Venice’s Founder Abbot Kinney

Want to know about Abbot Kinney and Venice history?

Check out Detour’s audio tour “Venice: Abbot Kinney’s Impossible Dream.”

About Detour: Beautifully produced GPS audio walks that take you beneath the surface of cities around the world. Detours are narrated by locals who know the city best, and are infused with cinematic scoring and storytelling by some of the best writers and sound designers in the world. Taking a Detour is like walking around inside a movie. Available on iOS and Android. Detour has audio tours for the following cities. Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, and Marrakech. For more info, visit Detour.com

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Here are the tours for Los Angeles

Venice: Abbot Kinney’s Impossible Dream – Tour guided by Venice Paparazzi’s Edizen Stowell
Venice: Life On The Edge – Tour guided by Venice skate legend Eric Tuma
Downtown: Gateway to the City of Angels
Santa Monica: Designing a Pedestrian Utopia
View all LA Detours!

About Detour’s Venice -Abbot Kinney’s Impossible Dream: Discover how Venice was created — and almost destroyed — and meet the spirit of town-founder Abbot Kinney. When Abbot Kinney bought land on the Southern California coast over 100 years ago, it was nothing but a swampy marsh. But Kinney was a world traveler and had a wild vision — to transform this acreage into his very own “Venice of America.”

On this Detour, longtime Venice photographer Edizen Stowell takes you back to 1904 to introduce you to Abbot Kinney himself — played by renowned character actor and resident Venetian, Orson Bean. Together, you’ll walk beneath the beautiful colonnades and Italian decor that still remains, and learn about Abbot Kinney’s network of tunnels below. You’ll see how what is today a car-packed traffic circle was once Kinney’s Grand Lagoon. Along the way, Edizen conjures Kinney’s imported singing gondoliers, the town’s popular miniature steam train, and the wildest roller coaster on the West Coast. And before the tours ends, you’ll discover the fate of Abbot Kinney’s vision for a city of canals as we walk through a waterfront American neighborhood unlike any other.

With Kinney’s words, we will trace Venice’s wild origins, from its beginning as a devoted copy of the Italian original, to its modern incarnation where you’ll see that more than just a glimmer of Kinney’s dream lives on. Listen to a preview of the tour! Download the tour!

Toast to Abbot Kinney!

Check out the best bars/restaurants in Venice, California and have a toast to our founder Abbot Kinney. And, why not take a selfie with Abbot Kinney himself and #VeniceBeachFun. The Abbot Kinney mural by Rip Cronk is located on North Venice Blvd. next door to James beach and the Canal Club, 60 North Venice Blvd. Venice, California. 90291.

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For more Venice History:

Check out Abbot Kinney’s page on Wikipedia.
Check out Venice of America page on Wikipedia
Visit Don Westland’s website www.westland.net/venicehistory for more on Venice History. His interactive educational site covers the history of Venice Beach, California. It features timelines, historic articles and photographs, interactive maps that when clicked on show historic views, and a list of movies filmed on Venice’s streets, amusement piers and canals.
Pick up a copy of Jeffrey Stanton’s book “Venice, California – Coney Island of the Pacific.” The book contains over 300 photographs, mostly B/W, but a few in color appeared as postcards or are more recently taken photos by the author. Many are full page-sized archival quality photographs of great historical interest. You can order a copy online here!