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DouglasUrantia Dec 27, 2012 8:03 AM

LA Auto Show...A Flaming Disaster
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5950751)
re: The International Mart/Washington Furniture Co/Mode O' Day building.



The large area where your circus was located is also the site of the great Los Angeles Auto Show fire of 1924.

http://imageshack.us/a/img833/699/aaautoshowf11924.jpg
ebay
__


I have never heard of this disaster. The idea of those 100s of brand new cars burnt to a crisp is really sickening.

I guess tents are not a safe place for a car show. Imagine when those gasoline tanks caught fire and the probable explosions. The tires, upholstery, the oil and lubricants...a regular feu de l'ardeur!. The site must have been a raging hellish inferno.

GaylordWilshire Dec 27, 2012 2:41 PM

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/3...iccompldat.jpg


http://imageshack.us/a/img255/1769/autoshowartcompl.jpg


All LAT

Lwize Dec 27, 2012 3:12 PM

http://www.trbimg.com/img-50dbba1e/t...g-20121226/600
image - LA Times

Quote:

Originally Posted by latimes.com
Major update planned for Grand Central Market

The 1917 venue on Broadway will get an upscale makeover to respond to downtown's changing demographics.

Grand Central Market houses more than 40 food stalls, which will be updated to reflect a changing downtown and the next generation of vendors while staying true to its legacy, planners say. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times / January 6, 2011)

By Betty Hallock, Los Angeles Times
December 26, 2012, 7:17 p.m.

Downtown Los Angeles' Grand Central Market is undergoing a major overhaul intended to catapult the landmark community marketplace into a new food retail age.

The nearly 100-year-old market on Broadway near 3rd Street houses more than 40 food stalls, which will be updated to reflect a changing downtown and the next generation of vendors while staying true to its legacy, planners say.

Owner Adele Yellin, president of the real estate development company started by her late husband, Ira Yellin, is leading the project and has hired consultants Joseph Shuldiner, who founded the Institute of Domestic Technology and Altadena Farmers Market, and Kevin West of Saving the Season. BCV, part of the design collaboration behind the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco, is the architect, and Rick Moses is the developer.

Shuldiner and West said the renovation of the 27,000-square-foot market, built in 1917 on the ground floor of the Homer Laughlin Building, is a multi-phase, multiyear project that will fill empty stalls, attract new vendors and rejuvenate longtime retailers.

West and Shuldiner said they hope to install local chefs and entrepreneurs, including retailers of bread, coffee, cheese and wine as well as sustainably raised meat and fish and farmers market produce, while keeping as many current vendors as possible, some of whom have long-term leases. Of the 45 current and potential stalls in the market, about 30 are occupied.

Among the first restaurants to sign on is Soi 7, a Thai restaurant that will set up a street food stall called Sticky Rice in the former La Mamma Burger space on the south side of the market. Carnitas specialist and longtime market tenant Las Morelianas also has committed to a new lease.

The first phase of the renovation of the market is a "deep cleaning" that already has started, taking place at night when the market is closed — walls, columns and ceilings are being repainted and the floors are being cleaned and polished. This is expected to be completed by the fall, when Shuldiner and West hope to have put a dozen new vendors in place.

Among Shuldiner and West's first ambitions is to remake the Hill Street seating platform by creating "a community market version of a hotel lobby," Shuldiner said, or, "downtown's living room."

"With free Wi-Fi and power outlets, maybe low couches," added West, who said the market hours (now 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) will be extended. "You can get a cheese plate and glass of wine, bring it here and hang out. Have a cup of coffee and a pastry and read the paper in the morning."

In Grand Central Market's 12,000-square-foot basement, Shuldiner says, he plans a "food crafting space" to be called the Basement at Grand Central Market, where potential beer brewers, charcuterie makers, cheesemongers and wine purveyors could set up shop and take advantage of an additional 16,000 square feet of walk-ins. At the center would be an exhibition kitchen for classes, tastings, studio shoots and private dinners. "It's a wonderful world down there," said Shuldiner, who added that they are still in talks with architects about conceptualizing the space. "My fantasy is a pocket cafe or sushi bar under the stairs."

West and Shuldiner said they do not know how much the overhaul of Grand Central Market will cost.

The changes at the market have been prompted by downtown's changing demographics, West said. The population in the Central City has risen from an estimated 18,652 residents in 1998 to nearly 50,000, according to the Los Angeles Downtown Business Improvement District. But the changes also mark a generational shift with the retirement of the Grand Central Market's former manager after 40 years. "This is happening naturally," West said.

betty.hallock@latimes.com

More gentrification of downtown. The patina of the market is part of its charm. Now, I'm sure current vendors will disappear once their leases are up.

DouglasUrantia Dec 27, 2012 6:19 PM

Thanks Mr. Gaylord for the reports from papers on the car show tent fire. I notice the Commission recommends that auto shows no longer be held in 'tents'.

GaylordWilshire Dec 27, 2012 6:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lwize (Post 5951182)
More gentrification of downtown. The patina of the market is part of its charm. Now, I'm sure current vendors will disappear once their leases are up.


http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/1...roadway120.jpg
21 Berkeley Square

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/4...ptoday1200.jpg
GoogleSV


The Ville de Paris department store was the first tenant of the Homer Laughlin Building and was replaced by the Grand Central Market in 1917. The Fusenot family owned the store until 1915; the new owners moved the store to Olive and 7th, making way for the market. I'm not sure when the façade lost its detail, such as LAUGHLIN over the door.

ethereal_reality Dec 27, 2012 7:23 PM

:previous: Interesting before and after GW. I had forgotten about the Ville de Paris Dept. Store.
Thx for the reminder.

ethereal_reality Dec 27, 2012 8:47 PM

...more about Sierra Madre Villa.

http://imageshack.us/a/img839/6673/a...eastofalle.jpg
http://eastofallen.blogspot.com/

http://imageshack.us/a/img23/5057/aa...stofallenb.jpg
http://eastofallen.blogspot.com/

I love the fact that there are remnants.
__





http://imageshack.us/a/img585/4681/a...drevillasa.png
ebay
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tovangar2 Dec 27, 2012 8:57 PM

Homer Laughlin Building (1897) and Annex (1905)
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5951325)
I'm not sure when the façade lost its detail, such as LAUGHLIN over the door.

I think the details must have been scraped off during the 60's remodel when the building's base was tiled.

This google maps view shows the relationship between Parkinson's 1897 building and Harrison Albright's 1905 Annex that connected the building with Hill Street, including what's left of the roof garden between the two which was part of the premises of the LAPL when they occupied two floors of the Annex between 1906 and 1908.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--...112%2520AM.jpg
google maps

The Children's Reading Room at the Laughlin Annex,
French doors to the roof garden at left:
(If this photo is identified correctly, I cannot
explain the arch-top windows)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Mp9454mDo_...od+library.bmp
lapl

The present Hill Street facade:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-D...544%2520AM.jpg
gsv

Broadway frontage with the Million Dollar Theater to the north:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J...908%2520AM.jpg
gsv

Hipster-free interior:
http://www.you-are-here.com/broadway...ral_market.jpg
http://www.you-are-here.com

http://www.grandcentralsquare.com/popup/images/pg1.jpg
http://www.grandcentralsquare.com


Does anyone know where, in this pair of buildings, Frank Lloyd Wright's office was while he was building his concrete-block houses here in the 1920's?

Before the Laughlin Building. This 1890 shot shows the Fort Street Methodist Episcopal Church, replaced by the Homer Laughlin Building in 1916:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--...2%252520PM.jpg
water and power

BTW, below is the first Laughlin Building, in East Liverpool, Ohio, soon after Homer Laughlin sold out to move to Los Angeles.
The Homer Laughlin China Co is still going strong and has manufactured 1/3 of all the china ever sold in the US to date, including their famous Fiesta ware.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-J...0%252520PM.jpg
http://www.hlcdinnerware.com/about/history

GaylordWilshire Dec 27, 2012 9:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5950787)
The LACLEDE Apartments, Dec. 6, 1910. No address given.
http://imageshack.us/a/img543/9238/a...tsfullfoto.jpg
ebay


While in the 1890s there was a Laclede House apartment building at 713 S Main St, it seems that the Laclede in the picture was at 318 Crocker St. The house at this address appears to have
had several names before it was called the Laclede, among them the Palace and the Oatka. It seems to have only been called the Laclede for a short time, first appearing in the 1911 city
directory; a few years later it was called the Kingsbury, the contents of which--including "a good talking parrot and cage"--were apparently auctioned off in February 1917.


http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/8...kerauction.jpgLAT


http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/4148/320crocker.jpgGoogleSV

Not surprisingly, 318 Crocker is now an empty lot... but the little building to its south is intriguing. As the area became commercial during the '20s, like the rest of the old houses in the 'hood,
those at 318 and 320 gave way to new buildings. The story of 320 is below.


http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/2...kerarticle.jpgLAT

GaylordWilshire Dec 27, 2012 9:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 5951504)
The Children's Reading Room at the Laughlin Annex,
French doors to the roof garden at left:
(If this photo is identified correctly, I cannot
explain the arch-top windows)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Mp9454mDo_...od+library.bmp
lapl

Does anyone know where, in this pair of buildings, Frank Lloyd Wright's office was while he was building his concrete-block houses here in the 1920's?


As for FLW--I've been obsessed with him for a long time--I happen to have it my head that he occupied room 522 in the Homer Laughlin Building in the early to mid '20s.


More on the LAPL's tenancy:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2684

FredH Dec 27, 2012 9:33 PM

[QUOTE=tovangar2;5950810]What an utter disaster. It looks like a war zone.

1924 was a bit of an iffy year for LA:

L.A. THEN AND NOW
It started with a dead rat in a poor neighborhood near downtown. Not two months later, 37 people had died from the plague.
March 05, 2006|Cecilia Rasmussen | Times Staff Writer


DO NOT miss these photos:
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=...doc.view=items


A thankless task at the 1924 LA plague lab:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e...110%2520PM.jpg

One of your pictures was the rat lab on 8th Street:

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/8...ofcaliforn.jpg
online archive of california

And it is still there...looking pretty original!

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7742/capturekv.jpg
Google Street View

The windows are still open on the second floor...trying to let the dead rat stink out, no doubt.

tovangar2 Dec 27, 2012 9:59 PM

1924 LA Plague District Map
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5951526)
While in the 1890s there was a Laclede House apartment building at 713 S Main St, it seems that the Laclede in the picture was at 318 Crocker St. The house at this address appears to have
had several names before it was called the Laclede, among them the Palace and the Oatka. It seems to have only been called the Laclede for a short time, first appearing in the 1911 city
directory; a few years later it was called the Kingsbury, the contents of which--including "a good talking parrot and cage"--were apparently auctioned off in February 1917.

Was Crocker within one of the 1924 plague districts? So much housing was demolished then making way for more manufacturing and warehousing in the later 1920's. I cannot find a decent map.

This one's hopeless if one's looking for a particular address:
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/...3j3/hi-res.jpg
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/...j3/?brand=oac4

FredH Dec 27, 2012 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5951526)
While in the 1890s there was a Laclede House apartment building at 713 S Main St, it seems that the Laclede in the picture was at 318 Crocker St. The house at this address appears to have
had several names before it was called the Laclede, among them the Palace and the Oatka. It seems to have only been called the Laclede for a short time, first appearing in the 1911 city
directory; a few years later it was called the Kingsbury, the contents of which--including "a good talking parrot and cage"--were apparently auctioned off in February 1917.


http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/8...kerauction.jpgLAT


http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/4148/320crocker.jpgGoogleSV

Not surprisingly, 318 Crocker is now an empty lot... but the little building to its south is intriguing. As the area became commercial during the '20s, like the rest of the old houses in the 'hood,
those at 318 and 320 gave way to new buildings. The story of 320 is below.


http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/2...kerarticle.jpgLAT

Gaylord Wilshire:

Small World - I worked for twenty years, or so, right down the street from this building at the corner of East Third and Crocker:

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1213/capturernz.jpg
Google Street View

The Gunzel family still owned the building, and Mr. Gunzel would walk down to our office every Friday to ride to the Rotary Club meeting with the owner of Modernage. This was probably late 1980's or early 1990's. In fact, I believe that the owners of Modernage may have rented that building from Gunzel prior to buying the property in the photo above.

As you can see, Third Street is the border between Little Tokyo and skid row in this area.

tovangar2 Dec 27, 2012 10:30 PM

The Library at the Laughlin Building
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5147314)

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00078/00078926.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/00078/00078926.jpg
A shot of the library's outdoor reading room. Not sure what possessed the photographer to take
the picture of what is quintessentially a Southern California idea on what appears to be a rainy day....


I have Homer Laughlin on my mind today--I bought some dinner plates at Fishs Eddy here in NY last week, and only just today noticed that they were produced by the Homer Laughlin China Company. (Fiesta Ware is among its product lines.) I didn't know it was still in existence, and I mistakenly thought that it was always a Los Angeles company. Turns out that it never was an L.A. company--Homer sold his interest in the Ohio business in 1897 and only then moved to L.A. and began investing in real estate.

That's a great, if chilly-looking, pic of the south-facing roof garden. Too bad the building's mechanical systems have been moved here over the years. It will cost the earth to move them somewhere else now.

Laughlin seems to have been a pretty nice guy. According to the company website in 1880 he took 300 employees and their families in a chartered train to Pittsburgh to see an exposition in the afternoon and an opera in the evening. In 1877 a skilled Laughlin pottery worker earned $2.33 per day, an unskilled male $1.29. Boys earned 82¢ per day, and both women and girls earned 75¢. Not too shabby by the standards of the day.

tovangar2 Dec 27, 2012 11:02 PM

1015 8th Street - The Rat Lab
 
[QUOTE=FredH;5951542]
Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 5950810)
One of your pictures was the rat lab on 8th Street:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...604%2520PM.jpg
online archive of california

And it is still there...looking pretty original!

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7742/capturekv.jpg
Google Street View

Good heavens FredH, I realize now that's right around the corner from the new art & music venue my 22-year-old daughter and her pals have opened at 736 Ceres (rather ominously called LA Fort):
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-h...009%2520PM.jpg
gsv
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-M...400%2520PM.jpg
gsv

I can't wait to share a little local history with them!

(This is also just a block over from the Castle Cottage Cheese - "it's different" - building if you remember that.)

And BTW, I love the original house just to the east of the Rat Lab. Without the porch, it would blend right in in 18th century Massachusetts.
Here it is from the back. Looks like a barn in this view:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F...904%2520PM.jpg
online archive of california

More Lab work:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-M...233%2520PM.jpg
online archive of california

FredH Dec 27, 2012 11:49 PM

:previous:

That is a nice building...and large! Are they going to have live music there? Tell her "noisenik" Jeff Witscher (aka Rene Hell) is a friend of the family.

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/633/14790414.jpg

GaylordWilshire Dec 28, 2012 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 5951655)
Good heavens FredH, I realize now that's right around the corner from the new art & music venue my 22-year-old daughter and her pals have opened at 736 Ceres (rather ominously called LA Fort):
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-h...009%2520PM.jpg
gsv


It looks like 736 Ceres Ave once housed another of the many printers in the area--the Le Roy Carman Printing Co, which moved in ca. 1924 and was there at least until 1938. Other than that, there was a 1979 Times article that listed 736 Ceres as one of the city's 7,876 pre-1933 unreinforced masonry buildings. Not to worry--it looks like it has since had its seismic retrofit.


Ceres Street itself appears to have at one time been something of a red-light district and is the source of some other interesting stories--


http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/4...esartcompl.jpgLAT

tovangar2 Dec 28, 2012 12:43 AM

Ceres & 8th
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by FredH (Post 5951699)
:previous:

That is a nice building...and large! Are they going to have live music there? Tell her "noisenik" Jeff Witscher (aka Rene Hell) is a friend of the family.

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/633/14790414.jpg

They do have live music there. Dinner & a Show: 10 bucks :-)

There's still a fashion company in about a quarter of the building, but they're moving out soon.

I'll tell them.

And here's the Macy Street School, mentioned at length in the LA Times article on the 1924 plague, just before being torn down in '37. It was inside the quarantine area.:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...829%2520PM.jpg
reddawgcollectibles - eBay

http://articles.latimes.com/print/20...local/me-then5

tovangar2 Dec 28, 2012 1:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5951741)
Ceres Street itself appears to have at one time been something of a red-light district and is the source of some other interesting stories--

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-S...143%2520PM.jpg

Yikes.

ethereal_reality Dec 28, 2012 2:34 AM

sorry los angeles past's photographs are missing. :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past (Post 5929269)
That name did ring a bell. At first I thought it might have been one of Mom's secretarial co-workers, whom I used to recite my ABCs to. But Mom's little black UMM address book has only one "Maxine" in it – the wife of a "Robert H. McKinley." (If that was MHM's brother, that would make Maxine MHM's sister-in-law.)

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

There's no way of knowing if that's the same Maxine, of course, but if it was, one could cook up a whole bunch of interesting scenarios from these little snippets of info! :rolleyes:

Also had a look through my "baby book" last night, and it turns out that MHM gave me a present for the occasion of my birth.

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

I do still have a little white knit cap that was mine that is the size that would only fit a newborn. Here it is!

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/v...t/PC074500.jpg

Heh, I can thank my packrat mom for all these items surviving. (And my own apparently inherited packrat traits for not throwing this old stuff away!)

-Scott

____


Thank you Scott for this priceless post and sharing some of your family's history.
I had to smile when I saw the white knit cap. :)
__


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