50 Historical Images of Los Angeles

Just about 4 million people call the City of Angels home, and this isn't by accident as Los Angeles is one of the best places to live. You get amazing weather year-round, great beaches, exclusive events, celebrity sightings, and much much more. But although so many people live there, little know the true history of how this city came to be. Los Angeles is rich in history and those who know it can truly appreciate how privileged they are to be living there. If you would like to know the history of Los Angeles, scroll through this gallery and check out some of these amazing historical images of Los Angeles. 

The Hollywoodland sign is the centerpiece of this photo that shows how the city of Los Angeles has come such a long way over the years. You can see a couple of gentlemen, their hats, and their horses on a hill, something you would never see in today's time. 

This picture is an aerial shot of Hollywood in November 1929. In it, hundreds, or perhaps thousands of houses are captured in the city, proving that the city was populated even in the early 20th century. 

The opening of Universal Studios Hollywood is one of the landmark moments in the history of Hollywood and the development of the State of California at large. Universal Studios Hollywood was launched in March 1915, when its creator, Carl Laemmle had thousands of people come to see the studio’s launch at his sprawling California property. 

Talk about organized labor being an ancient phenomenon; if you’ve been thinking things like organized labor and labor strikes weren’t a thing in old Los Angeles, you need to think again. This is a clear indication that the fellas that provided labor services to the movers and shakers of the entertainment industry knew how powerful their collective voice was and knew one or two things about using that power.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum bears some historical significance as the place where a lot of the XXIII Olympiad Games were hosted. The city of Los Angeles itself was the host of the XXIII Olympiad so it was only right for the Memorial Coliseum to host the games therein. 

In 1964, the Beatles had a show for the ages at the Hollywood Bowl. The tickets for that show were a hot commodity that year, you can see just how big the show was from this picture of it. 

We’re back in Hollywoodland again folks! Remember how our second slide discussed the Hollywoodland sign and how it was erected to inspire suburban housing dwellers? Well, it turns out that 1945 was a pivotal year for the Hollywoodland sign; a lot changed with the sign in that year alone. 

The 1930s ushered in the era of Old Hollywood with the first stars and first Oscars as well. Old Hollywood is a particularly memorable period in the history of film and California; it also proves how much the city of Los Angeles has changed over the years as a result of Hollywood’s influence. 

History was made in 1986 as the first Los Angeles marathon was held in the city in March. A large crowd of people turned up, not just to watch the marathon, but to also participate in it; literally, thousands of people turned up for the city’s inaugural marathon race. 

Inventors go to great lengths to see their creations become real; some will go without food, and their interactions with loved ones will worsen while sorting out their inventions. At the end of the day, what matters most is seeing your creation come to life like you dreamt it, but unfortunately, this wasn’t the case with Griffith Jerkins. 

Back to some dark times in the city of Los Angeles’ history; the 1990s were a particularly gloomy period in the city as there was lots of tension and it was just a difficult time for the city. The Rodney King Riots erupted in the city in 1992, causing havoc and mayhem to be unleashed on the city.

This Jimmy Carter visit to California was a strategic decision for the then Presidential hopeful; after supporting the controversial Proposition 14, Carter saw a unique opportunity to secure some votes so he toured the state a bit, hoping to really cement his campaign.

This one serves as a reminder that it isn’t only the cars that were different on Los Angeles roads, the roads themselves were pretty different back then. You can see from this picture of 1925 Los Angeles that there wasn’t as much traffic back then as there is now as not as many people owned cars as they do today.

If you think the Teslas of today are pioneers in the world of electric cars, then you probably didn’t know there were electric vehicles in old Los Angeles. You can clearly see one here, a Pacific Electric vehicle with hundreds of passengers on board for a ride down the Hollywood Boulevard. 

This picture is all about a Hollywood icon of old, the amazingly talented Rita Hayworth, who is one of the most well-known stars to this day. The shot of the entertainer was taken while she was cruising down a street not far from the Warner Bros. Studio in L.A. 

Back in 1913, cars looked quite different from what we have on the road these days; what they had then were the early renditions of automobiles with much weaker engines. But these early cars were more than enough for the early settlers to explore all Los Angeles had to offer at that point. 

This image right here proves that things weren’t always peaceful in old Los Angeles; the city was as prone to violent riots and unrest back then as it is now. In 1943, the entire country was in the throes of the Second World War that was being fought far away from the city of Los Angeles, but L.A. wasn’t free of the ripple effects of the war. 

Modern-day Hollywood is a beautiful city that becomes even more pleasing to digest once the sun goes down. It turns out that Old Hollywood wasn’t much different; this picture proves that the sight of Hollywood at night has always been amazing, with tons of lights to make up for the darkness. 

Unlike today where you’ll see everyone cruising by in their automobiles, it wasn’t unusual to find people traveling by foot in the 1930s. It’s not that there wasn’t a train system back then, but apparently, this was just the norm for certain people from that era. 

Beauty has always been a marketable commodity in the United States and beyond; the best actresses in the industry are usually the prettiest so you can see the direct link here. Joan Bradshaw was equally famous and pretty all at once, she had a face and body that most in the industry envied. 

Sunset Boulevard is currently a beautiful sight to be seen, so much so that tourists from all over the world travel to Los Angeles just to get a glimpse of the bright lights and row of palm trees. This picture truly captures just how much Los Angeles has changed over the years. 

The Los Angeles Times has been a staple newspaper in Los Angeles since 1881 and now has the 5th largest circulation of all newspapers. Here you can see how the building looked in 1939, it is located on the corner of 1st and spring in Downtown Los Angeles. 

Los Angeles’ grievous smog problem in 1949 is the reason why the skylines and atmosphere were clouded and therefore difficult to see in that year. This picture was taken in 1949 and is basically an aerial view of the Cahuenga Parkway in Hollywood Hills, which looks much different today.

CinemaScope changed a lot of things when it launched its widescreen films; the technology behind the movies became incredibly popular and by extension, the movies themselves did well because of the new format. However, the widescreen films wouldn’t have done so well if CinemaScope didn’t premiere its The Robe movie. 

Advances in architecture were made gradually over the years, with some notable ones coming in the 20th century. In this picture, you can see Architect Bernard Judge working tirelessly on his geodesic dome house, yes you read that correctly, this is a house. The house lies on a hillside, so being on top of it like Judge was here means access to an incredible view of the city below.

The skyline of Downtown Los Angeles is one of the most famous skylines in all of the U.S. But it wasn't always that way, as you can see in the picture, building in this area used to be quite small compared to what you see today. The one thing that has stayed the same is the crowds of people. 

The 101 freeway still remains one of Los Angeles' longest and most important routes, it can take you from Los Angeles all through California and beyond. In this picture, you can see the beginning of the construction of what would soon become this infamous freeway. 

The Santa Monica Pier looks almost unrecognizable in this photo if you were to visit it today. Today the pier is filled with restaurants, games, attractions, and roller coasters, but here you can see the beginnings of what would come to be. At this time the pier was still a flat bridge where you could walk out in peace and feel the amazing ocean breeze. 

Even if you've lived in Los Angeles your whole life, you probably wouldn't recognize the building in this photo. It is actually Los Angeles' third City Hall, which served as the center of local government.

The first hotel in Los Angeles, the Bella Union, was by all accounts, a wild west institution. This hotel’s functions extended beyond simply providing abode for those visiting Los Angeles from other cities; it was also the soul of civic life in the city for many years. 

This picture offers a rare look at the Warner Bros. Theater, Los Angeles while it was still standing. Apparently, the theater was a sprawling building located in the heart of the city; you can see the older cars that people drove back then gliding down the road that lies in front of the theater all those years ago. 

Here’s a rare look into life in downtown Los Angeles in 1929; the crowd in this photo gathered at the corner of the Sixth and Spring Streets in downtown L.A. to watch the Paramount movie, The Mighty, in 1929. The movie was about a gangster who becomes a hero after serving time in the Great War.

This picture is all about Wilshire Boulevard; it offers a nice view of the boulevard, looking west at Lafayette Park in the direction of the Town House Hotel in 1935. Los Angeles is a dynamic town, with lots of rich history but despite its rich history, coming across pictures like this that give a look into early 20th century living in the city is rare. 

The Public Library in Downtown Los Angeles started off as a well-stocked reading room on Temple and Main Street. It would have never come to be if it wasn't for our very first librarian John Littlefield. There were two rooms in the building, one was the "Book Room" and the other the "Conversation Room."

We’re back on Wilshire Boulevard folks! But this time around, the clock has been turned all the way back to the 1890s. The star of the show here is The Shatto house, a magnificent house located on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles in the late 1890s. 

As far back as 1926, Los Angeles had a subway system, which is something another big city, like New York, didn’t have at the time. The subway wasn’t the longest subway in the world because it was only a mile long, but it served its purpose well and was a means of transportation. 

A lot of the older buildings that populated Vermont Avenue have disappeared over the years but a couple of well-preserved structures from all those decades ago still stand today; the well-preserved portion lies around 24th Street. 

A lot of the city monuments in Los Angeles didn’t yet exist in the 1930s as they were yet to be constructed or were under construction at the time. The Figueroa Street Tunnels are one example; this picture allows us to see how it looked while construction was going on there. 

The year is 1850 in this picture and the attraction here is a view of the city in the mid-19th century. This is how the city appeared in 1850; the layout of the city can be vividly seen with the Los Angeles Plaza in the left-center if you look northeast. 

By the 1950s, the city of Los Angeles was already bustling with activities so there was a significant amount of traffic on the roads and freeways. The city was dotted with good cars and streetcars that people could already afford courtesy of all the economic activity that was happening in the city. 

The first time the Olympic games were hosted in Los Angeles was in 1932; the city’s two short-lived turns at the Olympics remain a vivid part of Los Angeles' history though. The 1932 games were hosted in Los Angeles during the Great Depression which must have added some gloom to the games. 

The Southern Pacific River Station was a significant station for economic activities and transportation while it stood as it was the point where those drawn by the land boom of the mid-1880s were welcomed to Los Angeles. It was ultimately far from the final destinations of many travelers that passed through but it was relevant nonetheless. 

If you mentioned the Edendale neighborhood to anyone in Los Angeles they probably wouldn't know which neighborhood you are referring to. This photo was taken in 1910 in the Edendale neighborhood, what would later be known as the incredibly popular neighborhoods of Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Los Feliz. 

The Hancock Park in Los Angeles is a remarkable place, it is home to the La Brea Tar Pits, the L.A. County Museum of Art, and the Page Museum. The park commemorates George Allan Hancock, who donated the pits but the real hero here is his mother, from whom all his wealth came. 

Los Angeles’ Chinatown is the hub of the Chinese-American culture in Los Angeles and home to lots of people of Chinese origin. Chinatown is a 24-block neighborhood that lies northeast of downtown. 

Here we can see a man at the Los Angeles River at Griffith Park, which has since been turned into a river bike path. If you visit Griffith Park today these scenes will be almost unrecognizable, as the park has really grown since then. 

Back in the 18th century, Hollywood wasn’t exactly Hollywood yet so the whole of what is now known as North Hollywood used to be a town called Toluca. The truth is a lot of the lost towns in Southern California never really disappeared because they simply became known by other names. 

The Los Angeles slums have always lurked in the background of the city’s lush neighborhoods and structures, providing abode for the lower-income groups. This picture offers a glance into what life in the slums looked like during the Great Depression; it certainly looks gloomy enough. 

The year is 1929 here, and the attraction is Grauman’s Chinese Theater on the Hollywood Boulevard. The theater was a major city attraction then, as the timing of this picture proves. According to reports, MGM’s The Hollywood Revue of 1929 was showing at the theater when this picture of the beautiful exteriors was taken.