Where to Find Remnants of L.A.'s Red Car System
At one time, Los Angeles's Pacific Electric (PE) system was the largest public transit system in the country covering 1,100 of miles of Southern California landscape. For over 50 years, the PE's Red Cars transported Angelenos to almost every corner of Southern California but, by mid-century, the Red Cars gave way to buses, cars and freeways. Considering the last of Los Angeles famed Red Cars officially retired in 1961, there is still so much Pacific Electric history that can be found in the Southern California landscape — in expected and unexpected places.
Take, for example, the Heritage Square Museum. As soon as visitors step into the premises, they are already greeted by the beautifully-restored Palms Depot, a mustard yellow Queen Anne with gingerbread cornices and brown trim that now serves as the museum's the ticket booth. Originally located National Boulevard and Vinton, before the 10 Freeway was a twinkle in a highway engineer's eye, the late 1880s depot served both Southern Pacific and Pacific Electric lines. It was moved to Montecito Heights in 1976 to stand with the museum's other Victorians. Palms Depot is just one of the many reminders about the importance of the Pacific Electric to the development the region.
More of that transit history can easily be found in Southern California's railway museums such as Travel Town in Griffith Park, the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris and the Pacific Railroad Museum in San Dimas. Our railway past is also cemented in what could be considered concrete monuments to the PE — the 1904 Pacific Electric Lofts and the 1926 Subway Terminal Building in downtown Los Angeles. Humbler artifacts of the PE — depots, exposed tracks, rights-of-way, bridge footings — are still evident decades after the last Red Car retired. Below is a small sampling of these indelible Pacific Electric traces in Southern California:
Long Beach Rights of Way
In 2018, Long Beach residents and officials celebrated the opening of the Red Car Greenbelt established along an old stretch of the city's Pacific Electric right-of-way. Where trolleys once clicked and clacked down the Newport-Balboa line, joggers, bicyclists, pedestrians now trek down a path lined with patches of California poppies, yarrow and California brittlebush. A number of Long Beach parks and green spaces dot this old right-of-way, such as Rotary Centennial Park, Jenni Rivera Memorial Field, NAACP Freedom Park and Veterans Park. A stainless steel replica of a Red Car's front end titled "The Train Has Left the Station" stands in Orizaba Park. This public art piece by Patrick Vogel, combined with a concrete path designed like train tracks, pays tribute to the important role the PE line played in the development of Long Beach. Follow this right-of-way further south to Electric Avenue in Seal Beach, where a small museum is housed in an old Red Car.
Lynwood and North Hollywood Depots
A number of PE depots still stand including two beautiful examples in Hollywood and Lynwood. Originally known as the Lankershim Depot in North Hollywood, this prefabricated 1890s depot served both PE and Southern Pacific lines. Thanks to efforts of the Save Lankershim Train Depot Committee, the LA Conservancy and Metro, the Valley's oldest unmodified railroad structure was preserved and restored. Groundwork Coffee now serves Metro Red and Orange line commuters in "one of the San Fernando Valley's few nineteenth-century landmarks" — to quote the Los Angeles Conservancy, which awarded the depot its Conservancy Preservation Award in 2018.
Before it was on the National Register of Historic Places, the Lynwood Depot was a PE depot, bus station, taxi stand, lunch stand and typing school. It even survived the 1933 earthquake. This 1917 station originally stood at Long Beach Boulevard and Fernwood Avenue before it was moved to make way for the 105 Freeway. In the application for its historic status, engineer Andrew Swan explained "The style of the Lynwood station is unique in that it apparently was never repeated and had no precedent." This Classical-Revival-meets-California-Bungalow depot is located at the Lynwood City Park, next to the city's 1954 aqua-colored indoor swimming pool and is currently home to the Lynwood Union Gallery.
Irving Gill's Bridge and Depot in Torrance
In Torrance, pioneering modernist Irving Gill designed two Pacific Electric structures that still stand. Gill worked as Torrance's chief architect and designed both residential and business properties. He built the PE depot in 1912, which has been transformed into a lovely restaurant appropriately named The Depot. Reflecting Gill's graceful use of concrete, the 1913 El Prado Bridge transported freight along with commuting workers to the Torrance factories (and later the PE maintenance shops that spread over 60 acres in the city). Red Cars rolled under the bridge along Torrance Boulevard transporting riders between San Pedro and Los Angeles. The bridge no longer carries any rail cars but it does serve as a gateway to Torrance.
West Hollywood's Formosa Café
At West Hollywood's legendary Formosa Café, parched Angelenos can grab a cocktail along with a bite to eat in one of the oldest Red Cars in Los Angeles. Originally opened in 1939, the Formosa Café hosted many famous (and infamous) celebrities during Hollywood's golden era. The famed watering hole was shut in 2017 and reopened in 2019 under the management of the 1933 Group, known for restoring other historic spots, like the Idle Bar and Highland Park Bowl. During restoration of the Formosa, the 1933 Group paid close attention to the restaurant's historic car #913 — recreating parts for the 116-year-old trolley (like brass handles) and removing architectural features to draw more attention to this historic car. It's one of the few eateries that blends both Hollywood and railway history.
Actor's Gang at Culver City
Ten years before Culver City was founded, the 1907 Mission Revival Ivy Substation once supplied electricity to the Pacific Electric's Santa Monica Air Line, Redondo Beach Line and Venice Short Line. Two sets of tracks down two main roads (Venice Boulevard and what became Culver Boulevard) inspired Harry Culver, founder of Culver City, to transform this transportation hub into a city. It also helped that, according to legend, Harry Culver first saw his wife standing outside a depot near the Ivy Substation. The substation operated through the mid-1950s and then, like many PE structures, fell into disrepair. The building came under threat with the widening of Venice Boulevard in 1981 but thanks to efforts of Culver City Historical Society members, an application to the National Register of Historical Places was successfully submitted. Now, the Actor's Gang Theater Company calls this place home.
Huntington Drive in the San Gabriel Valley
For those who've ever wondered why many streets are unusually wide with broad medians, chances are that street used to funnel Pacific Electric cars down its thoroughfare. One example is Huntington Drive as it moves from Arcadia to El Sereno, which was an important route for the Monrovia-Glendora line. A Red Car mural in San Marino pays tribute to this history, along with a plaque at Soto Street and Huntington Boulevard in El Sereno that memorializes the PE bridge that once operated above this street. Other wide boulevards (to name only a few) include Hollywood Boulevard, Glendale Boulevard, Long Beach Boulevard, Exposition Boulevard and Venice Boulevard.
The places listed above barely scratch the surface of all the transit traces that can be explored in Southern California. A number of prominent structures have been preserved and repurposed thanks to adaptive reuse which has breathed new life into these PE remains.Yet smaller resilient pieces of PE infrastructure have survived the decades, hinting at how and where the Red Cars moved through the region. Fortunately, Pacific Electric enthusiasts have painstakingly researched these hidden, and not-so-hidden, traces. The Pacific Electric Historical Society shares research from those who have been documenting the PE system for the last 50 plus years. Pacific Railroad Society member David Coscia has compiled a helpful list of all remaining PE equipment. Militant Angeleno created a thorough Google map of artifacts and public art.
The Red Car may have formally retired in 1961 but thankfully there is still so much Los Angeles history that can be found in the landscape when looking through the lens of the Pacific Electric.
The writer wishes to thank the Pacific Railroad Society, which operates the Pacific Railroad Museum in San Dimas, for research assistance.
