In this 1924 photo, we’re looking southwest from Gardner Ave near Hollywood Blvd. That fairly sizeable orchard (possibly avocados) was can see shows that the ever-onward march of progress had quite yet completely swallowed what had once been the semi-rural community of Hollywood. I assumed that the orchard is long gone, but a large block of land known as Wattles Farm (which is a community garden) lays west of Gardner and Hollywood, so maybe that orchard has survived the 99 years since the photo was taken.
This is a satellite image of that same area in 2023.
I thought the auto-colorizer did a pretty good job of bringing the vintage photo to life.
When people talk about the Wild West, sometimes I wonder if they’re referring to scenes like this one. We’re looking north up Western Ave from Santa Monica Blvd in 1923. I can’t see any traffic lights controlling this mayhem, and even if there was, why was that pedestrian walking through the middle of the intersection? Talk about having a death wish.
It’s hard to know what day of the week this view looking east along First St toward the LA Times building in downtown LA was taken, but in the early 1940s, it was probably often this sedate and not that hard to find street parking. The lanes painted on First St look very fresh, don’t they? What also catches my eye is the billboard on the right for the Hollywood Bowl. I wonder who was playing there that month.
Back in the day (as in “1800s”) well-heeled Easterners would head west to escape the brutal winters. (And quite frankly, who would blame them?) One of the most popular places to spend the winters was Pasadena (it helped that there was a major station on a major railway line). And one of the hotels there is shown in this circa 1901 photo: Hotel Green. Construction started in 1887 and over the next 16 years it grew to three separate buildings and included the bridge across Raymond Ave, which became a popular place to watch the annual Rose Parade which ran along Raymond at the time.
Los Angeles rarely sees snow these days, but for most of its existence, it has gotten snowed on roughly once every ten years or so. Friday, January 22, 1921 was one of those special days, and thankfully some quick-thinking photographer ran into the middle of La Brea Ave at around De Longpre to capture the moment. On the right we can see the line of vaguely British-looking buildings that Charlie Chaplin built as the front of his movie studio. With this snow, Chaplin probably felt quite at home.
These days, the areas of the San Fernando Valley known as Studio City and Sherman Oaks are wall-to-wall suburban development. But for the first few decades of the 20th century, and even up to WWII, most of that was carpeted with orchards—oranges and lemons, mostly. This aerial photo was taken in 1919, when some of that land wasn’t developed at all! We’re facing south, looking toward the Hollywood Hills, so I’m guessing that road that cuts horizontally around two-thirds the way up the image is Ventura Blvd, which is now 18 continuous miles of shoulder-to-shoulder businesses, restaurants, gas stations, mini malls, and office blocks.
Most photos I come across of theaters at night are taken when all the lights are blazing for a premiere or during the run of a popular movie. I suspect this is the first one I’ve found taken before the theater had even opened. It’s the Studio City Theater at 12136 Ventura Blvd in Studio City (named for its close proximity to most of the movie and TV studios) which opened in 1938. This photo was taken just prior to its opening on June 11, 1938 – but too early to know what movie they were opening with. It was MGM’s “Test Pilot” starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy, which is a heck of a good start, if you ask me.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had more stores that still looked like this? They give so much more personality and hospitality to the urban landscape. This October 1946 photo is of the Westwood Book Store at 10926 Weyburn Ave in the Westwood area of LA. It looks so welcoming, doesn’t it? But what intrigues me is that part of the sign that says “Rental Library.” Did they rent books? Was that a common practice? Sort of like a commercial version of a library? If anybody remembers this practice, I’d love to hear from you.
This photo was taken in 1875, making it one of the earliest I’ve ever posted. This is Pico House, which was considered LA’s first luxury hotel when it opened in 1870. Those people out front are probably guests of the hotel and those horse-drawn carriages are from Tally-Ho, and are about to take them for a day’s excursion to Echo Mountain which was a popular scenic look out north of Altadena, about 15 miles away. I can’t imagine there was much in the way of decent roads at the time, so I’m guessing it took all day to get there and back.
My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I was sent this photo a few weeks ago. No information came with it so I had to go digging. Apparently, this Santa Fe Railway Super Chief locomotive had been uncoupled from its El Capitan passenger train from Chicago on the morning of January 25, 1948. Somehow the brakes failed and it continued to move forward until it hit and overshot the 20-foot wall lining Aliso Street in downtown LA. Nobody was hurt, but boy oh boy, you wouldn’t have wanted to be walking along the street when that happened. (Note the sign on the far left for Philippe the Original restaurant who has been serving the original French Dipped Sandwich since 1918.)
