Los Angeles highlight
Griffith Observatory
A free public observatory on Mount Hollywood, open since 1935 and operated by the City of Los Angeles.
Griffith Observatory sits on the southern slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park, 1,134 feet above sea level, at 2800 East Observatory Road. It opened in 1935, the product of a bequest by Griffith J. Griffith whose 1919 will specified the purpose, features and location of the building, and it was given to the City of Los Angeles with the provision that it be operated for the public with no admission charge.
That provision still holds. The Observatory describes itself as a free-admission public facility owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. Roughly 1.6 million people visit each year to look through the public telescopes, see shows in the Samuel Oschin Planetarium, walk the 60 exhibits inside the 67,000-square-foot building, and take in the view of the city and the Hollywood Sign from the terraces.
For a family, the Observatory is the kind of place that becomes a tradition: a school field trip, a first look through a telescope, a Friday evening on the lawn. Planning for the people who share those traditions is what a life insurance policy is for. A term policy sized to your mortgage, income and the years until your children are independent is the practical version of that promise.