My Little Corner of the World

1964 - Pico Boulevard, looking east toward Roxbury Drive, L.A.
photo from Mid-Century Modern & Historical Los Angeles of the 60's, 70's and 80's on FaceBook

My little corner of the world has changed a bit since 1964. I grew up about a block north of this intersection on South Bedford Drive, just inside the border of Beverly Hills.

Click on the photo above to enlarge. You can see the Super Drugs was on the N/W corner of Pico and Roxbury; the Standard Gas Station on the N/E corner., next to Owens Market. Crocker Bank was on the S/W corner and Westwood Nursery & Plants was on the S/E corner, next to Reiss-Davis Center. The grass parkway and a bit of the lawn is visible of the apartment complex on the right side of the photo. As a newlywed, my first husband and I lived in this 4-block apartment campus during the mid-70's. Just west of Super Drugs were a few more small buildings and the Ranch Hotel was to the west a bit. It had a western theme with this big wagon wheel in the front. The logo looked like this: rancHotel in 50's script. We always used to call it the rank hotel!

This was a great area to grow up. We lived a block from Roxbury Park, close to school. We could hop on a bus to Overland Avenue. BEFORE the Westside Pavillion was built, the blocks between Kelton Ave. and Overland Ave. were filled with mini-mall-type stores, the Picwood Theater and the Pic-Wood Bowling Alley. I spent many Saturday afternoons at the movies, then later at the bowling alley with my friends. I remember when the current Macy's (former May Co.) was built at the corner of Overland and Pico. It was so much more modern than our usual May Co. at Wilshire and Fairfax. The mini mall just west of the May Co. housed stores such as See's Candy, The Little Folk Shop, J.J. Newberry's and Eileen Feather Reducing Salon and a small Von's. There are plans now to re-develop the Westside Pavillion into a mixed-use area with apartments, condos, shops and restaurants. Nothing lasts in Los Angeles forever!

If we walked east on Pico a bit, toward Robertson Blvd., we could catch the kid movies at the Stadium Theater during the summer and visit the Beverly Wood Bakery for a treat!

Stadium Theater, 1930. USC Digital Archives. The Theater is now a Synagogue

The Beverlywood Bakery has been here since 1946. Many of the adjacent shops and 
buildings are the same!

Below is a current picture from Google Maps of Pico and Roxbury. The Super Drugs is in a new building that also houses some UCLA Medical offices; the gas station is still there, but it's a 76 station now. Crocker Bank is now Chase Bank; Westwood Nursery is long gone. That corner and the Reiss-Davis Center are now part of the giant Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Ranch Hotel became a large office complex, housing a gym, restaurant, post office and more. Owens Market has been replaced by a Yummy.Com market. In the distance on the north side of the street, you can also see the towering Beverly-Hillcrest Hotel, now called Mr. C Hotel. 

2017 - Pico Boulevard looking east toward Roxbury Drive, L.A.
photo from Google Maps

Take photographs often of your neighborhood. While we're busy, driving around and living, we don't notice the little changes. Little changes turn into BIG changes!