Images – Page 3 – QuantumTom

Venice ’83

Photos of the 1983 El Niño beach erosion in Venice Beach, California. Photos show the lifeguards’ “HQ” building featured in the television show Bay Watch.

The End of the Boardwalk, 1929

I just found this astonishing panorama and had to share it. You can find the photo on the website for the Huntington Library’s digital archive project. The subject of the photo is the beach next to the Lick Pier that once straddled the southern border of Santa Monica. The detail captured is quite remarkable. I downloadedContinue reading “The End of the Boardwalk, 1929”

LAX, September 1961

You have to love this. I found this while browsing USC’s digital archives. I can’t believe how empty it all looks. I guess maybe it wasn’t until the space race that LA stopped being such a sleepy beach town. Source: Aerial view of the control tower administration building at the new jet age terminal at LosContinue reading “LAX, September 1961”

Abbot Kinney at Westminster During Prohibition

Another great print scanned by the USC Digital Library. This one shows the intersection of Westminster Avenue at Abbot Kinney. The perspective is looking to the southeast, in the southerly direction of traffic.

The Sunset Cutoff of the Red Car Trolley

This property map from the 1920s shows the Pacific Electric street car trackage along Ocean Avenue, connecting the Westgate line in Brentwood to the "Santa Monica Line" on Santa Monica Boulevard.

So, there’s this little park in Santa Monica. It’s right near the Volkswagen dealership on Santa Monica Boulevard near 26th Street. Anyway, the park is on a street named Park Drive. So the park is named, “Park Drive Park.” There’s this riddle I liked as a kid: “Why do people drive on a parkway and parkContinue reading “The Sunset Cutoff of the Red Car Trolley”