Signs of the Times

Since 1905 the Auto Club
of Southern California
has given direction
to motorists

By Kristin Tilford
Photographs from the Auto Club Archives

Imagine arriving in California for the first time and trying to find your way from Santa Monica to Pasadena without any road signs.

In the early 1900s, Southland motorists faced just such challenges. Drivers would wander down bumpy dirt lanes, and if there was a street marking at all, it might be an arrow painted on a stationary object near an intersection. You might start out on a trip to the beach and find yourself in the middle of a farmer's field.

The Automobile Club of Southern California was instrumental in changing all that.

Painted wooden signs (above and below left) were the norm until enameled steel became the standard in 1913. Sign-posting in the Eastern Sierra in 1933 (below right).

As early as 1903, the Auto Club began to initiate and support policies geared to the benefit of the motoring public. The organization campaigned for better road conditions and supported the state's first motor vehicle laws and highway-improvement bills. It was only natural that the Club take up the cause of signposting.

In 1905 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors allotted $420 for erecting concrete mileposts along 120 miles of county roads. Later that year the Auto Club volunteered to take over the county's signposting and expanded the operation, putting up more signs over more roads and adding information such as directional data and mileage to specific destinations. Each sign also displayed the Auto Club's name and logo. Soon the Club was placing signs throughout Southern California. The Club supplied all of the labor for putting up the signs and often split the cost of manufacturing with county boards.

The signposts received rave reviews. Finally, motorists had help in navigating the roadways of Southern California. "The members loved the signs, so the Club kept putting them up," reports Auto Club historian Matthew W. Roth. The effort cemented the Club's reputation for quality service and dedication to meeting the needs of auto enthusiasts. It was with this dedication that staff members continued the task of posting and maintaining the road-sign system in Southern California for the next 50 years.

By 1913 Southland motorists had grown accustomed to seeing the blue-and-white enameled steel signs that marked more than 3,495 miles of major roads leading to and from Los Angeles. The signage reached as far east as the Nevada border, south to the Mexican border, and as far north as San Luis Obispo and Visalia. And Auto Club signs marked El Camino Real all the way to San Francisco.

The directors were exacting when it came to the placement of signs. Engineers inspected the roads, and the Auto Club placed its signs only on roads that met minimum standards. As the logo increasingly became associated with high-quality service, smaller motoring groups from outlying counties became eager to merge with the notable Los Angeles club.

Go West, Young Man
Auto Club signs even played a role in the vast migration of people to Southern California in the early part of this century. Car owners from the East Coast were embarking on summer trips to the Grand Canyon, but because of poor road markings, they rarely explored any farther west. Business leaders, bankers, and real estate developers in Los Angeles, eager to promote travel to Southern California, reasoned that it might be possible to funnel motorists from the East Coast and Midwest to the Southland. And Auto Club signs could lead the way.

Signs of the Times, Part Two

You are reading the July/August 1999 issue of Westways. Some information contained in this publication is time-sensitive, and the terms of some offers (cruise or vacation packages, for example) or services (provisions for roadside assistance, for example) might have been superseded by subsequent information and might no longer apply.