Bizarre Los Angeles

Believe it or not, this is the first automobile in Southern California. S.D. Sturgis built it in his shop on 5th Street in Los Angeles with help from J. Philip Erie, the man credited for being the first to drive an automobile on a Los Angeles street. This photo was taken the same year the […]

Los Angeles’ Columbus Day Parade held on October 26, 1892. This photo shows the celebration at the Spring and Second Street intersection.

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 far right hand side in the distance, just above the building with the porch overhang. Picture was taken in 1891. (Los Angeles Public Library 00033979)   A side […]

Madame Begon’s store at the northwest corner of Ord and North Broadway, circa 1895. (Huntington Library) Madame Begon may have been Marie Begon, a well-to-do property owner, who had passed away in 1894. Her death caused quite a mystery back then. According to the Los Angeles Times dated September 5, 1896: “Mrs. Begon was a miser during […]

According to the Los Angeles Public Library, this photo depicts a rather tall cactus hedge that once surrounded the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, circa 1860. The mission doesn’t appear to be in the photo, so the hedge was probably created as a kind of fence to protect the mission and its immediate grounds. (LAPL 00079248)

The 600 block of Broadway Street in 1890.

Above photo: The Cahuenga Pass in 1897. The following comes from: http://www.whitleyheights.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=27 I am not the author. The Lost Treasure of the Cahuenga Pass Driving through the Cahuenga Pass and Whitley Heights towards Hollywood, one might not contemplate the haunted legacy left for travelers or would-be treasure hunters who wind their way through the pass […]

A newspaper advertisement found in the Los Angeles Herald, July 7,1880

In 1893, teams ready themselves for a 25-mile bicycle race at Agricultural Park, aka Exposition Park. Photographer: Charles Betts Waite / LAPL 00054220)