Finally a Photo

All along, I have known there must be at least one photo of Los Angeles' first indoor Velodrome and I finally found one. Unfortunately it looks like... well, it looks like that. Even I, who has read all the available descriptions of the place, has a hard time deciphering just what is being shown. Forget trying to make out the track at all, and I don't think you'll have much luck with the seating either. What you can make out are the extensive network of wood trusses bearing the weight of the roof, designed and constructed under the direction of James Lang, "well known stage carpenter of the Burbank." The photo ain't much to look at, but at least it is a start. 

I am still convinced that photos of the Velodrome, both inside and out, exist in archives around the city. Having worked in an archive of historic photographs, I can tell you there are many photos that go unidentified (and even mis-identified) simply because archivists and volunteers do not always have the specialized knowledge to identify everything. The very photograph that was printed in the newspaper to accompany a story on Southern California's best amateur racers in 1900 (along with all the others used to illustrate the story) may very well be somewhere waiting to be rediscovered. Until they are found, two questions remain unanswered: Was the original print as dark as the newsprint version? and, is the newsprint version really this bad, or is the darkness a result of the digitization process?

The search for answers goes on!