Tag: history

November 21, 2024

Season 5, Episode 4

How Lesbian Bars Built Community in San Francisco’s North Beach

As a young architectural historian in San Francisco, Shayne Watson would take lunchtime walks near her office, pondering how and where the city’s lesbian history took shape. She discovered that one of the earliest lesbian bars once stood right up the street in North Beach, a neighborhood that served as the birthplace of the city’s lesbian community—though you’d never know it just by looking. After earning her USC master’s degree in 2009, Shayne decided to do something about underrecognized LGBTQ history in San Francisco. She never looked back and is now a national leader in LGBTQ preservation.

Producer Willa Seidenberg took a walk with Shayne in North Beach to see some sites from her thesis, Preserving the Tangible Remains of San Francisco’s Lesbian Community in North Beach, 1933 to 1960. They discuss the neighborhood’s roots in tourism, its transformation after Prohibition, and its uncertain fate in the face of the affordable housing crisis.

September 12, 2024

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Season 5, Episode 1

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Preserving Black Heritage in the U.S. South

One of the signs memorializing the 1955 murder of Emmett Till weighs nearly 500 pounds and is designed to absorb a rifle round. It’s the fourth version of the sign, the others having been vandalized and riddled with bullet holes.

How can communities recognize and preserve vulnerable Black heritage sites without placing them more at risk? New alumna Kira Williams shares her views with co-host Cindy Olnick on a visit to L.A.’s St. Elmo Village, a historic site of art and healing. They explore the site and discuss Kira’s thesis, Being a Part of the Narrative: How to Preserve Black Heritage in the U.S. South While Mitigating Violence and Facilitating Change?

March 28, 2024

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Season 4, Episode 8

Posted in Episodes, and Season 4

Documenting Black Women’s History at the Wilfandel Clubhouse

Dedicated students at the University of Southern California have pulled out the laser scanners and measuring tapes to document the Wilfandel Clubhouse in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Wilfandel Club, the oldest Black women’s club in Los Angeles, was founded in 1945 by Della Williams (wife of architect Paul R. Williams) and Fannie Williams as a safe place for social, civic, and community events. In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg visits the clubhouse to see the students in action, hear what they’re doing and why, and talk with longtime member Jan Morrow Bell.

February 15, 2024

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Season 4, Episode 6

Posted in Episodes, and Season 4

The Hidden Heritage of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf

A San Francisco native, alumna Emi Takahara always wondered why so many locals dismiss the historic Fisherman’s Wharf as a tourist trap. Sure, it has overpriced food, but it also has a culinary history that might surprise you—as well as longtime businesses trying to weather the changing times. In this episode, Emi talks with producer Willa Seidenberg about her thesis, The Restaurant That Started It All: The Hidden Heritage of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, how Italian immigrants shaped Fisherman’s Wharf in the nineteenth century, and how it’s evolving in the twenty-first.

January 25, 2024

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Season 4, Episode 5

Posted in Episodes, and Season 4

Rehabbing Old Houses into Affordable Housing

Alumna Isabel Thornton grew up in the Rust Belt town of Roanoke, Virginia. After graduating from USC, she eventually returned home and took note of the city’s beautiful Victorian homes, many vacant and in a state of disrepair. Linking her experience in affordable housing with her passion for historic places inspired her to create her non-profit Restoration Housing. In this episode of Save As, Isabel talks with Trudi about how her organization is successfully rehabilitating neglected houses into unique high-quality affordable rental housing.

December 14, 2023

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Season 4, Episode 4

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[Update] Meet You at Lenchita’s

Alumna Sara Delgadillo grew up in Pacoima, a blue-collar neighborhood in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. Sara joined us in Season One to discuss how growing up in Pacoima influenced her life, studies, and career in heritage conservation. She also shared some of the enclave’s rich history, including some of the longtime small businesses that serve as centers of community and cultural continuity. One of them, Lenchita’s Restaurant, recently won a $5,000 Legacy Business Grant from the Los Angeles Conservancy! Hear about this well-deserved honor in a brief update with Sara and Chef Art Luna, a culinary instructor and grandson of Lenchita’s founder Angelita Alvarez Rentería. Then enjoy the original episode—and get in line for your holiday tamales.

December 14, 2023

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Transcript for Season 4, Episode 4

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[Update] Meet you at Lenchita’s Cindy OlnickHello, Save As listeners, this is Cindy Olnick here, and we are very excited to bring you a brief update on a very important topic that we covered in the very first season. We…

April 20, 2023

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Season 3, Episode 11

Posted in Episodes, and Season 3

Mysteries of Modernism at Schindler’s Buck House

One of the many great things about Los Angeles is its unrivaled legacy of modern residential architecture. Students in @peytonhall’s Materials Conservation class got to do their case study at the John J. Buck House (1934-35) by R. M. Schindler, one of the legendary architects who defined Southern California modernism. We got to tag along on a site visit and talk with Peyton, students Sam Malnati and Julie Dinkin, and owner Jocelyn Gibbs.

The house is in great shape but has changed over time—even Jocelyn, an architectural historian, says it’s full of mysteries. Buck did an original concept, and Schindler (who often made changes during construction) redesigned it. Buck added Art Deco touches inside, so Schindler didn’t want the interiors published in his lifetime. Subsequent owners also altered the house and the grounds.

To unravel some of the mysteries, Peyton’s students documented the Buck House down to the Bakelite doorknobs, analyzed it inside and out to identify original elements and alterations, and suggested approaches to restoring the property (if anyone ever wanted to).

March 30, 2023

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Season 3, Episode 10

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[Encore] After the War: Using Heritage to Rebuild

In case you missed it, we are re-releasing an episode from our first season.

The decade-long civil war in Syria has decimated the country’s infrastructure, killed more than 400,000 Syrians, and created the world’s largest displaced population of around 13 million. Heritage sites play a big role in war as targets of destruction and are typically an early focus of rebuilding efforts.

With an optimistic take on a devastating situation, alumna Dalia Mokayed talks about the effects of war on heritage and identity, and how heritage conservation can help cities and communities rebuild. The Aleppo native specifically addresses the Old City of Aleppo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the case study in her thesis, Heritage Conservation to Rebuild Cities After Crisis.

March 9, 2023

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Season 3, Episode 9

Posted in Episodes, and Season 3

Legacy Businesses in Immigrant Neighborhoods

Small businesses provide much more than goods and services. Over time, they become neighborhood anchors and a key source of culture and community—especially for new Americans.

Heritage conservationists are increasingly turning to legacy business programs as economic development strategies to combat rising rents, gentrification, and the erosion of community character, particularly in ethnic and immigrant neighborhoods. In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with recent USC graduate Xiaoling Fang about her thesis, Legacy Business Program Implementation in American Urban Immigrant Neighborhoods.

Xiaoling explored some of the longstanding small businesses in L.A.’s Chinatown and Little Tokyo neighborhoods, and how legacy business programs, like the ones recently adopted in Los Angeles, can be used as a tool to help culturally significant and beloved businesses survive.

Listen below, and click here for the transcript.