Vintage street lights

Cybele at blogging.la has posted an item there (with pictures) on the display of old Los Angeles street lamps planted in the shopping center parking lot at the corner of Vermont and Santa Monica. They were installed as street art by the city in 1992. Looking at the photos, the array doesn't seem to include a Wilshire Special, which is too bad. They were mammoth things with a giant rectangular light box, adorned at each corner with a stylized female figure. Custom made of bronze, they lined the boulevard from Park View Avenue to Fairfax, all 393 of them switched on by the mayor while bands played at a ceremonial unveiling in 1928. If you like that kind of thing, survivors can still be found on many blocks of Wilshire between the Harbor Freeway and MacArthur Park.