It hasn’t snowed in the Los Angeles area very often – on average once every 10 years. Two inches of snow fell in 1932, which is when I’m guessing this photo of a snow-covered Pacific Electric streetcar was taken. From the word “LAKE” that we can see on the sign at the front, it looks like this P.E. worker had stopped the car on the Lake Blvd line in Pasadena/Altadena area, which means those peaks we can see in the background were the San Gabriel Foothills. I’m glad that guy had a thick overcoat to wear—it sure looks cold!
My thanks to Motorman Reymond for his help in identifying this photo.
The big kahuna of Californian theme parks is, of course, Disneyland, but preceding it by quite a couple of decades is Knott’s Berry Farm. Walter Knott started growing berries on his farm in Buena Park in 1920. This photo is from circa 1926 before their road side stand even had the “Knott’s Berry Farm” sign. At some point it became so popular that his wife, Cordelia, opened a tea room that eventually became a chicken dinner restaurant that’s still around today. The theme park started as a ghost town that Walter built to entertain the folks waiting to get into Cordelia’s very popular restaurant. The whole enterprise evolved into sprawling amusement park, but this photo shows how it got its humble start.
From 1927 to 1963, a long viaduct bridge stood where Pico Blvd meets San Vicente Blvd. This photo, taken on November 2, 1927, gives us an idea of what traffic was like back then (very light compared to today!) City officials gathered underneath the Woodhead Lumber on the right hand side to mark the viaduct’s opening (at the time, Pico Blvd was still called Pico Street) with the crossing of a three-part Pacific Electric Red Car. If they were worried that the viaduct wouldn’t hold up to all that weight, they needn’t have. In 1963, the city planned an 8-week demolition of the bridge, but it took 13 weeks to finish the job.
I guess this was the circa 1900 version of finding a place to park your car in downtown L.A. In this photo we’re looking west across Los Angeles Street between 8th and 9th. With all those wagons hitched to those horses, I’m guessing there was a market nearby and these people were coming into town to stock up on supplies. What I can’t help wondering is at the end of the day, whose job was it to clean up after the horses…?
In this photo we’re looking east along Wilshire Blvd where it bends at Lafayette Park, which was known as Sunset Park when this photo was taken circa mid-1910s. I love the woman who is posing in front of what looks like newly planted palm trees that are so short that she could touch the fronds. Assuming they’re the same trees that are there now, she couldn’t touch them with a ladder. In the background, we can see the top of the Bryson Apartments, which opened in 1913 and is still there. These days it’s most closely associated with Raymond Chandler, whose private eye, Philip Marlowe visits it in his 1943 novel, “The Lady in the Lake.”
Built in 1931, it didn’t take long for the Fox Theatre in Westwood to become a prominent fixture on the movie-going landscape of Los Angeles as one of the preferred places where Hollywood studios liked to hold their splashy premieres. But looking at this photo from 1933, it seems more of a gamble to open an upscale theater at that time in that place. Although Westwood Village was taking shape by then, the Fox was on the edge of town and there was nothing but empty land for miles around.
This aerial shot from 1913 shows the distinctive wedge-shaped corner where Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards meet at the western edge of Beverly Hills. The Beverly Hilton Hotel has occupied this land since 1955 (and more recently the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills) and I’ve often wondered what was there before. It looks like a there was a triangular park with a large circular plaza and a wide path leading where the two boulevards cross. To the right, we can also see the bare Beverly Hills development. It would take a few more years before that empty land would start to fill in.
Taken with what I can only assume was a very slow shutter speed, this photo gives us a glimpse of how Hollywood Blvd was transformed into Santa Claus Lane each holiday season. This particularly atmospheric shot was taken in the early 1950s from Cherokee Ave looking east. Midway down on the right we can see the neon sign for Kress, which was a five-and-dime store like Woolworths. (In real life, the sign was bright can’t-miss-it red.) And farther down, the Hollywood-Broadway department store sign on the Vine Street corner. I do love how the lights of those electric Christmas trees are reflected on the cars parked along the street.
Was there ever a time when the Goodyear blimp didn’t fly over the skies of Los Angeles? In this shot it’s sailing over Royce Hall on the campus of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Westwood/Bel Air area. The university moved from its original location on Vermont Ave in 1929. This photo is from 1931, so the view up there in the blimp would have largely been of empty land, some of which we can see in the background.
Bordered by Hill, 5th, Olive, and 6th Streets, Pershing Square has long been considered the center of Los Angeles, but it’s only been called that since November 1918, when it was renamed after General John Pershing, who rose to prominence during WWI. This photo was taken before that, when it was still called Central Park, which had been its name since the early 1890s. Look how peaceful and welcoming it is. Lots of grass and shade and that lovely fountain in the middle. It’s not like that now, but there are plans to give Pershing Square a makeover, so fingers crossed it they return it to a lush oasis in the middle of a bustling city.
