The Second Street Cable Railway, Los Angeles, circa mid to late 1880s
If you look closely near the bottom center of this photo, you’ll see the Second Street Cable Railway streetcar rattling along the line that ran from 2nd & Spring to 1st & Belmont in what is now downtown Los Angeles. The line opened on October 14,1885 so I’m guessing this photo was taken not long after that. I count eight buildings. With so few people around, it makes me wonder why they bothered laying down a track at all.
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Most of those early lines were built by real estate investors, so their erstwhile customers would have a way of getting to/from the city center to their erstwhile new homes…
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks, MMM!
I researched the 2nd Street Cable Car and gave a talk about it last year. It was a fascinating subject. This photo shows it running across the little valley between Bunker Hill and Crown Hill where the Harbor Fwy runs now. It was put in as a way to get prospective buyers to the Crown Hill land development. The two buildings are a little grocery store and the land office which were mentioned in a newspaper article of the time. Here is a link to the talk:
https://youtu.be/UoGaeRe7Sbg
Wow, Gordon, thanks for posting this. I did wonder what those two buildings were – they looked like something out of a Western!
Los Angeles was the Wild West at one time, although it had settle down by the 1880’s.
This photo is mind blowing when you realize what LA has become. It would be intersting to know where the camera was in taking the picture, so a present day comparison photo could be found or taken. Any information on that? I love these old photos of Hollywood and LosAngeles and look forward every day to getting them sent Thanks so much for making Hollywood history come alive in these photos.
Richard, see Gordon Pattison’s comment earlier.