noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The plot thickens...

I didn't realize I had this in a different file.

1934.
old file/cd-probably ebay
__

626 N Cherokee is still there.... Where's my chainsaw?

GSV

[ethereal_reality]

I didn't see your post on the previous page until now GW. Thanks for finding that old newspaper article on the stolen dynamite.
I noticed the peaked roof on the La Barca Restaurant (Denver Moving & Storing) as well. I agree that it might be the same building as in the 1934 photo.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The plot thickens...
1934.



If one case equal 240 sticks of dynamite...
the dynamite found at the Denver Moving & Storage Co. at 24th and Vermont equaled 1,680 sticks!
__

I just noticed GaylordWilshire's post on the dynamite. Thanks!

Such a comfort to know that only 120 sticks of dynamite were left. Imagine what could have happened if the entire cashe of 240 stick had gone off?

[Blaster]

We've seen Bit O' Sweden before on NLA, but this is an especially good scan.
ebay


We're looking Northeast, right?

I recall that Scandia was (at some point in time) almost right across the street. Did Bit O' Sweden and Scandia ever compete (or did Bit O' Sweden become Scandia?)

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by Blaster

We've seen Bit O' Sweden before on NLA, but this is an especially good scan.
ebay


We're looking Northeast, right?

I recall that Scandia was (at some point in time) almost right across the street. Did Bit O' Sweden and Scandia ever compete (or did Bit O' Sweden become Scandia?)

Wonder if broadswords were permitted in the Viking Terrace

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=12302

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by HossC

The bottom of the article I posted about Mission Village mentions that a couple of the buildings were donated to the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. I'm very familiar with their website because a lot of the Dukes of Hazzard was filmed around that area. In fact, the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society's HQ is the old Saugus station, which once played Hazzard station in the brief time between the station closing and it being moved to its current location. The Mogul steam engine which now sits outside the old station used to belong to Gene Autry. He acquired it in 1957 and used it in several TV shows before donating it to the SCVHS in 1981. But I digress ...

Here's the Mission Village Little Red Schoolhouse while it was at Callahan's Old West Trading Post in the '60s.


www.scvhistory.com/Louis & Virginia Kay

This is the Ramona Chapel, also at the Old West Trading Post. Both were relocated to William S. Hart Park in the '80s. I tried to find them on Google Maps (and Bing Maps), but they're quite small and seem to be mainly hidden in the trees.


www.scvhistory.com/Louis & Virginia Kay

Here's the chapel - I spun Google Maps around to look east, but it's also decently visible from the standard north-looking viewpoint and when looking south:



I was not able to positively identify the schoolhouse. It might be that small building near the chapel but I didn't spot any red.

[rlrdrken]

Originally Posted by kznyc2k

People who were around half a year ago will remember I made a bit of a discovery as I was surfing around Google Maps and noticed that there were remnants of the houses that used to exist on Fremont Ave and directly adjacent to the legendary Court Circle. It took me and I think everyone here by surprise how these remains, hiding in plain sight, could have gone so unnoticed and undisturbed after all this time. But once someone made the connection that the property was coming up for redevelopment I made it a point that the next time I was in LA I would get my butt down there and document whatever was left.

Well I'm in and out of town a bunch this month, and this past Saturday, June the 29th I was able to borrow the company vehicle and head down just as the sun was trying to disappear for the day. Laws were broken and one camera battery was drained in order to bring you this overabundance of pictures.

But first a quick recap...this is the image that started my obsession:



You can see the bit of road and stairs next to the twin towers. That then brought me to streetview:



What the area looked like back in 1940:



And an overlay of the remnants still with us circa 2012:



-- --

Now on to the latest evidence, starting at the southern end aka Mignonette Street:









I was dismayed to see how much excavation had already taken place...









This was the most intact of the three stairwells. Also, the longer of the street stubs (the one that led to Court Circle) was virtually unrecognizable at far right.







Families, and perhaps later in its life some more hardscrabble folks, used to walk up and down these stairs every day, all the way up through the 1960s.





Looking north towards Temple Street:









Sadly, none of the bricks I came across had legible stampings on them.



Fragments abounded, however, and I made sure to pore over every one of them for clues of how far they date back.











What the heck are these ^ v things?













I love how these things can be so mundane and yet so damn intriguing.





























What on earth is this?





Back down the stairs one last time...adios, amigo.





From the outside:





And one of the lot on the other side of Temple, also part of the redevelopment:

The "V" thing is some type of Transformer coil-The other thing with the wire wrapped around is a broom handle, that's how they made them back then.

[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Good job finding 1274 W. Court, W-W! I hope you locate your missing slide.

Two other houses in that old photo are also survivors; the house to the left of 1274 W. Court, 1272 W. Court, and the house behind 1274 W. Court, 1305 W. Colton St.

Here's a closeup of the older photo, which USC dates c. 1901:

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/11728/rec/40

1272 and 1274 W. Court; 1274 seems to have its original brick retaining wall:

GSV

1274 W. Court is behind the trees, between the two light blue houses, the right light blue house being 1272. The two houses in the lower left corner, 1309 (left) and 1305 (right) W. Colton,
have build dates of 1885 and 1890 per LA County Assessor, though 1305's roofline has changed since the c. 1901 photo. 1260 W. Court is at the right side of the photo, behind the trees:

Bing

1894 Sanborn; Colton Street is at left . . . Toluca Street is at top . . . Court Street is at right. 1274 W. Court is on the fourth lot down from the top, with 1272 (b. 1890) and 1260 W. Court
(b. 1890) -- on either side of the big 12 at middle right. The dotted squares are oil wells/derricks:

LAPL

1906 Sanborn; this time Toluca St. is on the left, with Bixel on the right. Some of the houses on the 1894 map are missing:

LAPL

1260 W. Court:

GSV

Flyingwedge, Thanks for posting all the supplementary information on 1274 Court Street and her neighbors. Having the build dates for the houses and seeing the Sanborn maps showing not only the residences but the wells in place at the time is fantastic. The wells were pumping what is known as the Los Angeles City Field. Among companies operating in the field were Clampitt Oil and Manley Oil. The latter was still using cable Jacklines into the early 1970's.

In addition to owning wells in the field, Edward Clampitt operated the E.A. Clampitt Tool and Die Company, which manufactured equipment for the Southern California oil industry. One of his factory buildings is the present day home of Phillippe's Restaurant at 1001 North Alameda Street.

There is a bit of noir in the Clampitt family history. See: http://www.elsmerecanyon.com/oil/clampitt/clampitt.htm

Cheers,
Jack

[Flyingwedge]

We've been in the 300 block of S. Kingsley Drive before:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11657

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11691

But I don't think we've looked at 340 and 344. It seems like they were built as the same time, given the single walkway that branches into two:

GSV


Bing

LA County Assessor says both were built in 1910; judging by the taxes, neither has changed hands since 1978. I couldn't find any other information on either house, but there must be
some kind of story. The house at right on the end of the block, 354 S. Kingsley (b. 1916) is currently for sale.

[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by Trucker

Wow, Great info on Court St WW and FW
I wonder if those derricks are now are completely gone or if there are underground pipes going to some pumping station?
Cheers,Pat

Pat, I have not been in that area for a long time, but believe that most if not all of the wells were capped off as the area has come under redevelopment.

This was the old Los Angeles City Oil Field and most of the remaining wells were only pumping one or two barrels a day back in the early 1970's. With the "Oil Crisis" of 1973 and the later "Energy Crisis" of 1979 it became economically viable to pump water and steam into the wells and this boosted production quantities for a while, but was a relatively short lived endeavor.

Cheers,
Jack

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

We've been in the 300 block of S. Kingsley Drive before:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11657

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11691

But I don't think we've looked at 340 and 344. It seems like they were built as the same time, given the single walkway that branches into two:

GSV

LA County Assessor says both were built in 1910; judging by the taxes, neither has changed hands since 1978. I couldn't find any other information on either house, but there must be
some kind of story. The house at right on the end of the block, 354 S. Kingsley (b. 1916) is currently for sale.

I poked around a bit, and didn't find much. Former Lieutenant Governor Herschel L. Carnahan lived at 344 at one point. (He committed suicide in 1941, though in his downtown office, not here.) The Hollywood D.A.R. met here on occasion, it seems--I thought that might explain the shrinelike structure between 340 and 344. But I haven't seen anything at all to explain the odd cryptlike feature.... I'm struck by the lavish landscaping of 344 and the relative barrenness of 340's front yard.


GSV

If any intrepid Noirishers want to ride by and look for a plaque under the ivy, please do & let us know....


EDIT: After a little more digging, the apparent explanation for the shared entrance: Dr. Melvin L. Moore was prominent doctor in town; his daughter Lillian married attorney Leroy M. Edwards in 1908. The Moores and the Edwardses were all at 800 S. Alvarado in the 1910 census; in the 1911 CD, the Moores are at 440 (later 340) S Kingsley and the Edwardses at 444 (later 344). Street alterations--part of the numerous street and address changes in the 1911-1913 period to accommodate various annexations--account for the change to 340/344.




So it seems that the common family entrance dates from the beginning. This still doesn't explain the crypt...what are all those flowers there today? Of course it can't possibly be a private family vault. (In any case, the Edwardses later moved 22 blocks west, to 344 S Hudson... Dr. Moore died in 1928, but it looks like he's at Forest Lawn....)

Who or what are the flowers for?

[oldstuff]

In your series of pictures of the old remnants of the houses next to the 110 Freeway: The stick with the wire on the end is what is left of an old broom after the straw is gone

[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

I poked around a bit, and didn't find much. Former Lieutenant Governor Herschel L. Carnahan lived at 344 at one point. (He committed suicide in 1941, though in his downtown office, not here.) The Hollywood D.A.R. met here on occasion, it seems--I thought that might explain the shrinelike structure between 340 and 344. But I haven't seen anything at all to explain the odd cryptlike feature....


GSV

If any intrepid Noirishers want to ride by and look for a plaque under the ivy, please do & let us know....

Interesting properties to say the least. Given the location in "Koreatown" I'll suggest it may be some sort of Oriental religious shrine that was placed there when the two homes were originally built. Considering the flowers, whether fresh or artificial, seen there it would appear there remains some connection to the Korean community. They were probably built for members of the same family considering the common stairs from the street level. A deed record search will probably confirm that speculation. As a side note, the property at 354 S. Kingsley is for sale and appears to be presently occupied by a Korean Family who may well be operating some sort of ministry or possibly a daycare at that location. Curious since all three properties are zoned residential.

Whatever that shrine/monument is, it is certainly a part of L.A. history that should be preserved along with the two homes associated with it.

A bit of an update to the above:

I have spoken to the Realtor that has the listing on 354 S. Kingsley and he is going to be gracious enough to get some detailed info and pictures to me. He has been told it is indeed a religious shrine by the Korean owners of 354 S. Kingsley. Now for a bombshell for all you sleuths. 354 S. Kingsley was once the home of a motion picture actress. Ryan didn't know who, or during what period and has himself been trying to find out.

[GaylordWilshire]

RiT: I just added some more info to my prior post--an explanation for the common entrance. The flowers may well be some sort of Korean tribute...

[ethereal_reality]

E. Colorado Street, Pasadena circa 1901. (no other information was given)

ebay

[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

RiT: I just added some more info to my prior post--an explanation for the common entrance. The flowers may well be some sort of Korean tribute...

Interesting story about the two houses. So what we are left with is when and who built the shrine and the additional mystery of who the actress was that lived at 354 S. Kingsley.

[ethereal_reality]

Raymond Avenue, Pasadena circa 1901
ebay

[ethereal_reality]

La Pintoresca Hotel, Pasadena Dec. 19, 1900
ebay



The La Pintoresca was mentioned just once before on NLA. (the post includes a photograph, along with the Raymond Hotel)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=16222

[ethereal_reality]

Marengo Avenue, Pasadena circa 1900.
ebay




Mr. Greble's house "on Orange Grove Avenue", Pasadena.
ebay






another view of Mr. Greble's house, Dec. 19, 1900
ebay






"Harkness" Pasadena circa 1900
ebay





E. Colorado Street, Pasadena circa 1901
ebay





"The Greens" Club House, Pasadena circa 1901
ebay

[chileno]

The builders for 6001 carton way "metropol" asked the city to close Brokaw place so they can join the 2 properties on the west side of the st to the one on the east side, so they could build "metropol".
Brokay was a in between gower and bronson, running from carlton way to hollywood blvd.