About a week ago, I posted a vibrantly color photo of Angels Flight funicular railway at the corner of Hill and 3rd Sts in downtown LA. This is that same railway, but it (and its surrounds) look quite different. That photo from last week was from some time in the 1950s; this one, however was taken on opening day, December 31, 1901. The carriages are much smaller and they seem to be open-air. There was no striking vermilion arch at the bottom, just a simple wooden one. And in the background we get a taste of the ornate Victorian-era homes that used to fill the Bunker Hill area.
Here is a colorized postcard probably taken around the same time:
Here is an early advertisement for Angels Flight from the Los Angeles Sunday Herald on June 29, 1902:
Nice photo, I don’t think I have seen a pic like this of Angels flight. I wonder what the people who lived in those homes thought of it going up and down rite in front of their homes.
The colorized post card was probably around 1910. The information a found on the B.P.O.E. building says it was built in 1909