A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo of Sunset Blvd looking east from Serrano Ave in 1931. The width and emptiness of Sunset was as striking in that photo as it is in this. Here we’re seeing Sunset Blvd looking east from Argyle Ave, a block from Vine St. As with the previous photo, it’s striking how wide-open everything looks, how little traffic there was on a major thoroughfare like Sunset, and—more importantly to every Angeleno—how much available parking there was! To me, though, the most eye-catching detail is how that single line of Botts Dots running down the middle of Sunset was the only thing separating eastbound traffic from westbound.
Roughly the same view in December 2020:
The center line delineation in this photo is round metal plates with a hole in the middle that were attached with a bolt. Often, they were applied when the street was resurfaced and the asphalt was hot and malleable enough to accept the striked bolt. This method of delineation was started in the mid-1920’s and was also used for crosswalks. In 1930 streets in Los Angeles started to be painted with centerlines and lane lines.
Thanks for that useful info, John. I was thinking that by then surely at least the main streets of LA, like Sunset Blvd, would have had painted lane by then.
Pioneer-era studios site on the left edge behind the trees, where CBS will go in later.