Just like the roses that bloom there every year, Exposition Park has seen phases both pristine and thorny. In the 1870s, there were carnivals, showcase agriculture and auto racing in the open-air fairground. Such genteel entertainment stopped by the 1890s, though, and saloons sprouted where the roses once had. 

Today, Exposition Park would make Judge Bowen proud. The area includes a sunken rose garden, two sports arenas, a handful of stately museums (the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the California Science Center and the California African American Museum) and the new Science Center School, designed by 2005 Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne.

North of Exposition Park is the University of Southern California. The red brick and ivy campus opened in 1880, making it the oldest independent teaching and research university in the West. There were 53 students then; now there are more than 32,000. The institution is known for its myriad professional schools such as business, law, architecture and entertainment. Alumni - and SC's network is vast and famously loyal - include John Wayne, Neil Armstrong and filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. With arguably the country's best known marching band providing background beats, the powerhouse Trojan football team plays its games in the Memorial Coliseum.

Across the street to the north of the university is the much smaller Mount St. Mary's College and on its campus, the Doheny Mansion, the beautiful late Victorian built by oil baron Edward Doheny.