The Los Angeles Planning History Group (LAPHG) explores the planning history of the Los Angeles region, including its individual cities, to share knowledge about the past that informs the conditions of today and offers lenses for considering the shaping of the future. LAPHG promotes the understanding and study of the Los Angeles region’s history through programs and conferences, the collection and preservation of major plans, oral and written histories and related documents in planning and associated disciplines.

By the late 1970s, the historical legacy of major land use plans and documents for the Los Angeles region was disappearing at an alarming rate. Concerned planners from local agencies, such as the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles, and archivists from The Huntington Library, gathered informally in the early 1980s to establish a strategy for preservation and education. From these meetings LAPHG emerged.

LAPHG incorporated in 1984 as a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to preserving municipal, county and private sector planning documents from throughout the Los Angeles region. Since then, thousands of documents have been donated to The Huntington Library and other institutions by the County of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, members of the LAPHG Board, and the professional planning community. The following are a few of the collections facilitated by LAPHG.

• County of Los Angeles Works Progress Administration land use maps (1936-1939) and other maps at The Huntington Library
• City of Los Angeles Works Progress Administration land use maps (1936-1939) at the USC Library
• Southern California Regional Planning Collection at The Huntington Library and the Online Archive of California
• Calvin S. Hamilton Papers at The Huntington Library and the Online Catalog of California