Departures is KCET's hyper-local web documentary, community engagement tool and digital literacy program about the cultural history of Los Angeles' neighborhoods.
Browse the mural by clicking on a thumbnail above. Then, click on the Departures "D" in the mural to view its related content below.
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YouTube.com/Webstories The Parkway Mural
When the Arroyo Seco Parkway was finished in 1940, it was a cause for celebration in Los Angeles. But the arrival of one of the nation’s first freeways would have unexpected consequences for Highland Park and its residents. After the scenic throughway was built, Highland Park entered a period of gradual but steady decline, the area trapped between two distinct geographies and political powers: Pasadena and Los Angeles. The Parkway, along with the devastating floods of 1938 and the subsequent channelization of the L.A River and the Arroyo, would shift the tenor of life in Highland Park from suburban Eden to inner city.
As the 1950s dawned, the demographic transformation commonly referred to as “white flight” began in earnest in Highland Park, the neighborhood becoming a bellwether for changes occurring throughout Los Angeles. But as one community moved out, new residents in search of cheaper rents and a place to call home transformed the face of Highland Park and, in the process, transformed what it meant to be an Angeleno as a whole.
Index
3 The Parkway:
Though a cause for celebration for the city of Los Angeles, construction of the Arroyo Seco Parkway—America's first freeway—sped up Highland Park's gradual decline. Reduced to a "drive-over" country connecting two distinct political powers—Pasadena and Los Angeles—the area struggled to...
3 The Parkway:
While the vast streetcar system in Los Angeles was wildly successful since early in the 20th century, it was doomed to extinction in the era of automobiles and bus routes. The streetcar system was sold to National City Lines in...
3 The Parkway:
Highland Park experienced a building boom at the turn of the 20th Century that would last nearly three decades. Bringing customers on the Pacific Electric that ran along Pasadena Avenue connecting Los Angeles to Pasadena, the main thoroughfare became heavily...
3 The Parkway:
Highland Park is home to many of Los Angeles' firsts. How appropriate, then, that it is also the location of not just the first freeway in California, but in the United States. The Arroyo Seco Parkway began construction in the 1930s after the Automobile Club of Southern California lobbied the state legislature to extend rural highways into urban areas. The 8.2 mile stretch of road cost approximately $7 million dollars to build, and would pave the way for the rest of Los Angeles' expansive freeway system.
3 The Parkway:
At the onset of the Great Depression, Los Angeles was the land of oil and movies, industries that seemed crash-proof. In just a few years, though, the city was struggling as much as the rest of the country.
3 The Parkway:
Los Angeles' political and business leaders knew by the late 1800s that the city needed two key ingredients to make it great: more water and a transportation network that would move people and commerce throughout the basin. The transportation question was (for a time, at least) addressed by an efficient system of trolleys and trains as well as a growing network of roads for use by the automobiles. The question of water was more complicated.
3 The Parkway:
For hundreds of years, the Arroyo Seco was a central, life-giving resource for first the Tongva people and then successive waves of settlers. A seasonal tributary of the Los Angeles River, the Arroyo provided water, food, transportation and - perhaps most importantly - meaning to the communities along its banks, but a series of changes would sour that long and fruitful relationship.
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