Quote:
Originally Posted by Tetsu
Really does go to show how little the 4th St. stub has been photographed. I had no idea about the Hershey house being moved and converted into the Castle Apts. So, to all of my BH experts, let me just confirm - the house was split in half, and part of it continued to stand at 4th & Grand, correct? If I'm not mistaken the other half is in the photograph of the model I left in the quote, at top center.
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No, I don't think so. I don't see anything on the vacant lot on the NE corner of 4th and Grand Avenue in the picture of the model you included in your post.
Madame Hershey had her house split in half in 1906 (at about the time she had taken up residence in, and was in negotiations to buy, the Hollywood Hotel
from Whitley) in order to move it to the new resting place at the 4th Street stub overlooking Flower Street but I've found no evidence she left any part of
it at 4th and Grand. I've always assumed it had to be split in half to make the move feasible, the house in one piece being too unwieldy. In fact, in images
dating from at least 1911 I find a wholly empty lot at NE 4th and Grand across which we can get a clear view of the Brunson. Certainly by this time Almira
Hershey had been living up in the Hollywood Hotel for several years.
Hershey residence, 4th Street and Grand Avenue, 1893
Exterior view of Almira Parker Hershey's two-story Victorian Gothic style home located on the northeast corner of 4th Street and S. Grand Avenue on
Bunker Hill. Built at a cost of around $50,000 and designed by architects Curlett & Eisen, the Heshey Mansion was completed in 1888. In 1906, Almira
Hershey had this home moved to 750 W. Fourth Street and commissioned architects C.F. Skilling and Otto H. Neher to split it in half to turn it into an
apartment building. After the apartment building opened in 1907, it was named the Castle Towers, reminiscent of the structure's "castle-like features."
The Castle Towers Apartments sat on the stub end of 4th Street, on the south side, overlooking Flower Street, wedged behind the Barbara Worth ne
Briggs Apartments. At 750 W. 4th this put them across the street from Margrethe Mather's studio in the Hildreth carriage house at 715.
LAPL
Castle Tower Apartments, 1916
The former Hershey Mansion relocated from the NE corner of 4th Street and Grand Avenue and now repurposed as the Castle Tower Apartments snuggled
in behind the Briggs at the 4th Street stub overlooking Flower Street. Hildreth Mansion peeking over the top of the Briggs, the Rubiyat on the right.
detail of a panorama
USC digital archive/ California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960
The Brunson, the Zelda and the Rose, ca.1912
The Hildreth (far left edge, NW corner of 4th and Hope Streets), the Leonard Rose (dark, foreboding mid image slightly above center, SE corner 4th and
Grand Avenue) and the Brunson (lighter than and slightly behind the Rose, highest sharply pointed turret on the urban horizon, 400 S. Grand Avenue
corner of 4th Street), three of the five Bunker Hill 'painted ladies', all in one image. The Zelda (prominent, squarish building with the distinctive capped
rooftop solarium on the SW corner of 4th and Grand Avenue). We have a clear view of the Brunson because we are looking directly across the vacant lo
left when Almira Hershey split her house in two parts and moved them down the street to the 4th Street stub just west of Hope Street overlooking
Flower Street, hammered them back together and opened for business, in 1907, as the Castle Tower Apartments. Just to the right of Ms. Hershey's
vacant lot is the Fremont at 4th and Olive Streets. Slightly below and to the left of the Fremont is the Olive Street School and next to that the Trenton.
USC digital archive/Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960
The Rose, the Brunson and Mira Hershey's vacant lot, ca.1912
note, just over the right shoulder of the Brunson you can see the distinctive four-windowed turret of the Castle on Bunker Hill
Avenue. Cool.