It’s hard to find a photograph of Venice Beach that’s earlier than this one. Venice, California, was founded by tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a beach resort town designed to give Angelenos desperate to escape the crowding of downtown L.A. This photo was taken the following year, in 1906, showing us a glimpse of how appealing the area must have been to the locals. With its fresh sea air, wide boulevards, Venetian architecture, and sedate canals, it must have seemed like paradise—no wonder they flocked there from the get-go.