Just up the street from my house is the longest mural in the world. Wikipedia says that it is 2745 feet (840 meters) long though the official site says that it is 2470 feet long. That’s about half a mile. Just a bit shy of a kilometer long. It was painted, during the summers, between 1976 and 1983. It is in surprisingly good shape after 24 years. Some damage from graffiti has cropped up in the last year and there are some places where the paint has worn off. Yet, it is still an inspiring thing to see.
It was created by Judy Baca, now a Professor at UCLA, with the help of over 700 people. Mostly students who worked their summers away in a flood control channel. Yep! That’s right. In a flood control channel. The mural was painted on the western concrete wall of the Tujunga Wash, so it’s actually below ground, between Oxnard Street and Burbank Boulevard. The wash follows along side Coldwater Canyon Avenue. Since there are parks running along each side of the wash it can easily be viewed from the east side of the wash.
It appears from the official web site (SPARCMurals.org) that restoration as well as expansion is planned. SPARC has also created and cataloged murals all over Los Angeles. Their web site is very worth an hour or two to cruise through. And like virtually all arts programs they could use some more nickels. So, if’n you got some loose nickels around the house or car pitch them SPARC’s way.
It’s kind of surprising that more people don’t know about this mural. Though you can’t really see it unless you get out of your car which, it seems, people in Los Angeles do as little as possible. I remember hearing about it back when they first started painting it. I can’t remember when I first saw it, but it was long before I moved into the neighborhood.
I want you to explore it. To experience it. To savor it. To make that a bit easier as an enticement I took photos of it and plotted them on a Google map. (Images on the map are smaller than those below. Zoom in to more easily click the the red pins to view the photos. Click and drag the map to move around.) That way you can locate it easily and get directions. Give me a shout before you go. I’ll meet you there and I know a few great places to eat nearby.
The pictures are numbered from south to north (Burbank towards Oxnard) as this is the direction of the depicted history of California. From pre-history to about the 1950s. After clicking a photo to view the full size image use “Back” to return to this page.
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