1922 Map of Los Angeles and Vicinity California
DESCRIPTION
This impressive folding map of Los Angeles and Southern California was published in 1922 by the Pacific-Southwest Trust & Savings Bank of Los Angeles as a promotional guide for motorists and new arrivals in a rapidly expanding metropolis. Designed as both a directory and a visual introduction to the region, the map includes a street index, automobile mileage tables, and an additional printed map on the inside cover, all housed within an attractive booklet format.
Examining the Maps, Front and Back
The front side of the map presents a large and meticulously detailed street map of Los Angeles and its immediate vicinity. Streets, neighborhoods, transit routes, and developing districts are carefully engraved, with major routes highlighted in green and important locations marked in red. A complete alphabetical index of streets runs along the bottom, providing a comprehensive directory for navigating the growing and increasingly complex street grid. Features such as Griffith Park, the Arroyo Seco, major boulevards, outlying residential neighborhoods, and industrial zones appear clearly, offering an accurate portrait of Los Angeles as it stood in the mid-1920s.
The reverse side contains two remarkable bird’s-eye-view motor maps: a panoramic view of Southern California and a broader regional map of the Pacific Southwest. These perspective-style renderings show highways and motor routes stretching across coastal cities, inland valleys, mountain passes, agricultural regions, and desert highways. The maps integrate topography and road networks in a dramatic visual format that was particularly popular in early automobile-era cartography. Insets of the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors, together with mileage tables and detailed indexes, reinforce the map’s function as a travel aid for motorists exploring the wider region.
Historical Context of Los Angeles in the 1920s
This folding map captures Los Angeles at a crucial moment in its history, when the arrival of the automobile, explosive population growth, and suburban development were reshaping the city’s identity. By 1922 Los Angeles was becoming the most car-oriented urban center in the nation, and maps like this helped promote the new mobility that defined the city’s expansion. The combination of detailed street mapping, regional bird’s-eye views, and promotional content offers a vivid primary-source record of Los Angeles during a transformative era for its transportation systems, landscape, and civic aspirations.
CONDITION
1200 W. 35th Street #425 Chicago, IL 60609 | P: (312) 496 - 3622