I too am excited that we have reached the 400 page milestone. (Though, being an engineering type, I must mention that "posts per page" is a user setting, and we may not all be seeing that number right now.) But how many discussion threads, on any topic, have had this kind of longevity? It's really quite amazing.
e_r, since this is an anniversary of sorts, maybe you'd tell us a little more about how this thread began. In your first post you wrote "I lived in L.A. for 8 years and still hold it in high esteem. I recently spent several months going through some 50,000+ photos from the USC Digital Archives and the Los Angeles Public Library." I'm curious about how you discovered the USC and LAPL archives and how you got the idea to start a thread about it here.
sopas_ej started contributing right away, GaylordWilshire joined in later; you and you have been the most prolific posters here. Did any of you know or correspond beforehand, or did this all happen spontaneously, through the magic of the interwebs?
In any case this must be the best, most complete study of L.A. architecture and history to be found anywhere, and it's certainly my favorite internet site ever. I live in terror of skyscraperpage.com pulling the plug or having some catastrophic server problem and have been maintaining an archive of this whole thread, though I'm not sure how one could resurrect the thread elsewhere, if the need ever arose.
After I got hooked I kept telling people it had changed my life. They mostly responded with rolling eyes and sarcasm, but it really has been true. I see this region through very different eyes now, and have had blast exploring and photographing the city. I've joined the L.A. Conservancy and Hollywood Heritage, and led groups of friends on all sorts of odd and interesting L.A. tours. My wife and I have explored and hiked a hundred places in the L.A. mountains and hills. I gave a talk / slideshow about L.A. for a big group, that was really successful. This new "hobby" costs almost nothing, and all the walking and hiking has gotten me into better shape.
e_r, thanks a million times over for starting the thread, and thanks to all of the contributors who have helped make this so great.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu