In the Old Days:
Windward Avenue
In the Old Days:
Night Scenes
In the OId Days:
Lagoon and Midway
In the Old Days:
Gondolas
In the Old Days:
Miniature Railroad
In the Old Days:
Market Street
In the Old Days:
Mecca Buffet
In the Old Days:
Scenic Railway
In the Old Days:
1921 Amusements
In the Old Days:
Cabrillo Ship Cafe'
In the Old Days:
Venice Pier
Arielle Haze
Venice photos
Arielle Haze views
beach art
Scott Shellstrom
Venice Art
Dale Hartman
snapshots
Venice Paintings
by
Pat Hartman
Ehrlich buildings
Homage to Old Venice
Unpainting the Town:
lost murals
Helen K. Garber photos
Art at the Rose Cafe'
New Venice Sign
In the 1920s three children drowned in the canals. The City of Los Angeles tried to destroy the canals in 1924 but it was put off until 1929 when a California Supreme Court decision allowed LA to finally get its way and fill in most of them. At some point in the history of the canals, the residents held Christmas parades and decorated small boats and rafts as floats. An early publicity photo shows five or six of the circus elephants standing on a bridge to demonstrate its strength.
In the Old Days:
Canals and Bridges
The canals were filled with water only a few days before Venice's grand opening day, July 4, 1905. More canals were dug until September of that year. At their peak there were 7 miles or 16 miles of canals, depending on which source is consulted.
Aldebaran Canal (later Market Street)
Another view of Aldebaran Canal
Same view, different boat
Grand Canal copyright 1907
Coral Canal meets the Lagoon
Looking eastward along Lion Canal (later Windward Avenue)
1940s or 1950s
COSMOS CLUB
The history of this property was traced
by Venice historian/journalist Paul Tanck in a recent article, from which
these highlights are gleaned:
Called St. Mark’s Island, the triangular area was bordered by Riviera
Avenue (east) Lion Canal (north), Grand Canal (south) and the lagoon on
the west. Its earliest structures were tents occupied by the very first
tourists. When more permanent structures took over, this piece was destined
to hold 18 Venetian Villas. But in 1907, before that plan could be carried
out, Venice founder Abbot Kinney entered into dialogue with a world-famous
horticulturist, and the concept of Luther Burbank Park evolved. Arbor
Day of 1908 saw the planting of the first group of several hundred Burbank
trees and shrubs.
The building we see here started out somewhere else, as a bunkhouse for workers who built the canals. It was moved to this position in probably 1907, and leased for a short time to the Cosmos Club under the leadership of Mrs. Kinney. (Although this was a women’s organization, Abbot Kinney was an honorary member.) Already plans were being laid for a new home for the Kinneys at the point of the island.
In the meantime, after a short occupancy by a men’s club (The Owls) the building was leased by a grammar school but quickly proved inadequate for that purpose. In 1916 the building, whose address was One Grand Canal, was remodeled and augmented, ending up as an eight-room home for the Kinneys.(The first Mrs. Kinney had died, this was the second Mrs. Kinney.) After Abbot Kinney’s death in 1920, the house was willed to Irving Tabor, his chauffeur, but since the neighbors objected to a black family moving in, the house was sawed into three segments, moved to Oakwood, and reassembled there.
The Joni Mitchell lyric, "They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot" could have been written for this spot. By the 1930s the canals had been filled in and the area had become starkly empty. In the 1950s a Safeway was erected. The supermarket eventually closed, in the mid ‘70s the Post Office began to keep vehicles there, and around 1980 it became the Carrier Annex.
UNITED STATES ISLAND
The sign on top of the building says United States Island, and the smaller sign on top of that says "Bungalows for Rent." The island was bordered by Altair Canal and Cabrillo Canal.
U.S. Island again, probably in the '20s
Bridge with ornate wrought iron lamp-posts
Floating past Villa City 1908
