Abbot Kinney at Westminster During Prohibition

1920 - Intersection.of.Westminster.and.Washington
Intersection of Washington (now Abbot Kinney) Boulevard and Westminster Avenue, Venice, California

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.

What’s most remarkable to me is how much of the original building structures is still intact today (2016). Many area structures were knocked down after the Long Beach quake in 1933. I had this print labelled as 1928, but now I’m not so sure. nearly a century after its construction.

The first building on the left is 1101 S. Abbot Kinney Blvd. It’s signage reads “Safeway Stores – California’s Leading Grocer,” but its current tenant is YAS (Yoga and S*). The parcel’s assessor records list the building’s original construction completed in 1913.

The first building on the right is 1100 S. Abbot Kinney Blvd. It’s signage reads “Washington Pharmacy – Drugs,” but its current tenant is Heist women’s boutique.The parcel’s assessor records list the building’s original construction completed in 1922.

So, the photograph is most likely from that era. But, it will take a bit more research to nail it down.

World News: April 7, 2016

So, there’s this cheery little quote I ran across today: “Iraq remains the center of what Jordanian King Abdullah now refers to as the Third World War.”

Source: World War Three may have already begun in Iraq and Syria

Let’s hope he’s wrong.

In other news mid-east news, the House of Saud has become the number three on the list of world’s biggest defense spenders.

In Eastasia, North Korea is trying to pop thermonuclear reentry vehicles on top of its Rodong-1 missiles.

 

Also, this past Monday the Peoples Republic of China announced it has sent nuclear missile subs to sit off the west coast of the US.

“This isn’t Pearl Harbor, but if people on all sides aren’t careful, it could be ‘The Guns of August.’”

-Kurt Campbell, former US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia

China’s also invoked Article 9 of its Friendly Cooperation Treaty (aka FCT, or ‘Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation’) with Russia.

Article 9 states as follows:

When a situation arises in which one of the contracting parties deems that peace is being threatened and undermined or its security interests are involved or when it is confronted with the threat of aggression, the contracting parties shall immediately hold contacts and consultations in order to eliminate such threats.

Basically, invoking mutual defense. Why? Duh. Among other things, the ongoing dispute in the South China Sea.

susiremedy

Other reasons? I’d be willing to consider a narrative where China’s recent financial woes were the result of some new form of economic warfare. Possibly in retaliation for recent federal data breaches. But we’re getting to the point where I’d rather not be suggesting such things.

Russia’s probably helping North Korea with their missile tech. After all, the Rodong is just a SCUD missile.

Now, you’ll have to excuse me – I need to do some research on those Chinese subs.

The Sunset Cutoff of the Red Car Trolley

1920s – Santa Monica city tract map
1906 – Official Map of the City of Santa Monica
1925 – USGS Survey map
1931 – USGS Survey map
1910 – Santa Monica Map
1911 – Santa Monica map

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 park on a driveway?” Anyway, problem solved – right?

So there used to be this rail connector between what is now the Expo line and the trolley that used to run down Santa Monica Boulevard (the “Sawtelle Line”). It’s all gone, but it was well-documented in the maps of the time. The area was originally developed by Boehme et Crosier, a group of local real-estate developers.

The area seems well-documented — I’ve found seven original source maps for this research.