Los Angeles Before the Freeways

Book excerpt: Discover of a lost Los Angeles from an era before the freeways in this beautiful coffee table book from iconic architectural photographer Arthur Hylen. Los Angeles Before the Freeways: Images of An Era 1850-1950 gives a lush, visual tour of a Los Angeles that no longer exists—one of elegant office buildings and stately mansions that were razed in the name of “progress” to build the city’s famous freeways. Featuring stunning black-and-white photography from Arthur Hylen that captures a lost era, the book contains an original essay by the photographer that provides historical background and context for the time period. This new edition contains additional, never-before-seen photographs from Hylen and newly unearthed information from historian Nathan Marsak on these lost architectural treasures.