Here are two things you don’t see passing through Beverly Hills anymore: a train and a streetcar. But back in 1954, when this photo was taken, locals were used to seeing both stop at the Beverly station on the southeast corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Canon Dr.
Some nice paving and landscaping have replaced all those public transit tracks. I don’t get to say this often, but the modern photo looks nicer than the vintage one. This image is from July 2018.
In the July 2018 photo, the building on the left is The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and the building used to be the Beverly Hills Post Office, opened in 1934. I don’t recall why the Post Office left, but am glad the building is still there. In the 1950 film “In a Lonely Place,” Humphrey Bogart visits the post office in a scene. I don’t know if the interior scene was actually filmed in there, but the exterior definitely was.