[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Tetsu

Stumbled onto a photo that makes me pretty sad, but it's a hell of a find so I figured I'd better post it anyway.

(Don't think I've seen it posted here yet, so my apologies if it has!)



Construction of the 4th Street viaduct, photo dated 1956. Photo is looking west along 4th from the corner of 4th & Olive. In the foreground we see the steps that once led up to the Fremont Hotel. In the background you can clearly make out The Salt Box. Next to it you can see what I think is the roofline of its neighbor at 333 S. Bunker Hill Ave. You can also see the Stuart Oliver house (just to the right of the top center) and the site of the Hildreth mansion next door.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the viaduct built from 1954-56? I'd guess this photo was taken in 1954, as it looks like they haven't actually started digging out the road or leveling out the ground yet.

That's obviously the end of the Fremont -- although its retaining wall survived.

But back in the beginning . . .

Los Angeles Times, November 13, 1901



Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1902




The 1910 Trip of the HMMBA to California and the Pacific Coast by George Wharton James (Press of Bolte & Braden Company, San Francisco, 1911) @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...ew=1up;seq=109

Well, maybe she signed the register on Admission Day, but the hotel didn't open until later in the month:

Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1902

Jessie Benton Fremont died December 27, 1902. I think they brought the register to her, rather than her going to the hotel:

Fremont in California @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=26


Title page to above referenced book

Believe it or not, this is also the last photo of Jessie Benton Fremont, but the background has been changed, and she looks like a guy:

Jessie Benton Fremont: A Woman Who Made History by Catherine Coffin Phillips (John Henry Nash, San Francisco, 1935) @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...ew=1up;seq=359

The hotel crest mentioned above is on this 1902 menu:

http://huntingtonblogs.org/wp-conten...ksgiving-1.jpg

Fremont Hotel interiors:

Fremont in California @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=34


Fremont in California @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=32

Back outside, c. 1902-09:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co.../id/943/rec/78

1912:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...4/id/622/rec/9

1925 looking north:

CA State Library -- http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...G2YEPXUT5Y.jpg

More Fremont Hotel posts:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...&postcount=994
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2697
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=17272 (retaining wall)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=19884