noirish Los Angeles

[3940dxer]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I just found this photo from the Los Angeles Times.


http://framework.latimes.com/2012/02...-cafeteria/#/1

Wow, great to see the progress! I was downtown last weekend and of course the facade was still in place, but interesting to see the unveiling. I need to go downtown tomorrow and maybe again Friday, look forward to seeing it for myself.

Does anyone know what they plan to do next? It would be quite amazing if the original look was restored, but I'm not sure it's even possible in terms of code and such. Whatever they do, it's guaranteed to look better than that awful metal grill!

I wonder how long the facade had been in place.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

OK..I don't want you to think I'm obsessed with Alvarado Terrace but I just wanted to point out these four interesting homes that surround
the old First Church of Christ, Scientist.

#1 1515 South Hoover Street built in 1905.


http://www.travelinlocal.com/alvarad...strict-part-4/

e_r-- GREAT recent tours of Alvarado Terrace & vicinity. There is definitely something compelling about that intersection of the old L.A. grid and the "new" at Hoover. Here's an old post with a vintage shot of the house above: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2139

ALSO-- I am thrilled to see the unveiling of Cliftons--- even if they just removed the cinder blocks, freshened the paint and retained the CLIFTON'S CAFETERIA lettering, I'd be happy. It's so odd that two of the window boxes still appear to have things growing in them... plastic things, presumably, but it's funny that they just slapped up the 1960s facade and left them...

LAT
After the recent unveiling...

And once upon a time...

LAPL

LAPL
Well, maybe the plants were once real... the windowbox veg is looking young and scraggly here....

[all of the trash]

I had no clue Alvarado Terrace even existed. And I ride my bike home from work through Hoover & Venice every day! Gonna have to swing by later on today. There are so many side streets with architectural gems in the Westlake/Koreatown area, really a 'hidden gem' in LA even though these places are packed with people.

[mozzer83]

Found This Matchbook On The Street of Burnside (Mid-City)

[GaylordWilshire]

mozzer: Welcome to the thread.... You mean you just found this relic lying on the ground...?? Anyway, Kimball's was at 3569 West 8th... not really at "8th & Western"... Its bones may still exist:

Google Street View

What is really more interesting, given that Kimball's is altered so much, if not replaced, is Pollo Ala Brasa across 8th Street, and actually at 8th & Western (southeast corner). I thought it was some sort of firewood depot until I read about the place...it's practically a 5-star cafe! I want some of that chicken, now! Then there is the oddity in the signage...can anyone spot it? This 5-star restaurant is surely beyond my means--but dinner on me at Romanoff's to the first person who finds it. Where's Waldo?

And does anyone know what the Pollo Ala Brasa building with its zigzag roof could have been originally?

Google Street View
As seen from the odd spur of 8th Street between Western and Oxford, just south of the main
drag of 8th...

[ethereal_reality]

Is it that 'western' is spelled backward G_W?


google street view

That stack of wood is amazing....and yes, the chicken sounds delicious.

[ethereal_reality]

I also noticed this fine apartment building down 8th from the tiny Pollo Ala Brasa.

I like the old 'Arwyn sign on the roof and how the building is 'rounded' at the corner of 8th & Manhattan Place.


google street view





google street view


____



I just found this photo with a better view of the sign. Has anyone been by this apartment building at night?
I'm curious to know how (or if) the sign is lit. (it looks like it could be one of those old signs that have light bulbs within the letters)


http://you-are-here.com/building/arwyn.html

The building was built in 1928...the architect was C. Waldo Powers.

____

[Fab Fifties Fan]

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

Wow, great to see the progress! I was downtown last weekend and of course the facade was still in place, but interesting to see the unveiling. I need to go downtown tomorrow and maybe again Friday, look forward to seeing it for myself.

Does anyone know what they plan to do next? It would be quite amazing if the original look was restored, but I'm not sure it's even possible in terms of code and such. Whatever they do, it's guaranteed to look better than that awful metal grill!

I wonder how long the facade had been in place.

I just ran across this LA Times article about the Clifton's renovations, and it seems our wishes are all coming true.....well, at least our Clifton's related wishes

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,5192237.story

~Jon Paul

[mozzer83]

thank you, this thread is just fascinating! yep lying on the street i really can go for that chicken too!

[Valda]

Hello, everyone. My son David (known here as 3940dxer) has been bombarding me with links and photos from this thread, and asking me to add a little something, since I grew up in L.A. When the recent posts about the Tar Pits appeared he asked me again, so after sufficient urging, here I am. I hope I can add a little something to the thread, and I thank David for finding me a new interest.

Many of the statues of prehistoric animals at the La Brea Tar Pits were made by my father, Herman T. Beck. He had been hired as a sculptor and taxidermist by Los Angeles County in 1929, shortly before I was born. His name can still be seen carved into the base of the large sitting bear at the Tar Pits.

In those years there was only one L.A. County Museum, the one in Exposition Park. It housed dioramas of various animals in their habitats, artifacts of all sorts, and quite a collection of art. Visiting him at work, I saw several small scale models of the works he would eventually install either at the museum or at the Tar Pits. Actually, one of his small-scale models of a sloth is still in the family.

Except when he was installing a statue at the tar pits, he worked in a little brick building a block or so behind the museum, which he referred to as the taxi shop. There he prepared the animals to be used in a new installation, making a clay sculpture of each body,  then creating a mold of it into which plaster would be poured to create the foundation for the animal skin. (As you can see, the term "stuffing an animal" hardly describes the process.)

He also worked on things in his shop behind our house at 460 Mt. Washington Drive. The most unusual thing I remember him working on there was the time he invented a way to use latex to create an authentic-looking lizard, as the usual taxidermy methods did not work well for those creatures. The designer had wanted lizards in the forefront of the diorama being created.

We were, as most others of that era, a one car family. Dad used the car to get from home in Highland Park to his "taxi shop" Our transportation was the street car line on Marmion Way, which I took to go to school at  Franklin High. The streetcar was also our link to go downtown. It ran along Marmion Way to North Figueroa Street, and on to Broadway.

Sometimes my mother would take me and my brother to shop for  clothes or shoes downtown. We went to stores like the Broadway Department Store, and the May Company. Once in a while we would go to the Grand Central Market, a farmer's market in the heart of town, and even have lunch out, at Clifton's. But this was, after all, the midst of the depression, so treats like that were fairly rare.

Most services were brought to us in our Highland Park neighborhood on Washington Drive. We were on the route of the ice man, the meat man, the vegetable man, and the bakery man. I remember that the vegetable man had a large metal disc hanging near the back of his truck. He would park, then bang a heavy metal rod on his "cymbal" to let the housewives know he was there.

The ice man always left his ice truck open at the back while he delivered a chunk of ice to us. He wore a leather guard on his shoulder, which looked a bit like a vest in back. He had a large pincer that had two U shaped pieces, connected by a hinge at the top. At each end of both U's was a sharp claw.   The iceman would clamp these claws tightly onto both sides of his ice block, hoist it onto his shoulder, and climb the stairs up to our house to deliver the ice.  This was the chance for the neighborhood kids to look for ice chips that were often left behind. Just the thing for a hot day!

During the summer, the ice cream man came around. My favorite ice cream was the push-up, a mix of vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet in a tube. A stick  was attached to a flat insert at the bottom of the tube; as one ate the ice cream exposed above the tube, one pushed more of the ice cream up with the stick, until all was eaten.

Doctors made house calls when needed. My violin teacher drove to our house every week to give me lessons. When I got skilled enough, I took lessons at The Family Music School in Boyle Heights. I'd walk down to the street car line with my music and violin case and wait for the street car to come clanging along. I would ride to Broadway, then get off and wait to transfer to a car going to Boyle Heights.

One detail which impressed me then, and even more now, was seeing a small stack of the daily papers on the floor near the front door of some of the  business office buildings on Broadway. On the stack would be an open cigar box. In the box were the nickels or dimes people had dropped in when picking up a paper. It was the middle of the depression, yet these coins were lying there untouched in the cigar box.

I look forward to seeing additional comments or questions from others about life in L.A. during the depression years. If memory still serves, that is.

[westcork]

Originally Posted by Valda

During the summer, the ice cream man came around. My favorite ice cream was the push-up, a mix of vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet in a tube. A stick  was attached to a flat insert at the bottom of the tube; as one ate the ice cream exposed above the tube, one pushed more of the ice cream up with the stick, until all was eaten.

Welcome to the thread...

I remember Push Ups

[ethereal_reality]

Welcome to the thread Valda!

Thank you so much for sharing your memories of growing up in Los Angeles.
I am in awe of your father....you must be very proud of him.


below: I especially liked this paragraph....it's as if you were living in a wonderful children's book.

Originally Posted by Valda

Most services were brought to us in our Highland Park neighborhood on Washington Drive. We were on the route of the ice man, the meat man, the vegetable man, and the bakery man. I remember that the vegetable man had a large metal disc hanging near the back of his truck. He would park, then bang a heavy metal rod on his "cymbal" to let the housewives know he was there.

I tried to come up with some information on your music school in Boyle Heights, but the only information I could find
was for a 'Neighborhood Music School' on Boyle Avenue just south of 4th street.

Could this possibly be your music school?
Here's a link to it's history.http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/09/local/me-61293


Once again, welcome to the thread.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

Does anyone know what they plan to do next? It would be quite amazing if the original look was restored, but I'm not sure it's even possible in terms of code and such. Whatever they do, it's guaranteed to look better than that awful metal grill!

Complete restoration is the plan.

[ethereal_reality]

Car accident May 20, 1937.

Sopas_ej (our 'in house' bridge expert) can you tell us which bridge this is? The only clue is that engaged column.


found on ebay




detail

____


Gaylord_Wilshire, the photos of Sophia Loren & Jayne Mansfield are new to me as well.
Even by today's standards the photographs are pretty shocking. Ms. Mansfield might as well have been topless.

I bet Louella Parsons was cross-eyed for a week.

____

[GaylordWilshire]

LAPL

LAPL

Originally Posted by Valda

Many of the statues of prehistoric animals at the La Brea Tar Pits were made by my father, Herman T. Beck. He had been hired as a sculptor and taxidermist by Los Angeles County in 1929, shortly before I was born. His name can still be seen carved into the base of the large sitting bear at the Tar Pits.

Welcome, Valda. Your narrative of a Los Angeles youth is worth a thousand pictures-- thank you. Above are a few actual shots of your father you and David have probably already seen, but I'm not sure if the rest of us have.... Presumably this is the large sitting bear you mentioned.

[PHX31]

Originally Posted by Valda

Most services were brought to us in our Highland Park neighborhood on Washington Drive.

Thanks for sharing your stories Valda!

You mentioned your neighborhood in Highland Park... my Grandparents lived with my Great Grandmother in Highland Park back in the late 20s and 30s. They lived there for quite a while, my mother even lived there up until the 1st grade. They lived on a house just off of N Avenue 64 (on Planada Ave), shown below:


Google Street View

Back in those days it was broken into two separate living areas, with my family living upstairs, and the downstairs was rented out as a separate apartment.

Earlier on in this thread I mentioned my Mom's neighborhood and some stories about her childhood in Alhambra (living just below the Phil Spector mansion), but she lived in Highland Park when she was much younger.

Also, YEARS ago (probably 2004) I posted a thread about my Grandmother's stories riding the streetcars from Highland Park to her job at a bank in Downtown Los Angeles. Maybe you guys rode the same streetcar, Valda. Her and my Grandfather kept a Los Angeles street car token for all these years, which she gave to me before she passed (actually, she gave it to me around the time I posted that old thread, I still have it).

Anyway, I just talked to my mom on the phone and she mentioned several interesting historic structures in Highland Park on N Ave 64, just a block or so from their old home. One of them is the Church of the Angeles on 1100 N. Avenue 64. She told me how beautiful the stained glass windows in the church were, as well as mentioned a neat angel statue in front. Here is what the church looks like today:

The stained glass

Google Streetview

Side view from Church Street, notice the clock and statue


Another really quick search brought up this:

Courtesy USC Digital Archive Church of the Angels info, USC

Notice the clock... In the archives they describe the history of the late 1800s church, which still stands in mostly the same condition.

My Mom mentioned the church was across from an elderly facility, which might be this:

Google Street View

Whatever that is, it's a pretty interesting old tudor-style building.

Anyway, Highland Park in general and the area around my mom/grandparent's home seems to have had some pretty interesting history, I wish I had more information to add.

[Valda]

Originally Posted by westcork

Welcome to the thread...

I remember Push Ups

Thanks for the picture - I can practically taste it!

[Handsome Stranger]

Nice film footage of Los Angeles in 1954 with several familiar landmarks:

• Video Link

[source: YouTube]

[Valda]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

LAPL





Welcome, Valda. Your narrative of a Los Angeles youth is worth a thousand pictures-- thank you. Above are a few actual shots of your father you and David have probably already seen, but I'm not sure if the rest of us have.... Presumably this is the large sitting bear you mentioned.

I have seen those pictures before, but it was lovely to see them again. Thank you.
You are right, that is the bear which bears my dad's name. It is on the downhill side of the large stone on which it sits, a few inches up from the ground. The statue used to be gray. When one of my sons arranged an escorted tour for a family reunion we had last year, the woman in charge told us that they now paint it brown, in order to cover the tar people smear on it. The signature is harder to make out, but still there.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by FredH

LAPL

Rodger Young Village consisted of 750 Quonset huts, which housed 5,000 people, and provided the families with a kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, and a living room.

The village area then:


LAPL

Fredh, your Rodger Young Village post was very interesting. I had never heard of it before so seeing it on that map is pretty cool.