Bits 'n Pieces
12/13/02
Here are items from either the Heights or the Park
and I quickly put them in this page until I have more info on them.
Eastlake / Lincoln Park was so popular in its day.
Families, organizations, etc. held their events at Lincoln Park.
They came from all over the country.
Here are some mementos from these events.
Or other items of interest relating to Lincoln Heights/Park.
! LINCOLN HEIGHTS TANGO COASTER !
ca 1910
Take a look at the background!
"I knew there was a block long roller coaster!" j.a.
The Tango Coaster on Lincoln Park Avenue behind the Lincoln Heights DMV grounds.
That fence wall behind these ladies would have "Los Angeles Ostrich Farm" on the opposite side
towards the street facing the Tango Coaster.
It covered from Mission Rd to Barbee St. on Lincoln Park Avenue and also before the Skating Rink.
(Taken from the LA Daily Examiner, 1911)
More than 80,000 Iowa people attended the big picnic at Eastlake Park near that city February 22.
Ninety-nine counties were represented. The speakers were distinguished citizens of our Iowa state. The officers of the year are as follows: Honorary president, ex-Governor H.E. BOIES; active president, P.S. RISHEL; vice president, E.S. ORMSBY; treasurer, T.H. NICHOLS, who is cashier of the Southern California Savings Bank; and secretary C.H. PARSONS.
(I don't believe the 80,000) j.a.
The music machine for the
Lincoln Park carousel.
Wurlitzer Style 165 #3629
Originally sold in 1939 to Ross Davis
for Lincoln Park carousel, Los Angeles, CA
Facade restored by Don Rand.
Photo courtesy Don Rand.
1920s to 1970s?
How many of you been roller skating in Lincoln Heights?
These decals were popular and every skating rink had their own unique design.
Skaters would stick these decals on their skate bags to show all the rinks they been to.
The skating rink was demolished in Oct. 2001.
A 49 unit low income apartment complex will sit on this lot.
Photo submitted by Mary Kay, and writes...
"I know my grandfather managed the skating rink in the late 20s.
My grandmother is in a sweatshirt with the words Lincoln Park Roller Rink.
She must have worn it in the Ocean Park Skating Marathon which she won along with my grandfather."
An event happened at the Selig Zoo in 1925.
Maybe a company picnic?
One of the committee members ribbon?
The last event for the Selig Zoo? 3/2/02
Lincoln Park Tourist Camp
Tourist Camps or Auto Courts (called Motels now) were the norm in the 20s to 50s.
Since Lincoln Heights was a major tourist spot, where would they stay at?
Camps or Courts was the answer.
The national outgrowth of the auto camp and tourist home was the cabin camp (sometimes called cottages)
that offered minimal comfort at affordable prices. Many of these cottages are still in operation.
Eventually, auto camps and cabin camps gave way to motor courts in which all of the rooms were under a single roof.
Motor courts offered additional amenities, such as adjoining restaurants, souvenir shops, and swimming pools.
1931
Tent Style Business Card
Lincoln Park Tourist Camp
4101 Alhambra Avenue (or Valley Blvd.)
Los Angeles, California
25 Acres * 200 Cottages * 75¢ to $5.00
Best Cottages and camping in L.A.
(Corner of Soto St. and Valley Blvd). j.a.
LOCKWOOD AUTO COURT
2222 Parkside Ave.
Not to be confused with the Lincoln Park Tourist Camp.
Postcard image from my collection.
Lockwood Auto Court in the 20s
The Selig Zoo Lions Court in the background.
Near Mission Rd. and Parkside Ave.
Mr. Charles Conley stood at Lockwood Auto Court in the 20s.
Charles remembering that he stood at Lincoln Park Tourist Camp as a child asked for images of the camp in which I sent and he replied, "That wasn't the place I stood at, the cabins were going up a hill towards a cliff".
After many weeks of back and forth emails we discovered that he stayed with his family at Lockwood and not at the Lincoln Park Tourist Camp as he thought. My thanks to Mr. Charles Conley for his childhood photos below and together we discovered the Lockwood Auto Courts on Parkside Ave.
This is a what he remembers about Lockwood.
Charles Conley age 6 on the balcony at Lockwood Court.
My cabin was towards the cliff on Mission Rd.
In front of me is the "carport".
The direction in which I am looking is toward the Ostrich Farm.
1927-28
Our cabin would have been located right about where the housing ends short of the green ground cover, just below the two trees. (Near top center in color photo below).
It was father, mother, two girls and two boys. All of us stayed at Lockwood several months. My father overhauled the car there and got his hand caught in the timing chain. We had a Big 6 Studebaker touring car.
I remember that I had to climb a fairly good grade to get to our play area, which was on top of the "cliff," above Mission Road. A length of rope hung down over the far end of the "cliff" for the intrepid. There were footholes down the cliff, too, if one wanted to try clinging to the cliff on the way down. We kids watched while the bigger kids tried it, not us. The cliff itself, and the entire cleared area to the left of it, behind the housing, is exactly as I remember it. There may have been slight changes, of course. But I am absolutely amazed that after 74 years so much is the same. It is as if the housing development was built on what once was the Lockwood Auto Court
I was certainly impressed with that "cliff" and is exactly as I remember it. Wow? That was a journey in time. The "top of the hill" that I crossed on my way to school (or in that vicinity).
But that Cliff just hasn't changed. Even the way it curves around at the far end toward Mission. That's where the length of rope was for daring mountain climbers. Not me. In my imagination I can see the Lockwood Court sitting up where those houses are, and the Selig Zoo Lion Court across the street.
The cliff was the cincher.
I came down the hill in back of the auto court; there was a sidewalk and across the street, to my left front, was the school, which we presume was Gates. There might have been a path that I followed down the hill, but I don't remember any path other than the one I made going back and forth. Such a path would have benefited only those in the auto court. I don't think many tourists beside me went to school there. It was my mother's doing, she worried about my schooling since we had not yet settled down. What a scene I made when they left me there! The moment is indelibly printed on my mind: crying my head off, begging them not to leave me there with all those strangers.
It surely looks like the cliff that I played on as a child. The open area behind it, in particular, is exactly as I remember it. I probably saw the new City Hall in-the-making from there also. I'm sure I did, although at this late date it might have been only a dream.
Yes, it is not as pretty as the postcard, but more like I remember it. Too crowded for pretty floral planters, etc. The cabins were jammed in, right on top of one another. In 1931 or 1932, whenever the Big Earthquake was, we stayed in another cabin--one of those in the right row, midway up the hill. The front of the cabin was all screened in. We had a small gas stove, icebox and sink. No toilet; that was in the wash house. I was a few years older then and the memory is more distinct. Some of the cabins appear to have been enlarged. That effort narrowed the available roadway from that shown in the postcard.
Our 1927 cabin was cocked at an angle affording vision down (or up) Mission in the direction of the Ostrich Farm and Luna Park. That is why I saw a lot of the Ostriches and the Luna Park arches from an angle.
There was a community swimming pool North of the Ostrich Farm. That would not interfere with my view of the Ostrich Farm from Lockwood. I vaguely remember the pool or the reflection on the water.
I don't remember the Ascot Speedway. It must have been there. At night, when it was quieter, I could hear the Lions in the Luna Park Lion Farm. Just like Africa.
Lastly on another trip to LA in the late "thirties," down Route 66 (memories of which I also cherish) we stopped at one of the few Watering Holes then in the New Mexico desert and I saw these Chaps hanging on the wall. The proprietor let me wear them for a photo.
Charles A. Conley
Born 2-2-21, living in Aurora, IL.
THANK YOU CHARLES FOR SHARING YOUR MEMORIES OF LINCOLN HEIGHTS. 12/13/02 j.a.
LUNA PARK AUTO COURT
2101 Parkside Ave.
Was this built in the mid 20s and named after the Luna Park Zoo?
The Luna Park Auto Court is still in business and is directly across the street of the defunct Selig Zoo entrance.
If you know the history of this place please let me know. J.A. email: lincolnparkla@yahoo.com
Art
