Jan Loomis

A fascination with old pictures and history led Jan Loomis to start exploring the history of West Los Angeles. The interest in history started with historical fiction and was nurtured in the Humanities program at Scripps College. The old pictures came into her orbit when she discovered the Santa Monica Land & Water Company Archives--a private business archive belonging to her husband's family. The arcive contains the records of the development of West Los Angeles and includes photos, letters, an documents created between 1898 and 1988. Now working on her fourth book mined from the archives, she is an expert on how the area developed and became the upscale urban community of today