Abbot Kinney Boulevard
Mile-long shopping street of boutiques and galleries born from a coin-flip land deal over marshland.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice starts with a 1902 coin toss between cigarette millionaire Abbot Kinney and his business partners over a stretch of marshy coastline, and the fantasy beach city of canals and gondolas he built on the half everyone else considered worthless. It follows Kinney's tobacco fortune, his death in 1920, and the decades of decline that followed for the neighborhood he founded. The road itself was once just a plain service street called West Washington Boulevard.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Venice Beach Boardwalk
Beachfront promenade of street performers, muscle gyms, and skate bowls, built on a reclaimed swamp.
Venice Canal Historic District
Man-made residential waterways with arched footbridges, remnants of an early nineteen hundreds Venetian-style resort.
Old Pasadena
Restored nineteenth-century commercial district turned pedestrian-friendly hub of shops, dining and nightlife.
Rodeo Drive
Luxury shopping strip of flagship designer boutiques favored by celebrities worldwide.
Melrose Ave Shopping District
Six-mile shopping strip of punk-era boutiques turned streetwear and vintage racks, dotted with photo-ready street murals.
3rd Street Promenade
Pedestrian shopping street lined with cafes and topiary dinosaurs spouting streams of water.