The Downey Depot Transportation Center

Across the parking lot from the brick walls lies the Downey Depot Transportation Center. I've posted a close-up of this mural before (Not just any tiled wall), but I wanted to show you the entire building this time.

The center was built at the site of the old Downey train station. (There was an unsuccessful effort at the time to save the old station as a historical building.) You can see a picture of the old station here.

More from downtown LA

The park is surrounded by the city and city activity. As we wandered the paths, Metro trains rushed past, yet we were also treated to peaceful pathways and a few bright patches of color.

"The journey is the destination."
~ Dan Eldon

We are connected

These are the tracks of the Metro Green Line that runs from Norwalk to Redondo Beach. It runs through Downey at the Lakewood Blvd. station and connects us with the rest of the Los Angeles basin. I have taken this line down to the Aviation Blvd./LAX stop where I then took a Big Blue Bus to UCLA. You can also take the Green Line to the Blue Line junction and from there go into the heart of downtown Los Angeles.

Here is the link to the Green Line website. Try the Metro some time. It's a human experience.

Choo-choo!

Santa might be down at the other end of the mall already, but kids are still having fun in the old-fashioned Old West train at the Stonewood Center.

"I like trains. I like their rhythm, and I like the freedom of being suspended between two places, all anxieties of purpose taken care of: for this moment I know where I am going."
~ Anna Funder

Railroad crossing

This electrical box, located by a railroad crossing at a busy intersection, shows a "Pacific Electric" railroad car and advertises "Downey All-American City." It's a colorful addition to an otherwise nondescript intersection.

Union Station

If I can't actually go anywhere at the moment, I can at least dream of travel. Union Station in Los Angeles encourages those dreams. Whether you're taking an Amtrak train up along the Pacific Coast, taking the metro to Hollywood, or just having a fun outing, you can imagine taking off for a new destination.

In addition, Union Station is simply beautiful. Its huge main hall has an elegance that harks back to the days when train travel could be a luxury and fashionably dressed men and women loaded up their trunks and had a fancy pre-trip dinner served on white tablecloths.

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."
~ St. Augustine

The rails

Getting stopped by a train this past week, I was reminded of how often I forget we have trains that run through Downey. It is a true piece of our past that seems almost antiquated in our smart phone world.

According to the Downey Chamber of Commerce site, it was in April of 1874 that the people of Downey City heard the first whistle of a Southern Pacific train lumbering into town. The extension of the Southern Pacific Railroad through Downey played a pivotal role in bringing people throughout the country to the city to reap the potential business and agricultural benefits of the land. Plots of land were sold at a quick pace, and a bustling business center was created at the northwest corner of Crawford and Front Streets (Downey Avenue and Firestone Boulevard).

Obviously the rail line was significant to our development. It is fascinating when you realize what events brought about the development of cities and centers. Certainly, tons of things have changed. I just think it is kind of cool that the trains are still going.

A little railroad trivia:  In South Dakota it is illegal to place firecrackers on a railroad track. The fine doubles if they are lit. Believe it or not, putting salt on a railroad track in Alabama was once punishable by death. 

Christmas at Knott's

The Knott family moved to Buena Park in 1920. Walter Knott developed the boysenberry shortly after. Knott's Berry Farm has been a standard for Downey residents to have an amusing day of going back in time. Back to the old West.



The above steam engine was used in the California desert in the 1800s and was brought to Knott's Ghost Town in 1941.



This is what it looked like before it came to Knott's.



Knott's has always celebrated the handcrafted arts. During Christmas they set up the Craft Fair with many handicrafts on display for sale. We visited Cris at this Christmas ornament shop where she will hand print any name and sentiment onto your ornament.

We then topped the evening off by splitting a chicken dinner at Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner restaurant, which has been serving those chicken dinners since 1934.

Taking the train

A unique aspect of yesterday's photo field trip to Mission San Juan Capistrano was taking the train.

San Juan Capistrano is about 45 miles southeast of Downey—less than an hour's drive on a Saturday. But a group of us thought it might be more interesting to take the train.

Downey lies between the Los Angeles Union Station and the Fullerton Metrolink Station. Union Station is beautiful, and worth visiting in its own right. (Click here to see more of Union Station.) But parking is a nightmare and more expensive than the train itself. Parking at the Fullerton station is free, and it turns out that the station is also quite picturesque.

At our destination, we disembarked at the historic Los Rios Street Historic District. After spending the morning at the mission, we returned to this area for lunch at a quaint cafe right next to the tracks, where we could wait for our return ride home.

“The only way to be sure of catching a train is to miss the one before it.” ~ G. K. Chesterton

Not just any tiled wall

The Downey Depot Transportation Center has two claims to fame. First, the center was built at the site of the old Downey train station. (There was an unsuccessful effort at the time to save the old station as a historical building.) You can see a picture of the old station here.

Second, this mural on the front of the center was created by artist Terry Schoonhoven. Schoonhoven, who died in 2001, is considered one of the country's premier muralists. This particular mural depicts Downey's history from the 1800s up through the modern space age (not shown here).

Los Angeles Union Station

The Los Angeles Union Station is about 12 miles (or 17 minutes with no traffic) from Downey. For a college student taking the train home for the weekend from Santa Barbara (about 90 miles to the northwest), this is where you get off to meet your ride home.

Union Station opened in May, 1939. The grand hall, above, was originally the ticketing hall. The waiting room and elegant dining areas, below, conjure thoughts of romantic cross-country trips more than of the daily commute to the office.

Tank cars

I'm not sure what it is about them, but I never get tired of trains. This string of tank cars was sitting on a railroad siding.

Monotone minutes

Walking the back alleys of Downey usually lands me around a railroad track, abandoned or otherwise. This parked train car, although surrounded with other's leftover litter, drew me in. The serenity of the area drowned out the passing traffic only a few hundred feet away.

Night life

Tonight I went to take pictures of the headlights racing down the 105 freeway on Lakewood Blvd., but while I was looking through the viewfinder, my attention was called downstairs to the Metro where people were waiting for the night bus. It was pretty fun to see a different part of the city. I felt like I was in Downtown Chicago or something.

The Wall of (Un)Fame

The Metro Green Line runs through the south side of Downey, with a station at Lakewood Blvd. The station is decorated with the hand and footprints of the area's unfamous residents. At the end of a long day, people disembark from the train to go the rest of the way home by bus, car, bike, or foot.

Train tracking

We've been looking at old pictures and researching the history of Downey. We came across a piece about the old train station and were so intrigued that we went to see it. We found a little area that used to be a turnout running into a loading station but is now wild and overgrown. It is weird to see the past stagnant in the present. There are tiny palm trees growing through the tracks, graffiti fading on the walls, and doors that haven't been opened in years.