Going to the March Cleaners and Dyers in the 1920s, Los Angeles, California


When I stumbled on this old photo on the Duke University site, I couldn't imagine any way of identifying the exact location. To me, the only thing that was something of a clue was the street light, which I recognized as a type that had been used in LA in the twenties, teens, and earlier. And I just passed it by.

But I mentioned it to my number one history adventurer (who prefers to remain anonymous) and he said that he wanted to see it, anyway. And not only did he identify the exact location, I was able to go to Google Street View and see that the building with the March Cleaners is still there. This is looking south on Vermont at 28th Street. Here ya go:



And here's the building. The Cleaners is gone, but the architectural detail is still there. So let's do a little bit of time-traveling, to the twenties, and maybe even the teens.



We're parked right in front of March Cleaners, and I'm assuming that you're going to run in and get something cleaned, maybe dyed. I'm not sure what a cleaner would dye, but hopefully you know! There's that beautiful street light (which you can still see in some older parts of LA) and over to the left is a Red Car, which will take you all over town for a nickel back then.

Although I'm going to be conservative about the date here, and call it the 1920s, the cars really do look like they're from the teens. By the '20s "spare tires" were no longer just spare tires, they had the wheels attached, but you can clearly see the car there just has a spare tire mounted on the back. Still, you have to be careful dating a photo by the cars, not everyone drives a brand new car, you know!


By the way, in case you're wondering why the photo was taken, it was to record the billboard there on the right. Yeah, advertising has always been big business! I wonder how those bread-and-butter pickles were? The Nucoa Coco-nut (brand?) looks interesting!

Thank you for visiting LA with me!


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