noirish Los Angeles

[unihikid]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

http://creativecreativity.typepad.co...nd-monkey.html


Before building his famous 44 room mansion in Beverly Hills, Harold Lloyd lived in this Italianate house in the exclusive Windsor Square
neighborhood of Hancock Park.


ebay I think




The house, located at 502 S. Irving Boulevard, has been in decline for decades.


gsv






side view

gsv




garage

gsv

ugly metal garage doors and rusting automobiles....not a good sign
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when i lived on windsor near pico i would get off the bus at wilshire and walk around this block,the house is on a corner and come to think about it,its not in too bad of shape.I wanted to buy the buick back in 04 and the lady who lives there told me it was her sons..blah blah blah,they have been there since the 70s and i got to go inside the foyer,looked super nice(better than the outside).I didnt know about lloyd living there,the one house i would love to visit is nat king coles house on murifield.....

[Roxy Dog]

Originally Posted by Johnny Socko

Guys, I've just been catching up on the thread after a regrettably long absence, and I wanted to comment on Colonial House. My cousin has lived in this building for about 15 years, and as you can imagine it has been my pleasure to visit her there whenever possible. Her unit is a 3br/2ba, with a massive living room & dining room, plus an enclosed sunroom/conservatory leading to a small exterior patio.

The building still attracts its share of celebrity tenants, but the atmosphere is nicely relaxed. Interior detail of the units is as shown in the photo, with high ceilings & arched entryways (although no two layouts are the same). The building still has its original elevator, a very small, wood-paneled cab with brass fittings and a pull-to-open exterior door on each landing (the interior door is sliding).

The lobby atrium is marble-floored, but it's surprisingly small and low-key; this is no grand entrance. I suppose the apartments themselves were intended to be the draw.

And for perspective, note that Colonial House is a few lots down from the site of the Garden of Allah, highlighted here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2114

My aforementioned cousin has the book "The Garden of Allah" written by Sheilah Graham in 1970. According to my cousin, "Graham met F. Scott Fitzgerald there in Robert Benchley's apartment and had an affair with him for years. In the book, she talks about how people staying at the Garden used to walk around the corner to visit friends at the Colonial House."

Just a bit of "inside baseball" for you all.

Being the "death hag" that I am (and also a Bette Davis fan), I am familiar with this building. I lived just a couple of blocks away on Sweetzer and my son worked in the strip mall just to the north of this building where the Garden of Allah was located.

Here is a link to FindADeath's page on Bette Davis. http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/d...ette_davis.htm There are photos of the interior of her apartment and some other photos of the building. Jamie Lee Curtis was the president of the HOA of Colonial House when Bette lived there.

Jamie Lee Curtis was once asked, "What is first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Bette Davis?"

"Heat. I have to qualify this. I was president of the homeowners association at the Colonial House in West Hollywood where she lived. I would get calls from her. (Jamie impersonates Bette Davis' voice) "Hello. Jamie. This is Bette Davis. It's too cold. I want the heat." I'd say, "Miss Davis, I understand you are chilly, but its July. I can't in good conscience go to the board of directors and say that we're going to turn on the heat and charge people for heat in July in Southern California. I really would suggest you get a heater or plug ins." She'd answer, "It's too expensive on my electric bill."

[Roxy Dog]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

e_r: Doug Hill (also an extremely nice person) wrote back to say he's sure the image is one of John Humble's. I may have come to the end on this one.

I wish I knew how to do a screen grab from the Googlemobile for posting here. I believe the location of this building is on either the NE or SE corner of Garland and 8th or very close to there. The BOA building seems to line up about right at this location. Tovangar2's house would be directly across the street.

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by Roxy Dog

I wish I knew how to do a screen grab from the Googlemobile for posting here.

In Windows, the 'print screen' button takes a picture of your screen and copies it to the Windows clipboard. This can then be pasted into an image editor, cropped, and then uploaded to an image hosting site for you to link here.

[westcork]

Originally Posted by Roxy Dog

I wish I knew how to do a screen grab from the Googlemobile for posting here. I believe the location of this building is on either the NE or SE corner of Garland and 8th or very close to there. The BOA building seems to line up about right at this location. Tovangar2's house would be directly across the street.

I am pretty confident the address is 726 Garland. The building on the Baist map at that location back up to the properly line and has a similar enough shape. And 126 / 726 would be an easy enough typo.

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by westcork

I am pretty confident the address is 726 Garland. The building on the Baist map at that location back up to the properly line and has a similar enough shape. And 126 / 726 would be an easy enough typo.

For what it's worth, I think you're right (726 Garland was, apparently, the Garland Hall Apartments).

[BifRayRock]

Siblings and Java?

Hills Bros.
1929 - Building the Hills Bros. Coffee Building.

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...2LFVG92TPT.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...JY87147HAI.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...292QKJE3GU.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...1NYGXE97BT.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...CIHRT1R3GQ.jpg


Newmark Bros.

1930 - Second and San Pedro.
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067231.jpg




1962 - Farmer Bros. Coffee - 20333 So. Normandie Ave., Torrance.
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics33/00066480.jpg

[WS1911]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Siblings and Java?

Hills Bros.
1929 - Building the Hills Bros. Coffee Building.


http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...CIHRT1R3GQ.jpg

Nice post on the Hills Brothers building. Where is (or was) this building located. I've lived in L.A. the last 60+ years and don't remember ever seeing it.

[ProphetM]

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...CIHRT1R3GQ.jpg

Originally Posted by WS1911

Nice post on the Hills Brothers building. Where is (or was) this building located. I've lived in L.A. the last 60+ years and don't remember ever seeing it.

635 San Mateo, and it's still there.


Google Street View

The big building behind it with the water tower on top is also still there.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ProphetM

In Windows, the 'print screen' button takes a picture of your screen and copies it to the Windows clipboard. This can then be pasted into an image editor, cropped, and then uploaded to an image hosting site for you to link here.

After you click on Print Screen button [at the top of your keyboard]....Open Windows Paint program...click on the clipboard at the left...that will save it in Paint.... Next 'Save' the screen grab to your photos or photo program. [ The 'Save' icon is at the top of Paint page.] Then you can then upload the image to an Image Hosting site such as Photobucket, that you can link to this thread....as ProphetM says.

Hopefully this will work.

[ethereal_reality]

a couple screen-grabs from Donovan's Brain 1953


Allan Dowling prod. United Artists




A 1953 Kaiser Manhattan in front of the Town House.


http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_336471-...ttan-1953.html





A 1950 Buick missing a tooth in the grill.


http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_336459-Buick-1950.html
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[ethereal_reality]

mystery location

Gas station and ice cream stand, Los Angeles


ebay

I can't quite make out the sign on top of the hill. (my guess would be Baldwin Hills, but I don't remember such a sign)
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[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

126 Garland Avenue, May 29, 1980


John Humble http://library24.library.cornell.edu...~12~12&os=5400
__

I wish we had a wider view of this building. The apartments look like they were built on to the back of a large house, going by the gabled, "Dutch" roof-line at the left margin, the configuration of the fire escape and the separate entrance on the south side. This was often done as residential areas became urbanized and the need for housing made it economically attractive.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I can't quite make out the sign on top of the hill. (my guess would be Baldwin Hills, but I don't remember such a sign)
__

The sign says "View Park". It's a 20s development in the Baldwin Hills (AKA View Park-Windsor Hills these days)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_Pa...ls,_California


google maps

[ethereal_reality]

View Park! thx T2

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

View Park!

Baldwin Hills is in the western part of Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera (My sister used to work at the corner of "Swamp and Scissors", as she termed it.). This was just one of the properties lost by FPF Temple when Lucky Baldwin foreclosed on the loan for the Temple & Workman Bank back in 1876. The Baldwin Hills are named for Lucky Baldwin. What a scoundrel.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=13948

The oldest house in LA (pictured below) is still there:

http://www.archives.gov/espanol/herencia.html

[WS1911]

Originally Posted by ProphetM

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...CIHRT1R3GQ.jpg



635 San Mateo, and it's still there.


Google Street View

The big building behind it with the water tower on top is also still there.

Thanks, ProphetM! It looks to be in very good shape. The front doors as seen on Street View look like steel-clad replacements for the originals.

[Albany NY]

Originally Posted by WS1911 and then by ProphetM


http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...CIHRT1R3GQ.jpg



Google Street View

The correct address is 635 Mateo St.

I knew I had seen this building before. There is a little LA noir lurking here....well, at least on cheesy film. The Hills Brothers Building co-starred in the 1996 Universal Pictures slasher film 'Child's Play 2' as an orphanage where the Chucky doll brings delightful murder and mayhem.

Copyright 1996, Universal Pictures

The bag company in the background was also briefly shown, re-named as the Mid-Western Bag Co. (since the movie took place in Chicago)

Copyright 1996, Universal Pictures

[ProphetM]

D'oh! sorry about the extraneous "San" before Mateo. My brain wants to put it in there every time and for once my fingers failed to stop it!

[tovangar2]

The Hills Brothers Building shows up on film a lot. I think it's actively marketed as a filming location. It's on the route of those movie location tours for tourists. Famous, I hear, for being in CSI/NY, a show I've never seen.

The building was featured prominently in an ep of the "Angel" TV series. The location team for that show was devoted to the noirish architectural underbelly of LA, which I really appreciated. I'd recommend all five seasons for location spotting (not so much for the acting or plots). The vampire detective used to get to some really obscure corners of town in his '67 Plymouth GTX ragtop:

Approaching the north side of the Hills Brothers Building in the Plymouth with the Southwest Bag Company in the background:

Inside the Hills Bros building loading dock:

A bit later in the ep (now on the south side of the building):




All: Angel: S1/Ep 13 / netflix

P.S.

This one's just a couple of blocks from the Nate Starkman/Pan Pacific Warehouse building discussed back on page 593:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11854
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11859

[WS1911]

Earlier photos - top ca. 1938, bottom 2012


urbandiachrony

Here are a couple of photos of Clifton's taken April 13, 2013. Progress is slow and most of the windows have been repaired or replaced.