There are several No Parking signs in this street scene as well.
Here the signs are square as opposed to the diamonds in the above photo.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/4...locationjo.jpg
BrerHair on j_journal


There was no date or location provided with this photo. Anyone?

Three parking lots over the years. No dates or locations were given.


http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/182...urnalbrerh.jpg
BrerHair j_journal








http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/7...tsjjournal.jpg
BrerHair j_journal






http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3...sjjournal2.jpg
BrerHair j_journal


After looking at this photo more closely, I believe it is the same parking lot as seen in photo #2.
You can tell by the 2 story Security First National Bank building far left.

:previous:
Those last two photos are of Wilshire and Grand downtown. It's clear in these shots where buildings were knocked down to extend Wilshire east of MacArthur Park. For decades there were just parking lots after the extension. And of course this section of Wilshire was never the prestigious section of Wilshire.

Thanks for the explanation sopas_ej. :) I appreciate it.




below: USC caption "Looking north on Hill Street from 2nd Street, ca. 1932"
The 4 story building in the center of the photo is the Moore Cliff Apartments.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/7...northonhil.jpg
usc digital archive

Can anyone tell me what the sign in the middle of Hill Street is? It looks as if lanterns are hanging on each side of the sign.
Perhaps it's nothing more than "Open Manhole".

Also notice the man on crutches getting ready to board the approaching streetcar.



below: Here is another photo of the Moore Cliff from LAPL.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8...shillstlap.jpg
lapl

This has a very San Francisco look to it.

No idea the date but couldn't you just see Phillip Marlowe walking up to these guys and asking them if they had seen a missing girl or something similar? Great noir shot!:banana:

My guess is this one was in 1946 as the campaign sign says re-elect Earl Warren and he was re-elected the first time in 1946. He actually won third term in 1950 but the cars look too old for that.

Thanks for your input kanhawk.....much appreciated.

When I was a teenager in the 1970s the pace of recent change was so fast that we didn't have a lot of buildings left that were 90 years old, let alone a century old. Now, though, one of the most encouraging signs is that the architectural fabric isn't being changed at nearly the same pace. As a result, we can now point to a great many pre-war buildings which now remain in active use, or have been repurposed, like the old financial district. And it isn't just downtown, but the same is true in many smaller commercial centers--Santa Monica, Sawtelle, Culver City, and Palms to name a few

For better or worse, the great pulling force which contributed to the rotting away of much of Downtown--exerted by cheap houses in nearby suburbs--has vanished.

this image is from 1945, looking westerly from the long gone intersection of bellevue and n. spring street towards the intersection of broadway and sunset boulevard. that's the northern side of fort moore hill in the distance. bellevue avenue was a one block street at this time located between sunset bouelavard to the south, and macy street to the north.

here's a then and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/...c3df71eb_b.jpg

note the orange building. the only structure that still survives in both images.

here's a then and now of the intersection of broadway and sunset looking south, that puts it into good perspective. the image you posted E_R was looking at this spot, taken from a vantage point at a right angle to the left

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/...291567cd_b.jpg

it is somewhat astonishing, that the Colima Restaurant building is the only structure in almost all of downtown that is not considered historical in nature, somehow still survives

this an image looking south from the intersection of n. spring and bellevue. pico house is in the distance. the buildings on the left are the spring street side of the sentous block which was located at 617 . main street.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014324.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014324.jpg

Ah OK, I thought that area looked strangely familiar, from previous posts and comments.

this 1948 image is of the block of buildings being demolished on bellevue between n. spring and broadway. the sidewalk overhang for these buildings is visible in the image posted by E_R. Fort moore hill is visible on the left side for location reference

http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/ima...caleFactor=1.2
Source: UCLA Digital Collections http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/ima...caleFactor=1.2


another image that i had seen previously but didn't know quite where it was until i did research on the lugo house and old chinatown.

this looking across los angeles street from in front of the garnier building, (the portion that will be demolished to make way for the 101 freeway), looking towards calle de los negros between aliso street and ferguson alley. the image is dated 1949. the billboard that i had posted earlier that proclaimed chinatown was here to stay is on the right

http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/ima...caleFactor=1.2
Source: UCLA Digital Collections http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/ima...caleFactor=1.2

northwest corner of 5th and grand 1927. the building that has the baronne sign on top is our old friend the engstrum. the edison building, (or if you prefer, one bunker hill), will be sitting exactly where the parking lot is

gsjansen...thanks so much for clarifying the photos.

I searched and searched for more information on the Baronne and came up with nothing. It hadn't occurred to me that it was the Engstrum.

a really cool 1943 photograph of people on top of the old courthouse retaining wall along spring street to view a parade honoring Madame Chiang Kai-Shek's visit to Los Angeles.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics41/00055473.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics41/00055473.jpg

Many surface parking lots. If you look at the Plaza neighborhood in Google Earth, you'll see that the dark asphalt of Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 covers most of the area. When I first became interested in this topic around 1978, there were still several turn-of-the-last-century structures in the block where the old Plaza Church is, unlike today when nearly all that space is a huge parking lot except for the Church itself, and the Brunswig Drug building.

Most people don't seem to know that a considerable remnant of Old Chinatown persisted until about 1950, wedged between Alameda and the Plaza. There was a villain in this piece and her name was Christine Sterling. Because of her "success" in transforming Olvera Street into a faux "Mexico-Land", with the backing of the L.A. Times she became a sort of dictator of the Plaza preservation efforts. In effect she decreed that the Lugo House and everything else in those blocks--the old buildings and the businesses and lodgings they contained--were eyesores and had to go. Moreover, she specifically wanted the Plaza area to preserve--as it were--the Hispanic heritage of the neighborhood only, and allowing Old Chinatown to remain adjacent to the Plaza itself would have detracted from that. As we all know, "China Land" had already been prepared for the Chinese.* This is why today, instead of several blocks of historic buildings east of the Plaza, we now have the aforesaid parking lot, plus a bit of landscaping that serves only to emphasize the rush of auto traffic on Alameda and the row upon row of parked cars on either side of Alameda.

ETA: I don't mean to be critical of the desire to preserve and celebrate the city's Latino/a heritage, which is how my statement above might have come off. In and of itself that's a worthy goal. However, before the neighborhood was wrecked, the Plaza was where several ethnic neighborhoods converged, and it was actively used by all of them--Japanese in Little Tokyo, Chinese on the eastern edge, and Hispanics (mostly Mexicans) to the west and north. There was even an Italian section to the north, about whose only traces now are the remains of Little Joe's Restaurant and St. Peter's Church, which is still active and still offers Mass in Italian, last I checked.


*See for eample: William D. Estrada. The Los Angeles Plaza: Sacred And Contested Space.. University of Texas Press, 2008. p242ff

a great color image of the amestoy building taken from city hall. i don't believe i have ever seen a color photograph of this building before!

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019077.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019077.jpg

Thanks for bringing up the old Brew 102 plant. I attended UC San Diego between 1975 and 1980, and used to come up to L.A. on Amtrak (only three round trips a day back then). On the way to the train station to go back to SD, I always noticed the big BREW 102 sign from the off ramp. I had no idea the plant was as old as it was until years later.

GSJansen....

Amazing! Your knowledge is encyclopedic. And your ability to take street scenes from different eras and link them.....remarkable.

BTW - Anyone notice that brick paving in the WB First @ Grand/1931 shot that Ethereal posted!

Hey Triton!

I went to Revelle from '72-'77, so we were at UCSD at roughly the same time.

-Scott

Oh. My. Gawd. That's almost like porn to me. :D

That's the first time I've seen a color photo of the Amstoy as well.
I read somewhere that the Amstoy was the first building in L.A. to have an elevator.




I'll repost this cool shot.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1...dgarnerlat.jpg
Ed Garner L.A.Times

Notice the "Stake Out" Bar next to Rexall's. It was a popular police hangout.

The Amstoy Building in 1958.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/2...ldingatmai.jpg
usc digital archive

The first pay telephone at 228 S. Spring Street, ca. 1899
All three photos are slightly different.


http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6...ytelephone.jpg
state library of louisiana


I wonder what building is being reflected in the window.


http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/6...ytelephone.jpg
state library of louisiana




http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/5...ytalktosf5.jpg
state library of louisiana

"Talk to San Francisco 50c a Minute"

The northwest corner of 4th & Olive, ca. 1889.
The Los Angeles Cable Railway Co.

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/753...lescablera.jpg
usc



below: Second Street Cable R.R. ca. 1890

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/6...arbarn1890.jpg
usc



below: Pacific Railway Co. Power/Cable House, ca. 1890

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/407...railwaycop.jpg
usc

A lot of that is gone just in the past 10 years. I didn't know the building next door to the Brunswig building was still there that recently--it looks like they really tried to spruce it up before ultimately tearing it down.

The asphalt sea laps at ever-wider shores.

ETA: It looks like the facade of the Brunswig Annex was saved, after all.

ETA: From historic views in Google Earth, I suspect the Annex may have been gutted in much the same way as the Pershing Hotel a few weeks ago.

Hail Tritons, overlooking Neptune's ceaseless roar...(Just kidding!)

I was also in Revelle, and lived there the whole time except for my EAP year. Unusually for the college, I was a liberal arts major but, as it turned out, I've spent most of my career in programming or other IT work. I suppose it figures.

You must have been in the tunnels! When I got there in summer '75, I got to go on a clandestine tour; I think we entered somewhere around Muir. AFter that, though, it got too difficult.

and once again, while no one was looking, the USC Digital Archive site, seems to be updating their library.

i know i would have remembered this image

looking west from the construction of union square......probably early 1938, as the buildings at marchessault and alameda are still standing

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...6-15-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...6-15-ISLA?v=hr

Great picture! I believe I see the back of the Lugo House to the left.

^^^You're absolutely correct. I see the sign for the Dragon's Den next door.



http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/6473/aaaddlapl.jpg
lapl

My guess is the Hollenbeck Hotel.

-Scott

Hi Scott.

That would have been my guess as well.... but as I look at the photo below it seems the windows are different.

The top of the windows in the Hollenbeck are somewhat arched/curved.
The windows in the reflection (above) are squared off.



http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/9...hotelsprin.jpg
usc digital archive

above: FYI: The sliver of the building on the far right is the Bryson Block.
I had forgotten that the Hollenbeck Hotel and the Bryson Block faced each other.



Bryson Block
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/6...nblock1905.jpg
usc digital archive

above: Here is a photo of the Bryson Block already missing the elaborate gables and turrets on the rooftop.

After comparing the two photos above & below...yes the gables and peaked roof are gone, but it looks as if the Bryson Block added 2 more floors!
Is this correct? ? ? Did I somehow miss the addition of two floors in previous discussions of the Bryson Block?



below: Here is an earlier view of the Bryson block with the rooftop intact. It's hard to believe it's the same building.
Lower left is the Hollenbeck Hotel....which started this whole conversation.....with myself. :)

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2...topornamen.jpg
usc digital archive

The Pico House--Interior shots!
 

About twenty years ago I was in the Plaza area for some reason, on a weekday which is what made it unusual. I stopped by the historic park management office, which in those days, if memory serves, was located in the old Mason hall. My intent was to ask politely if someone would please take me inside the Pico House, which I'd only ever seen from the outside due to its always being locked shut. The woman running the front desk very kindly offered to show me around.

These pictures aren't that great, because they were taken with a conventional albeit decent quality camera, then scanned recently.

The first one may have been taken from the street through the windows of the main entrance. This is looking up the "grand staircase"; you can see the niches where the statues were placed in its heyday. Now that I look at the shot again, it looks like there still might be a manikin or statue of some kind!

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/r...ylightened.gif

Next we have a large ground floor public room on the Plaza side. I believe this was the dining room during the period when the hotel was good enough to have one. In later years I believe this was used as a billiards hall.

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/r...iorrotated.gif

Last we have the interior courtyard. The guide told me that the railings, along with the brick staircase on the far side, were new work; presumably they were hoping visitors would be on the upper floors for some reason yet to be determined, and they had to be brought up to code. We are looking at the north wall of the Merced Theatre. I seem to remember reading somewhere that there was a door between the Pico House and the auditorium level of the theater, which was on the second floor. The Merced, like the Pico House, is three stories high but we can see that the height of each floor was considerably greater in the theater building. This may be related to the fact that there are two doors of which the higher one doesn't seem to be on the proper level for either the second or third floor of the hotel. One door may be a recent alteration.

As I wrote in the Wikipedia article on the hotel,


http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/r...cingMerced.gif

If anyone knows how to post these photos taken at Hollywood and Vine in August,1944:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life...28e1f7d012a5b1

just right click on the photo and select copy image location, then select the insert image button, (the one that looks like it has a mountain with the sun above)...........viola!

Singer Carolyn Grey walking down Hollywood and Vine.

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/762...12a5b1_landing
Source: Life http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/762...12a5b1_landing


Order Clerk Carolyn Grey walking down Hollywood and Vine.

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/13b...0ebccc_landing
Source: Life http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/13b...0ebccc_landing

Secretary Jane Yaeger walking Hollywood and Vine.

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/7ee...28e70b_landing
Source: Life http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/7ee...28e70b_landing

Singer Marilyn Hall walking down Hollywood and Vine.

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/bd3...0b49f0_landing
Source: Life http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/bd3...0b49f0_landing

Window stylist Cecilia Fiala walking down Hollywood and Vine.

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/209...bf7536_landing
Source: Life http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/209...bf7536_landing

Students Joianne Breckenridge and Gloria Jones walking down Hollywood and Vine.

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/65c...6f6236_landing
Source: Life http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/65c...6f6236_landing

got it!

the old orpheum theater which was located across the street at at 227 S. Spring Street

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015510.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015510.jpg

the LAPL has the same image as you posted E_R. the caption for the photo on the LAPL site says;

This was Los Angeles' first telephone pay station, at 228 So. Spring St., in 1899. The first telephone line between San Francisco and Los Angeles had just been opened, and long distance calls to the Bay City were being stimulated. The young man, Roy E. Jillson, was messenger boy then and was still an employee of the telephone company in 1934.

here's an image of the building at 228 spring street

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...E11C52840?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...E11C52840?v=hr

kere's another view of the Hollenbeck Hotel where you can see the side of the orpheum on the far left

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets.../CHS-7956?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive

the theater at 227 spring street began life as the original los angeles theater, it then became the home of the 2nd orpheum theater. when the orpheum moved out, it became the lyceum theater. the theater was demolished in 1941.

a photo of the lyceum taken before it's demolition in 1941

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics41/00070226.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics41/00070226.jpg

the caption for the above photo is interesting

Street view of the Lyceum Theatre, located at 227 South Spring Street, is the second oldest showhouse built in the city. Originally known as the Los Angeles Theater, where stars of yesteryear appeared, the theater will be razed to become a parking lot. Beneath it is one of the original springs from which Spring Street derived its name.

hmmmmmmmm....something new for me to research.....the springs beneath this location that is responsible for spring street's name........

this image shows the lyceum, (orpheum, los angeles), theater, the hollenbeck hotel, and 228 spring street

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-36054?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-36054?v=hr

an image looking north on spring street prior to the demolition of the lyceum.......the hollenbeck?................sigh.......not so much...........

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...3-30-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...3-30-ISLA?v=hr

Absolutely amazing detective work gsjansen!

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/288...lockholmes.jpg

Very interesting! However, I seem to recall that the original Ord map gave the street's name as "Calle Primavera"; that being "Spring" as in the season of the year, not a water spring.

I'll be interested to see what you come up with, gsj. :)

-Scott

If you ride Amtrak down to San Diego, some of the route in North County, e.g. Cardiff-by-the-Sea, runs on the center island of PCH. True, it's not quite in the street, but as a student I did ride past local attractions like V.G.'s Donuts to which I usually drove. That always seemed rather unusual.

How do ya like that one newspaper dealer with the vest, off to the left (I would say newspaper "boy" but dude looks like he's 50)..........

He must have seniority. Hollywood and Vine was probably a coveted corner. You get to stand there and watch fafuna walk by all day long! :)

Sorry for the huge image repost, but good lord, women back then had some seriously nice legs! Maybe if everyone in this day and age didn't drive or valet everywhere, they'd rock some lean beautiful stems too! :slob:

And now let's take a look at Christine Sterling herself. I thought this is essential; remember this is a person who condemned a house that was then 112 years old, that had been built and inhabited by one of the early great Ranchero families, and then become the original location of one of the city's oldest universities. And she looks like just the sort of person who would do that.

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/r...A/Sterling.jpg

She may have saved the Avila house, but otherwise she marched right along in the mid-century rush to turn Downtown into a giant suburb.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/185...southonhil.jpg
usc

The steps you see on the right side of Hill Street lead to the Moore Cliff Apartments (recently discussed in post # 2604).

I believe this incredible photograph shows the future site of the Richfield Building. Is this correct?

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/4774/1916im21916.jpg
ebay



below: A slightly different angle showing the impressive Bible Institute.

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/7...essive1916.jpg
ebay

A few more photos of the Bible Institute.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/8...itutehuge2.jpg
usc digital archive



http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/3...titutehuge.jpg
usc digital archive


Despite my pantheistic viewpoint......I think the Bible Institute Building is quite beautiful.

Squirmy - You may want to judge people on other factors besides looks. Personally, I gave that up around age 15.

I'd suggest that without Ms Sterling you would have even more to pine about. Were all here efforts congruent with what we, the enlightened ones of 2011 would support? Perhaps not. But then again - something is better than nothing.


http://www.socalhistory.org/bios/chr..._sterling.html

I had to do this:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5215/...247c70b1_o.jpg

Actually ethereal the Richfield Building would be on the block just west from there, out of frame (at the bottom of the pic). What this picture does show is the site of what is currently the Standard Hotel and the surface parking lot behind it, and the California Club.

I'm not sure anyone would be interested but apparently there's a new video game coming out soon by the name of "LA Noire". The kid (28) across the aisle from me at work had a gaming magazine with this game on the cover. I thumbed through the article. It takes place in post WW2 LA and follows the exploits of an LAPD detective as he deals with lowlifes and dolls. Based on the company's past games, the graphics are supposed to be great or so I'm told.

I'm way too old to start playing video games (besides, my free time is taken up by my midlife crisis, learning to play the guitar) but maybe there's some youngsters on this thread into gaming.