Los
Angeles author, editor and activist Charles Fletcher Lummis
(1854-1928) built his house, El Alisal, Spanish for "place of the Sycamores,"
beside the Arroyo Seco, a rocky riverbed running between downtown Los Angeles and
Pasadena. Over a twelve-year period from 1898 to 1910, using stones from the Arroyo,
Lummis did much of the work himself. The house was intended to complement the climate and
cultures of the Southwest. Native America, pueblo, mission and craftsman influences are
found throughout.
Today El Alisal serves as headquarters for the Historical Society of Southern California and houses a museum dedicated to Lummis’ life and work, and a store featuring books about the history and culture of Los Angeles and Southern California. Surrounding the home is a "waterwise" garden, offering a display of native and Mediterranean plants appropriate for the climate of Southern California.