La Grande Station was the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...

's (Santa Fe) main passenger terminal

Train station

A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...

 in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, until damage from the Long Beach earthquake of 1933 forced its closure. When Union Station

Union Station (Los Angeles)

Los Angeles Union Station is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California. The station has rail services by Amtrak and Amtrak California and Metrolink; light rail/subways are the Metro Rail Red Line, Purple Line, Gold Line. Bus rapid transport runs on the Silver Line...

 opened in 1939, Santa Fe moved all of its passenger services there.

History

Santa Fe opened La Grande Station on July 29, 1893. The station was unique for Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 in its Moorish-inspired architecture

Islamic architecture

Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture....

.

After the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, the station's dome was removed. The station continued to serve as Santa Fe Railway's LA passenger terminal (sans dome) until the opening of the new LA Union Station on May 7, 1939. The station was located at 2nd Street and Santa Fe Ave, just south of the First Street viaduct built in 1929 and on the west bank of the LA River.

In popular culture

Many Hollywood movies were filmed at the stylish station. Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

's film Berth Marks

Berth Marks

Berth Marks is a 1929 short comedy starring Laurel and Hardy. The story involves Stan and Ollie as two musicians attempting to travel by train to Pottsville...

(1929) was one of the first sound movies shot on location. Other movies that used Santa Fe's La Grande Station included Choo Choo 1931 (Our Gang - Little Rascals), Swing Time

Swing Time

Swing Time is a 1936 RKO musical comedy film set mainly in New York City and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore and Georges Metaxa, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields...

1936 (Fred Astaire) and Something to Sing About

Something to Sing About (1937 film)

Something to Sing About, , re-released in 1947 as Battling Hoofer, is the second and final film James Cagney made for Grand National Pictures – the first being Great Guy – before mending relations with and returning to Warner Bros...

1937 (James Cagney).

External links

• La Grande Station 1914 remodel plans (Santa Fe Historical & Modeling Society)
• Los Angeles in the 1900s: La Grande Station