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History Articles -
Timeline -
Historic Maps -
Bookstore -
Links
Venice, California History Site
Updated November 11, 2006
This interactive educational site (online since 1996) covers the history of Venice
Beach, California. It features timelines, historic articles and photographs,
interactive maps that when clicked on show historic views, and
a list of movies filmed on Venice's streets, amusement piers and canals.
Venice California was considered the "Coney Island of the Pacific"
during the first half of the 20th Century. It was a town built to resemble
Venice, Italy and with its network of canals, business district built in Venetian
architectural style, and its two huge amusement piers, it became the finest
amusement resort on the America's West Coast.
The historic articles and photographs for this educational site
are based on Jeffrey Stanton's history book,
"Venice California -
'Coney Island of the Pacific.' The author who is the content provider
for this educational site, has condensed material from his book for these
articles and has digitized numerous photographs and color antique postcards
from his archives. The majority of the images used here are are not among
the 367 historic photos used in his book. While only 34 antique color postcards
were used in Stanton's book, over 150 were digitized for this site. Many of
the additional 150 B&W historic photos are seen here for the first time. The
43 modern color photographs used to illustrate the 1996 Venice Map are postcards
sold at several stores and at Stanton's weekend table on Venice's Ocean Front
Walk. They are all photographs by the author.
Note: Stanton's table, as of March 2006, is temporarily shut down by police because his items have "nominal value" in the new ordinance, as his postcards can be mailed, his books read, and maps used to navigate the town. No one is interested in a possible lawsuit.
What's New - Added June 2005
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List of Venice's Businesses (1907-1938)
What's New - Added July 2006
The material is copyrighted © 1996 to 2006 by Jeffrey Stanton.
While students may use it freely in their school reports, commercial use of the material in any printed form is prohibited without permission and fees paid to the author.
If you would like to know something about
the author click here for
Jeffrey Stanton's Biography
The site is looking for additional historic material; antique
postcards, original photographs, ride tickets, and various souvenir items.
If one has material either for sale or to donate to this site, please leave
an E-mail message or write to:
Jeffrey Stanton 12525 Allin St. Los Angeles, California 90066.
E-Mail messages must have a Tag line like with the word Venice in
it, otherwise messages like "Hi Jeff" or "I have a question"
will be discarded as Spam since I receive over 200 messages per day, nearly
all Spam.
NEW! The author has a similar historic amusement
park site for Coney Island, New York.
History Articles -
Timeline -
Historic Maps -
Bookstore -
Links
- History Articles - The 41 illustrated articles are divided into five
groups; General History, Venice as a City, its Amusement Industry, Competing
Resorts, and Proposed Plans for a new Amusement Pier. One of the more interesting
articles is an extensive list of movies and television shows that were filmed
in Venice along with exactly where they were filmed. There are also reviews
of all Venice and Santa Monica history books.
- Time Line - This section features important dates and events that
occurred during Venice's history. Since it is rather long, it is divided into
two decade sections. Currently there are no photos here.
- Historic Maps - This area is graphics intensive and requires considerable
download time. There are currently seven interactive (click on) maps available.
Each SVGA (700 x 500 pixels) map is approximately a 50K file. There are between
15 and 50 interactive click points on each map that show views of Venice and
its amusement piers attractions. Each click point brings up one or more views
of the attraction. These are a combination of color antique postcards (30K)
or B&W photos (25K). Each view is captioned.
- Bookstore - Several amusement park books were written about the Venice
/ Ocean Park / Santa Monica areas. Ordering information for these books and
availability of several out of print books are listed here.
- Links - Links to other sites; Amusement Parks, Venice California,
Coney Island New York, and various World's Fairs.
- Sponsors - Yes this site has its sponsors, including the university
where this site is stored.
Historic articles and photos copyrighted © 1996 &
2006 by Jeffrey Stanton
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