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Specializing in California Architecture and Cultural History
James Papp has practiced as an independent historian and architectural historian on the Central Coast for the past decade, serving five years on the City of San Luis Obispo's preservation commission, including three terms as chair.
After earning his BA from UCSD and PhD from UCLA, James joined the Peace Corps, teaching history and cultural studies at Comenius University in Bratislava, subsequently doing a postdoc in American cultural studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin and consulting for the Open Society Foundations.
While working as an editor and nonprofit administrator in New York, James developed an architectural walking tour program of the East Village for the Merchant’s House Museum. His most unusual distinction is being illustrated in the New York Times Metropolitan Diary, walking over people in bed for a spontaneous tour of a Greek Revival townhouse.
James has curated exhibitions for the History Center of San Luis Obispo County, San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum, Morro Bay State Park Natural History Museum, Paso Robles Pioneer Museum, Jack House, and San Luis Obispo County Libraries. For the past five years, he has appeared monthly on Dave Congalton’s Hometown Radio, KVEC, to talk about history, architecture, and urban planning, as well as organizing numerous webinars on architecture and preservation practice for the California Preservation Foundation.
James is the author of several books, including San Luis Obispo Architecture (Arcadia, 2023), which covers some forty architectural styles and a dozen construction techniques on the Central Coast.
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