This morning, I went to an estate sale. I found nothing of interest for my wife, but something of great interest to me. As we were leaving, I noticed this forlorn map book sticking out of a box, next to a full box of 8-track tapes and an old Zenith Betamax player. I picked up the map. It was a Thomas Brothers Map of Los Angeles, from sometime between 1952 and 1955. It shows no interstate routes, and the pre-1964 route numbers. It still shows Pacific Electric routes and shops.
Here are some neat things from it:
- The area where I currently live hadn’t been subdivided yet. Balboa Bl ended below Knollwood, and is shown as “unimproved” after that. Rinaldi only went as far W as Zelzah, and Tampa and Wilbur ended at Devonshire. ixixlix‘s street was there. The only thing that went N of Devonshire was Limekiln Cyn Road.
- It does show some freeways: the Foothill between Hampton Rd and Montana St, Colorado, Hollywood (which ends at Vineland), Pasadena, and Santa Ana. A little bit of the Long Beach and San Diego (from Bellagio to Santa Monica).
- It shows the Grand Central Airport. It shows the main terminals at Los Angeles International being E of Sepulveda, at the junction of Airport and Century. That’s why it’s called Airport: it was the main road in.
- Marina Del Rey does not exist.
- Reseda Blvd ends in the Valley at Tarzana Drive, and is dirt road from there to Mulholland. It then starts up at Mulholland again, and continues into the Palisades to end at Sunset Blvd. Yes, there was a intersection of Reseda and Sunset! This road does not appear to exist on current maps.
- Kanan Dume does not exist.
That’s just a start. I think I’m going to have fun with this!
