Right Before Your Eyes!

Crapi Apartments, Overland Avenue, Palms

While driving down Overland Avenue in Palms, WLA, you might spy a certain mid-20th century apartment building and do a double-take. The Crapi Apartments name is a play on the word "Capri" Apartments.  So many "dingbat" style buildings of this era have tropical and whimsical names. 

Chee-Zee Apartments, Woodbine Ave., Palms

Around the corner from the Crapi Apartments are the Chee-Zee Apartments!  Both of these buildings are the subtle joke of the owner of NPA, National Promotions and Advertising. NPA specializes in outdoor advertising and have a sign-filled facility, just down the block. We've been lucky to attend a couple of parties at NPA.

NPA Offices, Overland Ave., Palms. Photo from NPA Website

The outside of the NPA is an ordinary looking warehouse space with a Greyhound bus in front. This is how you enter the building, through the bus!  Naturally, the bus driver is a greyhound dog.

This guy drives the NPA Bus!

I also noticed that NPA now sports a giant hot dog on the roof.  At one time, this plaster dog graced the top of a hot dog stand on the corner of Hollywood and Western, in East Hollywood.  Later, a Thai restaurant took over the stand but left the dog on top, until NPA rescued it.

Hot Dog @NPA Headquarters. Photo from NPA Website

Former location of hot dog, Hollywood and Western, East Hollywood

Next time you're driving down a boring street, look a little bit closer, you might find something unusual!

So Many Changes

Culver City-Palms Railroad Station, 1940. LA Public Library Archives

While I was shopping at Sprouts Market on Venice Blvd. last week, I was wondering what this large piece of property was before it was made into a shopping center. The shopping center is  currently called Venice Crossing. The Sprouts was formerly a Haggen Market, previously Albertson's. There's a Starbucks, Noah's Bagels, Ross Dress for Less and more chains. 

The markets keep changing at Venice Crossing

Chain Stores at Venice Crossing

I do remember the A-1 Noodle Company being there, right next to what used to be the railroad tracks that run along Exposition Boulevard. You can still see the painted A-1 sign on what used to be the factory, from the tracks. The Expo Line now occupies these very same tracks.

In my hazy memory, during the late 1960s to the 1980s, I think this was just an industrial zone with the A-1 Noodle company and vacant land around the tracks, probably a few parking lots. Some of the areas were paved over, but the tracks were still visible. This particular line ran all the way west, behind the Westside Pavillion and ended at Fisher Lumber in Santa Monica. I also remember hanging out at a place called Mama Pajama. I even had an art show there in 1989! The shop was a collection of vintage clothing, coffee house with live performances and more. 

Industrial Section of Pacific Electric Tracks, facing east near La Cienega, 2007. Photo by Mike Palmer. This is how I remember the Venice Crossing area looking in the past.

Ahah! Culver Junction! I came upon a wonderful old photo online that described Culver Junction at this very same intersection, near Venice and Robertson. 

Culver Junction, located at Venice/Robertson, 1953. Photo from Historical Photos Expo Line

This was the Culver City-Palms Station, located at 9013 Venice Boulevard, a bit west of Culver Junction, serving both the Pacific Electric Railway Company and the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Palms Depot, 1953

The Palms Depot building is where a self-storage facility is today, near Vinton Avenue and National Blvd. in Palms. This particular building was saved and moved to Heritage Square Museum in Highland Park and now serves as their Visitor's Center. Most of those large palm trees were pulled out to make way for the Santa Monica Freeway in 1963.

My little section of Venice Boulevard has changed a lot over the decades. It would be unrecognizable to old-timers! Remember to take photos of mundane things on the streets where you live. One day, those buildings and streets will be changed forever!