Driving along Olympic Boulevard at 3rd Avenue in 1942, Los Angeles, California


I found this photo recently on the Duke University site, and since I have an interest in old photos of Los Angeles, I decided that it would be fun to do some detective work and find out exactly where, and when, it was taken.

The Duke site has wonderful high-definition images of advertising, especially billboards, which is why this photo was taken, and why its archived. But my interest isn't the billboard, it's the location, and the year. And on this one, the nice people at Duke transcribed what was written on the back of the original photo, which was: "Dec. 3, 1942. Foster & Kleiser Co. Los Angeles Branch Location: Olympic & 3rd Ave NE, Los Angeles".


Now I tend to be suspicious of things like this, because I've seen a lot of things mislabelled, especially on the internet, but I'm tending to believe this one. The first thing I did was to jump on Google Street view to see if the curve in the road matched up, and it did. None of the buildings are still there, but the curve is convincing. And this is just one of the Los Angeles images that I've found on the site, which a transcription of the description on the back of the photo, and they've all been accurate. To me, this is a preponderance of evidence. And ask anyone, I'm pretty darned skeptical.

But I believe that this is the correct location, and date. There's only one thing that I don't agree with on this image, and that it's a little after five. If it were five in the morning (which is very unlikely!), it would still be dark in December. And if you look at those shadows being cast from the south, you know that it's winter. And if it were a little after five in the afternoon, the shadows would be much longer turned east-southwest (with the sun setting behind you and to your right as you travel east). So the clock is just decorative. As for the date, it has to be between 1942 and 1945, and billboards being put up during the first full year of the war makes a lot of sense to me.


As for the rest of the photo, that building on the left is gone, as are the houses there behind the billboard, but if you go on Google Street View, and look along 3rd Avenue you do see some houses of that vintage, which to my eye looks to be 1920s. If you're familiar with this neighborhood, please let me know!


Looks like there was a Mobilgas station, and a Texaco there. And it looks like all of the residential buildings that used to line the street have been replaced with businesses, which is typical when cities grow. If you can identify any of the cars, I'd love to know what they are, and I'll update this post.

Thank you for visiting Los Angeles in 1942 with me!



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