An outcome of efforts to save the Weatherwolde Castle last week, the Los Angeles City Council has passed a measure limiting the construction of "McMansions" on razed historic (and non-historic) properties. This is a first for Los Angeles, and is a welcome turn-of-events for historic preservation in the city.

LA City Council To Consider 'Anti-Mansion' Law In Sunland-Tujunga
Los Angeles - "The Los Angeles City Council will consider on Wednesday an emergency ordinance that would prevent small homes and bungalows from being torn down and replaced by larger dwellings in the Sunland-Tujunga area..."

LA City Council Approves 'Anti-Mansion' Law In Sunland-Tujunga
"The City Council approved Wednesday a so-called "anti-mansionization" ordinance that will prevent small homes and bungalows from being torn down and replaced by larger dwellings in the Sunland-Tujunga area..."

When big is too big, even in L.A.
"The city approves one neighborhood's move to block mammoth homes on small plots..."

L.A. cuts 'mansionization'
"The Los Angeles City Council has endorsed an ordinance that would limit the size of homes built in an area of the San Fernando Valley..."

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Million Dollar Theater to Get Live Shows
Downtown - "For Robert Voskanian, who manages the Stock Exchange nightclub on Spring Street, the Million Dollar Theater at 307 S. Broadway has always been intriguing. Built in 1918, the 2,345-seat former movie house was gutted in the 1990s and later turned into a church..."

1932 Olympic Auditorium Sold to Church
Downtown - "The 7,200-seat Grand Olympic Auditorium, home of the 1932 Olympic boxing competition as well as hundreds of boxing and wrestling cards, was recently sold..."

Browsing the Memory Department
Los Angeles - "An open house at the old Bullocks Wilshire, now a law library, gives former employees a chance to reminisce about a bygone era..."

John Decker House of the Bundy Drive Boys
Hollywood - "On Bundy Drive just north of Sunset Boulevard, in the leafy, hillside section of Brentwood, a postage stamp-sized Tudor-style lodge lurks unobtrusively behind a row of hedges. In a block of rebuilt insta-mansions and multimillion-dollar homes, there is..."

WeHo Eyes Landmarks in Historic Survey
West Hollywood - "Close to 1,500 West Hollywood apartments, homes and buildings built before 1960 will soon be surveyed by city planners for potential inclusion on a list of local cultural landmarks..."

Long Beach hires new historic officer
Long Beach - "Local resident and preservationist Jan Ostashay has been hired by Long Beach as its new historic preservation officer..."

Monrovia's Midwest mystique
Monrovia - "It's a town known for exquisitely maintained and highly admired homes that exemplify the best of Craftat exemplify the best of Craftsman and Victorian design..."

Santa Monica's Moreton Bay Figs: A colossal but happy mistake
Santa Monica - "Happenstance has been a part of the Moreton Bay fig tree's strange history in Southern California...When the young trees were planted during the 1920s, they were thought to be better-behaving magnolias..."

Another structure stripped of landmark status
Santa Monica - "Twenty-four units worth of unhappy tenants milled around outside city hall last night after the Santa Monica City Council reversed the landmarks designation that had saved their courtyard residences from demolition..."

San Fernando Museum opens
San Fernando - "The San Fernando Museum of Art & History officially will open today in an abandoned firehouse..."

Docents to celebrate saving of Bailey House
Whittier - "Home on Camilla Street serves as a glimpse of Whittier's beginning 118 years ago for schoolchildren and other visitors, thanks to the effort of a determined group of Whittier residents..."

Civil War Gravestone Preservation in Orange County
Santa Ana - "Civil War headstones in O.C. will be stripped of sealer and paint. Man's preservation efforts don't allow the marble to breathe, experts say..."

Demolition of swim, tennis club appealed
Redlands - "The Redlands Swim and Tennis Club will get one more last chance before the city OK's the demolition of the 38-year-old facility..."

80 Year Legal Struggle over Historic Rios House
San Juan Capistrano - "More than a century ago, the family of a Mexican vaquero settled in San Juan Capistrano, building a modest two-bedroom house and tending its large garden..."