A double decker motor coach heading east along Wilshire Blvd at Manhattan Place, Los Angeles, circa early 1930s

A double decker motor coach heading east along Wilshire Blvd at Manhattan Place, Los Angeles, circa early 1930s

I love seeing photos of double decker buses in Los Angeles – especially that upper, open-air level. It’s like a convertible for public transit! This particular Los Angeles Motor Coach #711 was heading east along Wilshire Blvd at Manhattan Pl., into downtown L.A. It looks to have been quite a busy day for Angelino motorists on Wilshire—and I’d bet my last buck that they were already complaining about L.A. traffic then, too.

This is roughly the same view in November 2021. That same building in the background is still there and largely intact.

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7 responses to “A double decker motor coach heading east along Wilshire Blvd at Manhattan Place, Los Angeles, circa early 1930s”

  1. john says:

    I love seeing all of those cars and it is nice to see that taller building in both photo’s has not fallen victim to the wrecking ball. I wonder how many of those double decker buses survived? Any idea?

  2. Rich says:

    LA looked do much more open and livable back then.
    Of course, massive population increases will take that away,
    but the buildings weren’t the cookie cutter/boxy abominations
    like today. (sigh)

  3. J Yuma says:

    An interesting bit of history, “The clanging bells and hoi polloi who rode streetcars were not welcomed on Wilshire. With street railway out of the question, Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railway formed a bus company in 1923, the Los Angeles Motorbus Company. It ran double-decker buses along Wilshire Boulevard … quietly, we assume.”

    https://thesource.metro.net/2009/12/08/from-the-archives-the-original-wilshire-rapid/

    • I’ve often wondered why Wilshire never had a streetcar running down it. I assume somebody paid somebody not to – that’s usually how that story goes.

      • Al Donnelly says:

        That canoe on wheels reminds me of these popular 1962 lyrics as they were killing the last of the trolleys: Three, six, nine, The goose drank wine, The monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line, The line broke, The monkey got choked, They all went to heaven in a little row boat.

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