Van de Kamp's Drive-in was a stunning example of Moderne architecture

We are probably all familiar with the Van de Kamp’s central production facility on Fletcher Drive. Before the creation of an underpass on Fletcher Drive, car drivers and passengers lined up for miles to wait for passage of the long long long freight trains that passed between Atwater Village and Silver Lake. Then those freight trains mysteriously backed up, and so, for those of us old enough to remember, that Van de Kamp's building is burned into our memories. Besides, it is still there. A Denny’s restaurant now occupies what was a Googie architecture beauty: a Van de Kamp’s drive-in. Car hops on roller skates once delivered chrome trays of food to your car window. In 1915, Theodore van de Kamp and his brother-in-law Lawrence Frank sold potato chips in a tiny store at 236-/12 Spring Street. Their wives were the saleswomen. In 1916, they renamed their store Van de Kamp’s Holland Dutch Store and diversified into baked goods – pretzels and macaroons. Their wives designed the trademark blue Dutch maid costumes that would be worn by a generation of Van de Kamp workers. By 1929, Van de Kamp’s grew into a chain with 95 outlets in Los Angeles. They built a central production facility to supply its stores at 2945 Fletcher Drive near San Fernando Road. The company went on to found Lawry’s and the Tam O’Shanter Inn. Ralphs supermarket chain owns the Van de Kamp brand. Architect Wayne McAllister designed the drive-in on Fletcher with two oval shaped Streamline Moderne buildings added onto the original hexagonal bakery (the “Dutch” windmill). Alan Hess in Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture described the Van de Kamp’s drive-in and other Los Angeles drive-ins as having set a pattern of bold futurist design.