Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonny☼LA
MacArthur Park Recreation Center, the old Westlake Signal Office.
Excuse some of the image quality as I'm always playing with old film and older cameras.
I have so many of these from around town on my Flickr page and waiting to be developed - if people are interested, I can post more. This thread is totally invaluable for subject matter while I fumble with vintage cameras. Obscure landmarks and idiosyncratic mechanisms are a fun combination.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/30811353@N04/ |
Excellent tour of the old signal center
Sonny_LA.
I love your idea of using vintage (film) cameras to chronicle old landmarks of L.A.
I checked out your flickr page and was floored with how many excellent and diverse images you have created. What a treat!
This old rooftop sign caught my eye.
Sonny_LA at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/308113...n/photostream/
After a google search or two I discovered this is the old Don Hotel in the south bay harbor district of Wilmington.
http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...the-don-hotel/
The Don Hotel opened on July 2, 1929. It's name came from Los Angeles investor Don Hundredmark, the hotel's owner. The Wilmington construction firm of A.M. McLellan began building the hotel on Dec. 26, 1928. The four-story brick structure had 135 rooms, each with a private bath, as well as a spacious lobby, a large basement ballroom, a cafe and several stores.
Hundredmark intended for the hotel to cater to tourists going to and from Catalina Island on such ships as the S.S. Catalina, that had begun ferrying passengers
to Catalina from it's Catalina Terminal at Banning's Landing in Wilmington.
During the hotel's heyday in the 1930s, publishing magnate William Randolph Heart had his own suite reserved, and crooner Bing Crosby was a frequent guest.
In addition to Catalina tourists, the Don also drew guests whose yachts were docked in Wilmington harbor at the foot of Avalon Blvd.
Today the Don Hotel is the Don Senior Apartments. The venerable Don Hotel sign atop the building's roof was taken down, and a restored sign with the same lettering that reads just "The Don" was erected in it's place in 2000.
Here's the building today.
http://preservation.lacity.org/don-h...929-wilmington
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all Don Hotel info. from
http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...the-don-hotel/
Again, thanks
Sonny_LA. Your photographs are an inspiration. Please feel free to share more of them with us here at NLA.
