Vintage roadside

[Bamaboots]

Contrary to what the sign says, apparently not everyone loves bowling. After 60 years of business, the last bowling alley in my hometown of Whittier, California, closed in June of 2015, and this sign was taken down last week.

Sucks!

 

[dh66]

Been a sad last few weeks for the bowling alleys.

That's an amazing and iconic sign Alex. I've never had the pleasure to see it in person, but have seen it in many publications, on both bowling and mid century design. It's a real shame to know it's gone.

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[Zombie_61]

Here's the building that goes with (or went with) that sign:

Considered to be an example of Googie architecture, I don't know what will happen to it. At the time of it's closure the owners said they were planning to preserve the exterior, but we all know how these things go when a developer with a truckload of money wants to tear it down and turn it into another strip mall.

 

[1mach1]

Its sad that icons like these get destroyed. Sometimes, I am surprised they are not deemed historical landmarks.

 

[1mach1]

In the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC by the train and metro tracks. The large Brookland painted sign and the old building was restored by the city.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ As a lover of trains, train travel is great way to see old buildings - especially factories and warehouses - as so many were built beside train tracks for transportation and, amazingly, so many are still there. I've travelled from Washington to Maine on trains and around almost all the old cities, you see these incredible old buildings - wonderful time travel. And you also get some more distant shots (especially if they are up on a hill) of some old homes as they wanted to be a bit further from the train noise, but still close. If you get lucky, you can see how an entire town was laid out - town center close to train, factories and warehouses just outside of town, a bit further back of the town, the residential areas and, on the hills, the fancy houses.

 

[BobHufford]

Your train reference reminded me of this. The Jefferson Avenue Footbridge that connects Commercial Street with the Moon City neighborhood here in Springfield, Missouri. The area was once blighted (and the neighborhood still is somewhat) with the footbridge scheduled for demolition. The City finally got its sh*t together and saved it.

 

[Bushman]

^^^ As a lover of trains, train travel is great way to see old buildings - especially factories and warehouses - as so many were built beside train tracks for transportation and, amazingly, so many are still there. I've travelled from Washington to Maine on trains and around almost all the old cities, you see these incredible old buildings - wonderful time travel. And you also get some more distant shots (especially if they are up on a hill) of some old homes as they wanted to be a bit further from the train noise, but still close. If you get lucky, you can see how an entire town was laid out - town center close to train, factories and warehouses just outside of town, a bit further back of the town, the residential areas and, on the hills, the fancy houses.

I whole heartedly agree. This is one of my favorite things I've passed on a train:

 

[Zombie_61]

Its sad that icons like these get destroyed. Sometimes, I am surprised they are not deemed historical landmarks.

Sometimes it seems the developers here in California want to tear everything down and build something new. I've watched buildings being built, and 10 or 15 years later get torn down and replaced with a building that was almost identical. It's no wonder the west coast of the U.S. has so little physical history.

I recently read that any building in California built during or before 1941 is automatically placed on some sort of list for review (if it's scheduled for modification or demolition) to determine it's historical value and structural integrity. That bowling alley is too new to be on that list, but there is at least one active conservancy group in the state that might step in to block it's demolition if it comes to that.

 

[BobHufford]

Great place for a steak-burger and onion rings. This was one of my late mother-in-law's hangouts in high school (Class of '55). If you use the drive-up window bring a friend as the window is on the passenger side of the car (unless you have a right-hand drive British car or an old US Mail Jeep).

Prior to being Taylor's (started in 1947) it was a cafe called The Polar Bear that opened in the late 1920s. On the left ...

Across the street is the American Legion Hall and caddy-corner is the back-end of the Shrine Mosque.

This is the front of the Shrine. Elvis played here in 1956!

 

[Zombie_61]

^^^ As a lover of trains, train travel is great way to see old buildings...

Speaking of trains and old buildings...

This is the Southern Pacific Railroad depot in my home town of Whittier, California. On the left, as it looked in 1896; on the right, as it looked in 2009 (and how it looks today) after restoration and preservation. Built in 1892, it was closed down in 1967 due to changes in the Southern Pacific Railroad's routing. The building was occupied by various industrial tenants (I used to turn in aluminum cans for spare cash there in the late 70s) until the mid-1980s when the land it sat upon was scheduled for development. The building was eventually moved to it's current location a few miles southeast of it's original location, restored, and repurposed as the City of Whittier Transportation Center (whatever that is).

 

[dh66]

Glad they saved that one, Al.

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[Zombie_61]

Glad they saved that one, Al.

Me too. I don't know what they had to do to restore that particular building, but the last time I was in it (at it's original location) it was completely a wooden structure. Very cool!

The first settlement in the area was established in 1784, but Whittier didn't become a proper, incorporated city until February, 1898. Spanish land owners were essentially overrun by Quakers moving west, who chose to name the city after Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Granted, the recorded history on the left side of the continental U.S. doesn't date back nearly as far as the history on the right side, but it seems some communities here in southern California have done what they can to preserve their place in the overall timeline.

Whittier has been the setting for a number of television shows and movies over the years. At one point in the mid-1980s I was watching one of these crews filming whatever project they were working on, and had the opportunity to ask one of the crewmembers why Whittier was such a "hot spot" for such productions. His response was rather simple and straighforward: "Whittier is like a time capsule. There are still complete neighborhoods here from almost every decade going back to at least the 1930s, so with a little work we can make them look "right" for any movie set in any of those time periods."

Unfortunately, the Whittier Narrows earthquake in October of 1987 caused a lot of damage and the modern reconstruction eliminated that quality from several areas, but there are still some neighborhoods in which you can drive down the street and easily imagine how they looked in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and so on.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

And to think most people only know Whittier as the hometown of Richard Nixon and Octomom.

 

[Zombie_61]

And to think most people only know Whittier as the hometown of Richard Nixon and Octomom.

And yet, they put the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda just because he was born there. Go figure.

 

[BobHufford]

My wife's Granddad out in front of his gas station in the late 1940s. The station was on Route 66 just east of Springfield, MO.

 

[BobHufford]

This was the old Pickwick, then Pickwick-Greyhound and then Greyhound terminal here in downtown Springfield, MO on Rt. 66. I remember getting on a bus there bound for Cincinnati with my Grandma back in the 1960s. The terminal was demolished in the early 1980s IIRC.

 

[BobHufford]

Heard on the news this morning that the Hillbilly Junction near Willow Springs, Missouri (which had been closed and up for sale for over a year) was donated to the local YMCA. Hillbilly Junction opened in 1947 as a gas station and rest stop on highway 60.

 

[BobHufford]

The arm-twirling Hillbilly had been relocated from the Mule Trading Post in Rolla, Missouri (on Rt. 66) when they went with a bigger version.

 

[1mach1]

Rip Van Winkle Motel in Warrenton, VA