Los Angeles in the 1900s

July 31, 2006 8:49 AM

Los Angeles in the 1900s is a collection of newspaper articles & photographs documenting life in L.A. from 1900 to 1909. Some of the articles are funny, some tragic, all informative about what life in the very young city was like prior to the explosive growth caused by Mullholland, the Film Industry, & the freeways.
posted by jonson (9 comments total)

From the last link: If you were a married woman, you would always use your husband’s name, with Mrs. in front of it.

My grandmother did this well into the 1970s.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:09 AM on July 31, 2006

The cholos, a little bewildered by the order, but obeying it as unquestionably as they obey to all authority or authority’s semblance, will be prevented from housing themselves in such miserable fashion again.

Holy shit, that's some downhome ol' fashioned racism. Seemed every third or fourth paragraph raised my eyebrows a little higher.
posted by quite unimportant at 9:22 AM on July 31, 2006

Then the latest contribution to the comforts of mankind, radium, was suggested [by the reporter]. “Why not coat the tunnel with radium? It would give both light and heat, saving pedestrians the danger of contracting pneumonia, that they run from plunging into the damp, cool tunnel out of the sunlight?”

“Yes, yes. I had not thought of that,” answered the electrician. “I’ll take it under advisement.” . . .
posted by keswick at 9:22 AM on July 31, 2006

I love this stuff—thanks for the post!

But what's so funny about Hans Jevne?
posted by languagehat at 9:35 AM on July 31, 2006

What's funny is how inept I am at hyperlinking, languagehat. I meant to link to the anchored article two stories above the jevne page, the one about infant criminals terrorizing Los Angeles. Man... at least this wasn't another one of our double posts.
posted by jonson at 9:37 AM on July 31, 2006

And people think today's journalism is bad ...

Some of the old articles read like Onion "Our Dumb Century" parodies, like the "HOSPITAL A MENACE" article on this page.
posted by elmwood at 10:03 AM on July 31, 2006

Wow! This site is amazing. Thanks!
posted by redteam at 11:08 AM on July 31, 2006

Thanks for this interesting link.

My father's mother's family settled in Pasadena around the turn of the 1900's, it's fascinating to see how it must have been then. I've never seen a decent site with pics of LA at that time.

And not just the LA things are amusing either, this one, scarily, is about the Radium Milk and Rest Cure.

It's mind-bending to read the ignorance.

If you were living in Los Angeles a hundred years ago. wow. So grateful not to have been living anywhere 100 years ago.
posted by nickyskye at 3:48 PM on July 31, 2006

Absolutely great FPP. Thanks.
posted by Devils Slide at 2:29 AM on August 1, 2006