[malumot]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

So here's a couple of buildings one never sees well enough --
....
L, The Crown Hotel, 702 W. Third. R, the Havlin Hotel at 706. Above Launderette it says "Whiter Whites." Under Cafe Bob's there's a neon sign that says "TELEVISION". The household goods storage building at 710 apparently began as a laundry. The big beast in the background, jutting horizontally, is the Sawyer, discussed midway here http://onbunkerhill.org/AlltheMoreMann .
......
You really get a feeling of how the hill crested and flattened and became a sort of no-man's land, especially on this side and in this area.

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Beaudry - You're the best. (Well a lot of you are.) I keep coming back here like moth to a flame. Thanks for all the recent posts, and the informative background.

In trying to answer a question I pose to myself (Why do I find Bunker Hill so fascinating?), here's a couple really brief reasons I came up with---

The hill itself. Sounds obvious, but......that was a VERY steep hill in parts, as Beaudry pointed out in his most recent Third Street photos. There was a reason why there was demand for such a thing as Angel's Flight. And 100 years ago they didn't have the earthmoving capability they do now. A little scraping and tunneling here and there but they pretty much worked with what they found....and that led to some very interesting streetscapes.

Take the Second and Third Street tunnels....If road-builders came upon that barrier today they would simply V-cut it. Ho hum. And no way would you get anything like The Sawyer (and many others) that are only three stories on the uphill end but 8 stories on the downhill side! I surely don't see unique curiosities like that where I live, on the Broad, Beige Plains of Irvine......LOL

The other thing I find fascinating is that so many of the structures are of the same vintage, which lends something of a consistency and repetition to the streetscapes. (By extension, the first rule of landscaping is repetition of a theme.) You have your late 19th century Victorians and early 20th century apartment/hotels, but the place was pretty much built out by the mid-1920s.

Most cities have become a hodgepodge of old and new architecture. The result usually isn't very pleasing. Or even jarring, if one considers NYC's Grand Central Station juxtaposed against the Met Life Building. And to be fair, the New Bunker Hill works pretty well precisely because of that same reason...it is pretty much ALL more modern architecture.

Back to work. Thanks again to all the posters.