The Selig Jungle-Zoo evolved from one of Los Angeles’ first motion picture studios. In 1909, film pioneer William Nicholas Selig relocated his motion picture company, the Selig Polyscope Film Company, from Chicago to Southern California. He chose a property in Edendale, California, just outside of Los Angeles. By this time, the film pioneer had […]
The Culver City Speedway, once located at the intersection of Culver and Overland Blvds. This photo was allegedly taken on its opening day, December 14, 1924, in front of a crowd of 70,000 spectators. Racing day in 1927. (LAPL 00081836) From 1927. (LAPL)
Glimpses of Chinatown from the early 1890s to its demise in the late 1930s. The neighborhood was torn down to build Union Station, which opened in 1939. Chinatown’s “crib district” where bordellos flourished. Photo looks west from Alameda Street towards the Plaza. Part of the two-storied Lugo Adobe (razed in 1951) can be seen on the […]
In the mid 1930s, after the City of Los Angeles planned to destroy downtown’s original Chinatown to make way for Union Station, many Chinese residents and businesses began to look for a new neighborhood to relocate to. This lead to the brief incarnation of China City in the late 1930s. Around 1935, Old Chinatown community leader Peter Soo-Hoo, […]
The entrance to the Cawston Ostrich Farm in South Pasadena, circa 1912. (LAPL 00049452) It was the first ostrich farm in the United States, opening in 1886 and closing in 1935. (Bizarre Los Angeles) A pre-1915 postcard. Cawston’s Tropical Gardens. At Cawston’s. Date unknown. A family outing in 1911. Plucking […]
The Big Red Piano Shop, aka. California Piano Supply Co., was once located at 2251 Venice Blvd. (the corner of Venice and Oxford Street), near Western Avenue. A chiropractor named Dr. Ashley Manning first opened the California Piano Supply Co. in 1927. Because the neighborhood wasn’t an ideal location for a piano store, he relied on […]
Steps belonging to Adolphus Busch’s original Sunken Garden in Pasadena, circa 1895. The location of Busch Gardens was near the site of the Colorado Street Bridge, which was built much later. (USC Library) A colorful postcard view, circa 1909 or so. A bridge at Pasadena’s Busch Gardens in 1910. Photographer: H. C. Tibbitts […]
The Los Angeles Ostrich Farm near Eastlake Park, c. 1908. Greetings from the Los Angeles Ostrich Farm, opposite East Lake Park. Above photo: Circa 1914 Circa 1915. Circa 1917. From 1918. A flapper dancing the Charleston at the Los Angeles Ostrich Farm in the 1920s. And, yes, she’s […]
A 1902 view down Bunker Hill. 3rd Street is below. “Bunker Hill is old town, lost town, shabby town, crook town. Once, very long ago, it was the choice residential district of the city, and there are still standing a few of the jigsaw Gothic mansions with wide porches and walls covered with round-end shingles […]
An early view. An early view of a piano in the lobby. Another vintage view of the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel’s original dining and ballroom, circa 1921. The Ambassador Hotel’s Parrot Porch was one of several less formal dancing and dining rooms located on the ground floor of the Ambassador Hotel […]