Mount Lowe, then and now
 

Thought I'd try to contribute something to this great thread. Found these on Shorpy, one of my all-time favorite sites. The 'now' pic is by a Shorpy contributor (Dandy). Fifty years ago, my father and several of my uncles took some of us kids hiking up the Mount Lowe right-of-way (yes, I'm that old), the tracks and most of the trestles were long gone even then. I think you can still find evidence of both the Railway and the several resort buildings today.

First image from 1913...

http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/4a25762a.jpg

and now...

http://www.shorpy.com/images/photos/alpine.jpg

This is why I'm interested in building a 3D model of L.A. just like L.A. Noire but put in a time slider that would show how it looked at any one time.

That is an amazing comparison you were able to do with your friend's photo.
The 'before' photo is one of my all time favorite photos on this thread.

But it's also a bit depressing. The 'before' photo is interesting on so many levels. The contemporary photo is bland and sterile. :(

Two vertiginous photos of Broadway taken from the United Artists Building in 1937.

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/8...yfromunite.jpg
usc digital archive




http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/847...yfromunite.jpg
usc digital archive

:previous: Interesting! The vantage point for those photos was almost directly over the spot where my mother was standing when a street photographer took her picture in October, 1936. (And it's essentially the same time period, too!)

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/v...y102036_lj.jpg

-Scott

^^^ She looks like a wonderful woman Scott.

Great then and nows!

I thought I'd do some too.

E. Clem Wilson Building, 1930
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/272...onbuilding.jpg
USC Archive

E. Clem Wilson Building, Sunday, February 6, 2011
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/1930/p1150950.jpg
Photo by me

The ground floor looks butchered, and other details of the building have been lost. And of course the sign on top really ruins the building.


Miracle Mile, looking east on Wilshire from Hauser, circa early 1960s
http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/2...aclemileel.jpg
ellenbloom.blogspot.com

Same view, Sunday, February 6, 2011
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5891/p1150975.jpg
Photo by me

Lee Tower, circa 1961
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/5164/1961leetower.jpg
USC Archive

What was once the Lee Tower, Sunday, February 6. 2011
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/3440/p1160011.jpg
Photo by me

The building is looking really ratty now; I think an extreme makeover or implosion is due. I think it was in the late 1990s that the original aqua-colored panels were painted black. A re-skinning might be nice.

lee tower grand opening 1958

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/...4aea0de1_b.jpg
Source: Life

"A Hidden Treasure Struggles in Los Angeles"
 

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics26/00032628.jpgWm Reagh/LAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics26/00032628.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics26/00032626.jpgWm Reagh/LAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics26/00032626.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics35/00037144.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics35/00037144.jpg
1959 stress test



Today in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/us...q=rodia&st=cse


Read about the famous 1959 stress test that saved the towers once before: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/cult...-survival.html

the hollywood walk of fame is 51 today:thankyouthankyou:


Formally breaking ground for the Walk of Fame on Feb. 8, 1960, are, from left, Los Angeles County Supervisor Ernest Debs; Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President E.M. Stuart; actresses Gigi Perreau and Linda Darnell; Harry M. Sugarman, president of the Hollywood Improvement Assn.; and actors Francis X. Bushman and Charles Coburn.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2...e_52062127.jpg
Source: hollywoodland http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2...e_52062127.jpg

Mount Lowe, then and now.
 

Well let's try this again...

Thought I'd try to contribute something to this great thread. Found these on Shorpy, one of my all-time favorite sites. The 'now' pic is by a Shorpy contributor (Dandy). Fifty years ago, my father and several of my uncles took some of us kids hiking up the Mount Lowe right-of-way (yes, I'm that old), the tracks and most of the trestles were long gone even then. I think you can still find evidence of both the Railway and the several resort buildings today.

First image from 1913...

http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/4a25762a.preview.jpg

http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/4a25762a.preview.jpg


and today...

http://www.shorpy.com/images/photos/alpine.jpg

http://www.shorpy.com/images/photos/alpine.jpg

I'm not sure what you're doing wrong MichaelRyerson.

Perhaps someone with better computer skills than I have can help explain how to post a photo.


The first step is downloading your photos to a photo sharing site.
I post mine through Imageshack. It's FREE (unless you want larger storage capacity).
A few other sites are Photobucket, SmugMug and Flickr.

An AMAZING item currently on ebay for the next 3 days.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2...nebook1947.jpg
ebay

I have bid up to 86.00 dollars and it still isn't the highest bid. :( (I hope I haven't been bidding against someone from this thread)

I thought something like this would help keep the thread alive.
You know...names and addresses leading to obscure photos via google images and such.
Also the year 1947 makes it especially enticing (the year of the Black Dahlia murder).

At this point it's out of my reach financially.

:previous:
Right now ethereal I see that it's at $87. I wonder how high it'll eventually sell for. It would go great next to my vintage black rotary dial telephone with black cloth-covered handset cord, a Western Electric, circa 1937. And it works.

Here it is:
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._6607267_n.jpg
Photo by me

I don't have money to collect vintage cars (though I wish I did); instead, I have a vintage phone. :-P

Damn...that phone is great sopas_ej. I wish you could have the phone book. :)

Those 19 bids are mostly me....bidding piece-meal. When I started it was only 1 or 2 bids.

smog hangs heavy over the civic center viewed from a rooftop on bernard Street between Broadway and North Hill Street in Chinatown - 1958


http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/...2b6d8273_b.jpg
Source: Ebay

i thought i would try and help you out. i saved the photos to my flickr account, and uploaded them that way:tup:

:::::2 second later update:::::

just as i posted this , i see you solved your problem!

well then i'll just add this postcard of the search light on mount echo to keep the post on topic

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1271/...b2194e85_o.jpg

A man stands next to a large searchlight on a platform on top of Echo Mountain in Los Angeles, California. A reflection of the Echo Mountain House is visible in the lens of the searchlight. The landscape below is largely undeveloped farmland.
Shortly after retiring to Los Angeles in the 1880s, Thaddeus Lowe began construction on the Mount Lowe Railway, which wound for nearly seven miles around Mount Lowe and Echo Mountain. The track ended at the summit of Echo Mountain, where tourists could visit an observatory, casino and dance hall, or stay at one of several hotels. In 1893. In 1894, Lowe installed on Echo Mountain a three million candlepower searchlight purchased from the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. The searchlight's reflecting mirror was 60 inches in diameter, and was manufactured by Mangin, in Paris, France. The beam from the light had a 35-mile projection, and was advertised as being able to illuminate the island of Catalina from its mountain perch. Residents announcing their birthdays could have the light shone on their homes in the evening. By the 1930s, however, the light was considered a public nuisance and was shut off permanently.

Great shots of the wharf and the beach
 

Hard to believe but I think that's a dusting of snow on the Santa Monica mountains!

Thanks GSJ, I'm still fumbling around.
 

I'm the most amateur urban archeologist imaginable but I'm a native Angelino and I love my home town. And I love this thread. Up to page 88 now. Thanks for the thoughtfulness.

Used to walk to this Sears store with my mother and little brother...
 

they had the coolest pneumatic message system thoughout with pipes running up from the sales counters and then along the ceiling. Also one our favorite things was to go stand in the x-ray box in the shoe department and look through the viewer and see the bones of our feet inside our shoes. Honest. Hard to believe they had such things but they did and they were enormously entertaining to a seven year old.