Frank Kurtis’s shops in and around L.A., an incomplete list

While researching Frank Kurtis’s life for an upcoming Hot Rod Hero article in Hemmings Muscle Machines, Donnelly lent me Gordon Eliot White’s book, “Kurtis-Kraft: Masterworks of Speed and Style,” which detailed Kurtis’s life and achievements. Of course, what interested me quite a bit were the various locations mentioned in the book: Kurtis worked out of no less than seven locations when working on his own, and White included the addresses for several of those locations, making it simple to seek those locations out on Google Maps. So let’s begin.

Kurtis’s family moved to Los Angeles in 1921, and he worked for Don Lee Coach Works for his first several years in California, then set up his first shop in 1929, in the alley behind McKenzie’s Garage at 6516 S. San Pedro Street. The map above, which White provided on the endpapers of the book, shows 6516 as the fifth of six lots on that block. From the looks of the area today, it appears the lot that McKenzie’s Garage sat on has been replaced with a giant parking lot, and 66th Street on that side of San Pedro has been eliminated altogether.

That venture lasted only six months, after which Kurtis retreated to the garage attached to his house at 236 73rd Street. Unfortunately, White didn’t indicate whether that was East 73rd or West 73rd. The former is still residential, but the addresses there seem to skip from 234 to 238. The latter is also still residential, with an actual 236 address, and seems to have garages and alleyways behind the houses large enough to support a small repair business.

Don Lee lured Kurtis back later in the 1930s, and Kurtis also worked briefly for Hollywood Trailer Corp., Dutch Darrin and Joel Thorne, but then in 1938, he struck out on his own again, this time setting up shop in a top shop (possibly Pioneer Auto Tops, judging from the photo?) at 6215 S. San Pedro Street (the lead photo was taken inside that location). That location definitely still exists today, though slightly altered, as Mendoza’s Pressing (what’s written on the building) or Mario’s Professional Garments (the business name Google attached to the address).

Kurtis then went back to Thorne’s shop, and then during World War II ran his own shop on Brand Boulevard in Glendale (White gave no street address). He laid out his plans for the post-war midget at the Tam O’Shanter Inn, then toward the end of the war bought a shop at 1107 E. Colorado Boulevard in Glendale.

Whatever building was at that location appears to have since been demolished to make way for a Taco Bell and a gas station.

The post-war midget proved popular enough to warrant a new location in mid-1946, when Kurtis moved to 4625 N. Alger Street, right by the South Pacific railroad tracks. Another map that White provided shows two connected buildings on the east side of Alger between Sequoia and Baywood, and the two buildings currently at that location certainly look to fit the profiles in the map. Rex Dean, the guy behind VukovichAccident.com, also believes those are the same buildings:

The original building is still pretty much intact. Please note that the address on the buildings do not match the original addresses. There are two similar looking buildings. We believe that Kurtis occupied both these buildings. The temporary structure between the buildings has been added since 1955. Originally the “alley” continued until the railroad tracks. The picture of Vuky’s wrecked car being unloaded at the shop was in the wider of the two openings — the one between the two pink buildings. There is work going on in the buildings so please be aware of that and people may not have time or desire to show your through. If you can get in it would be worth it as you can still feel the vibes from the Roadsters being built in there. It is incredibly fragile to think that practically the entire field of the Indianapolis 500 was constructed in this building.

According to Google, Columbia Fabricating Co. and Tajima Corporation USA currently occupy that location.

After the McCullough fiasco in 1956, Kurtis moved to what White only described as “Earl Farrand’s old Indian motorcycle shop on Colorado Boulevard.” Some cursory searching turns up Farrad’s name, but no street address for his shop. Dean reports the address as 525 W. Colorado Boulevard and claims that some of the building still stands, but Google Maps shows the address as either a bridge parallel to the Ventura Freeway or a residential neighborhood.

Kurtis spent his remaining active years at that location and handed off the shop to his son, Arlen, who in 1977 moved the company to 3951 S. H Street in Bakersfield, where Arlen continues to operate the shop, building limited runs of midgets and Kurtis sports cars and restoring older Kurtis products.

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