The Train Took Us There 10.09.09

The LARy "W" at the stop sign on Monte Vista and Avenue 56 in 1941. From the Metro Archive. Photographer unknown.

This photo shows the W Streetcar making its way down Highland Park’s third business district, Monte Vista Street. (Figueroa Street and York Boulevard being the the other two.) As narrow a street as Monte Vista is, it was a main street back in 1941 because the Los Angeles Railway (The Yellow Cars) operated a streetcar down the middle of it.

Monte Vista Street and Avenue 56 Today. Photographer known.

This photo had stumped me for a while. I knew it was on Monte Vista, but without still-existing landmarks, it remained a mystery. What nailed it for me are the two manholes on the right. (Typically utility access points in a city don’t change without a really good reason.) Also helping solve the mystery is the slight rise of the street in the background at Avenue 57, and the presence of the four-way stop sign on the corner. (Long before nearly every intersection in 90042 had one.) One more thing that was here in 1941 was the low two-foot-tall iron fence that can barely be seen among the bushes on the corner to the right. That little 75-year-old iron fence was replaced just 4 months ago by the taller, less-ornate iron one seen here today.

Gone is the house on the left. Replaced sometime in the 1960s when All Saints built a new church. The rest of the houses on that block were demolished and replaced with apartments. The news racks leaning on the corner stop sign are no longer there . The tall eucalyptus tree in the background on the corner of 57, and the street trees on the right are gone. (But the buckled sidewalk there still remains.) One thing to note about the two photos of Monte Vista and Avenue 56, is that they both show a Highland Park tradition: Litter.

Monte Vista Street was organized into a nice balance of local shops and community centers originally. One end of Monte Vista was dominated by churches, most of which are still there today. There is Full-screenImmanuel United Methodist Church on Ash St. and Ave 55, Full-screenAll Saints Episcopal Church on Ave 56, Temple Beth Israel at 57. Where the Gold Wheel Buddhist Monastery at Ave 58 is today was originally the Highland Park Christian Church, then there is Highland Park Baptist on 59, and Full-screenSt Ignatius Roman Catholic Church on the end of Monte Vista at Avenue 61.

Boy's Market on Monte Vista and Avenue 55. Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Archive. (Note the early ADA-compliant ramp on the corner.)

The other end of Monte Vista from Avenue 50 to 56 was a street full of small businesses, restaurants, markets, cleaners, apartments and houses. On the southwest corner of Monte Vista and Avenue 55 where the asphalt playground of Monte Vista Elementary is today, was the original Boy’s Market. Boy’s for decades was a major supermarket chain in Los Angeles until eventually being bought out by Kroger (Ralph’s) in the 1990s. The so-called Boys –the Goldstein brothers, were also founders of the nearby Temple Beth Israel, Highland Park’s only Jewish house of worship.

Where Boy's Market stood on Monte Vista and Avenue 55. Demolished in the 1980's.

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