Bess Haddon Canright - Gilmore Racetrack 1910 Pen and Ink Drawing

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Of great historic interest as well as being a charming drawing, because this is the site of LA's original Farmers … Read more Of great historic interest as well as being a charming drawing, because this is the site of LA's original Farmers Market!
Featured on Page 160 Volume I:A-D Emerging from the Shadows
Survey of Women Artists Working in California 1860-1960
And featured in the Exhibit.

Framed 22" x 16", art is 16" x 12". Pen and pencil on Parchment

In 1880, A.F. Gilmore bought two dairy farms in the former Rancho La Brea (much of which ended up in the hands of Henry Hancock, of Hancock Park fame). His plot was so sprawling (extending as far as present-day Pan Pacific Park, CBS Television City, Whole Foods, and the "Gilmore Station" shopping center across the street, the site of the former "Gas-A-Teria") that it earned the nickname "Gilmore Island." While drilling for water in 1900, Gilmore struck oil, and how! He replaced his cows with oil derricks, and suddenly got into an entirely different kind of business — one that allowed him to take charge of paving L.A.'s dirt roads with the petroleum he'd extracted from his field.

But as the City of Los Angeles started moving west and surrounding the Gilmore property, city regulations changed, and the oil drilling had to stop in the 1920s. Then, that plot of land became home to a drive-in movie theater, Gilmore Bank (now Grandpoint), and Gilmore Field for the Hollywood Stars baseball team, as well as Gilmore Stadium for the L.A. Bulldogs football team and motorcycle and midget auto racing. You can see examples of those midget racers during the annual Gilmore Heritage Auto Show, held the first Saturday of every June at The Original Farmers Market, as well as at the private collection of Vic’s Garage at the Edelbrock headquarters in Torrance (whose collection contains the 1946 #27 Ford V8-60 Kurtis Kraft midget racer that won a Gilmore track championship). See less