Local Resources: Los Angeles City Archives

By Beverly Mateer Taylor

Los Angeles City Archives
555 Ramirez Street, Space 320
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(the cross street is Vignes Street).

Hours: Monday through Thursday, 9am to 5pm
Reference service provided by Todd Gaydowski,
City Records Management Officer, (213) 485-8783
and Jay Jones, City Archivist, (213) 485-3512
jjones@clerk.lacity.org

The Los Angeles City Archives vault and reference room are in the Piper Technical Center adjacent to the storage area for city records. As City Archivist Jay Jones explained, the purpose of the archives is to identify, collect, preserve, arrange and describe records of historical significance originated by city government and to make them available for public as well as government officials and employee use.

A collection of government records referred to as the "city archives" has existed since the 1830s, but the City Archives as an institution dates from 1980 when it was established as part of the citywide Records Management Division of the City Clerk's Office.

The archives contain many key record series from 1827 to the present. They include records of the Ayuntamiento (city clerk); Los Angeles City Council Minutes; City Council Petitions and Files; past and current versions of the City Charter; Administrative and Municipal Codes; Contracts; Deeds to and from the city; Election Files; Departmental Annual Reports; maps; photographs; financial reports and ledgers of the City Auditor, City Controller and Treasurer; and local municipality records from Eagle Rock, Hollywood, San Pedro, Tujunga, Venice, Watts and Wilmington prior to their becoming part of the City of Los Angeles.

Records of most 20th century mayors and council persons are in the archives with the notable exception of Tom Bradley, whose papers are at UCLA. The collection of historical maps is especially interesting.

The archives consist mostly of paper records but they do include some video, audio, microfiche and microfilm items. Access to records is generally by topic, not by individual names. Unless you are looking for someone very prominent, it is necessary to have dates and/or knowledge of the incident in which the person was involved. As Mr. Jones succinctly put it, the information may be "very specific and very scattered."

Although advance appointments are not required, calling ahead is encouraged. Neither the indexes to older archive contents nor the computer database of items added since 1980 are self service, so time is needed to look up and pull the relevant materials.

Photocopying services are available for a fee. Parking is free.

As important as knowing what is kept in the archives is knowing what is not kept there. The Department of Water and Power and the Harbor and Airport departments keep their own records. Personnel records and police records, other than historical, are not in the archives. Death, birth, and marriage records are kept by the county, as are real estate, registrar of voters, divorce and bankruptcy court records. Here are telephone numbers for records that are not in the L. A. City Archives

Death, Birth, &Marriage (562) 462-2137
Orange Co. Birth Records (714) 834-2872
Deed/Liens/Homesteads (562) 462-2125
Real Estate Records (562) 462-2133
Registrar of Voters (562) 462-2748
Divorce Records (213) 974-5171
Bankruptcy Court (213) 894-3118

© Beverly Mateer Taylor. Used with permission.