Getting a Line on History : Culver City Preserves a Dilapidated Red Car Power Substation by Converting It Into a Community Center

In his youth, Ralph Larkin didn’t find the vast trolley system that crisscrossed the Westside the least bit romantic.

“You didn’t ride the trolley because you wanted to enjoy a rail trip,” the Culver City resident said. “You rode it because you wanted to go someplace. . . . In those days, that was the only way to get around.”

But today, Larkin, 81, hungers for every shred of physical evidence left of the railway era. His latest focus: the newly renovated Ivy Substation at Venice and Culver boulevards.

“I’m glad to see they left a lot of the old features,” he said, referring to the care workers took to preserve the building’s historical format. Larkin plans to volunteer his services at what will become Culver City’s newest community center.

Built in 1907, the Mission Revival-style building once housed a huge power converter, which provided electricity for the Red Cars of the Pacific Electric Railway Co.

The Red Cars were eclipsed by the automobile in the early ‘50s; the substation closed in 1953 and began its long decline. For decades, it was a burned-out shell of brick and mortar, plagued by decay, graffiti, and trash fires set by transients. Adjacent Media Park was brown and dry.

Both the building and the park are just on the Los Angeles side of the Los Angeles-Culver City border. But they are situated at a gateway to Culver City, right next to a downtown district the smaller city has been trying for years to revive. Over the years, as Culver City officials glared across the border in frustration at the eyesore properties, it became clear that the substation and the park were far down the list of urgent projects for Los Angeles.

The Culver City officials decided that it was up to them to make something happen. In 1987, the city signed a 40-year lease with Los Angeles and took over the properties.

A $1.9-million renovation project for the substation and park, supervised by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency, finally got started in 1991. The substation opens officially with a weeklong festival starting Friday.

Sidney Montz, substation supervisor and events coordinator, envisions a bustling facility that celebrates cultural diversity and preserves railway heritage. He also wants it to be fun.

“Because of its location as the gateway to Culver City, I want it to be the pulse beat of Culver City,” he said. “It should always be alive with events, from wedding receptions to performances to fine arts.”

The site will be available for rent by community, commercial and private groups. The price: from $45 to $90 per hour, depending on the group. A custodial fee is also charged.

Already, though there has been no advertising, the place is popular. It has been the site of a party that followed a debutante ball and a summit meeting of officials from five Westside cities. Weekends are heavily booked through June, Montz said.

Each day, Montz, whose office is in the substation, receives a dozen calls and visits from curious people wondering what is going on.

“They are usually wonderful local people who have been here a long time and feel this building is a part of their lives,” he said. “I guess because they have watched it for so long.”

Culver City Councilman Mike Balkman attended the summit and was impressed by the station’s atmosphere.

“It’s a fabulous place,” he said. “It’s Old World.”

The building consists of a 3,500-square-foot, multipurpose room with tall, arched windows. There are two long rows of skylights in the high ceiling. To the side, there is a food preparation room, storerooms, and a second-story mezzanine that will be used for rotating exhibits, Montz said.

The building has a fashionably industrial feel, but is craftsman-like at the same time. Interior brickwork is exposed. Large ceramic insulators, which once held power lines, are still embedded in walls. Fake power lines feed into the stuccoed exterior from fake power poles. Outside, there is even a copy of the metal fountain that recirculated water used to cool the machines inside.

“The architect was required to be true to the original building’s character,” said Redevelopment Agency Project Manager Susan Berg, who oversaw the renovation project.

Renovation work included asbestos removal and seismic reinforcement. Air conditioning and heat, stage lighting and a sound system were added.

Workers found installing an elevator especially challenging. One had to be designed to fit in a small space, and not be visible from outside, Berg said. The building meets federal accessibility standards for the disabled.

Saving the curved walls on each end of the building was also difficult, Berg said. Workers drilled deep, narrow holes in the delicate structures and drove rods through them. Luckily, they didn’t break.

The park has been landscaped. Flower-lined sidewalks lead through an overhead trellis to a gazebo.

In Culver City these days, one prevalent feeling is relief; it has taken 30 years. At one point along the way, Culver City tried to purchase the land. At another, Los Angeles tried to sell it to developers. Different groups proposed converting the building into offices, a folk-dancing headquarters and a model railroad museum.

Culver City stepped up its efforts in the mid-1980s, as officials focused on an ambitious plan to revitalize the downtown area.

“The place was a hangout for homeless people,” Councilman Balkman said. “Los Angeles wasn’t taking care of it. . . . They declared it a historical monument (in 1978) and let it rot.”

The current lease agreement wended its way through six Los Angeles city agencies, including the Cultural Heritage Commission and the City Council. It stipulates that use of the building and park be divided evenly between Culver City and Los Angeles. Also, all proceeds must be funneled back into operation of the facility, Berg said.

Former Los Angeles Conservancy Board member David Cameron defended the city’s intentions. The city wanted to make something of the place, but historical renovation projects have a low priority in the city budget, he said.

Cameron worked to save the substation from demolition by successfully lobbying to designate it a national landmark, which was approved in 1981.

“It showed that this wasn’t just nostalgia,” he said. “This was clearly recognized by knowledgeable authorities as being a historically significant building.”

Cameron said that, besides probably being the largest substation left, the building is an important example of Mission Revival architecture applied to industrial use.

The Ivy Substation was built at the junction of three rail lines--the Santa Monica Air Line, the Redondo Line and the Venice Short Line. The latter carried millions of downtown Los Angeles residents each year to the beach.

The substation was named after a real estate tract called Ivy Park, Cameron said. The community was absorbed when Culver City incorporated in 1917.

Larkin recalls riding the trolleys as a youth, when boys would sometimes gather in the back of a car and lean side to side, causing the center-balanced car to rock. The conductor often stopped and admonished them. Of course, Larkin wasn’t involved.

“I wouldn’t do a thing like that,” he said.