noirish Los Angeles

[Joe Gillis]

I think the 'S's are the ends of retaining bolts that run front to back to keep the house together, you see them a lot on old properties over here, think its more of a decorative thing on the house though

Edit:

Called Anchor Plates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_plate

[ethereal_reality]

I didn't notice the S's until you mentioned them MR.

I've been trying to locate the building in several illustrations I found of the various LAPB sites.
(mostly by referencing the trio of chimneys on the left in the original photograph)

-various photographs & illustrations here:
http://calbricks.netfirms.com/brick....alberhill.html




Did Mr. Frost also have an office downtown?

If I remember correctly, GaylordWilshire spotted some LAPB bricks in Palm Springs. I vaguely recall his post.
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Amazing story CityBoyDoug. I gasped when you said you had the actual suicide note.


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[HossC]

I was looking for pictures of Earle C Anthony's Packard dealership when I rediscovered a three-picture photoset at USC (I'm pretty sure we've seen them here before). The three views are looking west from Broadway and Eleventh Street on November 21, 1931. This detail shows the Pacific Desk Company at 1031 S Hill Street. It must've been a fairly new home for the business as they're listed at 420 S Spring Street in the several City Directories from the 1920s. The sign on the side says "Est. 1912", but I couldn't find a listing before 1921. The sign also says "T.F. Peirce Pres.", and the 1917 and 1918 CDs list a Theo F Peirce as a manager of the Weber Show Case & Fixture Company (one of references in the 1918 CD actually says "Shoe Case"). The Weber Show Case & Fixture Company was at 316-330 S Los Angeles Street, but seems to have been around before 1912 and well after the establishment of the Pacific Desk Company, so I'm still not sure where the 1912 date comes from. Just to confuse things, I also found a Pierce Desk Company (different spelling acknowledged) in CDs from 1915 to 1929. They are originally listed at 732 S Spring and 735 S Main, and later at 907 S Hill. Could the newer Pacific Desk Company have absorbed the older Pierce Desk Company before moving to the building below?


Detail of picture at USC Digital Library

The Pacific Desk Company was still listed at 1031 S Hill Street right up to the 1973 CD. The picture below shows how the building looks today. It's lost its finials and original windows, and gained a couple of huge trees on the sidewalk, but the other details remain intact.


GSV

The building is nearly opposite the Mayan Theater.


GSV

When I tried to find the current occupier of 1031 S Hill, I got lots of results naming the YWCA and Job Corps. I also got loads of sites referencing the Ed Ruscha Monument, a 70-foot mural by Kent Twitchell, which used to adorn its wall. More info about the mural's abrupt disappearance in 2006 can be found in this LA Times article. Nearly two years later, la.curbed.com published a follow-up which covers Kent Twitchell's lawsuit against the U.S. Government and 12 other defendants and the subsequent $1.1 million settlement.


federicodecalifornia.wordpress.com

[ethereal_reality]

Good find HossC! It's great that the building has survived. (minus the pointy elements on top)

Originally Posted by Moxie

I've only just started on my morning coffee, e_r, but I think the regal looking residence may be the McKinley Residence
that used to stand at 310 South Lafayette Park Place. If you want to see more on the McKinley's, this was all on pages 536-537.

Thanks for recognizing the building in my photograph Moxie. -much appreciated.
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Have we seen the Ronald Coleman estate on NLA?


ebay

4,600 square foot Spanish Hacienda-style house built in 1926 at the end of a cul-de-sac in the Hollywood Hills.




It's still there today.

For more information and interior photrographs go here: http://darklydexter.com/articles/mic...home-for-sale/

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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Did Mr. Frost also have an office downtown?

I Googled the Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company earlier and found archive.org have a brochure for their roofing tiles from ca. 1915. It has a bit about the company, pictures of various properties to illustrate different tile designs, and a list of prestigious buildings for which they've supplied tiles. Here are a couple of the property illustrations:

I could've sworn I'd seen Isaac Milbank's house on NLA because I remember checking it out on Google Maps. It turns out that the G. Lawrence Stimson designed house at 3340 Country Club Drive featured in GW's Wilshire Boulevard Houses blog, specifically the post about Judge Sterry's house at 2607 Wilshire Boulevard.



Another house I recognized was the G. Allan Hancock residence by John C. Austin. Unsurprisingly, GW has also written about 3189 Wilshire Boulevard.



I also found this article in the 29 March 1908 edition of the Los Angeles Herald.


California Digital Newspaper Collection

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

According to wiki [below], although this is still not a settled issue:

In 1923, Georges Claude and his French company Claude Neon introduced neon gas signs to the United States by selling two to a Packard car dealership in Los Angeles. Earle C. Anthony purchased the two signs reading "Packard" for $1,250 apiece.[1] Neon lighting quickly became a popular fixture in outdoor advertising. Visible even in daylight, people would stop and stare at the first neon signs for hours, dubbed "liquid fire."

Hello, operator? (Maybe the amount below is an approximate in "today's" dollars?)

Georges Claude patented the neon lighting tube on Jan. 19th, 1915 – U.S. Patent 1,125,476.

In 1923, Georges Claude and his French company Claude Neon, introduced neon gas signs to the United States, by selling two to a Packard car dealership in Los Angeles. Earle C. Anthony purchased the two signs reading “Packard” for $24,000.

Neon lighting quickly became a popular fixture in outdoor advertising. Visible even in daylight, people would stop and stare at the first neon signs dubbed “liquid fire.” http://www.riversneon.com/neon-history/

_______________________________________

Electricity for all those neons and radios?




Two Icons. Packard meets Boulder http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single.../id/3923/rec/4


1934

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I found this photograph earlier tonight on ebay.

The Cliff Cafe on Point Fermin, San Pedro CA (Los Angeles Harbor) circa 1917

ebay
I am surprised by the various pathways and stairs leading down to the ocean.



-close-up view of the cafe

ebay



-is this the Cliff Cafe? (the stairway is visible in yellow)




various walkways leading down to the beach.

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Point Fermin Cafe in the 1930s or 40s. Was this built on the site of the earlier cafe?

ebay


The Point Fermin Cafe looking south.



Today there are no death defying stairways leading down to the ocean. The 1930s era cafe is on the right.

google earth
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http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single.../id/3436/rec/3



1936


















1936

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Have we visited the Thaddeus Lowe house on NLA? I wasn't able to find any earlier posts.



under construction

ebay




ebay


-built in Pasadena. What? It looks like it should be guiding ships along some coast.


ebay





photographs from this book


$149.50 Whoa! That's a bit steep.

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1899?

http://collection.pasadenadigitalhis...id/1186/rec/20




http://collection.pasadenadigitalhis...id/1185/rec/21











Thaddeus Lowe entertains the Snowman on Echo Mt. - 1895

http://collection.pasadenadigitalhis.../id/863/rec/10



[QUOTE]Mount Lowe Line descending on Lake Avenue from Rubio Canyon in June, 1893, just before the formal opening of the mountain route. Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, with cane, seated in chair.[QUOTE]

http://collection.pasadenadigitalhis...id/3848/rec/13

[Chuckaluck]

1929 - Neon in Pasadena


C.O. Arnold Jeweler was founded in 1890. Currently at 350 S. Lake Ave., but the address for the image below is given to be 345 E. Colorado Blvd.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck

Thaddeus Lowe residence

pasadenadigitalarchives

Wow, what an excellent find Chuckaluck!! The house is especially beautiful from this angle (minimizing the over-the-top turret).
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[ethereal_reality]

A photograph of one of the racing car sculptures recently showed up on ebay.




..but there's no mention of the Richfield Co.


Were the sculptures ever intended to be road markers? -and who is Nita Cavalier?


Here's the first post on a Richfield racing car sculpture.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=7700


In a later post HossC added this detail of a photograph of Alvarado & Temple in 1923.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=17519

Here's the full photo (also posted by HossC)


This photo is so cool I thought we should see it a second time.
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[ethereal_reality]

Here's my small contribution to the recent discussion on NEON.


ebay





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[ethereal_reality]

3940dxer and lorendoc, thanks for sharing your recent trip out to Pomona Valley with us here at NLA.


originally post by 3940dxer (David)

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=22337



Let's take the way-back machine to see the Phillip's Mansion as it appeared in the late 1880s.


http://www.pinterest.com/pin/38773246764348184/

-minus the 'ghost' in the attic window.

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[bighen]

Originally Posted by FredH

I drove by this place yesterday on Valley Blvd. near Garfield in Alhambra.
It looks like it was an old fast-food hamburger joint. Does anyone know the history of it?
Currently it is a seafood place called the Boat House.


Google Street View

Nice original looking Hat next door too.


Google Street View

FredH, Is this the restaurant in question? Do the addresses match with the current Boathouse?

[IMG][/IMG]

[MartinTurnbull]

Someone just sent me this photo of the original Brown Derby, telling me it was the original derby on the site of the Chapman Hotel.



I’d never heard that the original Brown Derby had moved so I asked him about it. Turns out, the original Brown Derby was built on the site that later became the Chapman Hotel. It had to vacate its location on Wilshire between Alexandria and Mariposa when the land was requisitioned for the women’s village for the 1932 L.A. Olympic Games. So it was temporarily moved farther down Wilshire to 3927 Wilshire



Then, later, it was rebuilt at its famous location at Wilshire and Alexandria, next to the Gaylord.

I've been reading and researching these iconic LA buildings for a number of years, but this was the first time I'd come across this information. Is this news to anyone else here, or am I the single dumb bunny...!??!?

[Otis Criblecoblis]

Originally Posted by bighen

There was a Henry's on the southeast corner of Glendale Ave. and Colorado St. that I believe was part of the same chain, because it too advertised "Chicken in The Rough", and if I recall correctly it also had that circular feature at the left corner.

It was there in 1964 when we moved here, and I believe it was gone by the mid-Seventies.

I have not been able to find a picture of it, but I did find a picture of a menu (link is to Facebook):

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...8380175&type=1

[FredH]

Originally Posted by bighen

FredH, Is this the restaurant in question? Do the addresses match with the current Boathouse?

[IMG][/IMG]

bighen - The Boathouse is at 25 West Valley Blvd. and Henry's was at 203 West Valley.

The current building at 203 is this:


Google Street View

If it is the same building as the old Henry's, it has been pretty extensively remodeled.

Actually, all three buildings are fairly close together, as you can see here:


Google Maps

[FredH]

Originally Posted by HossC



When I tried to find the current occupier of 1031 S Hill, I got lots of results naming the YWCA and Job Corps. I also got loads of sites referencing the Ed Ruscha Monument, a 70-foot mural by Kent Twitchell, which used to adorn its wall. More info about the mural's abrupt disappearance in 2006 can be found in [URL="http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jun/03/entertainment/et-mural3"

this LA Times article[/URL]. Nearly two years later, la.curbed.com published a follow-up which covers Kent Twitchell's lawsuit against the U.S. Government and 12 other defendants and the subsequent $1.1 million settlement.


federicodecalifornia.wordpress.com

HossC - Remember this other famous Kent Twitchell mural that some idiot painted over?


http://federicodecalifornia.wordpres...orm-1969-2011/

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull

Someone just sent me this photo of the original Brown Derby, telling me it was the original derby on the site of the Chapman Hotel.



I’d never heard that the original Brown Derby had moved so I asked him about it. Turns out, the original Brown Derby was built on the site that later became the Chapman Hotel. It had to vacate its location on Wilshire between Alexandria and Mariposa when the land was requisitioned for the women’s village for the 1932 L.A. Olympic Games. So it was temporarily moved farther down Wilshire to 3927 Wilshire



Then, later, it was rebuilt at its famous location at Wilshire and Alexandria, next to the Gaylord.

I've been reading and researching these iconic LA buildings for a number of years, but this was the first time I'd come across this information. Is this news to anyone else here, or am I the single dumb bunny...!??!?

The first post on the Brown Derby was back in 2009, and there have been dozens since. The gist of it is, the BD in your shot opened, facing due south at 3427 Wilshire between Mariposa & Alexandria, in 1926; in 1931 a branch opened at 3927, as seen in your second shot, in the 1930 Bilicke Building (on the site of the Harrington house at 646 S. Gramercy). This BD replaced the short-lived Hi-Hat (apparently also owned by Herbert Somborn, aka Mr. Gloria Swanson) and only lasted a year or so itself. The 3927 branch may not have lasted long, but was too early to have been any kind of "temporary" location during the move of the BD hat. Enlarged into the bookstore space to the west, 3927 became the first Perino's in 1934. The hat-shaped Derby moved half a block east to 3377, oriented to the northeast corner of Alexandria, in 1937.


An ad shows the 3427 and 3927 BDs operating at the same time:

LAT Feb 29, 1932


USCDL

A pretty Lincoln in front of the short-lived Hi-Hat...

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A photograph of one of the racing car sculptures recently showed up on ebay.




... and who is Nita Cavalier?

Nita Cavalier appeared in 16 movies and shorts between 1925 and 1932 (according to IMDb.com). Various newpaper clippings I found also suggest that she acted on stage and radio, and was known as a writer (of what, I don't know).


www.westernclippings.com

She was also involved in a little scandal - there are many versions of this story in newspaper archives, I happened to pick the one from the August 24, 1934 edition of the Reading Eagle.


news.google.com/newspapers

Nita was back in court a few months later, again suing the Wilsons. This clipping from the November 19, 1934 edition of The Evening Independent also includes the settlement from the case above.


news.google.com/newspapers