Often overshadowed by its neighbors with glitzier landmarks — namely Burbank and Pasadena — Glendale gets an unfair rap as being suburban and drab. Many Angelenos (especially those on the Westside) know it primarily for its massive malls: the Glendale Galleria and oft-meme’d Americana at Brand.

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While its retail landscape is certainly impressive, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of this 30-square-mile city that traverses two mountain ranges and boasts dozens of historic buildings and more than 50 parks. Visit one small corner of this century-old city and your main takeaway might be the preponderance of Armenian bakeries, kebab joints and hookah bars. For a more bohemian, historic take on Glendale, visit Adams Square, where storybook Tudor houses proliferate and a queer community flourishes. At Adams Square Mini-Park, once a gas station, find a public art gallery inside an old service building and nearby crosswalks that have been painted vibrant colors as a way to increase pedestrian visibility and celebrate the local community.

Vintage period revival mansions on enviously large plots of land can be found in Glendale’s higher elevation communities, like Chevy Chase Canyon or El Miradero, situated below the 31-acre Brand Park. Plenty of historic Queen Anne-Eastlake Victorian homes dating to the 1870s to 1890s are also still standing. Some of these older buildings — like a turn-of-the-century Moorish mansion and an old winery barn — now serve as museums, public libraries and nature centers.

While there is plenty of new development — think high-rise condominiums, strip malls, big-box stores and expanded transportation routes — Glendale actively balances preserving its historic sites while promoting change. Take, for instance, Brand Boulevard, the heart of downtown Glendale. It’s a dynamic mix of new retailers, multicultural restaurants and landmark businesses like the 100-year-old Alex Theatre and a corset shop that has been in the same location since 1922.

And the transformation of the city goes even further.

While Glendale once bore the unfortunate reputation of being a mid-20th-century “sundown town,” it has since evolved into a vibrant melting pot. Today, it is home to large communities of Armenians, Latinos, Koreans, Filipinos and Persians. In a significant step toward reconciliation, Glendale became the first city in California — and the third in the nation — to formally apologize for its racist past.

Whichever analogy you choose — a Rubik’s cube, an onion — Glendale is one of the more fickle SoCal destinations that takes time to get to know. There are pockets of funk, beauty and culture — a neon museum, a retro roller rink, a progressive art museum at the top of a cemetery. Glendale also produced numerous Hollywood greats, like John Wayne, Eva Mendes and Paul Walker, and serves as the final resting spot of even larger luminaries, such as Walt Disney, Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson.

Here’s where to go to get the best representation of this oft-misunderstood place that is actually, to name-drop its century-old moniker, a “jewel” of a city.