Note: This is a repost from 2013.
Glen Creason’s book on maps of Los Angeles shows the many ways people have viewed the city over the years. I interviewed him for The Times in 2012 and fortunately for all concerned, the column was seen by a real estate agent who was getting ready to sell off a rather curious home in Mt. Washington that had been owned by a man who had a mania for maps. The result was the discovery of the “map house,” one of the great (and strange) stories of Los Angeles.
“Los Angeles in Maps,” published in 2010, is in many local bookstores and available online.
I’ve been a map junkie all my life — as a child in Pennsylvania I spent hours poring over atlases, savoring place names, trying to imagine the living roads and cities and land they reflected. In a way, I could see it all in there. Before coming to CA (my home for 34 years now) for the first time, it was back to the maps with me. I loved the Salton Sea before I ever saw it — a bit of a letdown (ahem) when I finally stood at its edge, but thanks to the maps and history I could see the resort and the boats and the bygone celebs, even as the dead fish crunched under my feet. Maps are magic.
LikeLike