Two Faces of Venice : Though Time and Development Have Taken a Toll, the Heart and History of a Dream Can Still Be Seen

Venice today might be compared to Central-Park-at-the-beach or a circus on wheels. On any warm, beach-weather weekend, thousands of Angelenos flock to the wide sandy beach and the carnival-like Ocean Front Walk to enjoy Los Angeles’ most celebrated urban beach. Roller skaters, street entertainers, artisans, beach boutique shoppers and urbanites parade along the seafront walk.

Yet just inland from the sandy shore and crowded promenade exists a very different Venetian community. Quiet neighborhoods of Craftsman cottages and post-modern villas nestle side by side. A few miles of narrow canals remain, creating a serene setting of water-side paths leading to lacy footbridges and hidden retreats.

What follows is a three-hour walking tour of these two faces of Venice. On the walk, you’ll explore peaceful neighborhoods as well as the historic core of the turn-of-the-century planned community, now mobbed by beach visitors.

To get to Venice, take Interstate 10 (Santa Monica Freeway) west, exit at 4th Street (west). Turn right on Pico Boulevard, then turn left on Main Street and to Windward Avenue. Arrive before 10 a.m. as parking is scarce.

Begin the walk at the traffic circle where Main Street and Windward Avenue meet. This unassuming circle marks the heart of Venice as originally designed by its founder, Abbot Kinney.

Kinney had been involved in the development of nearby Ocean Park in the 1890s. An avid horticulturist, he began the nation’s first experimental forestry station in Rustic Canyon. But in 1904, he turned his energy to a lifelong ambition: to create an entirely new city that would mark Southern California on the world’s cultural map.

A world traveler, Kinney had visited cities throughout Europe, where he was constantly impressed with the cultural vitality of its opera houses, art museums, concert halls and urban promenades.

Perfect for Artists

He believed that Los Angeles, with its Mediterranean climate, diverse geography and almost unlimited potential for growth, was the ideal region for an artistic community that would spark cultural interest in California.

Inspired by the romantic beauty of Venice, Italy, Kinney envisioned a seaside city laced with canals and walkways. Italian villas and Byzantine hotels would welcome artisans and craftspeople from around the country; auditoriums would present the best and brightest musicians and lecturers. Venice-of-America became Kinney’s dream.

Kinney left his Ocean Park project and acquired the land south of Ocean Park, which was filled with sand hollows and marshes. In the summer of 1904, men, steam shovels and horses began to dredge 16 miles of canals to create his town. Streets were laid out and colonnaded Italian buildings constructed. He even brought over gondoliers from Venice and pigeons from St. Mark’s Square.

The traffic circle marks what was the central hub of Kinney’s project: the Grand Lagoon, from which two networks of smaller canals branched. By the summer of 1905 when Venice opened, boating docks, aquatic activities and a high dive welcomed visitors.

The public showed less enthusiasm for his cultural events than he had expected, so Kinney later constructed an amusement zone along the Lagoon, including a roller coaster called “Race Through the Clouds.”

History in Post Office

Walk inside the small post office at the southwest corner of Main Street and Windward Avenue. Here, Work Projects Administration artist Edward Biberton’s 1932 mural depicts the iridescent history of early Venice. Kinney’s dream evolves from placid canals, amusement parks and gondola excursions to its 1925 annexation by Los Angeles, oil wells and canal fill-ins.

Walk south on Windward Avenue toward the ocean. Windward Avenue served as the primary access to the bay-side amusements. Lined with elaborate Byzantine and Italian Renaissance-style buildings, Windward’s shaded colonnades led to the old Venice Pier and the huge Venice Bathhouse. As you walk, you can still catch glimpses of Kinney’s original Venice. Observe the ornate arcaded walkways, the detailed capitals and the old brick walls.

At 25 Windward Ave. stand two landmarks. Terry Schoonhoven’s 1979 mural “St. Charles Painting” rises three stories on the side of the building, creating a trompe l’oeil image of the opposite cityscape. Sadly, the mural is now fading and vandalized.

At Ocean Front Walk, turn right and join the menagerie of beach visitors. Across the lawn is the Venice Pavilion, marking the site of the Venice Pier, where once thrill rides, arcades, bingo parlors, a concert hall and the old Ship Cafe welcomed weekend and summer revelers. Hurt by declining revenues and a series of disastrous fires, the pier was torn down in 1947.

Studios, Galleries on Market

Turn right on Market Street. Artists’ studios, galleries and offices are hidden behind the brick facades of this lane’s aging commercial buildings. Stop by 72 Market St. and look inside at an outstanding example of adaptive reuse of Venice’s historic buildings by the design firm Morphosis.

At Pacific Avenue, turn left. Walk one block and turn left at Horizon Avenue. Along this short block are examples of Venice’s residential architectural history, including a Spanish-style court, Craftsman bungalows and the deconstructionist Spiller Residence by Frank Gehry at No. 39, with its corrugated metal sidings and exposed wall studs.

Turn left at Ocean Front Walk. The Sidewalk Cafe, a popular restaurant at No. 1401, offers outside tables overlooking the boardwalk’s parade. Next door at No. 1407 stands Old World Books, considered by some to be one of Los Angeles’ best independent bookstores.

Continue south on Ocean Front Walk, surveying the eccentric crowds of disco roller skaters, street entertainers, body builders and beach beauties. Turn left at 18th Avenue, one of Los Angeles’ few brick-paved lanes.

Cross Pacific Avenue and continue straight ahead on Mildred Avenue. At Canal Street, turn right. Beneath this short street’s pavement and dirt fill rests one of Kinney’s first canals, which served as an extension of the Grand Canal to the Grand Lagoon. From Canal Street and North Venice Boulevard you still can see part of the original canal.

At 209 N. Venice Blvd. stands a classic example of Craftsman architecture. The three-story apartment building, with its heavy wooden beams, wide eaves, shingled sides and lead-glass windows, suggests a Swiss chalet.

Turn left at North Venice Boulevard and walk several blocks to Dell Avenue. Note the one-story bungalows at this intersection. These simple wood-frame structures were built in the 1910s as vacation cottages for the summer throngs who visited Venice from dusty downtown Los Angeles.

Most Rode Big Red Cars

Most visitors then rode the Big Red Cars along the Pacific Electric trolley lines down Venice Boulevard to Venice.

Turn right at Dell Avenue. Cross South Venice Boulevard and note the mural by the Women’s Collective along the Dell Avenue side of John’s Market. A landmark in the canal neighborhood’s history, this mural chronicles this area’s hippie era from 1965 to 1975, when Venice was the Haight-Ashbury of Southern California.

Note the depictions of racial harmony, folk arts, free love and peaceful community. But as the mural’s images progress, a bulldozer threatens to destroy a canal bungalow as local residents protest.

Much of Venice’s history is reflected in the canal neighborhood.

Most Canals Were Filled

In 1929, all but three miles of the resort’s canals were filled in and paved over by the city of Los Angeles, which did not want to spend the money needed to repair the poorly designed canals.

Fortunately, a few canals escaped destruction. At the time, the area was only partly developed and the few residents could not afford the city’s assessments for fill-in costs.

By the late 1960s, the canals had deteriorated into stagnant, murky pools. But because of its isolation, unique setting and cheap rents, the neighborhood became a haven for counterculture enthusiasts.

Los Angeles proposed various schemes for redeveloping the canals, but the local residents fought the plans. They feared that the city would destroy the egalitarian character of their community by replacing it with an exclusive high-rise extension of Marina del Rey. After organizing and protesting, the city abandoned its projects and the canals won another reprieve.

Signs of Renewal

Various signs of renewal have emerged since the late 1970s. Old-timers began to clean up the canals and paths. Newcomers repaired ramshackle bungalows, built innovatively designed houses and handsomely landscaped their properties. Many longtime Venetians, however, fear that gentrification will continue to squeeze out poorer residents and disrupt the area’s diverse nature.

Continuing your tour, walk south on Dell Avenue and up the one-lane bridge to survey Carrol Canal below.

Walk seaward along Carrol Canal, being especially careful of your step as many of the old sidewalks have begun to crumble into the water. As you stroll, note the diversity of architecture, especially of the newer houses.

At the footbridge, turn left and walk on Grand Canal Court to Linnie Canal. Turn left and walk to Dell Avenue. Stroll over the bridge, walk to Howland Canal, and turn right. Follow the canal-side path to the footbridge and turn left, onto Grand Canal Court.

Cross the next footbridge over Sherman Canal, turn right along the canal path, and then turn left on Grand Canal. Cross the footbridge over Grand Canal and walk straight ahead, up the brief slope to Pacific Avenue.

Cross Pacific Avenue and walk up 27th Avenue to Ocean Front Walk. Suddenly you find yourself along an entirely different section of the seaside promenade as palms and grass areas line the walk.

Continue north to Windward Avenue for more sea breezes, people-watching and restaurants.