Westchester Breezeway Exhibit – Panel 1

Historical Westchester

Looking from the intersection of Manchester Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard, circa 1950s, we see the Sepulveda commercial corridor at its early development, serving the local community which was exploding with affordable housing post WW II. At the bottom left, we see the Loyola Theatre, the façade which has since been preserved as an historical monument. As we move up the photo, moving south on Sepulveda, to the right, we see Milliron’s Department Store, considered to be the model for the shopping malls of the future, with multiple retail, restaurants and parking all within one structure. As we continue up and further south, we can see the tunnel which has opened to traffic underneath the early expansion of the airport and its runways from east of Sepulveda, expanding west toward the ocean. The first commercial properties to be built on the Sepulveda corridor can be attributed to the foresight of Ella Drollinger in the early 1940s, leasing to Thrifty Drug Store, Quigley Department Store and Jim Dandy Market, from the southeast corner of Sepulveda and LaTijera Boulevards, south to what is now H.B. Drollinger Way.