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

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.”

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  • By Jeffrey StantonCheck 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!

Photo  credits:

  • Photo 2  & 4  found on Westland.net
  • Photo 1 & 3 by Venice Paparazzi’s Edizen

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