You want to talk about the Wild West? This was the true Wild West: Driving north up Vine Street without any traffic lanes painted on the road. Generally speaking, I guess drivers stuck to the right hand side of the street but whatever. Drive wherever you like! In this shot, those foolhardy motorists are approaching Santa Monica Blvd, where the military surplus store now stands. This shot was taken in 1925, when the southern stretch of Vine still had residential homes lining it, and the Hollywoodland sign was only 2 years old.
** UPDATE ** – @Sportswalkthe on Twitter said: “Actually, the photo was taken a few blocks south of Santa Monica. On the left is the original photo. On the right is the Google Street View photo. You can see the DWP building, 2 blocks below Santa Monica Blvd, on the left in both photos.”
This is the same view in May 2022.
Don’t think I’ve seen an early photo of Vine Street like that! I like photos of the north end of Vine St. and the sloping hill before the freeway was built. Two of the famous buildings are there at Hollywood and Vine…the Plaza Hotel opened in 1925, the year of this photograph. The Taft Building in 1923. The others soon to come are the Equitable Building (1929) and the Broadway (originally BH Dyas Dept. Store) in 1927.
I always wondered why there wasn’t a multi-story building at the NW corner of Hollywood and Vine. I discovered there was to be one there, but the 1929 stock market crash derailed those plans, as well as the Pantages Building, which was originally to have been 12 stories. Fortunately we have the theatre, which opened in 1930. Fascinating to see houses along Vine Street!
It looks like a slum now days. Progress!!!!!
Counterpoint: If you think it’s bad now, you might be interested in looking at this report with many photos of Los Angeles slums in the 1930s. Slum Neighborhoods in Los Angeles:
https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/LASlums
Good point, Martin.
The street crossing just in front of the cars is Romaine. Eleanor is next past and can be spotted where those east-west oriented pair of rectangular bungalows are visible on the right (whitish, past the parked car at corner). Santa Monica is crossing right below where the turreted structure is seen over on the left (John Bengtson has a lot on this lost structure which appears in silents). I would assume that streetcars could not just fly across that unprotected intersection without first stopping and signaling by sound. This is definitely a crossroads in time where suburban Hollywood is being turned into a satellite city. Rural remnants exist still on some lots, but for the most part only the bigger outside land parcels have lasted intact. They’re about to go away after this.
I guess that ‘keep to the right ‘, was for sissy’s like me.