Thanks to Los Angeles Past for referring me to this thread. I read the whole thing during my free time over two days this week, and I saw so many cool things that relate to me in some way.
Last month, someone posted conceptual images of a proposed Music Center located at 6th & Hoover. Interesting, because that development would've wiped-out the building I live in (as well as my entire block)! If you look at the concept art you will see two unidentified streets: The one that forks off of Hoover is Occidental Blvd, and the parallel street to the east is Lafayette Park Place. The music center would've gone in the land between those two streets.
I believe the proposal was dated 1950, and my building was constructed in 1953, so obviously my building's developers were not worried about potential eminent domain by then.
I suspect that my building was part of a "second generation" of buildings on my street, replacing a single-family residence. The hi-rise apartment buildings in the area are third-generation, replacing the small multi-family buildings like mine. As of now, there is one single-family building remaining on my block, and as always seems to be the case in Los Angeles, it is maintained but not continuously lived in. I call such houses "Scientology safehouses", but I have no idea what they are actually used for.
Occidental Blvd is a divided street with tall palm trees planted in the median. They look almost as tall as the "Longstreet palms" discovered by Los Angeles Past, so I'd estimate their age to be 80-90 years, which just about jibes with the age of this neighborhood.
OK, I've rambled on about this long enough. Someone else's turn!
I'll try to paste the 1950 Music Center concept art below:
