Most photos I’ve seen of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway’s La Grande station at Santa Fe Ave and 2nd St, in downtown LA were taken, understandably, facing the front entrance. So it’s nice to see a different angle. The photographer was standing on the northern edge of the station looking south along Santa Fe Ave toward the station’s gardens. The station opened in 1893 so I’d say this photo was taken not long after that because the gardens look like they’re freshly laid out.
This circa 1911 photo shows what those gardens grew into:
This is roughly how that view looked in May 2024. There’s no trace of what used to be after La Grande station closed in May 1939 ahead of the Santa Fe railway moving into the new Union Station that same month.
It might just be the author in me talking, but it’s photos like this that can inspire whole novels. In this circa 1962 photo, we have the Capitol Records building on Vine St, Hollywood, and place I don’t remember seeing before, Bob’s Burger Bar (also with chili dogs and steak sandwiches!) All the elements are there: strings of lights glowing like pearls over a packed parking lot, an iconic Hollywood landmark rising in the background with its seasonal Christmas tree lights, a cheap burger joint standing by its lonesome on a deserted Hollywood street deep into an inky night. Throw in a jaded private eye, a hooker with a heart of gold, a wise-cracking burger-flipper with a secret and a cute dog, and you’ve got yourself a page-turner.
Over the years, Los Angeles has had its fair share of exotically themed restaurants, but one of the more outlandish was the restaurant shown in this photo. The Zulu Hut stood at 11100 Ventura Blvd in Studio City in the San Fernando Valley not far from Universal Studios. I don’t know what the Zulu people actually ate in South Africa, but in Southern California, the menu included cornpones (cornmeal bread), squab (aka pigeon), and fried chicken. One report I read said that the waiters served their customers in black face. I guess some places still serve pigeon these days (though I haven’t even seen it in any LA restaurant I’ve been to) I’m glad we’ve moved past the black-face era. The Zulu Hut was open from 1924 until it burned down in 1931.
Very little information came with this photo so I had to dig a little deeper on this one. Those two buildings in the background are the Guaranty building on the left and the Knickerbocker Hotel on the right. They stand on Ivar Ave, which means the main street with traffic and streetcar is Hollywood Blvd. The billboard on the left is announcing a new Mullen & Bluett menswear store, which was at 6316 Hollywood Blvd, just west of Hollywood and Vine. Until I saw this photo, I didn’t know Cadillac had a location on Hollywood Blvd. The Guaranty opened in 1923 and the Knickerbocker broke ground in 1925 but opened in 1929, so I’m calling this photo circa late 1920s.
With the Paris Olympic Games currently running, I thought this was an appropriate time to post this shot of the intersection of 7th and S. Hill Sts, in downtown LA. This shot of the northeast corner was taken in 1932, when the Olympics had come to Los Angeles and the city was caught up in Olympic fever with the rings and flags of many different countries. In the background on the left we can see the top of the Eastern Columbia building, which was home to the Eastern Outfitting department store and only two years old at the time.
Am I the only one who looks at this photo and the “Happy Days” TV show theme song starts playing in my head? Here we have a glorious color nighttime photo of Hody’s coffee shop—and it looks like it took up the whole block. It stood at 6006 Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood, so there was probably lots of land. One of the cars parked out front is a1961 Pontiac Catalina, so I’m calling this circa early 1960s.
These days, Paramount Pictures faces Melrose Ave, but back when this photo was taken, it the front of the studio was a block north on Marathon St. I doubt anyone could park their car directly out front of the famous studio gate, so I suspect this shot is staged — if only because I don’t see any studio guard telling the driver to “Move along, please.” My pal at the Petersen identified this car is a 1946-48 Chrysler, probably an Imperial, so let’s call this photo circa late 1940s.
This view looking north up Vine St from Sunset Blvd, Hollywood on July 27, 1948 makes me want to go for an after-dinner stroll just so that I could take in all those lights in real life: NBC radio, the Brown Derby, the Hollywood-Broadway department store, Tom Breneman’s Hollywood restaurant. We can even see the sign for Benson Fong’s first restaurant – Ah Fong’s – which opened in 1946 ahead of a second location in Beverly Hills. On my stroll, I’d also spend a moment to enjoy that atmospheric street light and semaphore traffic signal. Anyone care to join me?
We’re looking north up Westwood Blvd to the Holmby Building on the northwest corner of Weyburn Ave in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. On the southwest corner is Desmond’s, which someone described to me as an upper middle class menswear store. Look at all those buildings, freshly painted gleaming white, so pristine and bathed in all the endless Californian sunshine. Goodness gracious, what a utopia must have felt like, especially to people who had moved to the crowded, cold cities back east.
There is no shortage of photos of the famous Hollywood and Vine intersection. Color photos are less plentiful, but you can still find them. But how many of them feature a gleaming white Jaguar XK-120 parked out front of the Broadway-Hollywood department store? My friend at the Petersen Automotive museum said the car falls somewhere between 1948 and 1954. The Capitol Records building opened in 1956, so I’m guesstimating this photo at circa mid-to-late 1950s. Whatever the actual year, I’m just jealous of the Jaguar owner because he found a parking spot so close to Hollywood and Vine.