I do love these shots of the open front markets that used to be ubiquitous around Los Angeles. The Sunset-Vista Market was at 7415 Sunset Blvd and N. Vista St, which puts it halfway between Crescent Heights and Highland. This shot is circa mid 1930s, when they were really pushing Ben-Hur coffee, a very popular brand at the time. I like their motto: “Save As You Buy” but I especially love that intricate grill work repeated along the entire length of the building. It’s an admirable effort for something that most people won’t even see.
The building is still there, but it is now a Guitar Center store. This is roughly how that view looked in May 2024.
What was formerly known as the Mines Field municipal airfield underwent a name change in 1941 to Los Angeles Airport, and then in 1949, it acquired the name we know today: to Los Angeles International Airport, aka LAX. In this aerial photograph from 1963, we can see the addition of the iconic Theme Building, which opened in April 1961. But what caught my eye was the circular building near the bottom of the photo. I’ve been told it was a Chevron gas station, so now of course, I’m on a mission to find a photo showing us what it looked like at ground level.
This photo gives us an idea of the sort of mansions that used to fill the streets of downtown Los Angeles around the turn of the century (This photo is circa 1905.) Narrowing down their location is a bit tricky. They stood on Figueroa St, which back then was called Pearl St. That side street was called Bellevue Place, which no longer exists, and which connected Pearl (now Figueroa) with Beaudry Ave, which also no longer exists) between 5th and 6th Streets. Those streets do still exists but are no longer quite the same now that the 110 Freeway runs through that part of town. What I’d love to find is a photo taken from the top of either of those turrets. I bet the view would have been interesting.
These days, the Westwood part of LA is highly developed, anchored by the campus of UCLA. But back when this photo was taken on December 18, 1928, it was mostly still dirt, dirt, and more dirt, with some houses interspersed around the open land. This house looks to be quite large—and why not? There was plenty of room. But if the people who lived there needed to borrow a cup of sugar, it looks to have been quite a hike!
Here’s a convenient one-stop-shop from 1953: Go see John Wayne in “The Fighting Kentuckian” at the Bay Theater, then pick up some Vitalis hair tonic at Bay Pharmacy, and then go next door to the Bay Market for some Wonder Bread. And it looks like parking is a breeze, too! This combo stood on the southeast corner of Sunset Blvd and La Cruz Dr. just north of Santa Monica.
When I moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s, I was amazed when I first drove Laurel Canyon Blvd from West Hollywood into the San Fernando Valley. Here I was in the middle 10 million people, and yet I felt like I was in the middle of bucolic and verdant hills, way out in the countryside. In this photo, we’re looking south down the island that separates Laurel Canyon Rd (a side street) from Laurel Canyon Blvd at Kirkwood Dr. It was taken in 1928, a year before a devastating fire burned through five acres. Behind the photographer would have been the former lodging place for hunters that later became the Canyon Country Store, where many 60s-era folk music stars often shopped as they lived in the nearby rustic hills.
And from the Storybook school of architecture comes the charming Tam o’ Shanter Inn at 2980 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles. There’s lots to love about this place, but my favorite detail are those crooked—I don’t even know what to call them. Poles? Posts? Rods? Antennae?—on the top of the turrets. They look like something out of Dr. Seuss. The menu of the Tam o’ Shanter is traditional British food. It opened on June 26 1922, and going by that parked car on the right, I’d say this photo was taken not too long after the opening.
There’s something so striking about those old Kodachrome photos. The colors burst from the image so vividly that you almost feel as though you could jump right in. We’re looking west along Wilshire Blvd from around Cloverdale Ave, circa 1950s. That white building on the left is the Dominguez-Wilshire Building at 5410 Wilshire, which opened in 1930 and whose major tenant was Myer Siegel, a well-known women’s clothing store. According to one report I read, the building was named after its developers, the Dominguez family, the heirs to the first land grant given in California by King Carlos III of Spain. And in California, that’s about far back as it gets!
I’m no sports fan, but even I know that the LA Dodgers won the first game of the 2024 World Series at Dodger Stadium on Friday. Here we have an aerial photo of that stadium under construction. The project broke ground on September 17, 1959, and opened on April 10, 1962, so I’d say this photo was taken some time in 1960s. They sure knew what they were doing making space for all those parking lots.
These days, the Angels Flight funicular railway shuttles riders between Olive St at the top and the station at the bottom situated between 3rd and 4th St in downtown LA. But when this photo was taken, Angels Flight was in its original location at 3rd Street. It’s still quite a steep ride, but these days, it doesn’t run right next to a bunch of apartment buildings so close that passengers could look into strangers’ living rooms. This photo was taken some time in the 1960s, when it was on its last legs (or wheels, as the case may be.) It closed in 1969 ahead of the redevelopment of Bunker Hill and didn’t reopen in its new (and current) site until 1996.