I enjoyed looking through this information and find it interesting how many buildings were cut-down to only one or two floors? I'm guessing earthquakes are the reason? I was trying to see the base of the structure, but could see enough details to know it matches the upper floors.
I can also see where the turrets were striped under what I'm guessing is paint in the ca.1920 image. Thank you for researching this and sharing it.
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Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson
Birdseye view of Sonora Town on Buena Vista (North Broadway) Street from Fort Moore Hill, C.C. Pierce, ca.1898
Photograph of a birds eye view of Sonora Town on Buena Vista (North Broadway) Street from Fort Moore Hill, ca.1898. Tenement and commercial buildings stand closely packed along either side of Buena Vista (Broadway), fronted by a row of telephone poles. Deeper into the town to the left, in the distance, two four-story, Romanesque brick buildings are standing next to one another. What would become the Sunset Hotel, at San Fernando (N. Spring) Street and Ord, can be seen by it's three striped turrets. The San Fernando Hotel is the three story brick building immediately to the right of the Sunset. What appears to be a tall flagpole stands toward the end of the street to the right of the photo. Hills and mountains are visible in the distance. Photographer C.C. Pierce must have been standing in Mary Hollister Banning's front yard when he took this shot.
USC digital archive/Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960 |
If I'm not mistaken, this is a streetlight. They are from the early 1880s. I think the idea was using a higher elevation for the light, it could cover the city with fewer poles and more closely replicate actual sunlight. I've read these lights had inconsistent brightness, but many report it was almost like the middle of the day. I wish we had a photograph of this (these lights at night). I would love to see how bright these lights were and what it looked like from a distance.