Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
I see the two buildings that appear in the background of my photo.
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Great eye,
e_r. BTW, the building on the left is Abbot Kinney's St. Mark's Hotel (see picture below). According to
an article on virtualvenice.info,
"Ground was broken for St. Mark's Hotel on December 5,1904. It was one of Venice's original buildings. It was demolished in 1964." It looks like Venice lost a lot of Ocean Front Walk buildings around this time. The article also says that
"The south side of Windward [Avenue] was not filled in with buildings until around 1915." Most of them have since been demolished.
USC Digital Library
St. Mark's may have been replaced by part of the Venice Sidewalk Market (a load of shacks offering bike rentals, sunglasses etc.), but the building next door survives as Danny's Venice.
GSV
Google Maps/Streetview lets you venture inside Danny's. That's allegedly the last original gondola bought by Abbot Kinney from the Venice Pavilion at the 1900 World's Fair hanging from the ceiling.
GSV
Finally, I know most of us here at NLA like a tunnel, especially when they were used during prohibition. The following is from an article called 'Debunking Venice's Historic Myths' on
www.westland.net:
Quote:
Venice has mysterious tunnels beneath Windward Avenue and they were used by rum runners during Prohibition.
When Venice was constructed in 1905, the business district utilities were placed underground in two tunnels running beneath the alleys on either side of Windward Avenue. The two tunnels originated at the heating plant and powerhouse located on Windward near the lagoon (current site of the B of A building near the traffic circle). In addition, some hotels along Ocean Front Walk constructed tunnels beneath the promenade to the beach because an ordinance forbid bathing suits on the boardwalk. The St. Marks Hotel at the corner of Windward was one. During Prohibition in the 20's, rum runners would unload their booze from boats beneath the pier and sneak them into the St. Mark's tunnel. I assume they could then access the utility tunnel directly behind the hotel, but it is a mystery how they transported the booze to speakeasies on the other side of the street. There is no evidence of linked tunnels beneath Windward Avenue, although they may have followed the tunnel to the powerhouse, then transferred to the other tunnel.
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Does anyone know if these tunnels still exist?