Such a nice picture but an orphan. Little help?
 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8441/7...cf14761c_o.jpg
unidentified california historical image

languishes in the usc archive without benefit of discription nor date. help?

USCdigital archive/California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960

Have we seen this one before? Lafayette Square, 1940
 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8444/7...9f4b55a2_o.jpg
Aerial view of Lafayette Square in Los Angeles, looking north from Washington Boulevard, ca.1940

"Photograph of an aerial view of Lafayette Square in Los Angeles, looking north from Washington Boulevard, ca.1940. At center is an irregularly-shaped block full of trees and building. A circular road, Victoria Park Place and Victoria Park Drive, can be seen in the middle of the city block. All around, hundreds of small houses and other buildings occupy rectangular city blocks divided by wide, straight street. A tall building can be seen at right. Crenshaw Boulevard extends north at right and West Boulevard extends north at left. The east-west street at bottom is St. Charles Place."

USCdigital archive/California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960

The cars all look like they're from the twenties. The billboard at the bottom left mentions the Culver City Speedway, built in 1924. It's now the site of a Costco. Not that the picture is of this, it's just a time stamp.
http://autoracingmemories.com/forums...2&pictureid=24
Auto Racing Memories

I'd say we're looking past downtown and the mountains on the left are the end of the San Gabriels. (thanks Malamut!)

Date wise it's hard to say without any real notable building except the tanks.

I was looking at 1924 aerials and found this one of the business district:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033995.jpg
LAPL

Those are definitely the same black tanks. I'll keep looking.

And here they are in a picture with the Plaza:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics24/00046630.jpg
LAPL

Looking at a map and the relation of the taller to the shorter tank, I'd say this pic was taken from somewhere around 7th and Main looking NE in 1925.

AGREED!

You had me on the edge of my seat with that one.

I think those are the San Gabriels (Mt. Wilson and Lowe)

Southern edge of Downtown at left. Famous gasholders north and east of downtown.

My guess....somewhere down by Washington and San Pedro.

Either way - take a gander at that mix of land uses. You sure don't see THAT any more.

Of course, If I'm correct, that would be the same general area as the 1947 plating company explosion (926 E Pico, between San Pedro and Central).....and which is WHY they don't mix land uses like that any more.....

Anyone notice the price on that map?

50 cents!

That's something close to ten bucks in today's dollars.

.

[QUOTE=ethereal_reality;5806355]This 1940s viewpoint of City Hall confuses me a bit.

http://imageshack.us/a/img198/9290/a...1940srarev.jpg
unknown/perhaps ebay

I can't quite place this vantage point. The fence post-like stanchions are unfamiliar...
I believe it is the parking lot at the top of Court Flight...

Found it!

The building in the center is at 12th & Wall St. (we're looking mostly at the 12th St. side.) The larger building a block to the right is at 12th and San Julian. They're both still there. :)

It appears then that the photo was taken from the top of the Allied Crafts Building, or from the building to the north of it - Maple Tower? Or perhaps a lower floor of one of them while it was under construction. The Allied Crafts Building was built in 1925. The Bendix building would block the left of the photo if it existed, and it was built in 1929.

Here's a street view of the central building in the photo:
http://goo.gl/maps/s1BwG

The distinctive roofline on the inside alley corner gives it away. The larger building at San Julian can be seen in the distance.

Edit: I reproduced the shot in Google Earth:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-f...sView1920s.jpg

For this shot, I removed the 3D models of the Bendix Building, Maple Tower, and a parking garage at the SE corner of 12th & Wall. Judging by this, the extremely close roofline at bottom center of the original photo is the Allied Crafts Building, while the roofline in the right foreground is actually a shorter, narrow building facing Wall St. (also still with us, at 1223-1225 Wall St.).

Oh man, you're good. That is such a nice photograph and now we know what and where it lives. I especially liked the clear image of the houses. Going back to my FlickR account to update my caption on it. Thanks again.

Looking at a map and the relation of the taller to the shorter tank, I'd say this pic was taken from somewhere around 7th and Main looking NE in 1925.[/QUOTE]

Come on, I was close. Two blocks over five blocks down and within five years...

Great work Prophet!

If it were at Court Flight, I believe the hall of records would be in between the camera and City Hall.

I think my post about this picture on page 448 may have been missed as we turned over to a new page just 90 minutes later, so I'm going to put it up again here:

Compare to this picture from your opening post of this thread:

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/153...ortots1951.jpg

I bet that night photo was taken from right next to the stanchions. The relationship between City Hall and the old state office building seems to be exactly the same. So, it's Bunker Hill just north of 1st St., standing just west of the Hill St. tunnels. In the night shot above, you can catch just a tiny piece of the railing over the tunnel entrance at bottom center.

Thus, the camera position is the top left corner of this photo, left of the house:
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/CHS-36707.jpg
KCET - Lost Tunnels of Downtown L.A.

From one of your earlier posts. I'm finding the Highland Villa hotel and this little bend in the road very interesting:

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/v...t/CHS-6347.jpg

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...&postcount=865

Heh, yep, quite a contrast to the way it looks today. It's only "Hill Street" in name now...

https://otters.net/img/lanoir/hillan...streetview.jpg
Google Maps Street View

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8445/7...efdaf6a5_o.jpg
Radial-engine airplane outside the Grand Central Airport in Glendale, ca.1934

"Photograph of a radial-engine airplane outside the Grand Central Airport in Glendale, ca.1934. The high-wing monoplane can be seen in the foreground at right, and a man in a suit is visible near an open door under the wing. The Spanish-style air terminal can be seen in the background. It is a two-story structure with a terracotta tile roof. In the background at left, a tall rectangular control tower is visible. Legible signs include "Grand Central Air Terminal" and "Curtiss-Wright"."


USCdigital archive/California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960

While looking around at aerials of Culver City and the Speedway I found this shot of the Circus Maximus set from Ben Hur. It's an MGM set. Any idea where this is?
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035860.jpg
LAPL

[QUOTE=KevinW;5808880]While looking around at aerials of Culver City and the Speedway I found this shot of the Circus Maximus set from Ben Hur. It's an MGM set. Any idea where this is?
QUOTE]

This is the 1925 production. I think Venice Boulevard and La Cienega?

Oh my, this photograph is absolutely amazing KevinW!




below: What in the heck is this thing that I've circled in red?

http://imageshack.us/a/img689/4073/aabenhur1.jpg

__

[QUOTE=MichaelRyerson;5808929]You are so right. I never thought about the sparse development which by the time Chuck Heston was zipping around that track would have been filled in.

And hey, I'm the first post on page 450!!!! This thread blows me away.

Looks like a Lockheed Vega.

Cheers,

Earl