i wake every morning with this guy meowing at the top of his lungs. he starts before dawn. it's when i roll out of bed half asleep to let him outside that i remember i don't have to go to work. i can stay in bed! i can do whatever i want. sleep. go to the park. drink coffee in bed. read.
some mornings i hop in my chariot and go cruising around.
today i drove around the old chavez ravine neighborhood which has an interesting & sad history you can read about HERE. i drove through parts of elysian park i've never been. it was cloudy and drizzly and the streets were shiny with water. roads snaked over hills mostly covered with dry timber, which i like to think was drinking in the rare summer drizzle.
high up at the top of the park were places with stunning views of the city, dodger stadium, elysian valley, and old chavez ravine.
down in the canyons it's a lush paradise with miles of walkways, old trees, and open fields.
if cities aren't your thing you may not find LA's oldest rambling city park interesting. but for me, it's fascinating & wild. full of ghosts & history. on a grey morning when everyone's headed to work it's a good time to go exploring.
you might enjoy comparing this 1941 south-bound shot of one of the 4 art deco figueroa tunnels, to my photo below. i took it (facing north) this morning from a bridge in elysian park that spans the freeway. you'll note the exact same red-roofed solano avenue schoolhouse in both pics. at the time of the photo above, this portion of the 110 freeway was under construction. figueroa street was still carrying people downtown from northeast los angeles right through these tunnels under elysian park.
as you can see from this 1937 photo, pedestrians also used the tunnels!
photos courtesy of the los angeles public library archive
over 70 years later. here's that freeway for southbound traffic that was being constructed in the photo. northbound freeway runs under the tunnels and along what was then figueroa street.
when i drove this portion of the 110 for the first time back in 1989, i still remember the thrill of these old narrow lanes and the cars whizzing past me as i struggled to keep up in my old pontiac. there are NO acceleration/deceleration lanes (then or now). no shoulders in case the jalopy you're in goes kaput. you enter the freeway from a dead stop and have to put the pedal to the metal in order to merge. i used every ounce of concentration to navigate out of that right hand lane so i didn't plow into any cars going 10 mph entering the freeway. if you live in LA, you can probably remember your first harrowing trip on this part of the 110 northeast of downtown.
as i've documented many times here, i never used the freeway on my way to the last 2 schools i was posted at. i stayed on good old figueroa till its end then zig zagged across till i hooked up with the broadway or spring street bridge which carry you over the LA river and straight into chinatown. but on the way home, when traffic had calmed i'd head north on this old freeway going under all 4 of the figueroa tunnels. nowadays, figueroa ends its southbound journey here by the home depot in lincoln heights. it picks up again a few miles south at alpine street in chinatown, which is where i'd climb back aboard most weekdays to head north back to highland park.
one of the views from high atop elysian park is of the 19th century elysian park reservoir. not as pretty as it sounds since it's sporting a giant black cover. (DWP is phasing out open/ uncovered reservoirs)
when i returned home from my historical jaunt i rummaged through my bookcases and found my old copy of the don normark book on chavez ravine.
i sat down and thumbed through the old photos. don normark was just a little old 19 year old kid when he took these photos. he died last year.
As a young photographer, barely out of his teens, Don climbed a hill just north of Downtown LA, looking for a perfect shot – and discovered hundreds of unexpected ones awaiting, just over his shoulder, in the hidden community of Chavez Ravine.
And just to make the legend more perfect, those photos had to wait a half-century to find their way into print, with the publication, by Chronicle Books in 1999, of Don's lovely book, "Chavez Ravine: 1949."
the quote above is from THIS excellent tribute to don normark on the occasion of his death.
if you live in LA or just love its history, it's a great book to add to your collection.
I loved your history lesson of things we didn’t know about L.A. It was great.
Time travel….so enjoyed this post. Ready for the Sweden trip….:)))
Missy from the bayou
Joan,
the Solano Ave. school is still going strong and very much in use! the school i was at for the last 18 months began in 1882 and is the second oldest continuously operating school in LA
So sad to read about people being displaced and losing their sense of community. I moved to So. Cal. in 1946. The road through Orange County went alongside many orange groves, mile after mile. So many of them were plowed under with the advent of the Freeway system. In springtime, the scent of orange blossoms was so intense! So much has changed from my early days spent in San Diego, beach communities in North County, driving thru LA to get past all the traffic on the way back to San Jose when I was in college. I love the era of the 30’s & 40’s…the cars, the clothes, the home interiors.
Thanks for the trip thru old Chavez Ravine. I wonder if the old school is still a school or has been cast aside in disuse?
What a treat for this native to see your photos and those from the past. I didn’t know about the book and will look for it. It was a fine morning for a ramble, or for just mooching about indoors. xo
susie,
yeah, a day trip to LA from VEGAS isn’t ideal especially on a friday, but somehow you & your daughter pulled it off! next time if it works out i’ll give you the 25cent MAM tour, or at least give you a handrawn map ahead of time 🙂
happy trails
Great history lesson! We do tend to forget that California has a fascinating past. Or at least I do. Thanks, Mary Ann.
I really enjoy your tours of Los Angeles. I used to drive an old VW bus and when merging onto the freeway after visiting a friend on Mt Washington, well, might be when I learned to pray. 🙂 It’s such a great city.
lovely story and a great drive. we do not let our cats in the bedroom for that reason. Now days when we get up they do not want food but just to get out and get lizards.
good stuff! loved all of it!
Oh I did enjoy our travels today. Particularly the photo comparisons. It’s so interesting how much does stay the same, even amongst the growth and change.
Just checked my library system and no go on the book which is too bad. But i will just have to read this blog post more than my usually 3 or 4 times to really soak it all in.
I loved this post Mary Ann, thanks so much for sharing. I have become smitten with LA since my recent visit. I soooo, sooo wish we had more time to ramble. I could have spent days, if not weeks roaming the streets. I got such a wee tiny taste of LA. As we drove around I so wanted to just pull over and wander, take it all in. I am so happy I got a chance to at least be in the midst of all of it even if only for a few hours. So much city and so little time. So now when you post your adventures around LA I am even more interested if that is even possible. I’ve been hangin on your posts and adventures ever since I found your blog so many years back and am grateful for the time you take to share. xoxoxox
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the Chavez Ravine. Well, maybe enjoyed isn’t the best word. I read it and I felt the sadness of it all. I’m going to ask our public library to order the book with the story in photos. Thank you for sharing your ramblings and the history lesson.
Everyone’s personal situation is unique and I wouldn’t trade my husband (most days) for anything, but I sure envy you your summers of doing exactly what you want all. day. long. Sounds like heaven.
Great post about LA and I love the old photos with current day ones to compare to. Have a wonderful summer!
Oh my…you know I love your historical rambles in Los Angeles. The 110 is the Pasadena Fwy, right? I’m sure you’ve been to the Southwest Museum. That was one of my fave haunts out that way. Have a splendid weekend. xo
I love your LA stories. I lived out in the Valley back in the mid to late 50s when things were very different than they are now. I used to love to go with my folks to downtown LA. Or go up on the Mulholland Drive for a VIEW!! I still remember the LA “river” flooding one January in about 1957 or so. And on rare occasion seeing snow up on the top of the mountain.
Great post. Makes me want to watch Chinatown.
Mary Ann, I love your LA posts. I’ve lived north and south of LA and rarely spend any time there. Armchair traveling with you, at home and afar, is a lot of fun. I, too, love open-ended mornings!
Love where you took us today. Its all those little details about a place that makes it soooo much richer than a tour book could ever do. And I love life during summer (or extended summer for you) and waking up with the promise of a whole open day. Mine starts in less than 2 weeks…cannot wait!
Love love this post- makes me miss my home state!
Funny story…. I met my husband at college in Indiana. The first ever interview out of school he had was near Pasadena… it was 1982 and my husband got in an accident from the airport to his hotel on one of the larger highways… the gentleman he hit said he had never had an accident in the 25 year he had lived near LA… my husband told him… “It only took me 25 minutes!” Needless to say… rural Indiana driving is quite different…