Thursday, June 8, 2017

Greetings from Pershing Square, Los Angeles


From Retiring Guy's postcard collection

Timeline:

  • 1866.  Block 15 set aside as a town square.  No funds provided for improvements
  • 1870.  Renamed Los Angeles Park, which was fenced in with trees planted around the perimeter.
  • 1910.  $80,000 renovation.  Architect John Parkinson's design creates a symmetrical plan with walkways and ornamental plantings.
  • 1918. Renamed Pershing Square, in honor of John Pershing, commander of U.S. forces in what later became known as World War I.
  • 1930s and 1940s.  Gathering place for the marginalized
  • Early 1950s.  Renovation includes subterranean parking garage (access at lower right in postcard) and a walking path around the perimeter of a fenced-in lawn area.
  • 1990s.  Another redesign, which KCET shrugs off as not worth describing.


Related reading:
Here's the Timeline For the Big Redesign of LA's Oldest and Most Hated Park.  (Curbed Los Angeles, 9/2/2015)
Pershing Square is Los Angeles's oldest park, dating from 1866 (with name changes and redesigns since), but an unfortunate Post-Modern renovation in the early 1990s has also made it LA's most hated.

Other greetings:
Fox Carthay Circle Theater, Los Angeles.  (6/7/2017)
Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood.  (6/4/2017)
Hotel Teris, Los Angeles.  (6/1/2016)
Broadway in Los Angeles.  (5/31/2017)
Los Angeles Civic Center.  (5/30/2017)
Southern California palm-lined street.  (5/29/2017)
Downtown Los Angeles.   (5/24/2017)
Giant Springs, Great Falls, Montana.  (5/23/2017)
Hollywood Boulevard.  (5/22/2017)
Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.  (5/21/2017)
Brown Derby, Hollywood.  (5/20/2017)
Southern California.  (5/20/2017)
Mojave Desert (Joshua trees).  (5/20/2017)
Rose Hill Motel in Mena, Arkansas.  (5/20/2017)
Will Rogers Ranch.  (5/20/2017)
Grauman's Chinese Theater.  (5/18/2017)
Hollywood Boulevard.  (5/18/2017)
Barstow, California.  (5/17/2017)
California.  (5/14/2017)
Parklabrea Towers, L.A.  (5/14/2017)
La Jolla Children's Pool.  (5/13/2017)
Los Angeles.  (5/11/2017)
Laguna Beach, California.  (5/10/2017)
California.  (5/9/2017)
Los Angeles.  (5/9/2017)
California.  (5/8/2017)
Pomona College, Claremont, California.  (5/7/2017)
La Jolla, California.  (5/6/2017)
Hope, Arkansas.  (5/4/2017)
Bakersfield, California.  (5/3/2017)
Little Rock, Arkansas.  (5/1/2017)
California.  (4/28/2017)
Little Rock, Arkansas.  (4/19/2017)
Superstition Mountain, Arizona.  (4/15/2017)
Tucson, Arizona.  (4/12/2017)
Phoenix, Arizona.  (4/8/2017)
Monument Valley, Arizona/Utah.  (4/8/2017)
Dothan, Alabama.  (4/5/2017)
Mobile, Alabama.  (4/5/2017)
Anniston, Alabama.  (3/29/2017)

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