Reel Culver City
by Marc Wanamaker
Rail transportation was one of the major factors in the rapid growth of Culver City since 1915.
The Pacific Electric’s depot on Venice Blvd. was just west of Bagley Avenue (which becomes Culver City’s Main Street on the south side of Venice). It was the transit stop for the Venice Short Line, the Redondo Line, the Santa Monica Air Line and the Playa Del Rey Line.
The station itself was situated at the intersection at the fork in the rail system in Culver City – splitting off the Redondo Line which ran down Culver Blvd. and the Venice Short Line which ran down Venice Blvd.
ADJACENT TO MEDIA PARK
Located at 9013 Venice Boulevard, the station was adjacent to Media Park where the Ivy Substation is currently located. By the 1930s, the station was known as the Culver City-Palms Pacific Electric Southern Pacific Station.
There were only two major stations in the area: the Culver City Station and the Palms Station nearby at Featherstone Avenue (later to become Exposition Blvd.). Both Stations were used by the studios as film locations and serviced the area until the 1960s when all rail service was discontinued.
IVY SUBSTATION – AN HISTORICAL LANDMARK
All that is left of the station’s legacy is the Ivy Substation which was behind the depot and originally just called the “Ivy.” It became an historical landmark along with Media Park in the 1990s. Thanks to railroad preservationist David Cameron, who put the Ivy Substation on the National Register of Historic places, the legacy of the Culver City Pacific Electric Station is kept alive as a part of Culver City’s history.