Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyingwedge
Does the color photo in er's post show the remains of this?:
Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1938 |
Yeah, 1939 garage. I too was there yesterday morning crawling over the mountains of rubble, trying to gauge what was what.
Was going to race home and post my pix but had other engagements (and Hunter's images are much better and more complete!) -- including a Robert Brown Young tour where I met fellow
Noirisher Tetsu, great guy.
Made a couple of vids like
this and
this.
Here for example is a recent shot of where
this used to be. Real sorry to see that go.
So while this archaeological site didn't turn out to be the wonders of the 1886/1912 basement -- though those remaining outer "no demo" walls may contain just that -- it was still an interesting exercise. E.g., got into it with the usual knuckle-draggers on Facebook (in a "DTLA" group) who promote "progress" over history with quips like -- and this is an actual quote, about how and why
this discovery just must not be important: "if the attack on the Times for their anti-Union stance was so important, then there would be more memorials about it." I mean, face to palm or what. My word, they even pulled out the ludicrous trope, refuge of the disingenuous developer-class: THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Apparently we could never maintain the basement as a monument, not because it's simply unhistoric and not important, but because it will (not may, they assert, but
will) collapse and
hurt children. Therefore, I guess, if you are pro-history, you hate children? Anyway. I guess I don't expect most people to be smart (we
Noirish clan are a rarefied breed!) but I don't usually expect them to be total chowderheads.
I pointed out that all I was asking for was a stay of execution for a short bit so we could go check it out and evaluate. (It always amazes me how unhinged some folk get about merely proposing that. Well, God bless 'em, I'm sure they mean well.) That being said (and my snarkiness aside), I am
extremely gratified that the subject was covered in the
Times, on Curbed and the LAist, and elsewhere, which shows it to be the important topic it is, and will underline that these preservation discussions are worthy of coverage and substantive discussion.
So again, knowing a stop work order wouldn't happen, had to go on a Sunday morning to crawl atop peaks of concrete and through mazes of rebar to do recon. (Speaking of which, saw a lot of late-30s rebar, and not the twisted kind you would expect from the 'teens, so no early walls torn up that I could ascertain.) And now the mystery is (mostly) solved. On to the next!
If you're a completist, or just desire to see some more,
here's a collection of shots, again, not Hunter-quality, but some of them have their moments.