Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
#4
 |
This one certainly got me thinking, especially as the couple of references to Maxwell's Cafe I found in the CDs were outside the search area. Luckily, the fact that there's a hotel across the end of the street narrowed down the possibilities. The hotel in question turned out to be the St George Hotel at 115 E 3rd Street, seen from the other side in one of
e_r's other pictures. This circa 1950 shot is looking east down W 3rd Street from the top of Angel's Flight. The F P Fay building is on the corner of Hill, while the St George Hotel is in the background on the far side of Main Street where 3rd Street has a slight kink.
LAPL
A similar image with a bit of color. The unreadable white blade sign on left appears to be on a building at 3rd and Spring, so comparing it to the original picture, Maxwell's Cafe must have been between Spring and Broadway. The building nearest the camera on that block is the Bradbury Building, and we're not looking at that in the original picture. So, Maxwell's Cafe must've been in the Currier Building, which was demolished in early 1968 after being damaged in a fire. The 1956 CD lists the Max M Newman cocktail lounge at 214 W 3rd Street, which would be the right address.
Detail of picture in
Huntington Digital Library
This early but undated image is the only decent one I could find of the Currier Building. The entrance in the center is the one immediately to the left of Maxwell's cafe. When this picture was taken, the Ramona Hotel was still standing on the corner of 3rd and Spring (far left of shot).
LAPL
Now we have the location, I searched NLA again and found a mention of a gay bar called Maxwell's in the Currier Building in
post #4914 by
rick m. The extract below is from 'Bohemian Los Angeles: And the Making of Modern Politics' by Daniel Hurewitz.
books.google.com