Michael Teoli

There are supposedly more museums in the US than Starbucks. I'd like to believe that's true, and if one really dives in and explores... it's not that hard to believe. We're always on the hunt to visit new museums and this week brought us to the Monrovia Historical Museum. For a FREE local history museum, they do a great job! This used to be the Monrovia Municipal Pool since WAY back, and when the pool grew too expensive to keep up, rather than destroy the building, they turned it into a museum!

There are two wings, which were the women's and men's locker rooms respectively. There are all kinds of exhibits and rooms that show what houses, clothing, storefronts, music rooms, schools and more used to look like. One wing is more devoted to Monrovia history. The other currently has a WW1 exhibit and has a permanent Natural History collection that was donated by the owner when he passed. Even the old wooden boxes that store the items are cool as they are from the 1930s and were made to house the exhibit you're looking at! The telephone exhibit is especially cool.

We had our five year old with us and they do have things kids can do. He liked dressing up as a policeman in the police exhibit. You can play with the phones in the telephone exhibit. There are a couple of cool touch boxes in the natural history collection... and even a desk set up where kids can color and play with Lincoln Logs.

If you live in LA and are looking for a little day trip... I'd recommend planning a day trip and adding this to your list! You can visit the nearby downtown area by Liberty Park where there ALWAYS seems to be a festival of some sorts going on. There are cuts shops, restaurants and even a very cool antique store. Take a picture with the nearby Mark Twain statue on a bench in the park! Back to the museum... hedge expectations... this isn't Kidspace or The Natural History Museum or Discovery Cube... this is one of hundreds of small local museums... but they do a GREAT job! Visit!

The Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum is part of LA's "Passport 2 History" program! If you don't know what that is, please look it up as there are over 80 participating museums, that give you stickers when you go there and there are actually prizes the more you go to. It's a fun way to learn about museums.

The museums in the P2H program range in their grandiosity, from very small adobes to full scale art museums. I was expecting the former, but we go much closer to the latter! They're not fooling around here, and they're constantly growing and renovating. They had quite an impressive visitor's center where you wait for the tour (complete with free coffee - a part of the history lesson of the community's prohibition ties). If you get there early, you can enjoy the koi pond (with an impressive soft shell turtle among the large fish and other turtles) and graveyard.

There are two tours - The Workman House and the second house next door (that's name escapes me at the moment). We only had time for the first tour (each is 45 minutes and we had a 5 year old with us), but it was very cool and informative. The exhibits are kind of bare in comparison to other homestead museums, where there are more artifacts from the home - but I think there is much more of that in the second home that we missed. AND there is a behind the scenes tour where they take you in the basement and second floor! The best part... ALL of these tours are FREE!!! That's right! They even have a cute little gift shop that actually has interesting relevant items and toys that are reasonably priced! So we got some old time candy sticks and a slide whistle because... why not?!?

I know this may be out of the way for many... but make a day trip out of it! We visited here, The Puente Hills Mall (The Twin Pines Mall from Back To The Future!!! - Be sure to go inside and check out the Twin Pines Mall sign inside the mall!), The Hsi Lai Temple (SUPER cool place that is very welcoming to visitors), a tamale shaped building, the Armenian Martyrs Memorial and more!

Small yet cute FREE museum with wonderfully charming staff! They have a nice gift shop but the museum section isn’t large. There was cool info about Balboa Island, Shirley Temple and more. You probably won’t spend more than 15 minutes in the museum.

HOWEVER! I noticed an empty storefront down the street that said: Coming soon: The Balboa Island Historical Museum... so maybe they’re moving soon and will have more room!

I never give FREE museums less than 4 stars, because anything they offer is gravy. Definitely check this out when strolling down the strip!

The first thing you should know about The Museum of The San Fernando Valley is that hey are only open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays 1-5pm. The second thing you should know about The Museum of The San Fernando Valley is that there is nearly zero signage from the street. Trust the address and park anywhere in the (free) lot. There is only very missable sign that can only be seen if you catch it as you’re drink bing in the driveway. As you enter the commercial building filled with other businesses, go to the second floor (elevator is available for those who need it) and find your way to suite 204.

There you’ll find it! This museum is very small, but it has a big heart. The caretaker I spoke with was VERY enthusiastic, informative and appreciative that we were there. It wasn’t empty as there were at least three other parties. The docent did a great job of making sure everyone received attention. Maybe even a hint too much as I was happy to explore on my own. She was great though.

There is a room that had wonderful art that I believe is a lot sting exhibit. Then there are some other things to see. I especially liked the Vincent Price head cast! In the back there is an exhibit in mid century modern houses and they’re working on an exhibit about the dwarf sports teams that used to be a part of SFV culture. Maybe my favorite things were the “Now-and-then” photos and the menus of old defunct sfv restaurants.

I might have given this museum a lesser rating but I make it a rule to never give a free museum less than 4 stars. The people who work here are hard working volunteers who do their best to preserve history as best they can. I hope that we’ll see this grow. I wonder if there could be a collaboration with the much larger Valley Relics Museum. Where Valley Relics has an infinitely more impressive collection of artifacts, I wonder if The Museum of San Fernando Valley’s historical expertise could help tell the story of those artifacts.

At any rate... this is a free museum with free parking! Check it out! Maybe organize s trip to several small museums in the area on one day!

There are a handful of old school lounges and dive bars in the valley that everyone should visit. The Chimneysweep Lounge is a prime example. It seems untouched by time with the Naugahyde booths, brick walls and a big chimney in the center.

They don’t have food, but do have a popcorn machine. There is a cool Mediterranean restaurant right next door and other places in the area. The staff was friendly. I nice relaxing place to come and grab a drink with friends. Quality brews on tap. While there is a private lot that is shared with neighboring businesses, expect to have to street park.