Old street lamp posts in Southern California

Crowd on a city street (near 5th Street and Coast Federal Savings building)     Joseph Fadler  1970

I´ve always said that Southern California, having a young history of a little more than 100 years, invented its own history.

When you have to design for a historical city or zoning, strict design guidelines have to be followed, and everything has to be ¨to match existing;¨  the historical subject of a particular city must be always present.

That´s why you see the stone pillasters in La Verne everywhere, in signs but also in modern gas stations, with no care for the scale, or the Spanish planters with geranios at the public parking in Santa Barbara, or the street lamps we see here, depicting religious crosses, or a bridge!!!

I´ve been through the project called Form and Landscape which I really enjoyed. It is an on line exhibition of the street scape of Los Angeles and surrounding areas, supported by Edison, the electrical company.

I´ve selected these curious lamps from the exhibition and there is much more to see here:

http://pstp-edison.com/loomis/

Street lighting post (Riverside Type) 1916

Mission Bell Streetlights    Art Adams     1966

Rialto Street light post    1916

Lighting, streets    G. Haven Bishop    1912

In the most dazzling displays, some lamp post constellations are crowned with elaborate suns or transformed into starbursts and supernovas.