One Upon A Time In Glendale, Pre-Americana

The Glendale Public Library blog dug up this photo of Brand Blvd., facing north, in 1936. The library provides context:

This photograph (courtesy of the Special Collections Room of the Glendale Public Library) shows Brand Boulevard looking north, dating from around 1936. Harvard Street, which will act as the eastern entrance into the Americana, crosses Brand Boulevard here behind the Western Auto Supply Co. sign on the left and in front of the Famous Department Store building on the right.

Other notable businesses in this image that operated in the area now covered by the Americana include a Pep Boys Auto Supplies store and the Capital Theatre. The tall building in the top center of the photograph is the Bank of America Building, which would be torn down in 1982 to make room for the Galleria II project.

Yes, that classic Bank of America building was destroyed so that the area's most tattered Mervyn's could be built. Fair trade.