Thanks for explaining Cab-Forwards Casey. I appreciate it.

I came across this 1938 postcard earlier this evening on eBay.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...538/SB7Zxw.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1938-view-of...item5673019c16



For comparison, I've enlarged this photograph that was posted back in 2010.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/TOwXjZ.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/JC5OdI.jpg
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1488


Here's the earlier post by gsjansen that includes a modern view via Kansas Sebastian on flickr.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1488
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This was at the Los Angeles Gas & Electric Corporations Aliso plant that was right behind union station.

To confirm what Wig-Wag said, here's a 1952 aerial view (the earliest available at Historic Aerials). It shows crossings at Olive Avenue, Verdugo Avenue and Providencia Avenue. The red arrow marks the spot where e_r's picture was taken from.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...dugoAv1952.jpg
Historic Aerials

By 1964, the I-5 had arrived, and the crossings had gone. The Olive Avenue crossing had become a bridge, W Verdugo Avenue stopped at the railroad, and the Providencia Avenue crossing was lost under the I-5.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...dugoAv1964.jpg
Historic Aerials

then (1977) and now (2014)


"55, 51, 45 W. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena CA."

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...537/nd0M8u.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...905/aYURik.jpg
gsv

Not much difference....just fancier shops and a couple of trees.

http://pasadenadigitalhistory.com/

I originally posted about the Pellissier Square Garage and neighboring Fred C Wood Building in post #21317. Then a couple of days ago I found a picture of three gas pumps at Pellissier Square Garage on eBay. A quick Google for more pictures led me to an article on theoldmotor.com, which in turn led me to the original of the eBay image in the USCDL. The photoset includes five images (two are very similar, so I'm only posting four of them) under the title "Exterior view of grease rack at Pellissier Square Garage, 828 South Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 1931". I'll start with the three gas pumps.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...rSqGarage1.jpg
USC Digital Library

It looks like there were three service bays for lubrication.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...rSqGarage2.jpg
USC Digital Library

Here's a wider view showing two sets of gas pumps and the large pylon sign.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...rSqGarage3.jpg
USC Digital Library

A close-up of the tow truck.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...rSqGarage4.jpg
Detail of picture above.

I believe this is the service bay on the left.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...rSqGarage5.jpg
USC Digital Library

The image below is from another USC photoset called "Pennzoil line in Pellissier garage, Southern California, 1931". I'm only posting one picture from this set as the others don't add anything new.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...rSqGarage6.jpg
USC Digital Library

GW posted a smaller version of the image below when writing about the Nikabob Cafe in post #3759. The view is looking north on Western Avenue from 9th Street in 1937, and shows the garage's pylon sign nicely. In the distance is the Wiltern Theatre.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...rSqGarage7.jpg
USC Digital Library

Finally, here's a 1932 sign board advertising the garage. The source doesn't list a location, and I don't immediately recognize the building behind.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...rSqGarage8.jpg
USC Digital Library

Schedule for Southen Pacific Lark Passenger train.
 

[QUOTE=tovangar2;6986214]Thank you Ed. Trying to find info about the pictured incident, I found info on the 2 October 1915 wreck of the Lark (No. 76), northbound out of Los Angeles, at the Cuesta grade. Clubman R.W. Poindexter (offices in the 1896 Wilcox Building) and Mrs. L.B. Jamvier, WTCU official, of Pasadena were among the passengers, both unhurt. The accident was caused by a "spreading rail". I'm sure I've read about this accident before. The name "Lark" is so memorable b/c it's an odd one for a night train. Did it arrive at dawn?:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Z...52620%2BPM.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9...53833%2BPM.jpg

T2, The Lark left Los Angeles northbound, and San Francisco southbound, at 9:00 PM and arrived at their respective terminals the following morning at 9:00 AM. Here is a bit of history: http://www.modelingthesp.com/Passeng...rk_Trains.html

Cheers,
Jack

[QUOTE=tovangar2;6986214]Thank you Ed. Trying to find info about the pictured incident, I found info on the 2 October 1915 wreck of the Lark (No. 76), northbound out of Los Angeles, at the Cuesta grade. Clubman R.W. Poindexter (offices in the 1896 Wilcox Building) and Mrs. L.B. Jamvier, WTCU official, of Pasadena were among the passengers, both unhurt. The accident was caused by a "spreading rail". I'm sure I've read about this accident before. The name "Lark" is so memorable b/c it's an odd one for a night train. Did it arrive at dawn?:

You have about all there is. The site is Cuesta, which was the first siding north of the main tunnel, just where 101 now crosses overhead. While somebody else drives, look over the bridge guardrails and NB you will see the switch that formerly went into the siding, SB the tunnel portal. The road in the background of the pic is now the shoulder of NB 101, not quite a mile north of the bridge and around a wiggle. The siding was removed in late 1994 after a brushfire burned down the codelines for the signals. There was another accident same place within a coupla years of this one- can't say before or after. THe Lark was indeed a night train. Surely the schedule varied over the years, but one I recall was a 12 hour trip, dp about 9pm and arrive for business the next morning. The two opposing LArks met at or near San Luis Obispo. In the wee hours of 1959, they met at Serrano, a siding high on the mountainside, by collision as #75 failed to stop at the switch.
San Luis Obispo was a busy place in the middle of the night as several trains were carded in there in a short time period. Other names over the years were the Coaster and The Padre, the Starlight and later, the Overnight freights.
Hmmm Northbound trains were actually Westbound by SP rule- anything toward SF went West, away from SF went EAST, So the SP Pacific System consisted of "Lines west of Portland, Ogden and El PAso". With that groundwork, The NB Lark went "west" as train 75 since all WB trains, those headed toward SF, were assigned odd numbers
More than you wanted to know, but I FEEL better now

And the snow sheds over Donner Pass, roofs over sections of track to prevent blockage by avalanches in winter.

http://wayalife.com/showthread.php?2...Final-Run-2012

My father worked for their arch-rival, the Western Pacific. SP continually coveted WP's less steep route over the Sierras and along the Feather River. That ended when Union Pacific ended up buying them both (1983 and 1996), although now, with the need to increase capacity to Oakland, UP seems to be favoring the old SP route.

And regarding Ed's post, one of the first rules I learned as a train watching toddler in Elko NV was "Evens East." :-)

Cheers,

Earl

The Lark
 

Thank you Wig-Wag and Ed Workman, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5...02837%2BAM.jpg
modelingthesp

Good account of the 1959 Lark-on-Lark collision here

Thx for the great pix at the link :-)

A rare glimpse inside the Edison Building.

"Men's Lunch Room, Edison Building, 3rd and Broadway. 7/13/1920

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...661/D5uLyg.jpg
http://hdl.huntington.org/



Judging by the arched windows, I think the lunch room was located here (circled below).

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...633/6hsnIj.jpg
https://cbsla.files.wordpress.com/20...lartheatre.jpg
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And here's the roof of the Edison Building (later the Metropolitan Water District Building). -home of the Million Dollar Theater.

"Roof of the new Edison General Office (3rd and Broadway) in downtown Los Angeles. 1/18/1918"

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...538/kyTDlY.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...537/GW16aL.jpg
http://hdl.huntington.org/


below: Detail, showing the giant gas-meter over by the Los Angeles River.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...661/OMEYn2.jpg
http://hdl.huntington.org/

I wonder if the two flue-like 'tubes' were intended to hold flagpoles? (I'm pretty sure they're missing today)

Have we seen this fine looking building on NLA?

It's located on the corner of Elysian Park Avenue and E. Sunset Boulevard.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...540/8M1kJt.jpg
GSV



http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...673/LsW8sa.jpg
GSV

I'd love know it's history.
__

And a third angle...

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8825/...fdcc39c2_o.jpgMetro Olive Street Bus Depot, 1954

Metro Transportation Library and Archive

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-g...2520PM.bmp.jpg

That's the Los Altos...the billboard appears to be on the corner of the future Thriftimart/Perino's, which is in my inventory called "Wilshire After Its Houses": http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...lease-see.html

"On Feb. 18th 1953, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed a contract worth $8,000,000 to continue the "I Love Lucy" show through 1955."

Location: Paramount entrance off of Gower.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...661/CmPtxv.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/VintageLosA...type=1&theater

I'd be smiling too.



today
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...908/SfIYI1.jpg
GSV

Hey, where'd the steps go?



__

That's a beautiful room, but yikes, Building and Safety would never let one get away with that window configuration today. It looks like one could pitch head-first out of that window with no trouble at all.

There seems to be an interior guardrail now and the large pane no longer opens:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-2...13326%2BAM.jpg
gsv

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f...12103%2BAM.jpg
gsv



----------------------------------------



Man oh man e_r, I hate seeing the old RKO main entrance closed off. Desilu bought the RKO lot in 1957. Your photo was taken in 1958. It wasn't until 1967, when Desilu sold to Gulf + Western (owner of Paramount Pictures) that the RKO lot was absorbed into Paramount.

As built:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-N...21030%2BPM.jpg

The way it looked when I lived near it in the 70s:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T...21203%2BPM.jpg

both pix: Hollywoodland

circa 1927:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p...21443%2BPM.jpg
water & power

PS: I couldn't resist posting this early shot of the RKO lot from before the iconic globe-topped soundstage was built at the corner of Melrose and Gower (near the bottom of the photo). Paramount fills the upper right corner of the shot. The RKO entrance building is two blocks north on Gower from Melrose where Warning T-junctions with Gower. Hollywood Forever cemetery is at upper left:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Y...24507%2BPM.jpg
carolandco

The Gower building was a bit of a false front. The really grand building is hidden behind it:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-K...25946%2BPM.jpg
gsv

The old RKO administration building, set in "Lucy Park":
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-o...13634%2BPM.jpg
iamnotastalker


------------------------------------------------------------------------


All I could find out about 1331 W Sunset is it was built in 1924. It used to contain law offices, but now has art and design tenants:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g...20353%2BPM.jpg
loopnet

We haven't seen any history of it but I remember seeing it in this photo that CBD originally posted HERE, toward the right center, after the bus.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psu0mhnxqi.jpg

Just wondering if the water on the roof here is serving some purpose, or collected after a rainfall or a design flaw or something?

Thanks GW, I had a feeling you'd know the answer. Thriftimart and Perino's may have come and gone, but at least that little balcony on the Los Altos is still there :).

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...LALosAltos.jpg
GSV

Edison Building/Metropolitan Water District/Million Dollar Theater
 

I don't know of course, but I assumed they were tarring the roof (notice the boiler to the left of the gent in the photo).

I don't know what those pipes were for e_r, but there's no sign of them now
(facade sculptures by Joseph Mora):
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-9...25051%2BPM.jpg
you-are-here

But they do look like flagpoles (lightening rods?) here
and another great flagpole projects from the building's mid-section:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0...40908%2BPM.jpg
wikimapia