Long, long ago (and a short distance away) no building was allowed to rise higher than LA's City Hall:
For decades, developers lobbied the city to relax the restriction, to no avail. Los Angeles made only one exception: in 1926, it allowed its own City Hall to soar to 454 feet. It would remain the city's tallest building for 40 years.
Lots more about the history of the downtown LA skyline in that post by Nathan Masters, from KCET's wonderful blog, SoCal Focus.
There are a couple of spots on PCH that still look (almost) like they did decades ago, which sometimes seems like a miracle. There's the Adamson House, of course, and the Malibu pier. And in the Castillamare area, there's the building that started out as this -- Thelma Todd's Roadside Cafe.
The bridge is gone, PCH is wider and there's development on all sides. The brightly-tiled building, though, as striking as ever, is still instantly recognizable.
The photo's from 1935, from the LAPL collection *. Todd's death at the cafe -- was it murder? -- remains a mystery, and from the five pages of related photos in the LA Public Library's collection, you get a sense of what a huge story it was.
*The link to the photos sometimes 'expires', but if you type "Thelma Todd" into the search box here, the story unfolds.
I love the irony that a car from the Southern Pacific Railroad, the very company that sought to despoil the Malibu coastline (and steal the Malibu Rancho in the process) only to be foiled by the quick thinking of Frederick RIndge, and the determination of his widow, May Rindge, sits on a bit of its thwarted route, for use as an office.
Remember the Spanish Kitchen, which sat abandoned for 40 years, the tables still set, the taxes still paid, slowly crumbling as the decades passed?
Countless stories have been told since that August night in 1961 when Pearl Caretto served dinner as usual, then shut the doors for good. Real answers, however, are scarce.
Here's a relic of those days, a pie plate found at an estate sale, old and heavy, not spilling any secrets.
* Just heard from Greg Morris, the restauranteur who re-opened the Spanish Kitchen a few years back. Turns out my Spanish Kitchen pie pan was actually used to serve paella. Morris has one of his own, given to him by the Caretto's daughter.
For more info about the place, past and present, the web site is here.