An "atypical" museum in an atypical city like ours just fits. Sure, we've got plenty of amazing, sprawling, large, artifact-packed institutions that have rightly won hearts and headlines. But those places covering a single subject, or that don't take up an acre or two, are worth bragging about, too. Gridskipper just released its list of Atypical LA Museums -- three cheers, Museum of Jurassic Technology! -- and we'd like to politely and humbly recommend a handful more.
Hollywood Heritage Museum: Our numero uno pick. Has everyone driven by this wee barn across from the Hollywood Bowl at one point or another? Probably. Have a goodly number of those same people been like, why is there a barn there? Perhaps. The barn is a Tinseltown landmark -- movies were being made there nearly a century ago (it has also moved around a few times). Inside there's plenty of old-timey star stuff. The museum also puts on excellent events; Virginia Davis, who played "Alice" in some very early Walt Disney shorts, visited a couple of years back. Major.
MORE PICKS: Angels Attic in Santa Monica -- a gorgeous Victorian museum boasting miniatures of all sorts and lovely, antique-y dollhouses. We'd love to just move everything we own into Bolton Hall in Tujunga, a place rife with local history. Its slightly ponderous, river-rock-y exterior makes it one of the prettiest buildings in all of the county, we think. And if you're fond of cowboys, horses, the rancho lifestyle, and silent-era movie stars, giddy-up to the William S. Hart Ranch in Newhall.
