Then & Now: Vermont & 8th, 1950 vs 2013

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Our latest installment in our Then & Now series takes us to the intersection of 8th & Vermont in Los Angeles. The top photo was taken Sept. 2, 1950. I took the bottom photo last month, so roughly 63 years later.

What’s changed? The Bank of America building is there still — sans the bank and now under a coating of stucco or stucco-like substance. The church is still there, too — now with solar panels.

The old Los Angeles Transit Lines streetcar is, of course, gone to the mists of time. Matching the photos was a bit difficult as the Vermont bus no longer turns west onto 8th Street. But you get the idea.

Again we find that a lot of Los Angeles’ past has survived into the 21st century. I think in some ways that’s a good thing — but it sure would be nice to see a lot less stucco and newer buildings a little more architecturally inspired than the apartment building in the bottom photo between the old bank building and the church.

RELATED POSTS:

Then & Now: 11th & Broadway, the land that time forgot

Then & Now: a streetcar and a bus on Brand Boulevard in Glendale

Photo gallery: streetcars in Los Angeles in the 1940s in glorious black and white

Then & Now: downtown Sierra Madre

Then & Now: In L.A. getting rid of streetcars easier than getting rid of billboards

Then & Now: a streecar and a bus in Highland Park, 1955 and 2013

Then & Now: streetcars along the Crenshaw/LAX Line alignment

Then & Now: a streetcar and a bus on Florence Avenue in Inglewood, 1955 and 2013

Categories: History, Inside Metro

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5 replies ›

  2. Point of information to Transit Rider:
    That was not a Pacific Electric “Red Car”. That was a Los Angeles Transit Lines “Yellow Car”.

  3. Absolute travesty what they did to that commercial building on the corner. Stuccoed it over – what a mess.

  4. Caught the 66 there today. Great picture. I had no idea a red car came through here, but got a hunch since there is a strangely oriented apartment near Western off of 8th. After looking close, I noticed it was just a lot fill for where tracks once were. I googled earthed the area, and you can still make out parts of the right away. Personally, I’m shocked since this is ten minutes from where I am, and imagining the red car instead of the 66 really is bittersweet.

  5. The power and communication lines are now burried underground or out-of-sight somewhere.