noirish Los Angeles - Page 624

malumot · #**12461** Posted **Feb 11, 2013, 10:34 PM**

For close to three years in the early 90s I lived in Northern NJ. My girlfriend at the time lived at the McAlpin House (Herald Square, 34th & 6th, catty corner (kitty -korner?) from Macy's.

We would often walk the 1 1/4 mile or so down through Chelsea to the Village. I probably spent more time in Greenwich Village than any other part of Manhattan during that those years. And for good reason. There are few places on earth I'd rather be than in Greenwich Village on a warm spring day.

But we have to honestly admit there's a price to be paid for keeping Greenwich Village the cute, adorable pet that it is. All those big developments that were slated for Greenwich Village a generation or more ago? It's not as if they went poof and disappeared.....they just went elsewhere.

Another part of Manhattan I liked was Hell's Kitchen...again, a reasonable jaunt from 34th Street. I liked it mostly because for block after block it hadn't changed much from the days of the Roosevelt administration (Teddy, not Franklin). It was gritty, and a bit shady in spots, but at that time it hadn't captured so much as a whiff of gentrification. I was last in New York this past May, and could not believe how much that area had changed. Several new high rises poking up....and more in the pipeline, apparently. Sadly it's not so much "gentrification" as "urban renewal", by any other name. You can gentrify a Civil War-era three-story brownstone. But not nearly so easy to gentrify an 1890s six-story walk-up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

I do admire Jane Jacobs, but no amount of wishing for a diverse population is going to save a given city's aging infrastructure, even if civic reformers such as Moses and those who went after Bunker Hill, are chased off. It takes money to keep ever-older buildings standing, and lots of it. I've lived in Greenwich Village for nearly 35 years; it's now the Upper East Side, and, while I might dislike the overgentrification, it has saved many hundreds of 150+-year-old buildings...and I'm not going to be foolish enough to complain that the value of the apartment I bought in 1986 is now worth six times what I paid for it. The bones of an historic neighborhood have been saved, and it's the money of the newly homogenized population that has done it. We'll see if what Jacobs predicted comes true--that eventually even the rich will get bored with luxury and move on--but I don't know why, being human, they would. I see no signs of it yet, anyway.

GaylordWilshire · #**12462** Posted **Feb 11, 2013, 11:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by malumot

You can gentrify a Civil War-era three-story brownstone. But not nearly so easy to gentrify an 1890s six-story walk-up.

There are loads of walkup buildings in the Village or Chelsea and nary a one remains ungentrified; now that Hell's Kitchen has succeeded those two in appealing to trailblazing gay men in particular, its walkups are already fetching high prices. Inventory is tight and in NYC walking up five flights is no impediment to the appeal of teeny-tiny apartments fetching $500K or $4K rents. Money follows the trailblazers...

Meanwhile, back in Tinseltown...

malumot · #**12463** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 12:54 AM**

I did think of that, GW, just that one has to admit that a walk-up does limit potential demand to some degree. Though certainly not so much for New Yorkers, who are accustomed to such things.....

But as you mention, at 30 I personally would have had no problem with a walk-up, nor at 40. At 50?.....I'd begin to balk.......if only for my growing Irritation Factor if nothing else......lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

There are loads of walkup buildings in the Village or Chelsea and nary a one remains ungentrified; now that Hell's Kitchen has succeeded those two in appealing to trailblazing gay men in particular, its walkups are already fetching high prices. Inventory is tight and in NYC walking up five flights is no impediment to the appeal of teeny-tiny apartments fetching $500K or $4K rents. Money follows the trailblazers...

Meanwhile, back in Tinseltown...

ethereal_reality · #**12464** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 1:01 AM**

Mt. Baldy Inn

http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...Number=4966694

The Mt. Baldy Inn, a dance hall built in 1927, was located southeast of downtown Los Angeles in Pico Rivera.
The inn became a popular eatery during the Depression, famous for its fresh squeezed orange freeze; originally operated by Gar McOmber.
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ethereal_reality · #**12465** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 1:18 AM**

I came across this interesting photograph earlier today while going through some old cds of mine.

The only information I have on the photo is 'railroad spur'. (duh!)

cd/unknown

Does anyone have an idea where this is?
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tovangar2 · #**12466** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 1:39 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Mt. Baldy Inn

http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...Number=4966694

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That one's covered in Jim Heiman's book California Crazy. It was at 9608 Wittier Blvd, owned by Gar McOmber & WA Shenck. Heiman also covers the Igloo at 4203 W Pico, http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=9599 and the Ice Palace at 3400 Crenshaw.

There used to be a curious little house in my current neighborhood. It was just a stucco cube but with a jagged, sawtooth parapet. It was painted with white paint embedded with mica chips. My kids loved it, but someone remodeled it :-(

GaylordWilshire · #**12467** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 1:57 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I came across this interesting photograph earlier today while going through some old cds of mine.

The only information I have on the photo is 'railroad spur'. (duh!)

cd/unknown

Does anyone have an idea where this is?
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That's the Los Angeles Warehouse Co building in the background:

LAPL

ethereal_reality · #**12468** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 2:13 AM**

Thanks GW.
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James Jackson Jeffries, Heavyweight Champion of the World of 1899:

posted by GaylordWilshire

wikipedia[/QUOTE]

He also owned a saloon downtown at 326 Spring Street.

ebay
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GaylordWilshire · #**12469** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 2:19 AM**

Actually, I see now that YOU posted that picture first, ER. Indeed we've seen a good bit of Jim Jeffries here, apparently beginning with your post here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=4847

(Not sure how I could have forgotten it, considering its charms I've repeated, and having responded to it myself....)

unihikid · #**12470** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 2:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2

That one's covered in Jim Heiman's book California Crazy. It was at 9608 Wittier Blvd, owned by Gar McOmber & WA Shenck. Heiman also covers the Igloo at 4203 W Pico, http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=9599 and the Ice Palace at 3400 Crenshaw.

There used to be a curious little house in my current neighborhood. It was just a stucco cube but with a jagged, sawtooth parapet. It was painted with white paint embedded with mica chips. My kids loved it, but someone remodeled it :-(

Was the house you were talking about off of olympic kinda near overland?

if i so i remember it well,also in that area was a very cool looking crafsman,grey stucco,with a pale green trim,they remodeled or tore down that one,i use to take the number 5 bus line to school and thoes two houses were my favorite along the route.

GaylordWilshire · #**12471** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 2:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

I think the King Edward may have been called the El Dorado for a time.

LAT

I was fairly sure of what I recently wrote above, but couldn't remember how I got that idea. Well, I must have gotten the idea from the ad below that I just found again. But it's a mystery... was this a short-lived name-change for the King Edward? The Times makes no mention of any sort of renaming; neither does the Herald. City directories 1915-'17-'18 make no mention of an Eldorado Hotel at 5th and Los Angeles, but the King Edward, Walter E Smith prexy, is listed in those years. Anyone have any ideas?

tovangar2 · #**12472** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 2:34 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

That's the Los Angeles Warehouse Co building in the background:

We're back in Frenchtown then? Those tall windows and lacy balconies are très évocateur.

Quote:

Originally Posted by unihikid

Was the house you were talking about off of olympic kinda near overland?

if i so i remember it well,also in that area was a very cool looking crafsman,grey stucco,with a pale green trim,they remodeled or tore down that one,i use to take the number 5 bus line to school and thoes two houses were my favorite along the route.

Yes unihikid, that's it, although I cannot now remember the address. With the most ordinary bungalows around here going for $900K+ all the quirky houses are getting done over and/or McMansioned.

ethereal_reality · #**12473** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 2:37 AM**

File this under NOIR.

Cab driver, Oliver Weathers, shot and killed on the night of June 5th, 1952.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/41984/rec/2

The abandoned cab on 11th Street between Hill and Olive. (bullet found in cab)

"ok lighting guy, lets get sum shots with the shadows going the utter way."

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/41984/rec/2

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rick m · #**12474** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 3:05 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlvaroLegido

The Victorian cottage was at Sunset and Figueroa. Palmer likes to build against the freeways.

The 2005 (April) casualty of Geoff Palmer's team was the 1887 Geise Queen Anne - a despoiled 2 story that crumbled immediately by a "bump" from a bulldozer -- Was closer to the old intersection of N.Bunker Hill Avenue than to N.Figueroa on that south side of Sunset Blvd . That faintly recalled Fremont cottage was a bitsy one story unit - I was enthralled that it stood there so close to the freeway slope all by its lonesome - maybe a longlived landlord/owner holdout - until nobody remained to protect it -

unihikid · #**12475** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 3:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick m

The 2005 (April) casualty of Geoff Palmer's team was the 1887 Geise Queen Anne - a despoiled 2 story that crumbled immediately by a "bump" from a bulldozer -- Was closer to the old intersection of N.Bunker Hill Avenue than to N.Figueroa on that south side of Sunset Blvd . That faintly recalled Fremont cottage was a bitsy one story unit - I was enthralled that it stood there so close to the freeway slope all by its lonesome - maybe a longlived landlord/owner holdout - until nobody remained to protect it -

where are the photos? before the belmont project,there were atleast 3 victorians that you could see on either side of the 110,when i was younger it was the only way i could tell that we were half way to pasadena(once we drove past heritage square meant we were in pasadena in my head),seeing vacant staircases always got my imagination going on the long rides home from my aunts house...

unihikid · #**12476** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 3:23 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2

We're back in Frenchtown then? Those tall windows and lacy balconies are très évocateur.

Yes unihikid, that's it, although I cannot now remember the address. With the most ordinary bungalows around here going for $900K+ all the quirky houses are getting done over and/or McMansioned.

i hate mcmansions...that area needs to stay the way it is,with the last part of the PE line gone on santa monica,the only thing thats left from the past is the apple pan,even the westside pavillion has changed!and thats like 30 yrs old at most

Krell58 · #**12477** Posted **Feb 12, 2013, 3:51 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beaudry

So we're all familiar with the Old Central No 1, as seen in the image above and below:

mine

It stands out in lots of images taken from the Hill near Court looking toward Broadway...largely because of its striking two-tone character:

americanfilmnoir

heavy rusticated stone at the bottom, and what appears to be stucco above.

Here's the LA Noire version..They have the receiving hospital behind the station with access through the opening at the left lower side of the station.

Central Police Station by krell58, on Flickr