Wow! Love all the photos, BifRayRock, but especially the ones of the Hotel Normandie and the aerials. Thanks for posting them!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...50256778_n.jpgBeverly Hills Historic Preservation


Over at the bountiful Beverly Hills Historic Preservation, I found this shot of the '56 version of Queen for a Day's golden coach....

Excellent! update on the Hotel Normandie renovation BifRayRock.

___


below: What is the oversized building I circled in red? I can't seem to place it.

originally posted by BifRayrock
http://imageshack.us/a/img862/5042/a...owerright1.jpg
http://www.lapl.org/

I've never noticed so many palm trees...they're lined up like soldiers.

__

:previous:
Doing a rough count of blocks, it may be the Public Storage building at Beverly Blvd./N. Westmoreland Ave. I was going to post a pic from Google, but Photobucket is having issues at the moment.

:previous:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019151.jpgLAPL


That's the Public Storage building at Beverly near Virgil. One of my favorite buildings in town, it seems much, much higher than its 14 stories. It was originally the American Storage Company.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-q...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogle SV, April 2009

____________

I suspect the stand-at-attention palm trees seem more pronounced than usual due to the time of day/location of the sun.

Regarding the identity of the circled building, Moxie and GW beat me to the punch. I have been given to understand that for many years the building was used by Pacific Bell, but have never been able to confirm that. There were also rumors of a speakeasy and of course, a vault. Note how close it was to the Palomar and the Bimini Baths. And speaking of the Bimini Baths, an oldtimer or two mentioned that building the Ralphs at Third Street and Vermont required extra deep pilings because of the Bimini slough that ran underneath it. Have not seen any photos of this undertaking.

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/5...nihotsprin.jpg http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...86986&page=116

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019151.jpg


I also wondered about the original Cedars of Lebanon on Sunset, causing me to think of the former Queen of Angels . . . Which provides a good excuse to post this:

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4033/4...2b23353d_o.jpg http://www.flickr.com

Old Cedars of Lebanon Hospital Entrance
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...n_Hospital.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org

Obsolete railroad spurs are always such a cool thing to find.



"Exterior view of the River Station in Los Angeles." -LAPL

http://imageshack.us/a/img707/1861/a...nisthishot.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=51220





below: "Exterior view of the River Station in Los Angeles.
The building is constructed of brick, with several arches at the front of the building." -LAPL

http://imageshack.us/a/img225/7669/a...nwithwoode.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=51219

The first photo is obviously an earlier building (there were no dates on either of the photos).

Is that a glimpse of the wooden pedestrian viaduct/bridge that once crossed over the rail yards in the second photograph?
I believe it is, but I am not 100% sure.


below: In this aerial you can see the enormous length of the wooden viaduct as it crossed over the railyards.

http://imageshack.us/a/img838/9427/a...nfootbridg.jpg
http://www.lapl.org/


below: Another excellent view of the old rail yards showing the wooden footbridge.

http://imageshack.us/a/img35/6919/aa...nf2viagsja.jpg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...ller/index.htm





And there is even a 'noir' connection.

originally posted by gsjansen
http://imageshack.us/a/img98/9427/aa...nfootbridg.jpg
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=3993


We've covered the bridge numerous times in the past.

To see color photos of the bridge, as well as views from the bridge go here.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=4002


To see the bridge illustrated on old maps go here.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=4000

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-w...loodbw1251.jpgLAPL
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...loodbw1476.jpgGoogleSV

Country Club Drive at Gramercy, 1958 and 2011


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019291.jpgLAPL
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-X...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogleSV

Main and 7th, 1933 and 2011


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019236.jpgLAPL
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035814.jpgLAPL
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogleSV

Culver City: W. Washington between La Cienega and the west end of Adams, wet (1933), dry (1937), and... 2011. The current building on the site appears to be newish... but
is it modeled somewhat after the Tropical Inn, or might it actually incorporate part of the original? Well, perhaps not quite the original--here's a postcard of the Inn from the '20s:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics18/00008644.jpgLAPL

3940dxer's post about the old rail spur reminded me of this website about "The Rat Hole" that has lots of great pics of what's left in that part of L.A. (or, at least, what was left in 2005): http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_r...y_rathole.html

Thanks for the info. on the Public Storage building Moxie, G_W & BifRayRock. It's quite the edifice!
So it was never a Bekins building?

How in the world did I not know about this culinary Xanadu?? Someone please tell me they have photos of the interior.

___

:previous: Interesting Bekins ephemeral/photos.


I would like to know more about this particular photo. The info. might have been in one of the links you provided but I missed it.
I am especially curious about this extra wide street.

:previous: Rufus Brown was a BRAVE man.

I guess I owe you a burger at the Apple Pan. :) I've always liked their hickory burgers. I haven't been there in a number of years now, though.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Pico_Blvd.JPG
Wikipedia

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-N...holecovers.jpgjericl cat

Sometime in the '80s, I think it was, New York City began using new manhole covers, many still in place, which caused some xenophobic comment at the time... including my own, I suppose. It didn't really bother me that the city bought the lids from overseas--but I wondered why it couldn't have stipulated in the contract that they not read "MADE IN INDIA." Only recently have I noticed that L.A. has their own versions. Not sure when they first appeared.


:previous:

sopas: Neither have I. Next time I'm out there, I'll call you to collect that hickory burger.

High Tower Drive 1931. Garages below....apartments above....via elevator.

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/5417/aa...ive1931usc.jpg

from my original post dated May 2010 (along with contemporary photos of the High Tower elevator).
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1229

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I accidentally came across a modern day equivalent of the High Tower elevator.

At first I noticed what looks like a bluish bridge crossing Silverwood Terrace (I've circled it in red).

http://imageshack.us/a/img440/9716/1...erwoodterr.jpg
google aerial




below: In this closer view, the mystery 'bridge' doesn't cross Silverwood Terrace after all....it traverses private property.

http://imageshack.us/a/img585/9716/1...erwoodterr.jpg
google aerial detail



So I grabbed a 'google observation car' and headed down Silverwood Terrace. I came across this tiny garage at 1750 Silverwood Terrace.

http://imageshack.us/a/img801/9716/1...erwoodterr.jpg
google street view


and just to the right of the garage is this separate entrance...

http://imageshack.us/a/img225/9716/1...erwoodterr.jpg
google street view


..at the base of this vertigo inducing elevator!

http://imageshack.us/a/img152/6918/a...50silverwo.jpg


Pretty amazing isn't it. I was flabbergasted!

Wasn't there an easier way to reach this property? -like a road at the top-
Also, who plots out these ridiculous parcels of land?

___

Here's an interesting, and quite romantic, description of the old High Tower apartments.

http://imageshack.us/a/img98/4937/aa...chaelconne.jpg
http://www.michaelconnelly.com.au/photo_echotower.html

This is very, very cool

:previous: Indeed it is! and it's still in use fhammon.

If truth be told, I'm more of a Los Angeles Pueblo-file than a Noirist but I've found a happy home here because I dearly love Old Los Angeles and there's more Noir here now, today than a long gone crumbling adobe village to enjoy. I can mostly only visit the old pueblo of Los Angeles in books and faded photos.

I brought up the subject of Nicks Cafe at 1300 North Spring Street across from the old train yard now called The Cornfield.
The sign at Nicks says since 1948. I think I have proof of that little building from 1924. Lookie here. Here's a photo from (supposedly) 1924 showing the old train yard with the footbridge. I've drawn an arrow mid-photo pointing to the Nick's building followed by a modern Google photo of the same area with a crude arrow pointing to the same little building - I think:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...nfield1924.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics25/00032359.jpg corn field 1924

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ZanjaMadre.jpg


I've also drawn in a crude caricature in the top distance of a water wheel to show approximately where water was drawn for the pueblo from the Los Angeles River via that method to feed the Zanja Madre or "Mother Ditch" to supply water to the village around the 1860s, being at higher ground, and have drawn thin black lines showing two routes the Zanja took over the years. The first being an open ditch running downhill more or less cutting straight across The Cornfield (probably inaccurate) and another enclosed in brick and buried up against the steep western slope which has recently been rediscovered and partially excavated and now stands revealed as a monument of sorts in the Cornfield Park.


http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics20/00009662.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics20/00009662.jpg

It ultimately dumped water into a large brick and mortar cistern in the central Los Angeles Plaza where the band stand is now located seen to the far right in the first photo with the Plaza Church to the far left. Other ditches carried the rest of the water elsewhere as needed.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets.../CHS-2146?v=hr
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...=1337231855130


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...88A3D4FE5?v=hr
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...=1337231463910

http://waterandpower.org/museum/images/zanja_madre.jpg

Further reading on the Zanja Madre:
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Zanj...ueduct%29.html

:previous: - I think: You're right. :)

The High Tower Apartments have a noir connection, too. They figure prominently in Robert Altman's 1973 remake of Raymond Chandler's The Long Good Bye with Elliott Gould assaying an extra laid-back Phillip Marlowe. They stand in as Marlowe's residence with the camera tracking through the property several times with the requiste kooky neighbors, his cat coming and going through an open window and a crew of baddies appearing at his door to deliver a noir beating. And yes, the elevator's featured too.

I am not sure if this place has ever been mentioned here. It's the Santa Fe Hospital in Boyle Heights. Built in 1904 and rebuilt in 1924. Now Linda Vista Community Hospital.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-62GBjj0W6n...Hts%2B1925.JPG
Boyle Heights History Blog

http://www.cardcow.com/images/set262/card00201_fr.jpg
Card Cow

http://railwaysurgery.org/Hospitals_files/image004.jpg
Railway Surgery

:previous:
An article I read yesterday about the future of the Linda Vista Community Hospital: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...192911064.html

'each...cover saved 500 pounds of metal'?? How? Manhole covers are seriously heavy but still, they can be moved by one man with a long-handled hook and some elbow grease. Are they suggesting manhole covers weighed 500 pounds?

Look at this amazing remnant of an old stone wall in the 1400 block of North Broadway.

http://imageshack.us/a/img402/5060/1...roadwayold.jpg
google street view

^

LOL... although I suppose if they had made the metal ones the same thickness as the cork-like wooden ones show the pics--which somehow I doubt they did--the savings might be 500 lbs....

Now that the spotlight is on manhole covers... I am reminded of a book I bought years ago from Dawson's called Manhole Covers of Los Angeles, part of a series called "Los Angeles Miscellany." I'd probably break the spine of it if I tried to scan it, but it's not really necessary since these days there are plenty of pics on the internet. Another title in the series I have is The Art of Street Lighting in Los Angeles--again, probably nothing that can't be found online. Still--if you find copies of these books, take a look at them.

From the studio of J.B. Blanchard via ebay.

http://imageshack.us/a/img151/4233/a...westminste.jpg




be sure to pan right--->

http://imageshack.us/a/img171/2989/a...ellisavefi.jpg







http://imageshack.us/a/img521/4233/a...westminste.jpg

Anyone know what was across the street behind that fence and trees?






below: The Westminster site today.

http://imageshack.us/a/img268/4233/a...westminste.jpg
google street view

___


I am off for a few days. Hold down the fort. :)

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/...to_coins_1.jpgModern Mechanix


Jock and Fifi was at 8277 Santa Monica Blvd.

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/..._billboard.jpgModern Mechanix, May 1930

[QUOTE


http://imageshack.us/a/img521/4233/a...westminste.jpg

Anyone know what was across the street behind that fence and trees?


[/QUOTE]

Here are a couple of links to photos that may provide answers. Looks like homes.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014101.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014098.jpg

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067378.jpg

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2489/hortondual.jpghttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fKA_INBQ42...0/LastScan.jpg


A little Edward Everett Horton: Apparently he was living on the 9th floor of the Hollywood Plaza in 1928, or at least he was for the purposes of publicity; Ralph Johnson of Howard Buick engineered the stunt. By this time Horton owned his famous "Belly Acres" (or "Belleigh" according to some sources) out in Encino, the peace of which was ruined 30 years later by coming of the Ventura Freeway. Among the notables who spent time in Horton's guest cottage at the ranch were F. Scott Fitzgerald and Vivian Vance.


Pics: Modern Mechanix; LAPL; San Fernando Valley Blog

I like the warning on the steps
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7242/7...7aedfeca_s.jpg
1401Broadway by Westcork, on Flickr

http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Cornfield.aerial.arrows.jpg
http://www.lapl.org/


e_r, I really like this Cornfield area photo that you posted a few days ago. You may already know this, but the 1886 "Wedge Building" as I call it at 1635 N. Spring -- the one with the ugly mural in front and the ancient railway tracks behind -- is at the upper right, indicated by my red arrow. The "House of 1646 N. Spring" whose plaque you had been trying to read is the dark building across the street, indicated by the other arrow.

The track on the left is part of Cathedral High, still there of course. The curved roadway to the left is Figueroa (now the 110), a few blocks south of the hills in BifRayRock's recent photo.

e_r, if only your photo was super hi-res, it would reveal so much more! Does anyone have any higher res aerials of this neighborhood?

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

:rolleyes: I was a disappointed to see Hollywood Heights and it's unusual elevator discussed here, only because I'd been there recently, and planned to spring on the thread myself! :rolleyes: I don't think the area had been mentioned on this thread at all, until the other day. I walked around there with friends a couple weeks ago, and hoped to surprise you all with my photos of the elevator. Anyway, I will post about it soon, and have one or two other little surprises from that neighborhood.

Bifrock im so glad that your on this board! my dad use to tell me that when he was younger in the 40s this was where they would take the yellow car to pay the phone bill,i always thought he was telling the truth but a few others who are around his age have said over and over that it wasnt at all connected with western bell/pac bell,that little gleam of hope about its history from you has put it to rest for me.

Now for the Queen,my aunt was born there in 1948,its a church now,and i work right across the freeway from it for the Los Angeles Area Council Boy Scouts.One of my dads friends had his memorial servie there in the late 90s,and it was held in an auditorium,they also had a luncheon in the indoor basketball court,im so glad that the church saved it,they kinda roam the area in big groups with rakes and shovels,not sure if they are connected to the four square a few miles away but whenever i get off work i see them all wearing black shirts walking down sunset headed towards the four square.

Ok here goes my first post.

Love this thread its just what I've been looking for to satisfy my cravings for Hollywood/LA Noir

Fell in love with the place after a trip over from England as a child, have devoured any books I can get on the subject ever since.

My interest was also piqued by a documentary on Hollywood Ghosts that featured the spooky remains of the stairs leading up to Houdinis long demolished mansion

A particular favourite of mine is Ken Schlessers 'This is Hollywood' an unusual movieland guide.

hopefully you wont mind a Limey crashing the party with some posts related to locations in the book

First up the Hollywood actor Paul Kelly and the love triangle murder he committed.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bna_yQQYtR...Paul+Kelly.jpg

http://cool-hot-center.blogspot.co.u...1_archive.html

Kelly portrayed tough guys in the movies from the 1930's to 1950's (most notably in the Cagney movie 'The Roaring Twenties'), well in 1927 he fell in love with actress Dorothy Mackaye who at the time was married to stage actor Ray Raymond.

When Ray found out about the affair he invited kelly here to his house at 2261 Cheremoya

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3.../paulkelly.jpg

Google Street View

to discuss a possible solution, a fight ensued and Raymond suffered a terrible beating at Kellys hands, so much so that he died later from his inujuries.

Kelly and MacKaye then paid a physician $500 to report Raymonds death as 'Natural causes'

A hasty cremation was arranged but an anonymous tip off to the coroner prompted a last mintue halt to the precedings.

Kelly was convicted of Murder and McKaye of conspiracy, they both did time in San Quentin. Shortly after their release Kelly married McKaye




Can anyone help me with a query? reported in the book was a 38 roommansion that stood at 9561 Sunset that was razed in 1985 it was built by M.H. Whittier in 1917, however when it was bought by Arabian sheik Al Fassi in 1978 apparently he had all of the nude statuary painted in natural skin tones including male and female private parts!!!

It shocked Beverly Hills and stopped traffic! neighbours called the scene a dirty Disneyland:haha:

The picture in the book is small and B&W, anyone ever seen any pictures of the place?

Thanks for reading and keep up the good work:notacrook: