Sid Grauman opened the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in 1922 and I’m guessing that this color-tinted postcard was taken not long after that. It shows us how almost quaint the stores along Hollywood Boulevard were back then. And how individual each of them looked. And The street would have been paved—we can see the streetcar lines—but this photo makes it all look more like a country road!

Andie says: “The roads then were Macadam, the dirt graded to below the surface by about 8 inches and then a layer of very coarse sand and pebbles or crushed rock which was packed down and then covered with hot asphalt which was then sanded and rolled to smooth it. The main private roads through my grandpa’s farm were still done this way in the ’40s and it was interesting to watch. When I was first out here in ’52, the street my dad’s home place was on in Sepulveda (Orion Ave) just south of Parthenia, was not paved. After the flooding that winter, they began paving the streets in that area. They did the same thing as I had seen back home. These pavements broke down rapidly, especially with heavy traffic and were very bad during the rainy season. My great uncle, who was in Culver City in the ’20s, said that on very hot days “inland” heavy truck tires would sink into the Macadam while sitting at a stop, leaving a dip in the pavement. Sometimes the streetcar rails also sunk into the stuff that was softened by the heat and the repairs were digging down, prying up the rails and pounding in a thick steel bar about 3 feet long crosswise to distribute the weight better.”