Googie: A structure with tapered columns, exaggerated up-sweeping cantilevered roof, walls of glass to meld inside and outside; using the latest colors and materials with shapes heavily influenced by the space age— reminiscent of space ships and flying saucers; often with a spire piercing the roofline; and usually featuring tropical landscaping. It was utterly bizarre architecture in postwar 1950s. Googie’s Coffee Shop was built in 1949 on the Sunset Strip. The style was known as “Coffee Shop Modern” until the shop appeared in a home magazine. Thereafter, Googie was the term for this wild, futuristic, break-the-sky architecture.

The aerospace industry started here, so it is only natural we have a remarkable number of Googie structures in and adjacent to Ingle- wood. The most intact and regionally famous is immediately outside our northwest city limits: Pann’s. About a mile northeast stands Simply Wholesome, formerly The Wich Stand. The one structure that exemplifies not only Googie but is known the world over for being quintessentially Los Angeles is not far from Inglewood. It is the Theme Restaurant at LAX. This amazing building was conceived and built by a team of engineers and architects that included Paul R. Williams (who is interred at Inglewood Cemetery) and Charles Luckman (who designed the Forum).

In our heyday, Inglewood had four Googie coffee shops, a bowling alley, drugstore, motel, and three car washes. Only two each of the coffee shops and the car washes remain.

The coffee shop that remains intact is Cafetales Restaurant, located on 115 S. La Brea Ave. just north of Manchester Blvd. It’s been through several incarnations since it was constructed in 1958. Sheri’s or Sherry’s was the first name, then Farmer’s Restaurant for a long while. GG’s followed, but closed in 2008. Its paint job has seen better days, but the sign and the interior are intact.

The other coffee shop remaining is Norma’s on 4410 W. Century Blvd., west of Hawthorne Blvd. It started life as a Norm’s, but the exterior has been so altered only the name reminds of its Googie past.

The motel was on Century, next to the 405 North Freeway on-ramp. Thrifty was the drugstore in the Googie style. It was located on Imperial east of Crenshaw. The store was looted, burned, and closed during the 1992 riots, never to reopen. Tropicana Bowl was located on Prairie in the 111th block.

Two of the car washes, Jet on 941 W. Manchester Blvd., and Century on 4700 W. Century Blvd, retain the original Googie signage. The Imperial on 3245 W. Imperial Highway at Lemoli has had all its Googie traces removed.

There is one contemporary example of Googie in Inglewood: the In-N-Out Burger sign on 3411 W Century Blvd. The modern version shows a solid yellow arrow, while the original arrow was made of yellow lights.

The next time you’re out and about, keep an eye open for these wonderfully extravagant examples of our Googie history. They are another example of our history hiding in plain sight.