The Velveteria Epicenter of Art Fighting Cultural Deprivation, or Velveteria (and formerly the Velveteria: The Museum of Velvet Paintings) is a museum located in Los Angeles, California, dedicated to velvet paintings. Originally opened in 2005 in Portland, Oregon, the establishment houses hundreds of paintings from Caren Anderson and Carl Baldwin's personal collection of over 2,000 pieces, and is reportedly the only one of its kind. The Velveteria closed in Portland in January 2010 due to financial difficulties and the couple's relocation to Southern California. It was reopened in Chinatown, Los Angeles in 2013
City: Los Angeles, CA
14. West Kern Oil Museum (Taft)
The Museum of Neon Art (MONA) is an institution that exists to encourage learning and curiosity through the preservation, collection, and interpretation of neon art. The first museum devoted to art that incorporates neon lighting, it exclusively exhibits art in electric media, including kinetic art and outstanding examples of historic neon signs. Its location in downtown LA closed in 2011 and reopened in Glendale, California in 2016. The collection includes neon signs from the Brown Derby and Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
City: Glendale, CA
Malibu Hindu Temple, a temple of the Hindu god Venkateswara, built in 1981, is located in the city of Calabasas near Malibu, California, in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is owned and operated by the Hindu Temple Society of Southern California. Built in the traditional South Indian style, it is frequented by followers of Hinduism in Southern California. It is one of the largest Hindu temples in the Western hemisphere.
The priests are situated and live on the grounds of the temple. The temple has many gatherings for ceremonies and provides numerous spaces for meditation and picnicking. It has a full stage for special cultural and Hindu programs.
City: Calabasas, CA
The Wende Museum of the Cold War is an art museum, historical archive, and educational institution in Culver City, California. It was founded in 2002 by Justinian Jampol and has a collection of more than 100,000 unique objects of visual and material culture from the Soviet Union and the former Eastern Bloc. In November 2012, the City Council of Culver City voted unanimously to approve a 75-year lease of the former United States National Guard Armory building in Culver City as the permanent location of the Wende Museum.
City: Culver City, CA
13. Museum of Neon Art (Glendale)
Hidden gems of the LA metro region
8. International Printing Museum (Torrance)
5. Nethercutt Museum (Sylmar)
The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 127 acres (51.4 ha), is an arboretum, botanical garden, and historical site nestled into hills near the San Gabriel Mountains, at 301 North Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, United States. he arboretum's plants are grouped by geography with gardens for South American, Mediterranean, South African, Australian and Asiatic-North American plants The gardens also serve as the home for summer concerts featuring the Pasadena POPS, under the direction of Principal POPS Conductor Marvin Hamlisch
City: Arcadia, CA
17. Wende Museum (Culver City)
The Valley Relics Museum boasts its vast collection of historical artifacts pertaining to the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas. The collection includes rare documents, photographs, vintage neon signs, post cards, yearbooks, negatives, clothing, books, art, automobiles and bicycles from The Valley's past. Valley Relics is a non-profit organization 501(c)3 with an endeavor to preserve and protect our local history and it artifacts while educating the public on the rich history of The San Fernando Valley.
City: Van Nuys, CA
The Wells Fargo History Museum is a group of museums operated by Wells Fargo in several states that feature exhibits about the company's history. Museums’ exhibits include original stagecoach, gold nuggets, historic maps, recreated Express Office, working telegraphs, replica coach and a cell phone tour. The museum is free and also provides activities for children in the areas of math and language arts
City: Los Angeles, CA
7. Malibu Temple for Venkateswara (Calabasas)
The Lyon Air Museum is located in a hangar on the west side of the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California. The museum features military aircraft, rare automobiles, military vehicles and motorcycles, and related memorabilia, with an emphasis on World War II. The aircraft that are on display are all in airworthy condition and include a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Cessna O-1E Bird Dog, Douglas DC-3, Douglas C-47 Skytrain, North American B-25 Mitchell and a Douglas A-26 Invader. The latest acquisition by the museum is a North American SNJ-6 Texan, that was added in the summer of 2013
City: Santa Ana, CA
A very well done museum about the history of oil production in California and the towns of Kern/Taft. The museum also covers other significantly historical moments from the region such as the migration of the Okies from the dust bowl region. The short drive from highway 5 to the City of Taft provides close-up views of operating oil wells. On the grounds of the museum, one finds an out-of-doors lot that is filled with elderly oil mining equipment. Visitors are free to touch the equipment and to pose for photos right in front of the equipment
City: Taft, CA
16. LA County Arboretum (Arcadia)
18. Chemosphere (Studio City)
3. Wells Fargo Museum (Downtown)
The Korean Bell of Friendship was presented by the Republic of Korea to the American people to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States and to symbolize friendship between the two nations. The effort was coordinated by Philip Ahn, a Korean American actor. It was dedicated on October 3, 1976, and declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 187 in 1978.
It is modeled after the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok the Great of Silla (also known as the Emille Bell), cast in 771 for Bongdeok Temple and now located at the National Museum of Gyeongju.
City: San Pedro, CA
12. Velveteria (Chinatown)
The Nethercutt Collection is a museum located in Sylmar, California. Its centerpiece is its automobile collection, which has led Autoweek to call the Nethercutt one of America's five greatest automobile museums.The Nethercutt also houses collections of mechanical musical instruments, including orchestrions, player pianos and music boxes, and antique furniture. There are also two older-model railroad cars
City: Sylmar, CA
The International Printing Museum, in Carson, California, has one of the largest collections of antique printing presses in the United States. It offers educational programs for school groups at the museum, and also has a Ben-Franklin-type printing press on a trailer that travels to schools and public events for living history programs.
Located in Southern California, the museum consults for Hollywood and has provided rentals of vintage printing presses for numerous television and movie productions
City: Carson, CA
6. Valley Reclics Museum (Van Nuys)
The Chemosphere is a modernist house in Los Angeles, California, designed by John Lautner in 1960. The building, which the Encyclopædia Britannica once called "the most modern home built in the world", is admired both for the ingenuity of its solution to the problem of the site and for its unique octagonal design.
City: Los Angeles, CA
The Highland Park Police Station on York Boulevard in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, California, USA is the city's oldest surviving police station. Closed in 1983, the station is now operated as the Los Angeles Police Museum. It has been designated as a Historic Cultural Monument and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building now houses the Los Angeles Police Museum, including photographs, uniforms, badges, squad cars, a paddy wagon, and bullet-riddled vehicles.[3] The museum chronicles the formation of the LAPD from its beginnings in 1869 to the present day
City: Los Angeles, CA
9. Los Angeles Maritime Museum (San Pedro)
11. SS Lane Victory (San Pedro)
The Los Angeles Maritime Museum is a non-profit maritime museum. Exhibits include a history of commercial diving in Los Angeles Harbor, a Navy Hall that features large ship models such as the U.S. Navy cruiser Los Angeles and the Poseidon miniature from the 1972 disaster film.
The museum also has an exhibit that chronicles the once thriving San Pedro fishing industry. The commercial fishing exhibit focuses on the history of Los Angeles Harbor-based purse (net) seining, the San Pedro Fishermen's Fiesta, and the Terminal Island tuna canneries.
Upstairs are models of merchant ships such as the Silverpalm, square riggers, sail boats, and also a fully operational ham radio station.
City: San Pedro, CA
1. American Military Museum (South El Monte)
2. LA Police Society (Highland Park)
The Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial is located at Old Engine Co. No. 27, also known as Fire Station No. 27, on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. The museum houses old fire engines and fire apparatus, some dating from the 1880s. The museum also houses a reference library and fire safety learning center. The building was named a Los Angeles Cultural-Heritage Monument in 1976 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The Fallen Firefighters Memorial in front of the station consists of a memorial wall listing all of the Los Angeles firefighters who have died in the line of duty and five life-size statues of firefighters.
City: Los Angeles, CA
4. LA Fire Department Historical Society (Hollywood)
SS Lane Victory is an American Victory-class cargo ship used in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War. The ship was preserved in 1989 to serve as a museum ship in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, California. As a rare surviving Victory ship, she was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
The SS Lane Victory was named after Lane College, which was established as a high school for black youths in 1882 at Jackson, Tennessee by Isaac Lane, a bishop of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. The school grew into a prominent liberal arts college.
City: San Pedro, CA
15. Lyon Air Museum (Santa Ana)
The American Military Museum has been collecting, preserving, restoring, and sharing the largest inter-service collection of military equipment in the Western United States for 59 years. The museum offers more than just vehicles, and provides many military props and uniforms for films and photo shoots. Featuring vehicles from WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and even some from Operation Desert Storm,
City: South El Monte, CA
10. Korean Friendship Bell (San Pedro)