Pico/Rimpau

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Pico/Rimpau is an area of Mid-City, Los Angeles, at the junction of Pico Boulevard, Rimpau Street, San Vicente Boulevard, Venice Boulevard, Vineyard Avenue and West Boulevard. This area is the location of several key former and current transportation hubs and retail shopping centers for the Los Angeles area.

Contents

Retail shopping centers included the innovative landmark Sears Pico store, Midtown Crossing and Midtown Shopping Center.

In public transit, the Pico/Rimpau Transit Center remains a major bus station for LA's Metro and Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus, while Rimpau Loop and Vineyard Junction are landmarks from the city's electric railway history.

Transportation hubs

Vineyard Junction

Vineyard
Rimpau Loop
History
Opened1897
ClosedDecember 28, 1950 (Pacific Electric)
March 31, 1963 (Los Angeles Railway)
Former Services
Preceding station PE Bolt.svg Pacific Electric Following station
Roberto
towards Rustic Canyon
Venice Short Line Western Avenue
towards Hill Street
Rosemary
towards Santa Monica
Sawtelle
Westgate
Roberto
towards Clifton
Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey
Rimpau Loop
Preceding station Los Angeles Railway Following station
Terminus P Pico and Crenshaw
towards Dozier Loop

In the late 1800s, the Pacific Electric (PE) established its Vineyard Junction depot, near the intersection of Venice and San Vicente. Lines ran on Venice Boulevard between Downtown Los Angeles and Vineyard Junction, where they would split with some cars heading further along Venice Boulevard to Venice and Redondo Beach, while others went along Boulevard toward West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. In 1924, PE added a more direct motorbus between Vineyard Junction and Santa Monica via Pico Boulevard.

Vineyard Junction was the site of an accident on July 13, 1913, in which two wooden streetcars crashed into each other, with 14 people dead and 200 people injured. As a result, the Pacific Electric ordered its future cars to be made of steel, and it was recommended that signaling be introduced on the PE's lines. [1]

Rimpau Loop

Rimpau Loop in 1956 Rimpau Loop.jpg
Rimpau Loop in 1956

In 1920, the Los Angeles Railway ("Yellow Cars") extended its "P" Pico Blvd. streetcar line to Rimpau Street, about a block away from the PE's Vineyard Junction. [2]

Dissatisfied with PE’s service and fares, the City of Santa Monica began running its own bus service along Pico Boulevard on April 14, 1928. [3] The combination of Santa Monica’s bus and the Yellow Car offered a lower fare than PE between Santa Monica and LA. [4] PE eventually discontinued its Pico bus line, and in 1935, the Los Angeles Railway and Santa Monica made their partnership permanent with the construction of the Rimpau Loop, a bus-to-streetcar transfer station. [5] [6]

The P Yellow Car line was transferred to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1958. Service was converted to motor coach operation on March 31, 1963. [7]

Santa Monica was prevented from operating any buses east of Rimpau, and the transfer arrangement remained in place for decades.

Pico/Rimpau Transit Center

Pico/Rimpau Transit Center in January 2006 Pico Rimpau Transit Center.jpg
Pico/Rimpau Transit Center in January 2006

In 2006, as part of the redevelopment of the former Sears Pico site, a new "Pico/Rimpau Transit Center" was built, offering more passenger amenities. [8]

As of 2021, Big Blue Bus (the current name of Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines) still operates Line 7 (including Rapid and Express variants) between Pico/Rimpau and Santa Monica and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates Line 30 between Pico/Rimpau and Downtown Los Angeles.

The Pico/Rimpau Transit Center is a proposed station on the K Line Northern Extension light rail, which will open in 2047.

Shopping centers

Sears Pico (1939–2003)

Sears Pico was a Sears branch that opened here on October 19, 1939. [9] [10] The designer was John Raben, who assisted Jock Peters in the design of Bullocks Wilshire. [11] [12] It had 202,640 square feet (18,826 m2) of retail space over two floors plus a basement, the largest Sears store on the West Coast at the time. Pico and Rimpau was not a major shopping district, but Sears had been having success since 1925 doing things differently from other retail chains, which placed their stores in downtown shopping districts, by instead opening freestanding stores in working-to-middle-class suburban areas of major U.S. cities, designed for access primarily by car, although in the case of the Pico store, there was easy access by transit.

Sears Pico claimed one of the largest street display windows in the city at the time, at 18 by 40 feet. It had parking for 360 cars, including an 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m2) rooftop parking deck, from which customers parking there would descend via escalator into the store. [13] From the roof parking lot, the store entrance was not utilitarian but in the style of a main entrance. All of this was novel and futuristic at the time. [14] The Los Angeles Times noted that at the time, "people would come from miles around to see the rooftop parking deck". [15]

Other features considered progressive at the time were streamlined escalators, "windowless construction" (no windows to the outside from the selling floor), and air conditioning. Moreover, the floor plan was open instead of divided into sections, and the entire syncretic architectural design of the store was based around the needs of the selling floor. [9] Sears boasted that, "a rival merchandising executive offered tribute: 'in my long experience in the retail field, I have yet to witness a unit which equals Sears' Pico store in practical efficiency, merchandise engineering, operation, layout and presentation of merchandise'." [16] [17] [15]

By the 1990s, the Pico/Rimpau area was surrounded by mostly working-class residents: Central American and Korean immigrants, and African Americans. [16] Middle-class shoppers who originally shopped at Sears Pico/Rimpau, were lost to an increasing array of stores in the central/western Los Angeles: the Miracle Mile shopping district, Crenshaw Center (opened 1947), Fox Hills Mall (opened 1975), and Beverly Center (opened 1982).

The area suffered damage from the 1965 Watts riots and further with the 1992 Rodney King riots. In 1988, Sears built a store in the newly renovated and expanded Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, formerly Crenshaw Center.

By the mid-1990s, Sears had sold the store. The first floor was occupied by a discount hardware store and the second by a bazaar of independent vendors, in California known as an indoor swap meet. [16]

Midtown Crossing (2012–present)

The Sears-Pico building was demolished around 2003 [14] and replaced by the Midtown Crossing in 2012, a development with 330,000 square feet (31,000 m2) of retail space on 11 acres (4.5 ha). The center was the result of a 2010 plan in which the city provided $34 million worth of loans and subsidies to CIM Group for its construction. [18] Lowe's, Smart & Final Extra!, Petsmart and Ross Dress for Less are the main big-box anchors.

Midtown Shopping Center (1960–present)

Midtown Shopping Center opened to the west of the large Sears store in 1960. The development had 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) of retail space, [19] originally anchored by Thrifty Drug Stores, J. J. Newberry five and dime, and a Safeway supermarket which later became a Boys Market, and later a Alpha-Beta Supermarket.

Much of the center was destroyed in the 1992 Los Angeles riots. [20]

Today the center is anchored by a Ralphs supermarket, a CVS Pharmacy, a Living Spaces furniture store and a Planet Fitness gym.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Electric</span> Southern California transit company

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 in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Blue Bus</span> Bus service serving Santa Monica and surrounding region in Los Angeles, California

Big Blue Bus is a municipal bus service serving the city of Santa Monica and the greater Westside region of Los Angeles County. The service, operated by the city of Santa Monica, was founded on April 14, 1928 and throughout its existence has used a blue color scheme for its buses, leading to the Big Blue Bus nickname that would later become the official name of the agency. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 7,119,600, or about 26,100 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2023. Big Blue Bus receives funding from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) and offers connections to its Metro Bus and Metro Rail systems, but is operated independently from Metro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mid City, Los Angeles</span> Neighborhood of Los Angeles in California, United States of America

Mid City is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles Railway</span> Electric interurban railway in Los Angeles, California

The Los Angeles Railway was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent local services which complemented the Pacific Electric "Red Car" system's largely commuter-based interurban routes. The company carried many more passengers than the Red Cars, which served a larger and sparser area of Los Angeles.

Pico Boulevard is a major Los Angeles street that runs from the Pacific Ocean at Appian Way in Santa Monica to Central Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. It is named after Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venice Boulevard</span> Thoroughfare in Los Angeles

Venice Boulevard is a major east–west thoroughfare in Los Angeles, running from the ocean in the Venice district, past the I-10 intersection, into downtown Los Angeles. It was originally known as West 16th Street under the Los Angeles numbered street system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vermont Avenue</span> Major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, CA

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Monica Air Line</span> Former train service from Los Angeles to Santa Monica

The Santa Monica Air Line was an interurban railroad operated by the Pacific Electric between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles. Electric passenger service operated over the line between 1908 and 1953. After abandonment as a freight railroad, most of the route was converted to light rail for use by the Metro E Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sawtelle Line</span> Los Angeles streetcar route (1901-1940)

The Sawtelle Line was an interurban railway route operated by the Pacific Electric Railway that ran between Downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Hollywood–Sherman Line</span> Pacific Electric street car line (1896–1953)

The South Hollywood–Sherman Line was a suburban route of the Pacific Electric Railway. The line ran between Downtown Los Angeles and the suburb of Sherman. The line was named after Moses Sherman, who built the line and the Sherman street car yard on the line in West LA. The large 5.56-acre (2.25 ha) rail facility was on Santa Monica Boulevard just west of La Cienega Boulevard. The yard had a steam power house, a car barn and a shop building.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">P (Los Angeles Railway)</span>

P was a streetcar line in Los Angeles, California. It was operated by the Los Angeles Railway from 1895 to 1958, and by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority from 1958 to 1963.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venice Short Line</span> Los Angeles streetcar route (1897-1950)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles Pacific Railroad</span> California interurban and freight routes (1896−1911)

The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad (1896−1911) (LAP) was an electric public transit and freight railway system in Los Angeles County, California. At its peak it had 230 miles (370 km) of track extending from Downtown Los Angeles to the Westside, Santa Monica, and the South Bay towns along Santa Monica Bay.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venice–Inglewood Line</span> Historic rail route in California

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey Line</span> Historic streetcar line in California

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References

  1. ↑ "100 Years Ago Today: The Tragic Accident That Changed Los Angeles Streetcars Forever". Metro Digital Resources Librarian, Los Angeles Metro. July 13, 2003. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  2. ↑ H.P. Noordwal (1938). "Route Map Los Angeles Railway Electric Car and Bus Routes" (Map). Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc. Los Angeles Railway. "Alternate link" (Map). via Google .
  3. ↑ "'P'". Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  4. ↑ Hobbs, Charles P. (September 6, 2011). "Big Blue Bus Breakthrough". More Than Red Cars. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  5. ↑ "Beach Trip To Be Safer: Construction of Pico-Rimpau Bus-Car Transfer Depot Will Start Today". Los Angeles. March 20, 1935.
  6. ↑ "LARY: Rimpau Look / PE: Vineyard Junction, 1938", PERYHS site
  7. ↑ "March 31: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History". Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Metro Opens Sleek New Bus Terminal Today at Pico/Rimpau". Los Angeles Metro. January 11, 2006. Archived from the original on June 18, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  9. 1 2 "Sears-Pico Store to Open Today: Great Crowds Expected When Doors Open at 9:30 Mayor and Prominent Citizens Will Attend Simple Ceremony; Ample Free Parking Provided". Los Angeles Times . October 19, 1939. p. B1. ProQuest   164941312.
  10. ↑ "Advertisement for Sears-Pico". Los Angeles Times. October 19, 1939. p. B3. ProQuest   165039008.
  11. ↑ "Sears' Own Designers Created New Pico Store". Los Angeles Times. October 19, 1939. p. B7. ProQuest   164949722.
  12. ↑ Bloomekatz, Ari (September 12, 2007). "Mid-City getting a boost". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Auto Parking Area on Roof: Novel 'Lot' Reached Directly from Street; Held First of Kind". Los Angeles Times . October 19, 1939. p. B1. ProQuest   164949603.
  14. 1 2 Longstreth, Richard. Sears, Roebuck and the Remaking of the American Department Store. George Washington University.
  15. 1 2 Kaatz, Donald (September 27, 1987). "Sears Strikes Back: Inside the Retail Giant's Struggle to Regain Its Position--and Profits--in the Los Angeles Market It Once Dominated Completely". p. N16. ProQuest   900664662.
  16. 1 2 3 Caldwell, John T. (2003). New Media Theories and Practices of Digitextuality. Routledge. p. 65. ISBN   9781135372521 – via Google Books.
  17. ↑ "Sears History - 1940s to 1970s", Sears Archives
  18. ↑ "Mid-City L.A. Shopping Center Completes Construction: Developer CIM Group has completed construction of the 330,000-square-foot Midtown Crossing retail center in Mid-City Los Angeles, which targets the more than 1.3 million residents within a five-mile radius". Commercial Property. March 6, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  19. ↑ "Advertisement for Midtown Shopping Center". Los Angeles Times. July 14, 1960. p. 90.
  20. ↑ Vincent, Roger (May 2, 2013). "Midtown Shopping Center to see improvements after land sale". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 18, 2020.


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