Getty Trust Gives $1.4 Million to Preserve 20 Landmark Sites

An African American sorority house, two 19th century adobes, a concrete bridge in South Pasadena and the Griffith Park Observatory are among more than 20 sites in Los Angeles County that will share a $1.4-million conservation grant from the J. Paul Getty Trust, Getty officials announced Thursday.

The trust is providing money to preserve buildings and sites of architectural, cultural and historical interest that have helped define local communities.

The program is designed to complement the national Save America’s Treasures campaign.

The Alpha Gamma Omega sorority house was built as a private residence in the West Adams District in 1911. The Craftsman structure is now a chapter house for the sorority, whose members include Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King.

The Workman Adobe in Industry was constructed in 1841. Over the next 30 years, the unadorned, Mexican-era farmhouse was transformed into a picturesque Italianate cottage.

The Lopez Adobe in San Fernando is considered an important example of California architecture after the Gold Rush. Built in 1882 for former Mexican army officer Don Geronimo Lopez, it is one of the few 19th-century structures in the San Fernando Valley to survive devastating earthquakes.

The Oaklawn Bridge was built in 1906 to link the Oaklawn Tract in South Pasadena with Fair Oaks Avenue. The arched structure is the only bridge designed by renowned architect brothers Henry Mathew Greene and Charles Sumner Greene.

The Griffith Park Observatory, an Art Deco landmark completed in 1935 and visible throughout much of the city, has been a frequent location for movies and television.

Other sites sharing the grant: the 1904 Brand Library in Glendale, a chapel and trolley depot on the Department of Veterans Affairs property in West Los Angeles, the Christ Faith Mission-Pisgah home in Highland Park, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Hollywood, the 1940 History of Transportation Mural in Inglewood, some culturally significant buildings belonging to the Los Angeles Unified School District, Faith United Presbyterian Church in Highland Park, and a collection of historic business buildings in downtown Los Angeles.

Trust funds also will go to the Italian Hall in downtown Los Angeles, a collection of historic residences in Pasadena, the Reginald Johnson Reception Room and Rico Lebrun Mural in Baldwin Hills, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Samuel Freeman House in Hollywood, the Second Baptist Church in central Los Angeles, the Wattles house and gardens in Hollywood, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in the Wilshire district and the W. K. Kellogg house on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona.