In its palmy days, the Pico House welcomed from time to time travelers of wide distinction; while many a pioneer, among them not a few newly-wedded couples now permanently identified with Los Angeles or the Southland, look back to the hostelry as the one surviving building fondly associated with the olden days.

— Harris Newmark, 1870 · Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853–1913 (1916) · via Project Gutenberg

Why it's here: Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, built this hotel on the plaza in 1869–70, and it was the most lavish in Southern California. Harris Newmark, a merchant who arrived in 1853, wrote his memoir with the help of his sons. The building still stands and is a California Historical Landmark.