Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Public Domain. Release under the CC BY Attribution license--http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/--Credit both “University of Southern California. Libraries” and “California Historical Society” as the source. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Send requests to address or e-mail given USC Libraries Special Collections specol@usc.edu
Description
Photograph of J. Phillip Erie driving Boyle Workman at Hollenbeck Park in a self-built automobile, 1897. Mr. Erie, the mechanic, sits at the helm in a suit and a brimmed hat, steering the tall, boxy automobile with a stirrup-handle while tending the side break-lever. The wheels are spoked and seem to bow out in the front. Mr. Workman, the son of Los Angeles civic leader, William H. Workman, sits in the back seat wearing a long overcoat and dark hat. Trees are visible in the background. "Postscript [part 1 of 2]: Auto first hit Los Angeles in 1897 and it's still picking up speed. Wary of crowds, they chose a Sunday at 2 a.m. for the test. They pushed the contraption out of a West 5th Street garage and maneuvered it down a long alley to Broadway. The engine was fired up, eight people climbed in, and at the twist of a lever, the first automobile ever seen in Los Angeles chugged off. That was May 30, 1897 -- 80 years ago. It was a signal event, kicking off an automobile culture that Los Angeles would, in the best and worst of ways, come to symbolize. Two years earlier, J. Philip Erie, a wealthy New Yorker who had moved West for his health, had come up with his idea for a 'motorcarriage.' Erie took out 30 patents and spent $30,000 in pursuit of his dream, and for months he and S.D. Sturgis labored over the machine. The trial run of the four-cylinder, gasoline-powered vehicle 'was a gratifying experience in every way,' The Times reported the next day." "Postscript [part 1 of 2]: Not only did the 20-mile 20 mile-per-hour automobile cross 'car tracks and chuckholes innumerable without any trouble,' it did not even scare horses along the route, as had been feared. But the 'Erie' auto, despite its early rave reviews, was 'not really terrifically successful,' according to James Zordich, associate curator of the automobile history collection at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. The first production car built here was the Tourist. A two-cylinder, four-passenger model, the Tourist was built, beginning in 1902, by the Auto Vehicle Company at its North Main Street factory. It was soon being sold by dealers throughout the state. But financial woes set in, and in 1910 the factory closed. Automobiles by then, however, were firmly entrenched in Los Angeles, and the city already was wrestling with the problem of crowded downtown streets. By 1915, with 55,217 cars spread among its 750,000 inhabitants, Los Angeles County led the world in per capita auto ownership. It still does. Now, 80 years after Erie revved up for that first ride down Broadway, there are 5 million vehicles in the country." -- Dale Fetherling, Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1977.
Type
image
Format
2 photographs : transparency, photoprint, b&w 21 x 26 cm. transparencies photographic prints photographs
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