whilst mindlessly parusin' the dick whittington collection at the usc archives, (hey a fella's gotta have a hobby, and since i don't golf.............), anyway, i happened upon this photograph which was confusing me, as i couldn't quite pin down from where it was taken, and what it actually was looking at....
Source: USC Digital Archives
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...4443-ISLA?v=hr
because of the angle of mount lee in the background, i knew it had to be downtown....but where.
of course searching for the most obvious element in the photograph, (hotel knickerbocker), i obviously kept ending up on ivar north of hollywood boulevard (i'm sure i don't have to to tell anyone here). searching for the st. paul hotel didn't fare much better.
then i stumbled upon this photograph;
Source: USC Digital Archive
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...4441-ISLA?v=hr
i realized that what appears to be the hotel victoria, (or victor....can't quite tell), at the right center of the image is visible at the left of the image that i was trying to locate.
the rex arms was located west of figueroa on wilshire, and at the lower right of the 2nd photograph, the roof of the Jonathon club at the nw corner of 6th and figueroa is visible.
so with that bit of information, i went back to the 1st photograph, and nearly gasped in my realization that both photos were most probably taken from the roof of the richfield building!
the two streets on the right side of the 1st photo is 5th and 4th streets, (they were narrowly spaced at this point, remember, 5th street didn't used to go past the state normal school to the west).
the convergence of streets in the 1st photo is 6th street, boylston street and beaudry avenue.
the street that the hotel knickerbocker is on is fremont avenue. the center of both photographs is where the harbor freeway runs today........yoiks!