Historic Photos of LA

[Ryan]

I came across this thread from another side, and it's consumed every minute of my "free" time for the last few days. It's an absolute treasure trove of pictures of LA, some dating back to the late 1800's. As most folks know, the plaza directly across from LAUS is where the city was first established, so many of the buildings will look familiar to those who have visited.

In addition to cool pictures like this one of the station under construction:

And the area known as "Old Chinatown" that was destroyed to make room for it:

There are also many pictures of Angel's Flight and the other funiculars, and many, many streetcar pictures. Some of the posters have gone out and taken "now" pictures to pair up with some of the photos from the archive, and outside of the transportation side of things, it's really amazing to see the evolution of the city (there's also a bunch of vintage crime scene photos that are rather cool).

The whole thread is over 200 pages long and I'm only 25 pages in: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=170279

 

[The Davy Crockett]

GREAT photos! Thanks for the link Ryan. :hi:

Only thing is, they reinforce the fact that I'm not so young anymore! h34r:

EDIT:

In going through the pics, there are a lot of the old Pacific Electric streetcars, which led to the following question from someone:

What happened to the LA street cars from back than? L.A. really seemed to be headed in the right direction at the time with that massive transportation system. Can someone tell me I really want to know.

The answer to this question does make me wonder if history is not repeating itself today when it comes to the future of passenger rail in the US:

^^^ Off the top of my head, here is my take on it.

In the 1950s/60s the powerful automobile industry (GM especially) used their significant political clout to lobby AGAINST electrified transit....and to lobby FOR gas powered buses and cars ("a car in every garage" was a motto back then)

They lobbied for highways and expressways that slashed through the urban fabric, destroying whole neighborhoods. In turn, downtowns became pockmarked with hundreds of hideous parking lots. We lost thousands of vintage buildings for nothing more than a place to park.

OK, I just found an essay that explains it much better.

Below is an excerpt by Harvey Wasserman

In a 1922 memo that will live in infamy, GM President Alfred P. Sloan established a unit aimed at dumping electrified mass transit in favor of gas-burning cars, trucks and buses.

Just one American family in 10 then owned an automobile. Instead, we loved our 44,000 miles of passenger rail routes managed by 1,200 companies employing 300,000 Americans who ran 15 billion annual trips generating an income of $1 billion. According to Snell, "virtually every city and town in America of more than 2,500 people had its own electric rail system."

But GM lost $65 million in 1921. So Sloan enlisted Standard Oil (now Exxon), Philips Petroleum, glass and rubber companies and an army of financiers and politicians to kill mass transit.

With a varied arsenal of political and financial subterfuges, GM helped gut the core of America's train and trolley systems. It was the murder of our rail systems that made our "love affair" with the car a tragedy of necessity.

-Harvey Wasserman

 

[Bob Dylan]

Thanks for posting Ryan! Always enjoy your pics, your ideas and perspectives, and Im old enough to remember when LA looked different than it does today for sure, but not 1939 old!! :lol:

 

[Ryan]

Some great train action on page 27:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=170279&page=27

Including this interior shot of the SP's Arcade Depot, built in 1888:

There's also a map showing all the railroads and electric lines that's too big to inline here, but can't be missed. The city was absolutely blanketed by electric streetcars (including some great pictures on previous pages of streets with horse and buggies and tracks/catenary (haven't seen a street car that old yet).

 

[tp49]

I was walking through LAUS when you made the initial post. Looks like a thread I could spend considerable time looking through the pictures on.

 

[gswager]

As a native Californian who was born and raised 50 miles east of Los Angeles, I'm really enjoying looking at those historic photos of LA. It's amazing that it is still changing. Thanks for the link!