A moody, somber image by Bruce Ward captures the pathos of the last evening of operation of streetcars in the city of Los Angeles, March 31, 1963, as the Metropolitan Transit Authority (the predecessor to today’s MTA) prepares to shut down the entire remaining rail system. Here, MTA PCC no. 3155 rests at 7th and Broadway on the P Line as the motorman and a passenger stare out the windshield toward Bruce’s direction.
Bruce Ward Photo, Bruce Ward Collection
A 1958 photo of fish swimming through submerged Los Angeles Transit Lines (ex-Los Angeles Railway) car bodies off Redondo Beach.
From Ralph Cantos:
In 1958, two years after LARY home-built K-4 1500 series treetcars were placed in the ocean waters off Redondo Beach in 1956, school children riding home aboard the cars have been replaced by schools of perch swimming happily in and out of the cars. These fish seem to be making better transfer connections then was ever offered by LATL. Unfortunately for the happy Perch, the wood bodied LARY 1500s did not hold up to well under these severe service conditions. By 1963, only one car body, possibly a steel bodied H-4 that may have accidentally gotten into the mix, was still identifiable as a former streetcar. The other car bodies had collapsed into unrecognizable heaps, except for the steel under-frame used in the construction of the 1500s.
Ralph Cantos Collection
William Wherry – known to all as Bill – poses for a photograph taken by his wife in the yard of their first home in South Pasadena, in 1937 or 1938.
Wherry Family Photo, Charles Wherry Collection
Below is a clip from the August 1952 issue of Pacific Electric Magazine, noting the passing of William Wherry. From the PERYHS Archives.
A photo postcard from 1955 depicting a Pacific Electric PCC on Brand Boulevard in Glendale.
From Ralph Cantos:
955 POST CARD of Beautiful Brand Blvd. GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA: A city. any city, is only as great as the rail system that serves it! Glendale WAS such a great city until June 19,1955. On the black day, Glendale went from being a great city , to just being another town without a commuter rail service. The populace of Glendale lost one of the finest rail lines in the entire State Of California. Any city that is worth a damn, usually warrants electric rail transportation. So important was the Glendale / Burbank line, that the Pacific Electric spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade the infrastructure of the line in early 1940. The massive amount of private capital that PE pored into the Glendale / Burbank was done to prepare the line for the arrival of the most revolutionary PCC streetcars that were to grace the rails of ANY city in America. PE’s PCC cars were the first double enders, the first multiple unit. and the longest PCC car built up to that time. And if I am not mistaking, they were the first PCC to be equipped with Westinghouse dual trumpet air horns. In my opinion, the PE PCC’s WERE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PCC car, the world would ever see. The stage was now set for the Glendale / Burbank to operate for 50 years efficiently, with magnificent infrastructure and ultramodern streamlined PCC equipment. But because of selfish , greedy, backward thinking individuals who did not give a DAMN about anyone but them self’s, the Glendale / Burbank Line was struck down and demolished literately in its prime. It was an inexcusable act of SELFISH GREED.
I spoke to the man who produced this post card. It was taken in April of 1955. The Line had just weeks to live. He wanted to record Glendale’s Brand Blvd. on film, before its downfall . HE WAS NOT A RAIL FAN. He was a concerned citizen. He was in disbelief that the abandonment petition had been granted. He waited until a PE PCC came into view and recorded the last great moments of Brand Blvd. In his opinion. this abandonment was A MONUMENTAL ACT OF VANDALISM, as the years pasted, he would be proven correct.
Ralph Cantos Collection
Pacific Electric car no. 342 at Colorado and Sierra Madre. The photographer is looking south and the car is getting ready to go northwest on Colorado. The buildings in the background are Turner and Steven’s Mortuary on the left (still there) and the building on the right was a PE ticket office / stop and is now Fedde Fine Furniture.
Possibly Ernie Leo Photo, Craig Rasmussen Collection
Looking northeast from Lake Avenue just south of Colorado Boulevard, car 1135 leads a two car train to downtown Los Angeles via the Oak Knoll line. The building on the right stands on the southeast corner of Lake and Colorado and is the Security First National Bank, later to become Security Pacific National Bank, then, after several years, a building tear-down and a few remodels, now Bank of America. Undated.
Andy Payne Photo, Michael Patris Collection
C. C. Pierce & Co. Photographers, Los Angeles, Cal., USA, negative # 2863. Written on the back, “Fourth Street from Main, looking west, about 1887. The Farmers and Merchants Bank now occupies the lower left corner. Across the street where the tree is where the Van Nuys Hotel was built.” While there are no trolley tracks or cars in this image, it is rare we get to see what Los Angeles looked like before any major development took place.
Michael Patris Collection
E. S. Frost & Son Photographers, Colorado Street, Pasadena, Cal. On the back is stamped C. C. Pierce & Co. Photographers, 313 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, Cal. Written in pencil is negative number 6423 and “South Pasadena, Hotel Raymond on the hill. the railway tracks that curve through the fields belonged to the Los Angeles Terminal Railway.” These tracks parallel the bottom left of the images and make a soft “S” curve toward the Raymond Hotel. In the distance can be seen Mount Wilson and the San Gabriel Mountains, before there was a peak named Mount Lowe or an incline railway.
Michael Patris Collection
F. H. Maude Photo #150 depicting City Hall, Los Angeles, Cal. is written on the front of the image, but the back is stamped C. C. Pierce & Co., Photographers, 313 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, Cal. Written in pencil reads, “The City Hall on Broadway between 2nd and 3rd Streets. These were the days of the horse and buggy and cable cars, built 1888-9.” Closer inspection confirms there is no overhead wire, so the cable car statement is correct.
Michael Patris Collection
C. C. Pierce Collection, Historical Photographs, Photographer, 1572 W. Pico Street, Los Angeles, negative number 1704. Written on the back reads, “Florence House as Ellington Drug Store, N-W corner 4th and Spring, A. W. Ellington, Proprietor of Drug Store. Listed in 1900 – 1901 City Directory at 357 South Spring Street. Not listed in 1895 directory. Building still there in 1934. Torn down January 1938.” Florence House apparently refers to the rooms for rent upstairs, according to the sign on the left, second story corner of the building. Note the double tracks in the foreground. Photo undated.
Michael Patris Collection