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Ghost Metropolis: Los Angeles from Clovis to NixonMain MenuRegimes: Ruling the Los Angeles Region from the Late Pleistocene to the 21st CenturyPlaces and Paths of Los AngelesManna From Hell: Power and Politics from Region to World PowerShadows: Visual Cultures and Mass Media of a Regional and Global PowerSegregated Diversity: The Geosocial Formation of Social Justice in the Late Twentieth CenturyRichard 37th: Nixon, Los Angeles, and World PowerThe American 1989: Los Angeles at the Climax of the 20th CenturyNarrative EssayBibliographies, Filmographies, Gazeteers, IndexesMapping the Past: Theory, Methods, HistoriographyPathCreditsRootPhil Ethingtone37d40405599cccc3b6330e6c4be064cc03ef7a5
Westwood Village, 1920s
12016-04-13T18:43:57-07:00Phil Ethingtone37d40405599cccc3b6330e6c4be064cc03ef7a56773Water and Power Org "1932)#* - A panoramic view of Westwood Village in Westwood, Los Angeles. The domed building in the center is the Janss Investment Corp., and the road to the right of it is Westwood. Left of that is the University Professional Building, with Crawford Drugs at the corner on the ground level. The spire down the street between Janss and the Professional building is the Fox Theatre. Across Westwood from Janss is the Citizens National Trust & Savings Bank. On the west side of Westwood in the background is the tower of the Holmby Building. The cross street is now Kinross Avenue, while the street leading to the theater is Broxton."; http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Views_of_UCLA.htmlplain2016-04-13T18:48:17-07:00Phil Ethingtone37d40405599cccc3b6330e6c4be064cc03ef7a5
12018-10-31T21:59:41-07:00Ralph's Groceries: Residential and Retail Expansion in the 1930s2plain2018-10-31T22:01:01-07:00During the 1930s, despite the hardships endured by many in the Great Depression, Los Angeles was also, for many, “in the money,” expanding constantly throughout the worst decade in U.S. economic history, before or since. New arrivals of settlers continued to pour in and developers continued to plot and sell subdivisions, greatly empowered by the Federal Housing Authority’s loan guarantees.
A most revealing indicator of the counter-intuitive growth in the Los Angeles economy during the Great Depression is the massive supermarket construction campaign mounted by Ralph's Grocery Company, beginning as early as 1929 in Westwood, and accelerating in 1935. "Westwood" has always been just a neighborhood of Los Angeles City, but it sprouted its own Central Business District ("CBD") in the 1920s and has retained that CBD as a "Village" ever since. This is despite the extreme congestion of the place called Westwood, once peripheral and now part of the dense metropolitan fabric, with many miles of "suburbs:" stretching out beyond it to a much farther periphery.
Investing millions of dollars in giant retail stores between 1935 and 1941, Ralph's set new standards for food retailing. Mostly sited in both established and newly developing areas, the streamline moderne supermarkets were designed by Stiles Clements to present visually striking profiles for passing motorists, who also found ample parking. “But most of the new supermarkets were sited in isolation on the urban periphery, staking claim to a trade area that was often still coalescing.” The new store built in 1936 at 4641 Santa Monica Boulevard was intended to draw customers away from existing competitors, while the location at 3635 Crenshaw Boulevard was built among vacant fields, anticipating residential growth. Walter Ralph, who began the company decades earlier downtown, claimed that he studied the residential development of areas for years before building a new store. Conversely, the appearance of a new Ralph's became a major asset for developers, stimulating home sales.[1]
