Los Angeles City to Survey Armenian-American Heritage Sites
(June 12, 1965: First annual dinner dance of Holy Martyrs Armenian High School, Los Angeles.) (Photo courtesy of USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies archives)
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles City Planning’s Office of Historic Resources (OHR) announced the launch of work on the City’s Armenian American Historic Context Statement, a comprehensive historic context preservation framework for Armenian American heritage. The forthcoming statement may be the first municipal historic context document nationally to focus specifically on Armenian American heritage.
“The Armenian American Historic Context Statement is a welcome recognition of the significant role Armenian Americans have played in the making of modern Los Angeles,” said Los Angeles City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian. “For over a hundred years, Armenian immigrants and their descendants have made critical contributions to education, the arts and sciences, business, and civic life in Los Angeles. The locations associated with their achievements should be recorded and celebrated.”
Historic context statements are concise documents that help identify and evaluate historical resources by focusing on how geography, history, and culture have influenced a community’s development over time. The Armenian American Historic Context Statement will become a part of the Citywide Historic Context Statement developed through SurveyLA, the groundbreaking citywide historic resources survey that serves as a primary planning tool for identifying, recording, and evaluating historic properties and districts in Los Angeles. It will join several other citywide context statements addressing ethnic-cultural themes, including contexts for African American History, Latino Los Angeles, and the heritage associated with five of the city’s largest Asian American communities.
“LA City Planning is honored to partner with the Armenian American community to help advance the identification, protection, conservation, and celebration of the city’s Armenian heritage,” said Vince Bertoni, Director of Planning. “The Project will enhance our department’s ongoing efforts to broaden public awareness of the city’s diverse cultural heritage, making the places and stories associated with underrepresented histories more visible and legible.”
With the launch of the project, the project team is also beginning extensive community engagement to elicit information on places that are significant and meaningful to the local Armenian American community. The feedback received will help prioritize selected sites and incorporate community-based knowledge about these significant historic resources, ensuring that the documented history is accurate, inclusive, and reflective of the community’s experiences. In-person interviews with subject matter experts and stakeholders will help support a fuller, more complex telling of Armenian histories and lived experiences by bringing a wider variety of voices into the project.
“The USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies is delighted to lend our expertise and rich archival collections to this momentous historical record of Armenian life in Los Angeles,” said Institute Director Dr. Shushan Karapetian.” As an Institute focused on contemporary Armenian Studies, with a particular emphasis on the diaspora in Los Angeles, we are uniquely positioned to contribute critical scholarly insight that reflects the depth, diversity, and enduring impact of Armenian communities across the city.
The Armenian American Historic Context Statement has been made possible through a $170,000 grant initiated by former City Council President Paul Krekorian. OHR has engaged Environmental Science Associates (ESA), in partnership with the USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies, to research and prepare the Historic Context Statement, along with two associated City Historic-Cultural Monument nominations for Armenian American historic resources.
The project team encourages participation in a survey on Armenian American heritage.
For more information about the HistoricPlacesLA Revealed project and other initiatives by the Office of Historic Resources, please visit LA City Planning’s website at
https://planning.lacity.gov/
or contact planning.media@lacity.org.
