Ever since I moved to Los Angeles I have enjoyed spending time in Venice Beach. Something about the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica mountains as the backdrop to this open air market of artists and local vendors, skaters, crazies, graffiti, Rip Cronk murals... makes this place to me one of the coolest places in America.
How did such a place come to be?
According to the Venice Historical people, Abbot Kinney, tobacco magnate, won a flip of a coin contest for land development on the Westside of Los Angeles. For some odd reason he chose the marshy Ballona Wetlands side, and although others mocked him, the man had a vision.
Wiki:
When Venice of America opened on July 4, 1905, Kinney had dug several miles of canals to drain the marshes for his residential area, built a 1,200-foot (370 m)-long pleasure pier with an auditorium, ship restaurant, and dance hall, constructed a hot salt-water plunge, and built a block-long arcaded business street with Venetian architecture. Tourists, mostly arriving on the "Red Cars" of the Pacific Electric Railway from Los Angeles and Santa Monica, then rode Venice's miniature railroad and gondolas to tour the town. But the biggest attraction was Venice's mile-long gently sloping beach. Cottages and housekeeping tents were available for rent.
This was the great era of amusement piers which lasted throughout the 1900s to this day, with the Santa Monica Pier still in existence. Although it really has nothing on what the original piers had. Okay there is a roller coaster and an aquarium that somehow is always closed whenever I try to go. And you can get your name on a piece of rice!
Click Here to redirect to historic maps of Venice!
Love this link, gives you a great idea of how many canals there were!
Alot of the street names were Italian influenced. I have read that Washington Boulevard used to be called Leona street. So why did the names change? Sometime in the mid 20s it was proposed that Venice be annexed to the city of Los Angeles. Although locals were against it, people living in Los Angeles apparently moved to Venice so they could influence the vote. They also later voted on filling in almost all of the canals! Bummer dude.
In 1929, as Venice of America fell into decline, oil was discovered in the peninsula. A decade later, the landscape had been completely pillaged, with more than 400 oil wells puncturing the built environment. Drilling and spillage further polluted the already abandoned and clogged canals. Los Angeles had neglected Venice so long that, by the 1950s, it had become the "Slum by the Sea."
With the exception of new police and fire stations in 1930, the city spent little on improvements after annexation. The city did not pave Trolleyway (Pacific Avenue) until 1954 when county and state funds became available. Low rents for run-down bungalows attracted predominantly European immigrants, and young counterculture artists, poets and writers.
The Beat Generation hung out at the Gas House on Ocean Front Walk and at Venice West Cafe on Dudley. This post-apocalyptic setting became a perfect fit for Orson Wells' border-noir cinematic masterpiece Touch of Evil. But, what may come as a surprise to many, the oil industry actually flourished in Venice until the 1970's.
Something else that came out of Venice Beach
Fast forward 40 years, now there are no more oil wells, just million dollar condos on what are the last remaining Venice canals!
It's makes a very interesting day to go to the Oceanfront walk in Venice, take in the ever changing graffiti park, watch the people, look at all the wares and paintings and rocks and bones for sale, see all of the wild street performers, smell the ocean wind, and witness the majesty of the Santa Monicas as a backdrop for it all.
The amusement, bohemian, slum vibe is still there, intermingling with the last 106 years of evolution that all started with a flip of a coin.
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