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Originally Posted by scanlessfool
Would anyone happen to have an idea of when this picture was taken? I can see that China town as we know it today isn't there, but since I'm not 100% sure of when the new China Town was constructed, I can't paint a time frame on the picture.
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I believe the photo was taken after 1935, due to new frwy access from Bernard St, visible in lower right of photo. In 1935, two houses, on northside of Bernard St. west of Broadway, 411 and 417, were moved back 15ft for widening of Bernard St for access to new yet to be opened Arroyo Seco Parkway via Hill St.[formerly Castelar St]. One house, 413, [ not in picture] was sold in 1935 to a group connected to Better Homes & Gardens, moved to a spot near Wilshire Bl for remuddling to a modern home. There is a 1935 [or 1936, note sure which year] LA Times article about the old 1887 house being transformed into a modern Colonial home. The xeroxed LAT article is in our current library at 411. The three houses, 411, 413, and 417 were owned and built by the Fritz family since 1886 since new. Fred Fritz, and his son worked for the Southern Pacific's Building & Bridges Dept. The last owner, Fred's granddaughter, she lived to be 100 years old, having born in 411 in 1892 passed away in her ancestral 411 family house. The Chinese Historical Society of So Cal quickly bought the two houses from the Fritz estate for use as a museum exhibit center. Open on weekdays and Sundays all year today. New Chinatown was started in 1937, one of the buildings is barely visible at extreme bottom right corner, where the future Bamboo Lane is. So the photograph is probably taken in 1940. All the houses on the north side of Bernard St. are still there today, everthing south of it is gone for parking lot building and expansion of Chinatown. Thanks for posting, seeing what the area south of Bernard St was like, that photo had made my jaw drop!