Wilshire Boulevard

Wilshire Boulevard:
The Grand Concourse of Los Angeles

by Kevin Roderick
Research by J. Eric Lynxwiler

Wilshire Boulevard is the unofficial Main Street of dreams that flows through Los Angeles history. Like Los Angeles itself, Wilshire is an accidental phenomenon created out of civic pride and the yearning of the masses to drive. Its 15-mile route to the sea has been called the Fifth Avenue of the West and the Champs Elysees of the Pacific. Wilshire's style, architecture and historic prominence are recorded in more than 150 photos, so readers understand the fascinating cultural geography of the first auto-dependent metropolis. Wilshire Boulevard details the thoroughfare's crucial part in the emergence of Los Angeles as a world city and relates the fascinating story of Gaylord Wilshire, the turn-of-the-century social gadfly who never experienced his namesake's enduring fame.

  • softcover: ISBN 978-1-883318-93-2; $29.95
  • 208 pages
  • full color throughout
  • 200+ vintage images
  • 9" w x9" h
$29.95 USD