Olvera Street market, Los Angeles, CA, circa 1936
- Card type
- Linen
- Date
- c. 1936 (Linen)
About this postcard
The view looks along Olvera Street, the short brick-paved lane beside the old Plaza in Los Angeles, where figures in Mexican dress stroll past rows of pottery and baskets. A man with a guitar stands among the displays under a flower-trimmed awning and a pepper tree. The printed caption calls the scene "TYPICAL OF EARLY LOS ANGELES," a phrase that sold the street as a romantic Mexican marketplace in the city's historic core. Olvera Street was restored and opened as a marketplace in 1930, part of an effort to preserve the old Plaza area as El Pueblo de Los Angeles. By the mid-1930s, it was a tourist draw, with vendors, performers, and craft displays arranged to evoke the city's Spanish and Mexican past.
Postcard Details
No address detected
Postcard record
| Publisher | Western Publishing & Novelty Co. |
|---|---|
| Series | LA-19 6A-H2613 |
| Condition | Very good |
| Publisher | Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles, CA |
| Notes | Linen-textured stock with a white border; Curt Teich job number 6A-H2613 in the lower right corner; series LA-19. Published by Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles, Calif. No postmark, address, or message — the back carries only the printed divided-back headings ("POST CARD," "THIS SPACE FOR WRITING MESSAGES," "THIS SPACE FOR ADDRESS ONLY," "PLACE ONE CENT STAMP HERE") with no handwriting. Divided-back linen-era card with a one-cent stamp box; light soiling and faint foxing on the cream stock. |
Cite this card
Olvera Street market, Los Angeles, CA, circa 1936, postcard, c. 1936. PostalPast Collection. https://postalpast.com/postcard/olvera-street-market-los-angeles-ca-circa-1936. Accessed November 2, 2026.