The windmills of the Van de Kamp bakeries and coffee shops were a common sight all over Los Angeles, starting in 1921. This shot is of the store at Yucca St and Ivar Ave, just a block north of Hollywood Boulevard and just a dinner roll’s throw from the Knickerbocker Hotel, which in 1940, when this photo was taken, would still have been a fairly decent place to stay.
And in 2016:
THE BUILDING WAS THERE A LONG TIME I THINK INTO THE 80,NOT SURE IF IT IS STILL THERE…SO MUCH BEAUTY IN HOLLYWOOD…ALL BEING DESTROYED BY GREEDY SOULLESS PIGS,IT’S TRAGIC,DENIEL EDWARDS.
Oh, my goodness, this is sad seeing this area now. From streetlamps to the building next door to the Knickerbocker and now the bakery…without having these photos, you’d never know they existed. Unbelievable the powers to be have destroyed so much.
Thanks for sharing, Martin.
Jean
I remember these windmills all over the city. Eventually, Van de Kamp’s began building restaurants with the same windmill theme. The last one standing is in Arcadia at the corner of Huntington and Santa Anita. When the company went out of business, the restaurant was taken over by Denny’s. In time the windmill stopped running. Just this year Denny’s was urged by some here in town to get the windmill running again. Denny’s spent $100,000f to get the job done. The last Van de Kamp’s windmill runs again!