Cottages lining a canal in Venice, California |

Of all the photos I’ve seen of the canals in Venice, California, I’ve never seen this line of cottages. I don’t know where they were, or how long they lasted, but they stretch right down the canal as far as we can see in this picture. They don’t look like they were very big and they certainly weren’t elaborate, but it must have been nice to be able to step outside your home in the morning to a calming, peaceful canal.

Andie says: Several of my great uncle’s employees (worked at his Venetian blind factory in Culver City) lived in Venice on the canals in the 1920s. They were mid-level employees, floor managers, engineers that kept the machines operating, foremen and salesmen. There was a “jitney” that operated up and down the narrow streets landside and transported workers to the trolley line that ran from the “beach cities” to Santa Monica. According to my great uncle, the jitney was like a small tractor that pulled several “trailers” that had seating on either side facing outward and went slow enough that people could step on and off without it stopping – but the driver did stop for ladies. On weekends, the jitneys transported beachgoers from the terminus of the rail lines to places along the beach that were a long way to walk for women with children, etc.