Lummis Home

Charles Lummis walked from Ohio to Los Angeles in 1884 and spent the rest of his life explaining the Southwest to everyone else. He bought three acres beside the Arroyo Seco in the mid-1890s and built this house largely himself, boulders hauled up from the wash, old telegraph poles for roof beams, more than a decade of work. He founded the Landmarks Club, the Sequoya League, and the Southwest Museum. He argued for Native rights and he collected Native belongings, and the two sat uneasily together.

What the plaque says

El Alisal, built by Charles F. Lummis, writer, editor, founder Southwest Museum. Declared Historic Cultural Monument No. 68 by the Cultural Heritage Board, Municipal Arts Department, City of Los Angeles. second marker: El Alisal, built 1897–1910 by Charles F. Lummis (1859–1928). Commemorated by NSDAR Chapters. U.S.A. Bicentennial - February 23, 1975.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Street Bridge — 4.4 mi
  Beaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 5.7 mi
  The fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.
• Santa Monica Pier — 18 mi
  Where the Mother Road runs out of continent, and where the End of the Trail sign gives the drive somewhere to finish.

More markers nearby

• Portolá Trail Campsite (1) — 1.9 mi
• First Jewish Site in Los Angeles — 2.5 mi
• Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center — 2.6 mi
• Avila Adobe — 3.1 mi