This photo looking north up Broadway from 7th St reminds us how downtown was in heart of L.A. the 1930s. After the war, L.A. experienced a huge population boom, so it was probably inevitable that the ever-sprawling city become decentralized. But look at that sidewalk across 7th Street – it’s packed shoulder to shoulder. And nearly everybody is wearing hats, suits, coats, and neckties—even the little boy at the bottom right near the diamond-shaped sign. Speaking of that sign, I’m not sure what “Beach Road North” refers to. My guess is PCH (the Pacific Coast Highway) but I’m open to suggestions.
** UPDATE ** Before it was called PCH, it was called Roosevelt Highway, and before that, it was called Beach Road North (which made sense because it was a road that followed the beach northward up the coast.)
Roughly the same view in February 2021. At last someone thought to put in a tree.
I have no information about this Spanish Revival Style apartment block at 2nd St and Washington Ave in Santa Monica other than they were called the Sovereign Apartments, they were built in 1928, this photo is from 1931, and they’re still around. But I wanted to feature it because I think it’s wonderful example of how an everyday building such as a block of apartments could, with a bit of imagination and flair, be a thing of beauty and charm, and a pleasure to look at. It reeks with atmosphere, doesn’t it?
This is roughly the same view in 2021:
This photo treats us to an aerial photo that’s also in color. We’re looking at Disneyland in August of 1963, where we can make out the Jungle Cruise at top right, the Matterhorn on the left, and the nearby swirling tea cups of the Mad Tea Party. Also interesting to note is how lightly developed the land around the theme park is. It’s no longer empty land or filled with orchards, but there are still large pockets of empty land just waiting for the bulldozers and backhoes that will surely arrive one day soon.
Being used to a Los Angeles of 10 million people and practically every square inch developed, landscaped, and accounted for, I never tire of seeing L.A. of yesteryear when great swaths of land were still wide open and there for the taking. This aerial shot shows us Westwood Village, which is sandwiched between Beverly Hills to the east and Brentwood to the west. I’m guessing this is from the early 1930s because the Janss Dome (Westwood’s first building) went up in 1929. We can also see the clock tower at 10900 W. Weyburn Ave. They’re both still around, which is more than I can say for those great swaths of open land.
This sure must have been a sight to see in person: the Santa Claus Lane Christmas Parade passing in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Closing Hollywood Blvd off to traffic must have been a logistical headache, but oh, how bright and twinkly it looked with those huge electrical Christmas trees lining both sides of the streets and searchlights criss-crossing the sky. The caption on this photo said “circa 1940.” If that’s the case, it was probably the last Christmas parade Angelenos enjoyed before the realities of war hit hard on December 7 the following year.
This photo takes us back to Pasadena in around 1898. We’re looking north up Fair Oaks Ave from the southwest corner of Dayton St. On the left we can see the Acme Hotel (surely they could have come up with a more imaginative name than that?) I’d love to see a photo of the front of the hotel because their corner-facing turret looks like it was quite picturesque. From the horse-carriage tracks along the street, it appears that Fair Oaks Ave wasn’t paved over, but it was wide enough to accommodate lots of horse-drawn vehicles, which was probably handy when the weather turned wet and muddy.
Not long after I posted a photo of a 
John from Sacramento sent me this photo taken by his grandfather somewhere around 1910-ish. The people gathered in this photo would have been day-trippers on the 
The Pan Pacific Auditorium on Beverly Blvd was, for over 35 years one of Los Angeles’s main venues for large-scale events like ice-skating shows, automobile exhibits, concerts, sporting matches, and radio broadcasts. Nearly all the photos of it just show the main entrance. And why not? The four stylized flagpole towers in a Streamline Moderne style were very photogenic. But this aerial view from 1936 shows us how there was an expansive plaza out the front with lots of room for people to gather before and after the show. I have a collection of photos of the Pan Pacific on my website if you’d like to see more: 
I don’t have a date for this night shot of Hody’s restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, but in a way it doesn’t really matter. It has a mid-century timelessness about it, don’t you think? Hody’s was a chain of restaurants with approximately 10 locations around southern California; the most well-known of them was on the northeast corner Hollywood and Vine. This one stood on a large triangular site where PCH meets Anaheim Rd and Clark Ave, so I’m guessing there was plenty of parking for all those long 1950s classic American cars.