50 Years of Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal By Bill Bradley Special Limited Reprint Now Available! By the time LAUPT became a reality in 1939, it was already the last of an endangered species. As Bill Bradley writes, "Los Angeles...was eager to possess the kind of railroad gateway that had become an established feature of older cities of similar size. Although the structure that resulted was considerably less imposing than many of its predecessors, it nevertheless was conceived with an eye to opulence, and owed its more modest proportions to the style of architecture wished upon it by the city fathers who then, unlike today, regarded their city as primarily a center of tourism. For this reason, they wanted a station that would express the region’s more marketable characteristics—including its Spanish heritage, its year-round climate and, above all, its mystique. The irony is that by the time this long-standing dream became a reality, it was 1939, perilously close to when passenger trains would gradually slip from their former glory. Not surprisingly...many went so far as to suggest that this train station might be the last of its kind to be built in America." This classic testament to the station that came to represent the spirit of Los Angeles was revised in 1991, following the station’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. Pentrex has just produced a special reprint of that 1991 revised edition at the request of California Governor Gray Davis. This reprint differs from the 1991 edition only in the front cover design. In this limited reprint, a banner stating "Compliments of Governor Gray Davis" has been added to the upper left corner of the cover, making it a unique collector’s item. Pentrex is able to offer a very limited quantity of these special reprints to its customers. If you are interested in railroad stations; the history of the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, or Santa Fe railroads; or in Los Angeles City history, this book is for you! Order your copy while quantities are available! Click on cover photo above to enlarge. Click here for sample photos from book. 120 Pages, 135 black & white photographs and illustrations Softbound, 11" x 8 1/2" ISBN: 1-56342-003-1 Originally Published by Interurban Press 1979 Revised and Reprinted by Interurban Press 1991 Reprinted by Pentrex 2000 |
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