Swanfeldt Tent and Awning Building, ca. 1930 (Image courtesy USC Digital Library)
Journal of Mrs. J.O. Withers (Arah Hatton Withers)
Original written in 2.75 in. x 4 in. leather-covered booklet labeled:
SWANFELDT TENT & AWNING CO.
224 S. Main St.
Los Angeles
My great-grandmother, Arah Hatton Withers, kept this journal of her family’s early auto tours. My mother more recently transcribed it into a typescript. (Thanks, Mom!) Sadly, the original manuscript has gone missing. Similarly, no one in the family remembers James and Arah’s traveling companions, nor do we know the types of cars they drove, (though family memories have the Withers’ as possibly a Ford T). Arah’s words sketch the adventures of band of avid motorists in early-20th century Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura Counties. Los Angeles County alone counted 504,131 inhabitants in the 1910 census, by 1920 that number had nearly doubled, to 936,455 souls. Born in South Los Angeles in 1916, Raymond Otis Withers was my grandfather.-Ex Eugeniac
James Otis and Arah Hatton Withers wedding photo, 1916 (Image courtesy Withers family)
Auto Trips
Dec 30th 1917
Santa Monica Canyon, before 1920. Only a few buildings occupy the mostly vacant land. One sign reads “Cold drinks, lunch.” (Image & caption courtesy USC Digital Library)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Grenniger
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink (possibly of Inglewood, CA, as of 1940)
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond & Arah
-Ate lunch in Santa Monica Canyon. Spent the afternoon on the sand above Santa Monica. All ate supper at Mr. & Mrs. Harmon’s.
Jan 20th 1918
Griffith Park, ca.1920 (Image courtesy of Water and Power Associates)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Helen & Bennie
- Otis, Raymond & Arah
-Ate our dinner in Griffith Park. Went up over Mt. Hollywood, through Griffith Park, down into San Fernando Valley, through Glendale, Through Pasadena, on through Montebello, Downey, Compton, Long Beach, and on back to Gardena.
Feb 10th 1918
Hollywood Bowl, 1918 (Image courtesy Pinterest)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Roth & son
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Mr. Adams
- Mrs. Barber, Ione
- Otis, Raymond, & Arah
-All met in Hollywood at Mr. Harmon’s, went to Arroyo Seco, ate dinner, then drove thro. Pasadena & on home. Mr. Hannebrink & family ate remnants with us in the evening.
March 3rd 1918
Newhall Auto Tunnel, 1914 (Image courtesy Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Myers
- Mr. & Mrs. Rheuler
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & Arah
-Went through Hollywood for the Harmons, then went up North to Newhall, ate our dinner, drove good part of afternoon. Back thro Dark Canyon to Harmons, ate lunch with them.
March 24th 1918
Food stand below Pacific Palisades, 1918 (Image courtesy Water and Power Associates)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Cresswell & Carlos
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & Arah
-Went through Hollywood for the Harmons, ate dinner in Santa Monica Canyon. Mr. & Mrs. Taylor met us there & all drove way up the coast above Santa Monica, spent P.M. in the sand.
April 7th 1918
1919 Laguna Beach Hill Climb (Image courtesy Laguna Beach Historical Society)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Cresswell
- Mr. & Mrs. Barber
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
Otis, Raymond, & Arah (Raymond turned 2 years old on April 4, 1918.)m
-Went to Laguna Beach, ate dinner on the sand at Arch Beach. Mr. & Mrs. Roth & son drove down from Santa Ana in the afternoon.
April 21st 1918
Elgin Street Sweeper, Anaheim, 1914 (Image courtesy Pinterest)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Cresswell
- Mr. & Mrs. Barber
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie, Carlos, & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, Arah, & Mother
-Met Harmons in Anaheim, spent day in Orange County Park. Quite a big earthquake on this day. All came to our house and ate supper. [A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Southern California on April 21, 1918. One person died, while several were injured. San Jacinto, California experienced major damage.]
April 23rd 1918
Burrows & Johnson Hardware Store, 3755 S. Vermont Ave. The store on the corner of 37th Street and Vermont Avenue was one of many businesses near USC. A tailor’s shop is next door. This building and the house behind it are now an empty lot. (Vermont Avenue is a direct route to Griffith Park from Gardena.) (Image and caption courtesy Water and Power Associates)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Grenniger
- Mr. & Mrs. Cresswell & Carlos
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mrs. Barber
- Mrs. Rheuler
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Arah & Raymond
-Went to Griffith Park to “weenie roast”. Had a lovely time. Stopped at Harmon’s awhile.
May 3rd 1918
Hollywood Blvd at Wilcox Ave, circa 1900 (Image courtesy Pinterest)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Mother, Raymond & I
-Drove to Hollywood to Grenniger’s.
May 5th 1918
Topanga Canyon Summit, 1920s (Image courtesy Bizarre LA)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Cresswell & Carlos
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Otis, Arah and Raymond
-Went to Harmon’s then over to Cresswell’s, then up into Topanga Canyon, ate dinner, then ate supper in Griffith Park and stopped at Harmon’s awhile.
May 26th 1918
James (Otis) and Arah at Redondo Beach, 1918 (Image courtesy Withers family)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Cresswell and Carlos
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & Arah
-Went thro. San Pedro, Pt. Firmin (Fermin), out to White’s Point and ate dinner and along the coast thro. Redondo & on home.
July 7th 1918
Two men in the cab, and two outside, watch as a steam shovel picks up dirt and a very large stone while clearing roads in the Mt. Hollywood area. (Image and caption courtesy Water and Power Associates)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Grenniger
- Mrs. Rheuler
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond & Arah
-Went by for Harmons no one to go with them so went after Grennigers, they had just got out of bed, all went over Mt. Hollywood up into Griffith Park, where we had dinner & supper under the Cal. live oaks.
Aug 25th 1918
Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” and wingwalker over Ocean Park Pier, California, 1918 (Image courtesy coollikepie.com)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mrs. Rheuler
- Bennie, Helen
- Otis, Raymond & Arah
-Went thro. Inglewood, Venice, Ocean Park, Santa Monica & Santa Monica Canyon up the coast & into Topanga Canyon, ate dinner, drove over the Mt. into Lankershim, Van Nuys, & back thro. Hollywood & called on the Grennigers. Then on home.
Sept 8th 1918
Los Angeles Public Library, Cahuenga Branch, built in 1918 (Image courtesy carnegie-libraries.org)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond & Arah
- Mother
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
-Went by for the Harmons. up Cahuenga Pass, Universal City, Lankershim, had dinner in Sunland Park, then on through Little Landers, through Pasadena, out to Mt. Wilson toll road, thro. Montebello, on to Exposition Park & ate supper.
Sept 15th 1918
Street scene, Brea, California, 1918 (Note Brea Electric Co. sign at left.) (Image courtesy Brea Electric Company)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Grenniger
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & Arah
-Went to Hollywood, then to Gnesia (Ganesha?) Park, ate our dinner & then came back thro La Brea (Brea), Fullerton, Downey, Bell, Huntington Park, thro. Compton & on home.
Oct 13th 1918
Looking west down Huntington Beach’s Main Street toward ocean, 1915 (Image courtesy USC Digital Library)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & Arah
-Went to Orange Co. Park, ate dinner, then drove up to Lemon Heights, then on to Huntington Beach, to Mrs. Barber’s. Harmons were there, Harmons went on home. We got watermelon and stopped with us & had supper & melons.
Dec 15th 1918
Car trouble, ca.1918 (Image courtesy Model T Ford Club of America)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, Mother & I
-Ate dinner in Santa Monica Canyon, then started up into Topanga Canyon to get Holly. (Undoubtedly gathered wild for Christmas. Mistletoe grows on the oaks in Malibu’s canyons, too.) Mr. Hanne- machine went on the bum, so Mr. Harmon towed us back to his place, all ate supper there & got machine fixed & drove home.
Dec 22nd 1918
Photo of the (Santa Monica) California Incline showing a man next to an early-model convertible taking in the view of the beach and ocean below. Also seen is a horse-drawn wagon making its way up the incline, 1916 (Image and caption courtesy Los Angeles Times photo archives)
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & I
-Ate dinner in Santa Monica Canyon, went up in Topanga Canyon (again) & got Holly, then back to Harmon’s & ate supper.
Jan 5th 1919
A view of the center of Chatsworth, now Topanga Canyon Boulevard, looking north. On the left is Graves and Hill General Merchandise and Post Office. Horses and cars share the street, 1911 (Image and caption courtesy Water and Power Associates)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Grenniger
- Bennie, Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & I
-Through Chatsworth on up through Santa Susanna Pass, back thro Camarillo on to Gardena. Hannebrinks ate supper with us.
Feb 9th 1919
Mt. Wilson Toll Road, toll house, 1914 (Image courtesy Bizarre LA)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Cresswell
- Bennie, Helen & Carlos
- Mrs. Cresswell
- Otis, Raymond & I
-Went by for Harmons, then to Arroyo Seco, ate dinner, then thro. Tropico, Pasadena pass Mt. Wilson toll road, thro’ Monrovia on Foothill Blvd., then across to Valley Blvd. thro Puente, Montebello, came past Cresswell’s but did not stop. Then on home.
Feb 22nd 1919
Tent city at Hotel del Coronado, San Diego, ca. 1920 (Postcard courtesy Mike Davis collection)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond & I
-Left home at 7 o’clock, drove to Torrey Pines, ate dinner, then on to San Diego. Had machine trouble from about 4 in afternoon until 9 o’clock, left San Diego at 9 o’clock, got home at 3 A.M. Sun. morning.
March 2nd 1919
Fredrick Hastings Rindge moved to California for health reasons in 1887. In 1892, he purchased the 13,000-acre Spanish land grant at Rancho Malibu. Rindge’s property extended from the shoreline to about 3 miles inland, and north for about 15 miles to just south of Oxnard. (Image courtesy Williamson, Rindge & Hole Family Foundation)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Bennie & Helen
- Mother, Otis, Raymond & I
-Ate dinner in Santa Monica Canyon, drove on up to Rindge Rancho, back to Harmon’s for supper.
March 15th
Santa Monica Road Race, 191x? (Image courtesy KCET Television)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. Rheuler
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & I
-Went to Santa Monica Road races
March 16th
Mt Wilson brand citrus crate label. Observatory constructed 1917. (Image courtesy Mount Lowe Preservation Society)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & I
-Went thro. Hollywood then on to Serra (Sierra) Madra (Madre), ate dinner & walked aways up Mt Wilson, on to Harmon’s & ate supper.
March 30th
Southern Pacific Mammoth Wharf, 4700 ft. long. Port Los Angeles, Cal., ca. 1900 (Santa Monica briefly challenged San Pedro and Wilmington as the site for LA’s port. In the 1890s, rail baron Collis Huntington secretly laid plans for a line to San Pedro’s Terminal Island, with channel dredging to follow. This sealed the fate of the Mammoth Wharf and similar ventures in the deepwater Santa Monica Bay.) (Original caption and photo by H.F. Rile)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Bennie & Helen
- Mr. J.D. Dopfs
- Mrs. Taylor
- Otis, Raymond, & I
-Ate dinner in Santa Monica Canyon, played in the sand & drove up thro. Topanga Canyon.
April 6th
Actress Helena Modjeska’s home, Arden, in Santiago Canyon. (Image courtesy Tustin Area Historical Society)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Bennie, Helen, Otis, Raymond, & I
-Went to Orange Co. Park, then on to Madam Madjeska’s (Modjeska’s) Home, then over the Mts to Tustin and on home.
April 20th
Oil wells at Huntington Beach (located between Orange County Park and Long Beach), 1920s (Image courtesy Model T Ford Club of America)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Allen
- Mrs. Taylor
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & I
-Went to Orange Co. Park, then to Seal Beach, Long Beach, and on to Hannebrink’s for supper. We came on home with Mr. Harmon. Mr. & Mrs. Harmon, Mrs. Taylor, Mr. & Mrs. Dofts, Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink, Bennie & Helen planned to eat supper with us Apr 22nd
April 27th
Ganesha Park Pool, 1918 (Image courtesy Pinterest)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Allen
- Mr. Dofts
- Mrs. Taylor
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & I
-Went to Genesa (Ganesha) Park, ate dinner then on to Griffith Park, ate supper. Mr. Allen got sea sick, then came on home.
April 28th
Front entrance to the Pantages Theatre. Note the ornate, 5-lamp streetlight posts, 1925. (Image and caption courtesy Water and Power Associates)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Otis & I
-Went to L.A. to look at cars, then to Pantages (Theater).
April 29th
Well-attended weenie roast, ca. 1918 (Photo by A. Tennyson Beals)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hannebrink
- Mr. & Mrs. Harmon
- Mr. & Mrs. Allen
- Mr. & Mrs. Dofts
- Mr. & Mrs. Taylor
- Mrs. Rheuler
- Mrs. Taylor
- Mrs. Hatton
- Bennie & Helen
- Otis, Raymond, & I
-Had a weenie roast in Griffith Park.
May 1st
Auto showroom, ca.1920 (Image courtesy Library of Congress)
- Mr. Hannebrink
- Otis, Raymond, & I
-Went to look at cars again
Prices Noted During Travel
The Nuccio family grocery on Hewitt Street in Los Angeles. (Image courtesy Pinterest)
- apples .30
- bread .84
- cake .45
- coffee .45
- lunch .23
- meat .25
- muslin .41
- oranges .15
- pencil .05
- register .10
- shirt 1.79
- shoes 2.35
- stamps .27
- hat 2.50
- sugar .51
- book .37
- beads .35
- thread .05
- oats .35
- sieve .35
- weenies .25
- turnip .10
- church 1.00
- lemons .10
- charity .50
- Times 1.10
- fish .40
- gum .05
- cough drops .06
- peas .25
- envelopes .15
- gas 1.10
- belt .75
- toilet paper .25
- olives .30
- rhubarb .15
- drawer pulls .80
- Easter nov. .43
- toy .25
- board & chalk 1.45
- taxes 8.06
- flowers 2.00
- soda .17
- pie .15
- rent 25.00
- Musterole .26
- carfare .10
- shampoo .39
Wow! That was awesome! Being familiar with the area those are huge daytrips, and taken fairly often, these days there’d be a fair bit of planning involved to see how best traffic could be avoided. I love how they reference “machine” trouble when the car broke down. And the image of the man seemingly getting ready to use a wheelbarrow as a jackstand (?) is a bit frightening.
Great post, thanks!
Amazing time trip. Having lived in LA and Santa Monica, it’s hard to imagine how undeveloped it still was then. Of course that was in the late 70s and early 80s, and a trip back shows how much denser it is now.
That early Elgin street sweeper caught my attention for some reason.
Thanks for putting this together. Stephanie and I really enjoyed it.
A very pleasant trip today—you did a very nice job sourcing all the period photos for us.
I’m having trouble thinking of 1920 as “almost 100 years ago,” but time marches on. To my students, it would be “80 years before I was born”—or, 1873 for people like Paul and me, which puts it in sobering perspective.
Paul, I got curious about the street sweeper—Elgin is still out there, and they make the “Pelican” I see in my town and elsewhere. If very curious, a nice bundle of vintage sweeper photos here: http://theoldmotor.com/?p=155826
Yes, that’s what caught my attention; the fact that the Elgin is still being made in the same basic configuration.
George, Elgin is indeed still in business and prices are well into the six digits. Rental for a Pelican is $10,000 per month.
Even earlier, I’m pretty sure they had a Scottish model that could actually remove marble from the Parthenon.
Fascinating!
I want a MAZDA LAMP from that hardware store!
Interesting, the Japanese company didn’t even come into any form of existence until 1920.
The name Mazda was registered/copyrighted/trademarked in 1909 by General Electric for its tungsten filament electric light bulbs. Here is part of the Wikipedia explanation:
“Mazda was a trademarked name registered by General Electric in 1909 for incandescent light bulbs. The name was used from 1909 through 1945 in the United States by GE and Westinghouse. Mazda brand light bulbs were made for decades after 1945 outside the USA. The company chose the name due to its association with Ahura Mazda, the transcendental and universal God of Zoroastrianism whose name means light of wisdom (Ahura = light, Mazda = wisdom) in the Avestan language.
In 1909 the Mazda name was created for the tungsten filament light bulb. GE sold bulbs under this trademark starting in 1909. GE promoted the mark as identifying tungsten filament bulbs with predictable performance and life expectancy. GE also licensed the Mazda name, socket sizes, and tungsten filament technology to other manufacturers to establish a standard for lighting. Bulbs were soon sold by many manufacturers with the Mazda name licensed from GE, including British Thomson-Houston in the United Kingdom, Toshiba in Japan,”
The Mazda Lamp was a type of bulb that used a tungsten filament as GeelongVic mentioned.
It actually was the lightbulb that saved the electric lightbulb and allowed it to be the dominant light source by the mid 20th century.
Prior to the Mazda bulb, the light bulb that was in use was not very bright, it was brighter then candles but it was not as bright as gas lighting which was cheap to run and also made even brighter with the Welsbach burner.
The lightbulb also came in different standards and different bases.
The Mazda bulb set the standards for lightbulbs with both the right filament and the edison base (screw base)
These bulbs lasted a long time before burning out and during the early TV age, they were a nuisance because the design of the filament caused the bulb to create radio waves. Early TV repair manuals advised the tech that if the display was showing a strange pattern of lines to check the light bulbs in the house. If more then one customer on the same block was having the issue, check the porch lights to see if a Mazda bulb was there. If it was to replace it with a new light bulb.
I remember Mazda light bulbs in the ’70s. I thought it was odd to name a car after them…
This is one of the most awesome things I have ever seen! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for a great presentation of early photos. I am also familiar with the LA area and enjoy seeing how it was almost one hundred years ago. I love photos from this period, when most of our modern conveniences were known to all, even if a lot folks couldn’t afford them. What might be surprising is how early motorists drove everywhere on long trips. Cruising speeds may have only been thirty five to forty mph but that’s all you can do on modern LA freeways today! At least during rush hour.
Cool records, thanks for that. Such a lot of trips with so many people, I don’t know the last time we went on a day trip with 3 or 4 families..
A very interesting bit of history. Thank you.
What an outstanding collection of stories… and the photos included here really make the stories come alive. Thanks for taking the time to share this with us!
Great stories and photos. Now I’m going to have to rummage through my folks old picture albums- hard to believe how the LA area has grown over the years. Wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning though- thank you!
Thoroughly enjoyed this one…..one of the best ever!!
A really incredible look at what was then just life but now an important part of history. I wonder if CC will be looked at the same in 80-100 years?
To all of you that contribute, thanks again for the effort. We enjoy it now and I think it would be cool if it was still around as a reference in the 2100’s.
A post cunningly designed to induce reverie. Just the day for it here, starting a new year lost in a really old one.
Terrific post, thankyou.
Re: the first picture of Santa Monica Canyon (12/30/1917): Here’s a rough approximation of the original location as it appears today. As you can see, it’s been built up a bit since then, but the house that was in the upper right-hand corner of the original picture is still standing in the same location (located in the black box in the picture below): it’s the Second Roy Jones House, a 6,000-square-foot mansion built in 1907. Thanks for the vintage pictures: to echo others’ sentiments, it really is amazing to see how much has changed since then.
Good going Mr. Eugeniac! This is wonderful. I absolutely enjoy these automotive histories. Tom
Who were the Harmon’s? Artemas(Art) and Helen Harmon?
My grand parents owned Harmon’s Stationary store in Hollywood and Santa Monica in the 1920’s -1940’s.