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)
An undated (possibly 1910s), view of the base of a funicular known as Court Flight. It was a funicular railway that was once situated a couple of blocks north of Angels Flight. (Los Angeles Public Library 00012815) A view of the 12-story Hall of Records, once located at 220 N. Broadway. Behind it is the Court Flight […]
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) A pre-1915 postcard. Cawston’s Tropical Gardens. At Cawston’s. Date unknown. A family outing in 1911. Plucking Plumes. Taking a ride. Prize winners.
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 1917. A flapper dancing the Charleston at the Los Angeles Ostrich Farm in the 1920s. And, yes, she’s sporting her own ostrich feathers, too. (USC Archive)
The Temple Auditorium, once located at 427 W. 5th St., opened in November 1906. It was built by wealthy Baptists from Temple Baptist Church at a cost of $350,000. In 1914, the name of the auditorium changed to Clune’s before becoming the Philharmonic Auditorium in the 1920s. A 1934 view of the the old […]