Venice, CA Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

Venice was laid out in the marshlands of Ballona Creek in 1905 by developer Abbot Kinney as a romantic twenty-mile network of canals, lined by sham palazzos and waterfront homes. The original plan to create a west coast art-and-culture zone failed, followed by a more successful turn as an amusement park; however, the coming of the automobile finished it off altogether. Most of the canals were filled in, and the area fell into disrepair, being taken over by oil wells. Orson Welles's film Touch of Evil starred the then-derelict Venice as a seedy Mexican border town. Kinney was, however, ahead of his time. A fair … more »