There are 65 images in this photoset, so obviously I've just picked a small selection. We touched briefly on the Crane Co a few months ago, but didn't get much further than establishing that it was involved with plumbing. Here are a few of Julius Shulman's photos of their premises at 321 E 3rd Street. It's
"Job 854: Crane Company Operations Offices (Los Angeles, Calif.),1950". This is the 3rd Street elevation - that car looks quite old for a 1950 photo.
This is the back of the building above.
And here's the loading dock in that building.
The young lady on the left of this office scene seems to be the only one looking at the camera.
This storage room contains loads of pipe fixtures. The man with the suit and tie appears in quite a few of the pictures, so I'm guessing he's quite important.
And finally, this must be the where the emails are handled
.
All from
Getty Research Institute
It looks like the Crane Co's first appearance in the City Directories is 1893, when they were based at 118-124 Requena Street. Requena Street was just south of Commercial Street, on the west side of Alameda. By 1896, they had moved to 126 N Los Angeles Street, where they stayed until around 1909. The 1921 Baist map still shows the building as the Crane Block. After that, the company was based at 321 E 3rd Street for around half a century, with the last listing at that address in the 1960 CD. Here's an advert from the 1923 CD.
LAPL
This is the building layout in 1952. The boxcar in the Shulman photos was near the end of an S-shaped spur that joined the main line between 1st and 2nd Streets on Alameda. The Crane Co buildings still looked much the same until at least 1980. The 1994 aerial image shows a cleared lot, and the current apartments on the site appear to be under construction on the 2005 image.
Historic Aerials