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The Palms–Village Sun
News, opinion and features about Historic Palms,
including Westside Village
www.PalmsVillageSun.info
This site is not affiliated with any group. Opinions are those of the writers.
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A switch control stand from an electric railway
became a memento of the old Palms Railroad Depot |
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CROSSTOWN JOURNEY
The switch stand, probably made in the 1920s by the Pettibone Mulliken Co., was rescued from the leveled property on the north side of Exposition Blvd. at Vinton in March 2004 and taken to Heritage Square in the Arroyo Seco.
Right, how the switch was transported from Palms to Highland Park, pink flag waving. The depot, which is now used as the visitors' center of Heritage Square, is in the background.
Click here to jump to the Heritage Square Web site.
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Left, a worker puzzles over the mechanism. Notice the five loose railroad spikes at the base.
Right, details on the weathered manufacturers' plate of this "Star" switch stand are difficult to read, but click the plate to see a larger image.
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1924
The 1924 map shows the depot facing the tracks at the extreme upper left, with 'depot grounds' spread behind and beneath it.
National Boulevard was known as Featherstone Drive.
There were only two houses in the area.
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1951
The 1951 map shows how the factory cut off the depot from National Blvd., leaving a driveway where the '63' is. The area around the fiberboard storage area and office will become a new high school campus for the Ecole francais de los Angeles.
By 1951 a cookie factory had been built where the depot grounds were 27 years earlier. Fire Station had been built on the corner of National and Vinton, and the two houses on Woodbine were enlarged somewhat.
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JUNKYARD
A recycling center, otherwise known as a junkyard, stood to the left (west) of this early 2004 photo. The plywood cutout train was somehow a quirky tribute to the old train depot, which was just about where the badly done X was scrawled by your Webmaster. Note the remaining tree. Of course they are all gone now
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THE PATIENT BOXCAR THAT COULDN'T
This abandoned boxcar sat for scores of years behind the factory building, top left. The tracks had been torn out on the east property line, so it couldn't go anywhere. When the old structure was demolished in early 2004, the boxcar remained.
The new owner of the property tried to interest museums into taking the car, which was probably about 50 years old, but time ran out and in March 2004 the relict was smashed apart and carted to the dump.
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The corner of Jasmine and National is in the background.
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One of the Most Beautiful Airplanes Ever Built
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In the mid-1950s the old cookie factory was used by the technical publications division of Douglas Aircraft Co. Your Webmaster worked as an editor there as his first job after college. One of the planes for which technical and operations manuals were written was this experimental craft, the X-3. This beautiful needle-nosed craft made 20 flights. More photos are here.
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