A new group has stepped up to help save the Lummis House and Southwest Museum–a nonprofit called the Lummis Legacy League. Its mission is to “preserve, interpret and promote the cultural resources of Los Angeles’ Arroyo Seco region,” says the group’s Facebook page.
It is the latest in a succession of efforts that have aimed to raise awareness and rally support for the historic landmarks, which have been in limbo for years. Other entities have talked about giving the museum and house new life, but not much has happened.
“The lack of progress has angered and frustrated community activists,” writes Mary Lynch, in a report about the newly launched Lummis Legacy League in the Boulevard Sentinel, an Eagle Rock newspaper covering Northeast Los Angeles.
The Autry Museum, 16 years after taking over the Southwest Museum, has yet to find a partner to help pay for a costly renovation of the historic hillside facility in Highland Park, notes Lynch. Meanwhile, Occidental College seems to have hit a similar impasse, five years after signing an agreement with the Department of Parks and Recreation to take charge of the Lummis House. That deal was contingent on Occidental coming up with millions to renovate the stone house that Lummis built. Where does that quest for funding stand? All an Occidental spokesman could tell Lynch was, “We’re still not in a position to give a definitive reply one way or the other.”
Let’s wish the Lummis Legacy League better luck. The group is chaired by Mari Pritchard-Parker. Two other leaders named by Lynch in her report are Hollace Davids, a former Universal Pictures executive who lives in the neighborhood, and Yvonne Sarceda, a community activist in NELA.
