A large proportion of the passengers who rode the streetcars of early Los Angeles were prospective property buyers or tourists. And one of the big tourist attractions in early Hollywood was the estate of French artist, Paul De Longpre. It stood on the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Cahuenga Blvd and was especially well known for its extensive gardens. (De Longpre was a gifted painter of flowers and reputedly had 4,000 rose bushes.) In this 1905 photo, we see tourists getting out of three streetcars (marked “Parlor Car”) to (I assume) tour De Longpre’s estate. Those gardens sure must have been something because that’s a lot of people.
Bill M. said: “Parlor Car designated a more luxurious interior than the common streetcar. They were used for tours and funerals.”
David K. said: “These were not trolleys for Angelenos, but, rather, trolleys that were used for tourist trips, for example, Tilton’s Trolley Trip and The Balloon Route Trolley trip.”
De Longpre’s estate was on the northwest corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga Blvds. This is how that corner looked in June 2024. The store currently on the corner sells cannabis, so I guess the gardening/plant theme continues.
In this 1905 photo, we’re looking east along Hollywood Blvd, then known as Prospect Ave. The streetcar at the center of the image is about to pass the Hollywood Hotel on the corner of Highland Ave. These days, of course, this stretch of Hollywood is packed solid with buildings, shops, theaters, and tourists, but I wonder if anyone moseying along the boulevard right this second knew that the south side of the street was once home to the huge strawberry patch that takes up most of this photo.
In this photo we’re looking at the original building that housed Hollywood High School at the corner of Sunset Blvd and Highland Ave. We’re looking north and in the background we can see the Hollywood Hills. This incarnation of the school (which has a different building now) opened in 1905, which is around the time this photo was taken. Back then, Hollywood was still largely rural, so this white two-story building (plus basement!) with enough room to accommodate 400 students must have really stood out.
Most photos of the iconic Capitol Records building are taken from the Hollywood and Vine intersection looking north, so this photo makes for a nice change. In this one, we’re looking east across the parking lot of the El Capitan Theatre (now known as the Avalon) and across Vine St to the Capitol Records building under construction. The building opened in 1956, so this was probably taken in 1955. On the right we can see the back of the Pantages Theatre which, back then, was still a movie house and wouldn’t be converted to live shows until 1977.
Most of us only get to see the Goodyear blimp when it’s floating thousands of feet over our heads. So this (undated) shot gives us a better idea of its actual size. Now that I can see if up close, the gondola at the bottom doesn’t look very big. Even if it’s cramped, I’d love to fly over LA in one. The caption of this photo said that the shot was taken at the Culver City airport. Tracking down the airport’s location proved to be harder than I expected, but it appears to have been in the vicinity of where Jefferson Blvd intersects with Mesmer Ave.
The May Co. department store opened its flagship building on the northeast corner of Wilshire Blvd and Fairfax Ave in 1940. (If anyone knows the specific date, I’d love to have it. (**UPDATE** This store opened on September 7, 1939 – see below) This photo shows the store under construction in 1939. A few things that catch my eye: the sign for Simon’s Sandwiches, the open-air double-decker bus on the right, and how wide and spacious Wilshire Blvd feels without all the current-day construction hemming it in. Also, Wilshire could have done with a repaving back in 1939.
Here’s a 1950s scene if ever if ever there was one. We’re looking at Stan’s drive-in restaurant which stood on the northwest corner of Beverly Blvd and La Brea Ave. I wonder if it was as packed as this every night, or was this circa 1952 photo taken on a weekend because it all seems to be going on at Stan’s. I can almost smell the burgers, grilled onions, and fries from here in 2024.
Over the years since it opened in 1920, the Hollywood Bowl has had several different stages and shells (including the first one, which had no shell at all.) The one we’re seeing in this 1926 photo was designed by architect, Myron Hunt, who also designed the Rose Bowl. The photo was taken from the Bowl’s back row of the seating, and shows how sparse the backstage development still was.
As a 21st century Angeleno, I take some measure of comfort in this photo looking east along Wilshire Blvd from Western Ave. I wouldn’t have imagined that Wilshire Blvd would have often seen traffic has heavy as this. Not that it’s heavy by the standards of the 2020s, but for circa late 1930s, when this photo was taken, it would have been a lot. Or maybe not so much for this particular intersection, which was one of LA’s busiest at the time. We can see on the right that the theater that had once been known as the Warner Bros. Western Theatre had changed its name to the Wiltern. Originally known in 1934 as The Wil Tern, it inevitably and conveniently evolved into the more sensible “Wiltern” (an amalgam of WILshire and wesTERN.)
**UPDATE** THIS IS ACTUALLY A PHOTO OF A MODEL OF WHAT 1850 LOS ANGELES WOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE. (Scroll down for further info.)
