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Heritage Square Museum

Museum
In Los Angeles, California
0.1 mi from Route 66

Heritage Square Museum is an open-air architecture museum in Los Angeles's Montecito Heights neighborhood, less than a mile off the old road beside the Arroyo Seco Parkway. It uses historic buildings to tell how Southern California grew between 1850 and 1950, with volunteer guides and living history events. For Route 66 travelers, it shows the city the old road was built to reach.

What is Heritage Square Museum?

The museum is a group of historic structures on one site, each one a chapter in the region's story. Rather than reading labels, visitors walk among the buildings and see how houses and styles changed as Los Angeles grew. The setting is the southern end of the Arroyo Seco, an area with deep roots in the city's past, which makes it a fitting home for a museum about local development.

It is a living history museum, which means people are part of the display. Volunteer interpreters lead tours that tie together architecture, local history and everyday culture.

History of Heritage Square Museum

Heritage Square dates from 1969. Its focus is the hundred years from 1850 to 1950, a stretch in which Los Angeles went from a small town to a major city. Route 66 arrived in the middle of that period, and the road carried many newcomers west during those years.

Visiting Heritage Square Museum: tips

Allow about an hour and a half for a guided visit. The museum sits right beside the Arroyo Seco Parkway, so it is simple to reach by car from the freeway. The site is listed as wheelchair accessible. Watch for special living history days, lectures and events, which run from time to time; the museum's website has the schedule.

The Arroyo Seco is about 1.2 miles away and the site of the Selig Zoo is about 1.5 miles off. The Southwest Museum building, about 0.9 miles away, has closed but can be seen from outside.

Practical info

Address: 3800 di Homer Street
Phone: +1 323-222-3319
Website: heritagesquare.org
Hours: Sat, Sun 11–5
On site & nearby

Sources: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Wikidata · official site — may be outdated. Suggest a fix

Where to eat near Heritage Square Museum

All diners →

Diner & restaurant
Philippe's
Los Angeles, CA · 2.6 mi from Heritage Square Museum
A downtown Los Angeles restaurant running since 1908 that claims to have invented the French dip sandwich.
Diner & restaurant
Fair Oaks Pharmacy
South Pasadena, CA · 3.8 mi from Heritage Square Museum
A 1915 pharmacy with an old-fashioned soda fountain, on the corner where Route 66 ran down Fair Oaks Avenue.
Diner & restaurant
Twohey's
South Pasadena, CA · 4.0 mi from Heritage Square Museum
A 1950s-style diner in South Pasadena, founded in 1943 and known for a burger called the Little Stink-O.