Ain't she something? This one has always fascinated me in no small reason because it was replaced by LA's ugliest building. Or so the story goes. That is:
1904, and the Fraternal Brotherhood gets Theodore Eisen (of '88 Courthouse fame, and that Boyle Heights orphan asylum, and who of course sired Percy Eisen) to design this:
proquest
at 845 S Fig, the NW corner of Fig and Lincoln (Lincoln now "W Eighth Place").
I know the FB building lasted through the early 50s but but I haven't poked around every photo to see if it stood past then. Maybe it was a parking lot for some time before the late 60s -- what we do know though is that in 1969, voila:
google maps
Max Linder (who later in the early 70s tears down the Gates Hotel at 6th and Fig and to put up "Linder Plaza") builds this Bank of California/computer service center (Robert Clements & Associates, archs). Now, don't get me wrong, I happen to
like 60s Corporate Modern. But according to this article
http://blogdowntown.com/2007/05/2629...-ugliest-crown the overgrown, pockmarked, long-abandoned structure is considered DT's ugliest.
That said, some more of the Brotherhood, in rememberance:
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...chs-m2079.html
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...chs-m2080.html