Lost Los Angeles

Astonishing images of vanished Los Angeles, from the landmark Ambassador Hotel to the original life-sustaining Zanja Madre

Los Angeles is less than 150 years old, yet in that short time a great deal has been built and torn down. Like most cities it has suffered the loss of classic old cinemas, Victorian hotels, and grand railroad stations, but L.A. has also seen the passing of major industries, film companies, film lots, hills, airfields, piers, and a speedway. Citrus groves have come and gone, oil derricks have sprung up in their place and been replaced by housing tracts. The movie industry moved in from New York and Chicago, expanded, contracted, and then sold off their lots. National radio stations built, then soon vacated, grand art decos studios around Sunset & Vine. Abbot Kinney's vision of a Venetian suburb was largely filled in after the banks eroded. This book displays an extraordinary variety of lost glories from this unique city: Barker Brothers, Beverly Hills Speedway, Bradbury Residence, Casa Don Vincente Lugo, Chaplin Airfield, the community in Chavez Ravine, Church of the Open Door, The City of Los Angeles train, County Records Building, Court Flight, the Egyptian marquee, Eternity Street, Fort Moore Hill, Grand Central Air Terminal, Helms and Van de Kamp bakeries, La Grande Station, the MGM backlots, Mount Lowe Railway, Pan Pacific Stadium, Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace, Richfield Oil Building, Sears, the Temple Block, Theme Building at LAX, and Wrigley Field.