Dogtown Ink

Ted Hawkins had one of the richest, purest, most powerful voices I’ve ever heard. He was a fixture on the boardwalk scene and typified the best of Venice art and music. He performed for the high and mighty, and the lowly and poor. He broke hearts and illuminated minds.

We moved to Venice in 1960, when I was 10 years old. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my parents were beatniks. I knew that things were somehow looser in my household – that people were tolerated and welcomed there that weren’t welcome in the homes of most of my schoolmates.

Circa 1913

This historic Ocean Front Walk apartment building, once known as Paloma Apartments, is now home to Venice Phoenix House rehabilitation center.

503 Ocean Front Walk
Venice, California

Circa 1925

Fraternal Order of the Eagles? building.

1625 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, California

Circa 1908, renovated 2002

Built as a hotel right in the thick of things on Ocean Front Walk in 1908 and renovated in 2002, Venice Beach Suites and Hotel provides a sense of Venice in its heyday. Substantial differences can be seen between the building in its early days (postcard) to in its present incarnation.

Ocean Front Walk
Venice, California

Circa 1904

The St. Marks, designed per developer Abbot Kinney’s directive in “Venitian Renaissance” stlye, was a cornerstone of early Venice.

Windward
Venice, California

Circa 1905

Early Marsh & Russell apartments in the old canal district. Like several other, contemporary Venice designs, the building is evocative of the Prairie School architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and his mentor, Louis Henri Sullivan.

San Juan Ave
Venice, California

Circa 1912

This Market Street Craftsman is a variation on the important, turn-of-the-century (that would be the last century) architectural style.

Market Street
Venice, California

Circa 1906

The former Haley Hotel (which I know precious little about) is now home to a youth hostel, skateboard shop and various other small businesses.

1516 Pacific Ave
Venice, California

Circa 1908

This house reportedly stood in the canal district where it was inhabited by the Kinney family from 1908 to 1920. Willed to Irwin Tabor, Kinney’s black driver, upon Kinney’s death, the house was moved to Oakwood because blacks weren’t allowed to live in certain sections of Venice.

Oakwood
Venice, California