community | Description |
Hale Solar Observatory | 1923 | Dec. 20, 1989 #86000103 |
740 Holladay Rd | Pasadena | Laboratory for George Ellery Hale, inventor of spectroheliograph, discoverer of solar vortices and sun spot magnetic fields. |
Lane Victory (Victory Ship) | 1945 | Dec. 14, 1990 #90002222 |
3011 Miner St | San Pedro | One of the last remaining of 561 Victory Ships built during World War II. Still operational and now a museum ship. |
Watts Towers | 1921 | Dec. 14, 1990 #77000297 |
1727 E 107th St (Watts) | Los Angeles | Artistic towers (tallest 99.5 feet) built by Simon Rodia from 1921-1954. |
Landmark | Built / Initiated / Opened | When Designated & Registry# |
Address | City / Community | Description |
Angelus Temple | 1923 | Apr. 27, 1992 #92001875 |
1100 Glendale Blvd | Los Angeles | One of America's early megachurches, built by Aimee Semple McPherson, an early 20th century evangelical star during the 1920s-1930s. |
Little Tokyo Historic District | 1885 | Jun. 12, 1995 #86001479 |
(See Note 2 Below) | Los Angeles | Cultural center district for Japanese Americans in Southern California and largest and most populous of three official Japantowns in the U.S. |
Baldwin Hills Village (Village Green) | 1935 | Jan. 3, 2001 #93000269 |
(See Note 3 Below) | Baldwin Hills | Built from 1935 and 1942, this condominium complex (627 units) was one of the nation's first mid-20th century planned communities. |
Landmark | Built / Initiated / Opened | When Designated & Registry# |
Address | City / Community | Description |
Eames House (Case Study House #8) | 1949 | Sept. 20, 2006 #06000978 |
203 N Chautauqua Blvd | Pacific Palisades | House designed by husband-and-wife Charles and Ray Eames. Known as Case Study House No. 8. |
Aline Barnsdall Complex (Hollyhock House) | 1919 | Mar. 29, 2007 #71000143 |
4800 Hollywood Blvd | Los Angeles | House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Aline Barnsdall and now surrounded by Barnsdall Art Park. |
United States Post Office and Court House | 1940 | Oct. 16, 2012 #06000001 |
312 N Spring St | Los Angeles | Courthouse in which Gonzalo Mendez et al v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al, was litigated - significant civil rights case for Mexican-Americans and forerunner to landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. |
Landmark | Built / Initiated / Opened | When Designated & Registry# |
Address | City / Community | Description |
Neutra Studio and Residences (VDL Research House) | 1932/1964 | Dec. 23, 2016 #100000831 |
2300 Silver Lake Blvd | Los Angeles | Home designed by and for architect Richard Neutra and son Dion Neutra. |
Wayfarers Chapel | 1951 | Dec. 11, 2023 #05000210 |
5755 Palos Verdes Dr South | Rancho Palos Verdes | Chapel designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr., embodying distinguishing characteristics of postwar organic ecclesiastical design. |
1) Exit 167 on I-5, then 2.4 miles along Pico Canyon Rd to Pico Canyon Service Rd, then one-half mile to Mentryville Park. Landmark is 1.4 west of the Mentryville Park parking lot along Pico Canyon Service Rd (34°22'13.1"N 118°37'45.5"W).
2) Bounded from just north of First St on the north, Third St on the south, Los Angeles St on the west, Alameda St on the east.
3) Between Rodeo Rd & Coliseum St /between Hauser Blvd & just west of La Brea Ave.
Source: National Park Service
The Saddle Rock Ranch Pictograph Site, located in the Santa Monica Mountains, is a Native American rock art and settlement site. It is also known as the "Cave of the Four Horsemen." The site's extensive and well-preserved pictographs are characteristic of the final development of the distinctive Chumash style. These include the only depictions in Chumash art of human figures in profile and of mounted horsemen. Although the site has not yet been designated as a National Historic Landmark, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on February 12, 1982, and determined eligible to be designated a National Historic Landmark on March 16, 1990, by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.