So after writing about The Young Apartments and its "disappearing beds" I got to thinking about...disappearing beds.
The Holmes Disappearing Bed Company was located at and had its display rooms in 671-681 of the Pacific Electric Building. They also kept a ground floor office there. HDBC, for example, installed seventy-three Disappearing Beds at the YMCA hi-rise downtown (715-729 Hope St).
I have a fetish for the HDBC because they installed them in the Majestic. That is, the Bunker Hill holdout at the corner of First and Hope as penned about here and here:
www.onbunkerhill.org/MoreRossmere
www.onbunkerhill.org/SecondBattleofBunkerHill
http://www.onbunkerhill.org/georgemann
Now, since The Majestic AKA 700/702 S Hope is fifty years gone, as is the YMCA downtown, I figured the world would despair at never seeing an actual Holmes. But alas and rejoice!
These photos I just found on a Flickr feed via someone named anitajuneparker -- I owe her an immense debt of gratitude for recording this Holmes bed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sniknot/ Whose images of the Holmes appear halfway through this set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sniknot...th/2282319659/
And Holmes Disappearing Bed Company beds were not a downtown phenomenon -- according to a Santa Monica historic landmark site, "The airplane style Craftsman bungalow at 2544 Third Street, was originally the home of the Main Street butcher. This property features overhanging eaves, exposed rafters and large, front wrap-around porch. A built-in secretary in the living room has a “Holmes Disappearing Bed” which slides out from a bottom panel."
I own a house with a Murphy Bed. It's eight feet high and five feet wide and dates to 1907 and pulls from the wall with enormous grandeur. But I'm humbled by the Disappearing Bed. Rrrrarr.