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. Rather than detailing every historical event or individual, these statements highlight significant land use patterns and property types that are key to understanding a region's built environment. They provide clear criteria for assessing the importance and integrity of these properties and connect historical developments to present-day structures. By linking history with the built environment, historic context statements offer a framework for preserving and planning for historical resources, ensuring they reflect the area's cultural and historical evolution.
The Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement, consisting of the historic contexts below, exemplifies this approach by offering a comprehensive framework for identifying and evaluating the City's historic resources. Created as part of the City’s historic resources survey, SurveyLA, the contexts identify important themes in Los Angeles’s history and development, covering a broad range of architectural, social, ethnic, and cultural topics starting from the early inhabitants of the region through 1980. Click on the icons below to learn more.
Themes within Nine Major Contexts
First Peoples of Los Angeles Historic Context
Ethnic-Cultural Contexts
