Palms station
Palms is an elevated light rail station on the E Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The station is located over the intersection of National Boulevard and Palms Boulevard in the Palms neighborhood of Los Angeles, after which the station is named.
Bay View was a stop on the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad. It was renamed The Palms in 1886.[3]
The Eastlake style Palms-Southern Pacific Railroad Depot building was situated approximately 600 yards (550 m) west of the present station location, on the south side of the tracks, and remained in active rail service until the closure of the Santa Monica Air Line in 1953.
Used in many motion pictures, the building eventually fell into disrepair and abandonment but was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1963. A grassroots organization, S.O.S. (Save Our Station), moved it in February 1976 to the Heritage Square Museum grounds in the Montecito Heights community of the Arroyo Seco. It now serves as the museum's gift shop and visitor center.[4]
Originally slated to be renamed "National/Palms" on re-opening, it remains "Palms" as a result of a request by the Palms Neighborhood Council. The council's resolution stated that:
the Pacific Line Palms station was an important landmark on the west side of the city, and the community that grew around it is one of the oldest on the west side of Los Angeles. Our stakeholders feel the naming of the station is not only an important branding opportunity for Palms, but an opportunity for Los Angeles to reinstate a link to the history in one of its oldest and most diverse communities.[5]
