Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles

I'm always excited when I find old slides showing Los Angeles the way it used to be - when I was a kid, my grandmother would tell me stories of when she first came out to L.A. in 1929, the year she married my grandpa. She was from Illinois, and loved all that L.A. had to offer. For those of you who have no interest in photos from this area, well... there's always tomorrow.

First up is this unusual photo from February, 1969, taken looking eastward on Wilshire Boulevard. The street sign tells us that this is at the corner of Westmoreland Avenue, and we can see some distinctive landmarks such as "Maggi's" (I can only assume that store sold women's clothing), the Sheraton West, and that interesting shopping center across the street. Way in the distance we can see a group of several white buildings, including the Royal Apartments, the Bryson Apartments, and the Fifield Wilshire.

Using Google's "Street View", this is about as close as I could get to approximating the view from the previous picture. Things have changed over the last 59 years, including that curvy glass building, which I believe is an apartment complex.

Next is this view of Wilshire (circa March, 1962), over in the Westwood area; we're looking east near the Gayley Avenue intersection. I sometimes wonder why a person would take a photo like this - but I'm glad that they did! There's the Linde Medical Plaza (with the blue face toward us). Two large buildings are under construction, this was a boom time for Wilshire!

Here's a vintage postcard showing the same intersection, from a few years later.

And here's a Google street view. Glass boxes aplenty!