In this rather stunning aerial view, we’re looking east along Wilshire Blvd. The cross street around cutting through the middle of the image is San Vicente Blvd, which means the street running along the bottom of the photo is La Cienega Blvd, and so the oval on the triangular plot of land is La Cienega Park. If you run your eye directly up from the park you’ll see a large white building. That’s the Carthay Circle Theatre, where many a splashy Hollywood premiere took place. This shot was taken in 1930 when the area was becoming quite developed—in fact, more than I would have thought, but there’s still a lot of empty land…but not for long!
That same area in 2022. As we can see, those oil wells have all gone and a lot more buildings line Wilshire Blvd.
Hi, Martin, I wanted to point out that building in the lower right had corner, with the “bell tower,” was built in 1928 as a water treatment plant for Beverly Hills and was used until the 1970’s. It was going to be demolished in the 1980’s, but was rescued by AMPAS, who transferred their Margaret Herrick Library to this location, from their Wilshire building, and it was re-opened in 1991 where the building is now called the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study. An excellent adaptive reuse for a historic building instead of demolition, which always seems to be everyone’s first choice. IMO!
Ah yes! Of course it is! Thanks for pointing that out. I was too preoccupied with finding the Carthay Circle Theatre and looking at those oil wells.
And I’m glad you did. I’m always confused when I’m in that area as to actually where that theatre used to be located, even though others have tried to show me.
I’ve always wanted to drive around that area just so that I could see the theater’s neighborhood. It looks like I should draw myself a very careful map!
Fascinating.
Oil wells and tar pits straight out from Chinatown…sounds like element for a great movie. Maybe throw in a housing tract in the valley. Wait! The Two Jakes!!