Los Angeles Before the Freeways

Gorgeous photographs of lost Los Angeles, paired with historical and architectural insights.

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 Arnold 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.