Heritage Square Museum
Hale House, Heritage Square Museum, Los Angeles.
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| Established | 1969 |
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| Location | 3800 Homer Street Montecito Heights Los Angeles, California |
| Coordinates | 34°05′17.30″N 118°12′29.89″W / 34.0881389°N 118.2083028°WCoordinates: 34°05′17.30″N 118°12′29.89″W / 34.0881389°N 118.2083028°W |
| Type | Historic house museum |
| Website | heritagesquare.org |
Heritage Square Museum is a living history and open-air architecture museum located beside the Arroyo Seco Parkway in the Montecito Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southern Arroyo Seco area. The living history museum shows the story of development in Southern California through historical architectural examples.
The museum focuses on interpreting the years 1850 to 1950, a century of unprecedented growth in Los Angeles. Volunteer interpreters give thorough tours that incorporate the history, architecture, and culture of the region. Other specialized living history events, lectures, and items of historical interest are given on a periodic basis.
During the rapid urban expansion of the 1960s, Victorian buildings in Los Angeles were being demolished at an alarming rate. The Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument program, established in 1961, could evaluate properties and list-register them, but not protect them. In 1969, at the request of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, a group of concerned citizens established the Cultural Heritage Foundation to counteract this destruction. The Foundation organized Heritage Square as a last-chance haven for architecturally and historically significant buildings to be moved to, which otherwise would have been demolished at their original locations.
Eight historic buildings, and a vintage train car and a trolley car, were stopped from demolition and moved to the Heritage Square location — between 1969 and 2005.
The Mount Pleasant House was built in 1876 by prominent businessman and lumber baron William Hayes Perry. Designed by renowned architect E. F. Kysor, the home contains detailing to convey the wealth and social status of the family. These elements include Corinthian columns, fine hardwood floors, a sweeping main staircase, and marble fireplace mantles. It was built in the fashionable neighborhood (in the 19th century) of Boyle Heights. The Perry's Mount Pleasant House was considered the finest and most expensive residence to arrive in mid-1870s Los Angeles.
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