noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Girl

Thank you so much for sharing your photographs.
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Here is the view with the new Google maps!
I was born at the Merrick building aka Big Blue Scientology building was Cedars of Lebanon in 1972 and raised 3 block away and like approx 6 away now this is my bubble LOL I LOVE THIS SITE BEEN COMING HERE FOR 2 YEARS Finally had to say something LOL every time I wanted to someone beat me to it!

Welcome to noirish Los Angeles Hollywood_Girl!
-so glad you found the thread.
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[HossC]

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

Great sleuthing, but let me be the first of a legion of model railroaders past and present to note that the rolling stock is a refrigerator car, not a boxcar. A popular and colorful model, btw.

I did wonder whether boxcar was the right word to use, but didn't know any better. Knowing the type of products they were transporting, it makes perfect sense that it would be a refrigerator car - I stand corrected .

[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by HossC

The key to finding this location was discovering that Formay was the name of a product and not the company. This 1950s tin can is for sale on eBay, and has "Manufactured by Swift & Company" on the back.



Parfay was another Swift & Company product. There's a "SWIFT" boxcar similar to this one just to the right of the main building in e_r's picture.


USC Digital Library

Great work as usual, HossC.

To ad a bit to Earl Boebert's comment for the non-railroaders who visit NLA,the identifying features of a refrigerator car are the hatches on the roof for loading ice, and the hinged doors as opposed to the sliding type seen on a boxcar. Today's reefers use mechanical refrigeration units that typically run on diesel fuel. In addition they have a modified version of the sliding boxcar door.

Cheers,
Jack

[Martin Pal]

H.P./Torrence

This 1926 photo was taken on the Pickford-Fairbanks studio lot on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, showing the nearby gasometer towering in the background.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

Various sources, including emporis.com, list a construction/completion date of 1927 for the Hollywood First National Bank Building at Hollywood and Highland. The panorama either shows an empty lot or the early stages of construction.

Since the panorama also has a date of 1927 and the Chinese Theatre and Roosevelt Hotel were completed in 1927, that's pretty remarkable that the bank building would be completed by year's end from whatever date this photo was taken in 1927. They sure built things a lot faster back then.

For example, I read that from start to moving in, the Empire State Building was completed in one year. A 4-story condo building near me took three years to complete.

__________

The Republic Pictures panoramas are great, too. I can almost see the East Side Kids, aka the Bowery Boys, running around there.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

Great sleuthing, but let me be the first of a legion of model railroaders past and present to note that the rolling stock is a refrigerator car. A popular and colorful model, btw.

Cheers,

Earl

What color was it?

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

What color was it?

The most commonly modeled ones are bright red with white lettering, and the "Swift" is on just one side panel. Google tells me this one was yellow, with a tuscan red roof and black lettering. What they are covering up are probably the words "Premium Ham."

Cheers,

Earl

[ethereal_reality]

In 1913, pioneer modernist Irving Gill designed this Pacific Electric bridge in Torrance.


(this photo around 1921)

http://www.chattelblog.us/2013/06/to...-new-name.html



...and it still stand today in it's original form. (plus the wooden railings)


http://www.chattelblog.us/2013/06/to...-new-name.html




below: Here's a noirish view of Gill's Torrance bridge taken in 1937 by photographer G. Haven Bishop.


posted by Jamie Watson on pinterest.com







-contemporary noir/Torrance Bridge

lak991.tumblr.com

[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

In 1913, pioneer modernist Irving Gill designed this Pacific Electric bridge in Torrance.


(this photo around 1921)

http://www.chattelblog.us/2013/06/to...-new-name.html



...and it still stand today in it's original form.


http://www.chattelblog.us/2013/06/to...-new-name.html



Here's a more noirish view.


lak991.tumblr.com

Any idea of the date of the last of the three photos? It's almost unbelievable that the bridge had been allowed to become an eyesore overgrown with vegetation and then resurrected into what we see in the second photo. I'm taking a wild guess the last photo would have been taken in the 1960s based upon the nature of the street lights seen between the arches.

[ethereal_reality]

I'm not sure of the chronology of the last two photographs R_I_T. To me, the last photograph definitely seems contemporary (recent).
But your question is a good one. I'll have to check the bridge out using Google-Street-View.

__





Architect Irving Gill also designed the Torrance Pacific Electric Depot the same year as the bridge (1913).


http://www.pinterest.com/rebeckahrut...rrance-bridge/



Here's some history


http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...rrances-depot/




http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...rrances-depot/



below: The depot as it appeared in 1937. (where's the dome?)


http://www.pinterest.com/rebeckahrut...rrance-bridge/ via lapl




...very forlorn in the 1970s. (still no dome)

http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...rrances-depot/




Great news noirishers , the 101 year old depot has survived! -as a restaurant, with a dome.


http://www.depotrestaurant.com/home.html
__


side-note

This is the article that brought my attention to Irving Gill's association with Torrance. (it's really interesting)
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/0...nce_utopia.php

entitled: The Rise and Fall of One Architect's Modern Torrance Utopia.

__

[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I'm not sure of the chronology of the last two photographs R_I_T. To me, the last photograph definitely seems contemporary (recent).
But your question is a good one. I'll have to check the bridge out using Google-Street-View.

__





Architect Irving Gill also designed the Torrance Pacific Electric Depot the same year as the bridge (1913).


http://www.pinterest.com/rebeckahrut...rrance-bridge/



Here's some history


http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...rrances-depot/




http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...rrances-depot/



below: The depot as it appeared in 1937. (where's the dome?)


http://www.pinterest.com/rebeckahrut...rrance-bridge/ via lapl




...very forlorn in the 1970s. (still no dome)

http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...rrances-depot/




Great news noirishers , the 101 year old depot has survived! -as a restaurant, with a dome.


http://www.depotrestaurant.com/home.html
__


side-note

This is the article that brought my attention to Irving Gill's association with Torrance. (it's really interesting)
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/0...nce_utopia.php

entitled: The Rise and Fall of One Architect's Modern Torrance Utopia.

__

Really neat to see the Dome back in place. The patina on it would lead one to believe it had been stored someplace in case it might be re-installed.

Irving Gill is aptly credited with creating the basis for what would later be known as Streamline Modern. Way ahead of his time much like Frank Lloyd Wright.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Retired_in_Texas

Really neat to see the Dome back in place. The patina on it would lead one to believe it had been stored someplace in case it might be re-installed.

Irving Gill is aptly credited with creating the basis for what would later be known as Streamline Modern. Way ahead of his time much like Frank Lloyd Wright.

Irving Gill....Architect. 1879-1936. A bachelor until the age of 58, Gill married Mrs. Marion Waugh Brashears on May 28, 1928, but the marriage was unsuccessful and Gill died at age 66 on October 7, 1936, alone in Carlsbad, California. Gill was in ill health for most of his life.

Gill discussed his '' ideal of simplicity'' in his 1916 essay, "The New Architecture of the West." For him, "the source of all architectural strength" emerged from the straight line, the arch, the cube, and the circle in combination.

Trained in the office of Louis Sullivan of Chicago, Gill spent most of his career in southern California where in the early 1900s he developed an original and radical simplification of Mission style architecture.

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




wiki

[Retired_in_Texas]

I thought it appropriate to note other works of Irving Gill that better illustrate his giving birth to Modern and/or Streamline Modern.


Dodge House, West Hollywood, circa 1915 (demolished)
Wikipedia

La Jolla Woman's Club (photo taken 1971)

Wikipedia

House on Little Balboa Island

L.A. Times Photo

You got ahead of me Doug!

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Retired_in_Texas

I thought it appropriate to note other works of Irving Gill that better illustrate his giving birth to Modern and/or Streamline Modern.


You got ahead of me Doug!

Sorry, I thought you had gone home for the day. :

[C. King]

Watched this a few months ago and remembered it just now. Filmed a couple of yrs ago, during Torrance's Centennial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q82G...bBNrr7sJ-N5p5g

[Tourmaline]

Erection of "first" power pole Pasadena Ave. " (now North Figueroa Street) and Piedmont Street, marking the beginning of municipal distribution of electricity. View made from the roof of the Arroyo Seco Branch Library on March 30, 1916."

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19
/00009493.jpg


Santa Monica Blvd and Western (Mid '20s?)
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011388.jpg



1905 - PE Glendale Line (between Lakeview Avenue (on left) and Corralitas Drive (on right) Silver Lake.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics14/00006884.jpg


1930 - Vermont Ave and Sixth Street
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068472.jpg

1935 - Pacific Dining Car 1310 W. 6th Street
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics18/00008732.jpg

1936 - unknown street, possibly Venice Blvd?
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00104/00104392.jpg


1937 - Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00104/00104361.jpg


1938 - Highland, south of Fountain
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00104/00104363.jpg


At the risk of going too far off the beaten path, I have a couple of questions concerning LA’s electric street cars. Did LA ever try an electrified “third rail” system, and/or was all electrification accomplished by means of overhead wiring?

Tying the questions closer to the noirish LA subject matter, with all of the electricity above the miles of street car tracks, have there been any NLA postings concerning the potentially tragic consequences of humanity contacting those live wires or other portions of street car live electrical apparatus? I would guess it was not a popular subject for the public utilities, but even today, downed electrical power lines still seem to make the news.

[Tourmaline]

The 5900 block of E. Olympic Boulevard in East Los Angeles. Seen, from left to right, are a Rio Grande service station, Bill Taylor's House of Hahn

1940 -
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00104/00104581.jpg

[loyalton]

Originally Posted by Retired_in_Texas

It's almost unbelievable that the bridge had been allowed to become an eyesore overgrown with vegetation and then resurrected into what we see in the second photo. I'm taking a wild guess the last photo would have been taken in the 1960s based upon the nature of the street lights seen between the arches.

It's been overgrown like that at least since the late 1970s, the last I've seen it. Without knowing the Gill connection, it's a pretty plain thing to look at while screaming through at 45mph. At least the ivy covering kept off much of the inevitable graffiti. Unrestored, IMO this was a lot better-looking than a lot of other RR bridges in the basin.

As for age, I also think that last photo in the series is fairly recent. The streetlights beyond don't look like sodium vapor types and are way too bright for incandescents even with a time exposure. The restoration only started sometime after August 2011.

[loyalton]

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Santa Monica Blvd and Fairfax (Undated)
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011388.jpg

Ashes of Vengeance starring Norma Talmadge is being advertised. IMDb says it was released in August 1923, so this likely dates from that or perhaps a bit later. Unless it's a midnight revival at the Roxy ...

Hmm. Are those Christmas decorations on the pole at lower left?

EDIT:

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0906...pPjFoVYS5w!2e0
Google Maps

This is Western and Santa Monica! In both old and new, we're looking north, along Western. There's the Security bank building in pretty good shape. Plus the Be-Hannesey business is in the 1923 and 1926 city directories at 1122 N. Western.

[HossC]

Seeing as we've had "A Carload of Parfay", I went back to USC and found "A Truckload of Formay" - the product that started the Swift & Company discussion. I Googled "Wolf & Burk's Market Spot", and searched the City Directories, but got no results. The image is dated 1933.


USC Digital Library

For e_r, here's a better picture of the Formay smokestack. It's part of a set of five photos called "View of refinery exteriors, Southern California, 1934". The letters appear to have neon tubes, so it must've lit up at night.


USC Digital Library

And for Earl Boebert and Wig-Wag, here's another Swift refrigerator car. This one's got a "Carload of Swift's Brookfield mayonnaise for Peninsula Stores".


USC Digital Library

Just be careful your interest in refrigerator cars doesn't go too far - it could end in ...


ziffdavisinternational.com from L.A. Noire.