Palms-

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names ...

Railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Depot is a historic railroad

depot Depot may refer to: Places * Depot, Poland, a village * Depot Glacier (disambiguation) * Depot Island (disambiguation) * Depot Nunatak * Depot Peak Brands and enterprises * Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in Chicago, United States * Of ...

built between 1886 and 1888 in what is now the Palms section of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. The two-story wood depot was originally located at the corner of National Boulevard and Vinton Avenue. In 1928, an “old-timer” told the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' that decades before the Palms station had been known as “Grasshopper Station” because at the time “grasshoppers were present in veritable clouds.” The Southern Pacific later changed the station's name to “The Palms”, and the surrounding community adopted the name. As one of only two depots on the fifteen-mile route between Los Angeles and

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

(the other being the Ivy station in

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights to the ea ...

), the Palms Depot served as the hub of a growing agricultural community. From the 1920s to the 1940s, the motion picture business became the dominant business in the Palms-Culver City area, and movie stars, including

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American actor often referred to as the "King of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". He appeared in more than 60 Film, motion pictures across a variety of Film genre, genres dur ...

, could be seen getting off the

Red Car The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

s on their way to work at the nearby studios. In addition, several films used the depot as a filming location, most notably

Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American double act, comedy duo during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) ...

's 1929 film "

Berth Marks ''Berth Marks'' is the second sound film starring Laurel and Hardy and was released on June 1, 1929. Plot Stan and Ollie, two musicians en route to a performance in Pottsville, Pennsylvania Pottsville is a city and the county seat of Schu ...

" and the 1928

Our Gang ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, who also pr ...

The Little Rascals ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, who also pr ...

film " The Ol' Gray Hoss." In 1953, the Red Car line was shut down, and the depot was abandoned. As the surrounding area became a suburban residential community, the depot became “a symbol of another day and reflective of what has happened to Palms”. In the early 1960s, the Culver-Palms Boy Scout Troop 49 undertook a beautification of the depot building and used it as a meeting place. The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board declared the building to be a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1963; it was the 22nd structure to receive the historic monument designation. Despite the designation, the depot remained vacant, was victimized by vandals and graffiti, and fell into serious disrepair in the early 1970s. The

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ultimately condemned the structure, but preservationists sought to save it from demolition. In 1976, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Foundation raised funds to move the structure to

Heritage Square Museum Heritage Square Museum is a living history and open-air museum, open-air architecture museum located beside the Arroyo Seco Parkway in the Montecito Heights, Los Angeles, Montecito Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southern ...

Montecito Heights Montecito Heights is a neighborhood in the Northeast Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California. The population in 2000 was estimated at 16,768. Geography and transportation Montecito Heights' boundaries are roughly the Pasadena Freeway ( SR ...

. The depot presently sits at the entrance to Heritage Square and houses the museum gift shop.

References

{{LAHMC Railway stations in Los Angeles Railway stations in the United States opened in 1888 Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Montecito Heights, Los Angeles Westside (Los Angeles County) Former Southern Pacific Railroad stations in California Railway stations in the United States closed in 1953

See also

References