This photo give us an idea of what it was like to be driving west along the Sunset Strip from Crescent Heights Blvd in July 1963. On the left we can see the zigzag-roofed Lytton Savings bank branch built on the site that was once the Garden of Allah Hotel, which had been razed (by Bart Lytton) in August 1959. Straight ahead was the billboard for the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, which had opened in 1952. And on the right, the white building with the triangular towers is the Chateau Marmont Hotel, which is still with us. And just below it is the red sign for Villa Frascati Restaurant, which offered Belgian cuisine to discerning diners.
Where the Garden of Allah and the Lytton branch once stood is now an expanse of dirt. The bank and its surrounding mini mall was razed to make way for a Frank Gehry project that never went forward. This is how that view looked in May 2022.
Southern Pacific Truck Service in red and silver on the right making delivery or pick-up calls. L.C.L., less-than-carload, freight went in express/baggage or box cars. T.O.F.C., trailer-on-flat-car allowed movement of entire packed containers which could be transferred for roadway movement. It began to replace the L.C.L. functions, which went to long haul truckers. Trailers gave way to containers that could be moved on and off of frames allowing them to be stacked during transport. Basically what we see today with functional improvements like “well cars” to drop them down into. Gone are the days of direct railroad service that replaced the drayage haulers with their horse wagons.
Is that a gold Jaguar E-Type coupe dead center of the frame? It must have turned as many heads then as it would today.
It lends a certain melancholy as I read your Garden of Allah novels to see the dirt lot that now exists in its place. I know the plans for its development fell through, but I hope that whatever does get built there will still honor the legacy.
Gehry’s design wasn’t universally liked, but there was a nod to the Garden of Allah. I would like to think some developer would give their new building a nod, too, but who knows what will go up there in time.