Thoroughfare in San Fernando Valley
Looking north-west along Lankershim Boulevard in the "NoHo Arts District" of North Hollywood.
Lankershim Boulevard
is a major north-south thoroughfare in the eastern
San Fernando Valley
, primarily within the
City of Los Angeles
, in
Los Angeles County, California
.
Geography
[
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]
Looking south on Lankershim Boulevard as it approaches the Hollywood Freeway and Ventura Boulevard.
Lankershim Boulevard begins at
San Fernando Road
in the
Sun Valley
portion of the
San Fernando Valley
. In addition to Sun Valley, it runs through
North Hollywood
and
Universal City
. It runs for about 7.3 miles (11.7 km) before ending directly south of
Ventura Boulevard
. It crosses intersections with
Interstate 5
,
State Route 134
, and
US Route 101
. From a 5-way intersection at
Victory Boulevard
it runs diagonally to the southeast, creating 6-way intersections at the crossings of Burbank Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue, as well as
Vineland Avenue
and Camarillo Street.
At its busy southern end, Lankershim crosses the
Los Angeles River
as it briefly merges with Cahuenga Boulevard before passing the historic
Campo de Cahuenga
and the
Universal City/Studio City Metro Station
, then crossing the
Hollywood Freeway
and Ventura Boulevard, all within the space of about 0.5 miles (0.80 km).
[1]
Transportation
[
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]
Metro Local
line 224 serves Lankershim Boulevard.
It passes two
Metro Rail
stations,
North Hollywood
and
Universal City/Studio City
, both served by the
B Line
, and the former station is also served by the
G Line
.
History
[
edit
]
Pacific Electric station at Lankershim and Chandler, 1919
Named for
one of the area's founding families
, Lankershim Boulevard is one of the oldest streets in the area surrounding what is now the neighborhood of North Hollywood. It was a major thoroughfare for the town of Toluca (which was itself renamed "Lankershim" in 1896), connecting it to Los Angeles by way of the
Cahuenga Pass
. In the center of Toluca, it crossed the
Southern Pacific Railroad
, with a depot near the current location of the North Hollywood Metro Station at Chandler Boulevard.
[2]
The foundations of the original Campo de Cahuenga adobe were unearthed beneath Lankershim Boulevard during construction of the Metro Red Line subway. These parts of the foundations within the park are preserved as an exhibit, and the "footprint" of the foundations under the street and sidewalk is marked by decorative pavement.
Lankershim Boulevard around Magnolia Boulevard was the heart of the town of Lankershim and of North Hollywood and until the mid-1950s boasted the largest concentration of retail stores, banks, restaurants, and entertainment in the Valley. In 1953, for example, the shopping strip included three full-line department stores:
J.C. Penney
at 5261 Lankershim, Yeakel & Goss department store at 5272, and the upscale single-location
Rathbun's
department store at 5307?15. There were also branches of the large
Harris & Frank
clothing chain at 5236 Lankershim,
J. J. Newberry
five and dime
at 5321, and
Safeway
at 5356.
[3]
However, the nearby
Valley Plaza
shopping center, designed for accessibility by car with plenty of free parking, opened in 1951 and kept growing until 1956 when it claimed to be the third-largest shopping center in the country.
[4]
It was difficult for the Lankershim retail district to compete and by 1980, most stores had closed including Rathbun's.
[5]
Donte's
, one of the West Coast's best known jazz clubs in the 1970s and 1980s was at 4269. It opened in 1966 and closed in 1988 and is now the Century West BMW auto dealer site.
[6]
[7]
CicLAvia
[
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]
In 2015, Lankershim Boulevard, along with Ventura Boulevard, was the site of
CicLAvia
, an event sponsored by the
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
in which major roads are temporarily closed to motorized vehicle traffic and used for recreational
human-powered transport
.
[8]
References
[
edit
]
KML is not from Wikidata
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Numbered streets
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North?south streets
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East?west streets
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The Valleys
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Intersections and
traffic circles
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Diagonal streets
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Streets in San Pedro
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Alleyways
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In popular culture
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All un-suffixed roads are streets unless otherwise noted.
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