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Remembering the Descanso, L.A.'s Funeral Streetcar
Today the Eastsider L.A. takes us back on the tracks of local history and shares a bit of the story behind The Descanso, "a 101-year-old Los Angeles street car built to transport mourners as well as the deceased to burial services." Now residing at the Orange Empire Railway Museum, "it is the only remaining funeral streetcar still on its own trucks known to exist in the U.S." notes the Pacific Railroad Society. From 1909 to 1940 the streetcar could be chartered; "Los Angeles Railway provided this service to Inglewood Park, Rosedale, and Evergreen Cemeteries and to those on Whittier Blvd. in East Los Angeles." The Eastsider L.A. has a photo of the Descanso as it looks today--check it out.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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