[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

It's funny, I just did a post where I referenced being on an eBay spending diet, but I intend to "go big" on this one, because man do I want that sucker. Such an interesting point in time, after they tore down the Fremont for the Fourth St Cut in 1954, but before they tore down the rest of the wall (here I am going on about like a crazy person 'bout that wall).

What really gets me is that it shows the pedestrian bridges between the two telephone buildings. The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph offices at left (Bliss & Faville, 1924) was joined to the new Southern California Telephone HQ (Charles Day Woodford) when it was finished in 1947. We've seen the shot by the great Palmer Conner here on NLA before I'm sure:

Huntington Library

Originally Posted by Beaudry

Actually there was never a microwave tower on that building; that's 434 S Grand and it's always just looked like that. However, just next door to its north at 420 they built another telephone building, designed by Woodford & Bernard and built in 1962. THAT one had the 185', 250-ton tower:

lapl

However, that tower didn't last too long. In 1966 the tower was removed/demolished, and seven stories added to the structure, and then the tower was rebuilt in a slightly different configuration:

huntington, huntington

^^^
Thanks for the microwave tower history. In the 1980s I once overheard some homeless guy in Pershing Square mutter that the microwaves were used for thought control. I nodded as I quickly passed him on the way to an important meeting on metrorail construction in the Biltmore.