Elco Welding: An Old Venice, CA Icon
Elco Welding, housed in an old building at 1711 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, in Venice, California, is unique among the many nearby businesses and pricey shops in a very trendy area. Built in 1928, this structure has seen many years of local history, and is still an active welding shop and metal working facility. Two brothers, Mark and Bob Libow, run the business. They inherited it from their father Seymour, who worked for the original owner of the building. This business has outlasted many others in the area because it still provides valuable metalworking skills to other local businesses, car owners and even artists in the process of creating art from metal of all kinds.
Of great historical interest, according to Mark, was the use of the back section of the shop to distribute booze to the LA and Hollywood elite during the prohibition years. “Car repair customers”, including movie stars like Wallace Beery, drove their cars into the shop, the mechanics would open the hood, and stash illicit liquor inside. Money would change hands and the customers were on their way. Also, one metal lathe has placards indicating it met the standards of the US Army Corps of Engineers during World War II.
The following images show many of the fascinating machines, tools, antique objects, bizarre collectibles, and old signs scattered throughout the shop. Hundreds of different power and hand tools, many very old, can be seen throughout the shop. Four old cars are inside or in the back of the property are kept in running condition and are occasionally driven. They include a 1934 Ford V8 sedan, a 1934 Hudson convert- ible, a 1937 Dodge pickup truck (bought from the original owner) and a 1951 Plymouth station wagon. A fifth car, a rare 1941 Graham, is undergoing restoration.Anyone fascinated with old cars, mechanical objects and curiosities might spend hours in this shop, as I did, Leica in hand. These images were taken with a Q2, and an SL2 with a 50mm APO-Summicron-M, 90mm APO-Summicron-M and an 18mm Super-Elmar-M.
