Huge News! New Book! “Los Angeles Before the Freeways”

Posted byNathan MarsakPosted inUncategorized

Greetings, friends!

I began this blog in advance of the 2020 publication of Bunker Hill, Los Angeles. Since then I’ve self-published a couple more books about Bunker Hill — Bunker Noir! and Marsak’s Guide to Bunker Hill — and now it’s time to announce the new book from Angel City Press! (And believe it or not, it’s not about Bunker Hill! …though y’know, it does have vintage Bunker Hill in it…)

Announcing Los Angeles Before the Freeways!

Though strictly speaking it’s not my book: it was written by a fellow named Arnold Hylen. Hylen had taken a lot of pictures downtown in the 1950s and 60s, compiling his images and research into his 1976 Bunker Hill, A Los Angeles Landmark and 1981’s Los Angeles Before the Freeways: 1850-1950 Images of an Era, both published by Dawson’s Books.

Bunker Hill and Freeways had very limited press runs — 500 and 600 copies, respectively — so finding them can be tough and paying for them even worse:

So I thought it would be a cool idea to ferret out Hylen’s remaining family, acquire the negatives and publishing rights, and get these books in the hands of hungry historians. The Bunker Hill book turned into something larger, of course, but Freeways…that is being republished now as a standalone, and I won’t be modest on this point: this new version is amazing.

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So, how does this new edition differ from the 1981 original? A few standouts—

It’s larger!
Which means the images are bigger…a LOT bigger
And because I scanned the original negatives, there’s greater visual information included in the images
Recognize these images? No you do not! There’s a bunch of Hylen shots, not included in the original, that you’ve never seen before
Including a biography of the man
And an essay about the architectural styles you’ll encounter in the book (and yep, you’ve never seen that shot of Reeve’s Phillips Block before now [not to be confused with Reeve’s other, far more famous Phillips Block one block west])

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The book will be out, officially, on March 25th. We’re having a big launch party at Central Library on March 22nd, so….COME TO THE LAUNCH PARTY! There will be books there, and snacks, and presentations, and it’s free! Click here!

In the meantime, should you wish to preorder the book, please do so here!

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One last thing — I asked Pumpkin Patch what her favorite image was, and she turned to this one:

She’ll tell you why in the next installment of “Cats: On Architecture”

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