The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour 4.0!!!!

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This Sunday's CicLAvia route, the sixth iteration of the car-free, open-streets event, and the first of three planned for this year, will be the longest and most ambitious to date. Adventurous Angelenos can bike, skate, walk or run for the 16 miles from Downtown Los Angeles to Venice Beach. Only time will tell if five all-too-quick hours is enough time for people to make it from end-to-end and back.

Already sporting bicycle lanes, Venice Boulevard is all-too familiar for cross-town cyclists. It's also the location where Mayor Villaraigosa got his legendary cycling injury in July 2010 and where The Militant biked to Venice Beach two years before then. But this time, you ain't restricted to no 4-foot bike lane!

In the spirit of CicLAvia, as a way for us to appreciate our City a little more in a different way, The Militant has been writing these guides from the beginning to help you learn a little more about our town. So here it is, for your reading (and discovering) pleasure, listed from from east to west, the 32 points of interest of The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour 4.0!!!!

1. Italian Hall
1908
622 1/2 North Main Street, Downtown

This 105-year old building is the oldest vestige of what was once Los Angeles' Little Italy neighborhood. Built as a cultural center to serve the ethnic community, which has been present in the city since the 1820s, today, the well-restored structure, part of the El Pueblo De Los Angeles Historical Monument (a historical tour destination unto itself), is the site of Los Angeles' Italian American Museum, which will display artifacts and exhibits from the Little Italy district and the contributions of Italian Angelenos.

2. The Plaza
1825
You Can't Miss It

Los Angeles has (long exhale) often been criticized for not having a "center," The Militant countered with both an ancient center and a regional center. But The Plaza, for nearly two centuries (longer than any one of us has been here, right?), functioned as the undisputed Center of Los Angeles. Forever standing in the shadow of its tourist-heavy younger cousin Olvera Street (which you've all been to, so The Militant isn't adding it to his Epic CicLAvia Tour), The Plaza was really Los Angeles' own town square.

What's historic is not the hexagonal, wrought-iron bandstand (known as the Kiosko) -- that was built in the late 1940s as part of an urban renewal project for the El Pueblo district -- but the circular space itself, which was built in 1825 and actually functioned part-time as Los Angeles' first-ever sporting venue (bullfights were staged there in the 1800s). This was actually the third location of The Plaza. It was first established at the time of Los Angeles' founding 231 years ago, but much closer to The River. Flooding in the 1810s forced The Plaza to re-locate twice to higher ground. Hey, the third time's the charm...

3. Site of Los Angeles' French Quarter
c. 1830s-1960s
Aliso Street and Arcadia Street, Downtown

In addition to an Italian community, beleive it or non, Los Angeles had a French ethnic enclave, called The French Quarter. Before today's Hollywood Freeway trench and nearby parking lots was a bustling community of Franco-American businesses and institutions. When Frenchman Jean-Louis Vignes bought up land on the Yangna village site a few blocks east on Aliso Street, he essentially became the anchor of our French community. In 1912, businessman Marius Taix opened the Champ D'Or Hotel on Commercial Street and then opened his namesake restaurant in the same building in 1927. But the most famous constibution to our French Quarter was Philippe Mathieu's restaurant, which opened in various locations in the area. In 1918, his restaurant on 246 Aliso Street gave birth to The French Dip sandwich. But urban development (and cultural assimilation by the community) destroyed the French Quarter. In 1951, Philippe's moved a few blocks north to their present location on Alameda Street due to Hollywood Freeway construction, and Monsieur Taix's restaurant moved a decade later to Echo Park.

4. Triforium
1975
Main and Temple Streets, Downtown

This $925,000 light-and-sound public art sculpture was designed by artist Joseph Young in the mid '70s as "a tribute to the unfinished, kaleidoscopic nature of Los Angeles." Intended to be Los Angeles' own iconic answer to the Eiffel Tower or The Statue of Liberty, it was also originally planned to be equipped with motion sensors and skyward-aiming laser beams. Budget constraints put a stop to that. Despite its shortcomings, it was the world's first public sculpture to integrate light and sound by use of a computer, something us 21st century types take for granted every day (cough LA Live cough).

Though it's somewhat dated in its '70s-impression-of-the-future asesthetic (But hey, so is Star Wars), all it really needs to be hip to today's standards (it's already got its own Facebook page) is an iPod interface. Cultural Affairs Department, are you listening?

The Triforium's lights are on daily from 6-8 a.m. and from 5-7 p.m. (6-8 p.m. PDT).

5. Los Angeles Sister Cities Monument
Circa late 1980s
1st and Main streets, Downtown

On the northeast corner of 1st and Main streets stands a pole bearing signs (in the "Blue Blade" style, no less) for every one of Los Angeles' 25 Sister Cities, each pointing towards their location. The signs range from Lusaka, Zambia (the farthest sister city, 10,017 miles) to Vancouver, Canada (the nearest, 1,081 miles) and everywhere in between. Nagoya, Japan is Los Angeles' oldest sister city (1959); Yerevan, Armenia is the newest (2007). Los Angeles, an Olympic host city (1932, 1984) also has that in common with sister cities Athens (1896, 2004), Berlin (1936), Mexico City (1968) and Vancouver (2010). Okay, the Militant is just filling up this paragraph with mindless trivia.

6. Farmers and Merchants Bank Building
1905
401 S. Main Street, Downtown

When they say "The Old Bank District," they're probably talking about this one. One of Los Angeles' early financial institutions, and also an example of historic preservation, this early 1900s Classical Revival building served as the home for Isaias Hellman's Farmers and Merchants Bank, which helped Harrison Gray Otis establish the Los Angeles Times and Edward Doheny drill for oil in the Westside. The building is used for events and filming today, and is on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument list.

7. Pacific Electric Building
1905
6th and Main streets, Downtown

Before 7th Street/Metro Center, before Union Station, was Los Angeles' O.G. transit hub, the grand headquarters of the Pacific Electric Railway. At one point the largest building in Los Angeles, the facility served trains coming in on street level along Main Street, as well as a larger elevated multi tracked platform area on the east side of the building. From here, you could take trains to all points south and east, such as San Pedro, Long Beach, Santa Ana and Huntington Beach. And the upper floors contained offices and executive lounges. The building went vacant following the fall of the P.E. in the 1960s but now lives on today as loft apartments. The 1908 Cole's P.E. Buffet restaurant (a.k.a. Philippe's bitter rival in terms of the French Dip sammich), on the north side of the building, is still in operation today.

8. St. Vincent Court
1868
St. Vincent Ct and 7th Street, Downtown

You'd hardly knew it was there, but this alley nestled between Broadway and Hill (blink and you'll miss it!), with its decorative brick pavement and European decor, seemingly belongs to another world. Originally the site of a Catholic college that was the predecessor of today's Loyola Marymount University, today it's a unique food court featuring Armenian and Middle Eastern eateries. The Militant calls it, "Littler Armenia." Check out this Militant Angeleno post on St. Vincent Court from 2008 for more info!

9. Wilshire Grand Hotel
1952
7th and Figueroa streets, Downtown

What we see today as the Wilshire Grand Hotel is the latest in a long lineage of hotels that operated from that building. Originally built as the Los Angeles Statler Hotel (one of a dozen nationwide in that chain) in 1952, it became the Statler Hilton, then the Los Angeles Hilton, then the Omni Los Angeles Hotel, and finally the Wilshire Grand. Take a good look at this hotel, though - the hotel's owner, Korean Air Lines, is in the process of demolishing it to put up the next tallest building in Los Angeles.

10. City View Lofts/Young's Market Company Building
1924
1610 W. 7th St., Pico-Union

Ever wondered what's the deal with this 4-story Italian Renaissance-style building? It was built in 1924 as a liquor warehouse and original headquarters for Young's Market Company, which still operates today as the largest liquor distributor in the West. This building features actual marble columns and a decorative frieze made of terra cotta. The company, in the roaring, pre-depression 1920s, just felt like it. The building was looted and burned in the 1992 Riots and was rehabbed in 1997 to become the City View lofts. The building is in the National Register of Historic Places.

11. Gen. Douglas MacArthur Monument
1955
Southeast corner of MacArthur Park, Westlake

It's sort of strange how a monument to the park's namesake seems almost invisible (Gen John Pershing, MacArthur's WWI counterpart, could totally identify). In fact, most people don't know it's even there, but on the southeast shore of the lake is a dormant memorial fountain featuring a statue of the WWII general overlooking a model of the Pacific theatre (no, not that one) where he led allied forces to eventual victory. It was designed and built in 1955 by Roger Noble Burnham, who previously sculpted the Tommy Trojan statue on the USC campus and taught at the Otis Art School, formerly located nearby.

12. Casas Alicia Restoration Project
1904/1908 (Project began 2010)
1115 S. Alvarado Street, Pico-Union

Breaking up the commercial bustle of Alvarado Street in the Pico-Union District is a pair of old-school historic homes - the Casas Alicia Restoration Project of the Pico Union Housing Corporation. A pair of historic houses were moved from nearby streets onto Alvarado, which will be restored for community use. These are not just any old-school Los Angeles homes though -- The Jevne Residence (1904) was home of grocery company owner Jesse A. Jevne, who was also director of First National Bank and Southern California Savings Bank. The Colonial Revival Foursquare house was designed by Frederick Roehrig who also crafted Pasadena's Hotel Green. The other house was the Harris Newmark Residence (1908), once home of the very influential Angeleno who was one of the founding members of such institutions as the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles Public Library, The Southwest Museum and the B'nai B'rith Congregation, of which he was considered the patriarch of our City's Jewish community. The Craftsman house was designed by Summer P. Hunt, one of the architects of the Automobile Association of Southern California building on Figueroa and Adams.

13. Iglesia Adventista Central/1st Church of Christ, Scientist
1912
1366 S. Alvarado Street, Pico-Union

Currently the site of a 7th Day Adventist Church catering to a Latino congregation, this 101-year old Mediterranean Romanesque Revival house of worship has changed owners, and even denominations, and has had a long, and even dark, history behind it. Built in 1912 as the 1st Church of Christ, Scientist, it served its Christian Science congregation for six decades, before it became a Jewish synagogue for a few years. In the mid-1970s, it became the Los Angeles location of The People's Temple, the cult founded by Jim Jones, who infamously led over 900 his followers to live in a commune in Jonestown, Guyana, and consequently, to die in the largest mass-suicide in history (which spawned the euphemism, "Don't drink the Kool-Aid"). The current Adventist church has been there since the late 1970s, since, Jim Jones uh...couldn't really use it anymore. The church structure was inducted into the National Register of Historic Sites in 1984.

14. Hoover Street (City Boundary)
1850
Hoover Street, Pico-Union

CicLAvia only runs for a few yards on this street, but note how all the streets east of Hoover run in a diagonal fashion, and all the streets west run perfectly east-west. Yes, Virginia, Los Angeles was not always big and sprawled. From 1850 to 1896, Hoover was the original western boundary of the City of Los Angeles, which meant that 120 years ago, you'd be on the Westside. On April 2, 1896, the "Western Addition" was annexed into the City, extending the boundaries a few miles west to Arlington Avenue (more on this latter...)

15. Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
1884
1831 W. Washington Blvd (Venice Blvd and Normandie Avenue)

This 65-acre memorial park, originally established as Rosedale Cemetery, has been serving Los Angeles for the past 129 years, and is the final resting place of a number of historic Angelenos, such as Port of Los Angeles founder Phineas Banning, the City of Burbank's namesake Dr. David Burbank, jazz legend Eric Dolphy, actress Hattie McDaniel and mayors George Alexander, Arthur C. Harper, Owen McAleer, John G. Nichols, Frank Rader and Frederick T. Woodman. One of the most notable graves is that of Catalina Island developer George Shatto, who is interred in a pyramid!

16. Arlington Avenue (City Boundary)
1909
Arlington Ave, Arlington Heights

Continuing the Los Angeles City Boundary history, Arlington Avenue was once the westernmost border of the City from 1896 to 1909, when the Colegrove Addition (which stretched north towards Hollywood) was annexed into the City. Note how the street dramatically widens west of Arlington - that, of course, was to accommodate both automobiles and the Pacific Electric Red Car tracks, which run the rest of the way along Venice Blvd.

17. Victoria Park
1908
North of Venice Blvd, between Crenshaw Ave and West Blvd

This semi-gated community is come to a unique collection of craftsman homes built in the early 1900s decade, arranged on the circular Victoria Park Place. All of the homes are about a century old and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places or are recognized as Los Angeles City Historic-Cultural Monuments. The only entry, though, is on Windsor Drive, off of Pico Blvd. If you're into old-timey homes, this is one of the true hidden jewels of Los Angeles.

18. Site of Vineyard Junction
1901-1963
Venice and San Vicente boulevards

You'll know you've arrived when you cross under the bridge that crosses over Venice Blvd. The north side of the street once carried three streetcar tracks, and the south side carried automobile traffic, while a different set of tracks diverged along San Vicente Blvd. Covered in a July, 2007 Militant Angeleno blog post, this area, now occupied by the Midtown Crossing shopping center, was a crossing of a different kind a century ago when it functioned as a major junction and transfer facility for the Pacific Electric Railway and the Los Angeles Railway streetcars. It was the site of the worst accident in the history of the Red Car system a century ago, killing 14 and injuring 200, and was once planned as the western terminus of a proposed Pacific Electric subway line from the Ambassador Hotel. The Los Angeles Railway's "P" line ended at Pico and Rimpau in a famous loop, and several bus lines terminated here as well. Pacific Electric service ended here in 1950, while the Yellow Cars last ran here in 1963.

19. Ballona Creek
Chochran Ave at Venice Blvd

When you cross Chochran, pull over to the south side of Venice Blvd and you'll see the visible start of Ballona Creek. Of course, the creek does not actually begin here, but is the result of a confluence of various long-lost creeks (now entombed underground) such as the Arroyo de los Jardines and Sacatela Creek both famously blogged about by The Militant back in 2008. Like Venice Blvd itself, Ballona Creek ends up in the sea, and continuing west, we'll encounter another creek that flows into the Ballona.

20. Former Site of KHJ Radio Towers
1938-2013
Venice Blvd at Fairfax Avenue

for 75 years, this field on the northwest corner of Venice Blvd and Fairfax Avenue were the site of twin radio towers and the studios that powered KHJ 930AM, and, later on, KRTH 101.1 FM. Radio personalities such as Robert W. Morgan and "The Real" Don Steele made their names on KHJ-AM, which was, during the 60s, one of the most popular radio stations in town. Elvis Presley even visited this site. Now, the station is operated by Spanish station La Ranchera and off-site transmitters were adopted. Sadly, the landmark radio towers were demolished in late February of this year.

21. Santa Monica Freeway Bridge
1994
10 Freeway at Venice Blvd, Los Angeles

On January 17, 1994, the 6.8 Northridge Earthquake, the most recent major quake to strike Los Angeles, caused this section of the Santa Monica Freeway - some 20 miles south of the epicenter - to collapse, resulting in the closure of one of the most-traveled sections of our freeway system (and yes it was one muther clusterfugger to get around to the Westside back then). But heeeey, less than three months later (and 74 days ahead of schedule), and at a cost of $30 million, the freeway was re-opened. Who'dve thunk it?

22. Helms Bakery
1931
8758 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles

From 1931 to 1969, Angelenos knew their bread, and it came from blue-and-yellow delivery trucks from the legendary Helms Bakery, founded at this site, with eventual satellite bakeries in Montebello and San Bernardino. It was the official bread of the 1932 Olympic Games here in Los Angeles, and the bread was so renowned, it was provided to the U.S. Olympic teams in subsequent Olympiads. It was even the first bread eaten on The Moon, as part of the Apollo 11 astronauts' food rations. But you couldn't buy the bread in any store, it was only from their delivery trucks (yes, the food truck craze is not new round here). Ultimately, after an era where people bought food from delivery trucks, the Helms brand succumbed to the rise of the supermarket. This building and its trademark neon sign stand, adaptively reused, as a testament to its history and impact on Southern California. But everything old is new, and come this Fall, a resurrected Helms Bakery will be baking again!

23. Culver City Metro Expo Line Station
2012
Venice and National boulevards

Speaking of everything old is new again, The Metro Expo Line, the modern reincarnation of the Pacific Electric Santa Monica Air Line, is here to serve you. Feel free to browse the under-construction segments of Phase 2 of the Expo Line (soon the tracks will cross over Venice Blvd), opening in three years, which will reach  Santa Monica. Of course, if you want to make your way back Downtown, you're gonna have to hop on board this station. TIP: Make sure you buy a Day Pass or your TAP card is well-loaded, so you don't have to queue at the ticket machines! The Militant says "You're Welcome."

24. Pacific Electric Ivy Substation
1907
Venice and Culver boulevards

Downtown  Culver City is already rich in retail and artistic activity, and has a bevy of well-known eateries, like the popular Father's Office. The Militant can cover that in its own post (and kinda already did before). But welcoming people to Downtown Culver City along Venice Blvd, a block from the Culver City station is an appropriate link to the past - the Ivy Substation. The single-story Mission Revival-style structure served as a powerhouse for the Pacific Electric Railway from 1907 to 1953, when the Expo Line's predecessor, the Santa Monica Air Line, ceased operation. Today, it's a 99-seat venue for The Actor's Gang theatre company, renovated in the early 1990s. How interesting that a building originally built for transportation infrastructure was repurposed into a building for the arts, which in turn attract people using the new transportation infrastructure.

25. Brazilian Mall
1990
10826 Venice Blvd, Palms

Don't be afraid to get your samba on during CicLAvia! For here's a building where you can enjoy Brazilian-style pizza and shop for groceries, Belo Horizonte style. The Palms/Culver City area has been home to an enclave of Brazilians for the past 40 or so years, and other Brazilian restaurants and shops can be found just blocks away on Venice Boulevard. This place will surely by hot next year during the 2014 World Cup and two years after that for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. For more information, read The Militant's blog post from last year about the Brazilian Mall.

26. Sepulveda Channel
McLaughlin Ave and Venice Blvd, Mar Vista

Yet another flood control channel, this actually collects water from Westwood Creek and Stone Canyon Creek (one of the "Lost Rivers of UCLA" covered in a famous 2011 Militant Angeleno blog post) and takes it, where? Yes, good old Ballona Creek. Pretty much every place between the beach and DTLA and south of the Santa Monica Mountains belongs to the Ballona Creek watershed, and though encased in concrete,  is still part of the functioning riparian system that exists today. Of course, it would be much better if at one point, one day, some of those creeks could be daylighted and some of the concrete removed to bring them back to their natural state. A Militant can dream...

27. Venice High School
1920
13000 Venice Blvd, Venice

Venice's namesake secondary school was one of three on-location sites for Rydell High in the 1978 motion picture Grease, and was the school scene in the Britney Spears video for her debut hit, "...Baby One More Time." But it's also famous for its statue of legendary Hollywood actress and famous alumna Myrna Loy at the front of the school. Other famous alumni include Beau Bridges, Crispin Glover, the late Ivory Queen of Soul, Teena Marie and In-N-Out Burger founder Harry Snyder. Go Gondoliers!

28. Old Venice Civic Center
1911
681-685 Venice Blvd, Venice

Venice, originally founded as part of Santa Monica, seceded from that city in 1911 and for the next 15 years, functioned as an incorporated city. In 1926, due to political mismanagement and crumbling infrastructure, it was annexed into the City of Los Angeles. Its vestigial remnants of its civic government still remain, though. The old Venice City Hall still stands at 685 Venice Blvd (pictured), now the venue for Beyond Baroque Theatre. Next door on 681 Venice Blvd is the old Venice Police Station, now the home of the Social Public Arts Resource Center (SPARC), the community arts nonprofit that spearheaded the modern urban mural movement. It's interesting to note that both of these government buildings were adaptively re-used for arts purposes. The Militant is looking at the old LAPD Parker Center in DTLA and wonders if it could make some sort of badass performing arts venue...

29. Electric Avenue
1905
Electric Ave and Venice Blvd, Venice

No, '80s singer Eddy Grant didn't rock down to this street to take it higher (VROOOM!) But this street was so-named because it was one of the old Pacific Electric Red Car rights-of-way, which included Pacific Avenue (of course) and Venice Blvd. The railway, of course, was built to serve (and sell property in and around) Abbot Kinney's Venice of America development.

30. Abbot Kinney Blvd
1992
Abbot Kinney Blvd between Washington Blvd and Main Street

New arrivals to Los Angeles are likely oblivious to the fact that Venice's upscale arts and boutique corridor is technically one of its newest streets. Until 1992, that stretch was confusingly known as West Washington Blvd, which, along with Washington Street and Washington Way, was a source of disorientation among motorists. A small group of business owners lobbied to re-name the stretch after the community's founder. Ignorance of local history was so bad back then, that then-City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who grew up in the Westside, asked aloud at a Los Angeles City Council committee meeting, "Who is Abbot Kinney?" (Really, Zev?!?!) Thankfully, due to a street name change, and other things, we're a lot better at our Los Angeles history.

31. Venice Traffic Circle and the Lost Canals
1929
Grand and Windward avenues, Venice

Traffic circles, or "roundabouts" as they're known in Britain, are not a common sight in the US, much less Los Angeles, though a dozen or so are known to exist here (more in a future post). So what up with this one? This part of Venice was part of Abbot Kinney's original "Venice of America," replete with its own canals. But unlike their Italian counterpart, these canals were not physically connected to the ocean, and the water had gone stagnant and kinda gross. By the 1920s, the Venice city infrastructure was falling apart (which meant little resources or political will to maintain the canals), and the automobile had started to conquer the streets of the Southland. So they were filled in circa 1929. The CicLAvia course on Grand Avenue was once the Grand Canal, and the traffic circle was formerly the location of a large saltwater swimming lagoon. The surviving canals, located south of Venice Blvd, were built by a different developer a couple years after Kinney's canals opened.

32. Windward Hotel/Pacific Electric Station
1905
Windward and Pacific avenues, Venice

The Windward Hotel, now a traveler's hostel, is not only the oldest hotel building in Venice, but its eastern ground floor entrance also functioned as Venice's Pacific Electric station. For the first half of the 20th Century, Venice was a popular western destination for the Red Cars, and the preferred way to go. North of Windward Way, there was no Pacific Avenue, but a dedicated "Trolleyway" for the Red Cars. When passengers disembarked at the Venice station before 1929, they were treated to an awe-inspiring view of the large lagoon (now the traffic circle) and canals just across the street, welcoming them to Venice of America. Now, for CicLAvia, when you arrive here, use your imagination and pretend to be transported back to a time when you didn't need cars to get around. On this day, it won't be that hard.

To download and print a copy of this tour guide or send to your unspecified tablet computing device to take with you on your ride on Sunday, please click here! (Go to File -> Print (PDF) in the Google Docs window)