noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Whoa, you've done your homework T2! -very interesting
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Unidentified building in Long Beach 1930s.


I can't quite make out the horizontal sign on the corner of the building.
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[Chuckaluck]

1927 - Gardner Pasadena Sales Company at 163 West Colorado.
Looks like they are displaying a '27 Gardner Griffin
http://collection.pasadenadigitalhis...XT=&DMROTATE=0




Griffin?
'28 version (as many as 4)
http://www.gardnermotorcars.com/imag...-2_256x192.JPG

'27


Not to be confused with Tom Mix, Tom Mix's shoes or his tires.



Can we get this over with?

[ethereal_reality]

A very interesting find on ebay.



ebay

[MartinTurnbull]

I found this image in a 1950 book called "The Los Angeles Book." (Photographs by Max Yavno, text by Lee Shippey)

At first I thought it was the front entrance of the Beverly Hills Hotel. The layout is right but I didn't think they renovated the entrance (significantly) since the hotel opened in 1912.

What does everyone think?

[Chuckaluck]

Circa 1920 - "Wood and Jones" Saxon and Ford Auto Dealers Somewhere in north side of West Colorado Blvd. Pasadena (Saxon ceased business in '23)
http://collection.pasadenadigitalhis...ile&DMROTATE=0






http://www.earlyamericanautomobiles....es/amer980.jpg


Wood and Jones

[Mayor Shaw]

ER The 1927 directory has Costa Macaroni at 1530 Mateo, which puts it between Porter and East Olympic Blvd. Not sure if this helps to place it or makes things more confusing.

[tovangar2]

Homework e_r? Was it that bad?

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

j_journal


Above: The Cadillac dealership at 7th and Bixel where on December 23, 1931, Don Lee's W6XAO launched
one of the country's first regular television broadcasts.





Below: The 1939 plan for the Don Lee studio/transmitter atop Mt. Lee.



earlytelevision.org

A less grandiose studio/transmitter was eventually built.


below: A 1941 postcard of the Mt. Lee broadcasting station.


earlytelevision.org

Below: Much to my surprise, there was actually a pool up on Mt. Lee.

earlytelevision.org
Above: A 1939 telecast from the swimming pool located at the new W6XAO studios/transmitter situated on Mt. Lee atop the Hollywood Hills

Here is the very interesting link.
http://www.earlytelevision.org/w6xao.html

Meanwhile, back in Pasadena at northwest corner of 655 E. Green Street and El Molino Avenue. One source pegs this date as '35.

http://assets.hemmings.com/uimage/3256778-1000-810.jpg















On the tangentially related subject of Los Angeles Manufacturing is this '48 Railroad map.
http://assets.hemmings.com/uimage/3891896-1183-758.jpg




A portion of the map was previously posted by GW here: http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=2754

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Have we discussed this tunnel-like entrance below the Los Angeles County Courthouse? (circled in red)


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...oll65/id/20104




ebay believe or not

Was this the entrance used to transport prisoners into the courthouse? (or perhaps for coal trucks and other maintenance vehicles)




the complete photograph from ebay


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Somehow these images seem incomplete without looking at other pictures posted by ER and gsJansen. http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=2743
http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=2747


Maybe not everyone was celebrating when these pictures were taken.

1929

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Whoa, you've done your homework T2! -very interesting
__
Unidentified building in Long Beach 1930s.


I can't quite make out the horizontal sign on the corner of the building.
__

Does the sign read YMCA....?

[Chuckaluck]

1933 - Get a better deal at Orrin Fox used automobile lot at 2345 East Colorado Blvd. Best selections before the weather changes



http://collection.pasadenadigitalhis...2/id/400/rec/4







NRecoveryAct

[jg6544]

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull

I found this image in a 1950 book called "The Los Angeles Book." (Photographs by Max Yavno, text by Lee Shippey)

At first I thought it was the front entrance of the Beverly Hills Hotel. The layout is right but I didn't think they renovated the entrance (significantly) since the hotel opened in 1912.

What does everyone think?

It's the port-cochere entrance of I. Magnin on Wilshire in Hancock Park (adjacent). The building is still there and still in pretty good shape. It has been converted to a Korean minimall.

[jg6544]

A bit of LA high-end retail history. The iconic Bullocks-Wilshire store on Wilshire Blvd. (now the Southwestern Law School), was the first major retail establishment outside of downtown. It was also the first in LA designed to be approached on foot from Wilshire or by car on the parking lot side of the store. It opened in the 1920s sometime. I. Magnin was based in San Francisco and had operated a smaller store in Hollywood plus boutiques in a couple of hotels. They decided in the mid-30s to open a major store in LA. At the time, Hancock Park was "old" money on the west side of town, so they located the store close to that neighborhood. They copied Bullocks-Wilshire's approach of having two "front doors", as it were. At some later date, they opened a smaller store in Beverly Hills. It, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman-Marcus all have auto entrances at the rear. I suspect that's how most of their customers arrive at the store now.

Bullocks-Wilshire and I. Magnin merged sometime in the early 1990s, with Magnin closing their store and "rebranding" the B-W store. It was badly damaged in the riots and eventually closed too. The whole Magnin chain went out of business (sadly) later in the 90s.

At the time your picture was taken, I. Magnin and Bullocks-Wilshire were probably the two most opulent, exclusive stores in the U. S. aside from Bergdorf Goodman in New York.

[MartinTurnbull]

Originally Posted by jg6544

A bit of LA high-end retail history. The iconic Bullocks-Wilshire store on Wilshire Blvd. (now the Southwestern Law School), was the first major retail establishment outside of downtown. It was also the first in LA designed to be approached on foot from Wilshire or by car on the parking lot side of the store. It opened in the 1920s sometime. I. Magnin was based in San Francisco and had operated a smaller store in Hollywood plus boutiques in a couple of hotels. They decided in the mid-30s to open a major store in LA. At the time, Hancock Park was "old" money on the west side of town, so they located the store close to that neighborhood. They copied Bullocks-Wilshire's approach of having two "front doors", as it were. At some later date, they opened a smaller store in Beverly Hills. It, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman-Marcus all have auto entrances at the rear. I suspect that's how most of their customers arrive at the store now.

Bullocks-Wilshire and I. Magnin merged sometime in the early 1990s, with Magnin closing their store and "rebranding" the B-W store. It was badly damaged in the riots and eventually closed too. The whole Magnin chain went out of business (sadly) later in the 90s.

At the time your picture was taken, I. Magnin and Bullocks-Wilshire were probably the two most opulent, exclusive stores in the U. S. aside from Bergdorf Goodman in New York.

Thank for all that. I'm pretty well up on BW history but hardly knew any of this stuff about I. Magnin, especially about it and BW being THAT exclusive.

[MartinTurnbull]

This is another image I found in the 1950 book "The Los Angeles Book." (Photographs by Max Yavno, text by Lee Shippey)

The fact that it was a Hebrew Christian Synagogue really caught my eye so I've been doing some googling but haven't turned up much other than the fact that it was established by someone called Arthur U. Michelson whose autobiography was called "Out of the Darkness into the Light: Life Story of Arthur U. Michelson." But I haven't been able to track down an address for this building.

Anyone...?



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Have we discussed this tunnel-like entrance below the Los Angeles County Courthouse? (circled in red)


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...oll65/id/20104



ebay believe or not

Was this the entrance used to transport prisoners into the courthouse? (or perhaps for coal trucks and other maintenance vehicles)

__

It was the entrance to the elevator:


1906 Sanborn @ LAPL

c. 1904 closeup:

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/2722/rec/25

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull

This is another image I found in the 1950 book "The Los Angeles Book." (Photographs by Max Yavno, text by Lee Shippey)

The fact that it was a Hebrew Christian Synagogue really caught my eye so I've been doing some googling but haven't turned up much other than the fact that it was established by someone called Arthur U. Michelson whose autobiography was called "Out of the Darkness into the Light: Life Story of Arthur U. Michelson." But I haven't been able to track down an address for this building.

Anyone...?



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

2209 Michigan Avenue. Believe it was replaced by apartments/condos.

Ebay

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

It was the entrance to the elevator:


1906 Sanborn @ LAPL

It was the handicap entrance! (and no doubt the loading dock too) I love it. I am such a fan of the courthouse's outdoor elevator. Much better than the Boneventure ones. Well done :-)




You all have sharp eyes, please help me with something that's been tugging at my sleeve. Do you remember the pair of sphinxes at the 1875 Los Angeles and Independence Station on the east side of San Pedro St at the T-junction with Winston?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Ang...dence_Railroad


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lo...pot_-_1875.png (detail)

They were on either side of the broad stairs on the north side of the station:

http://books.google.com/books?id=4w8...20tree&f=false

The station was decommissioned in about 1880. At some point the sphinxes were removed and the building remodeled for industrial use. By 1888 the California Door Company and the Los Angeles Storage, Commission and Lumber Company shared the building:

http://books.google.com/books?id=4w8...20tree&f=false

The 13-year-old building burned to the ground on 30 October 1888, the victim of a turpentine fire at the door company.

In 1880, Irishman Andrew McNally (of Rand-McNally fame) moved to Los Angeles from Chicago, living first in Pasadena and then in Altadena. In 1893 he bought 2,300 acres of the old Rancho Los Coyotes, subdividing 1,500 acres into the "La Mirada" development of 20-acre parcels and starting Windemere Ranch on the remainder, planting citrus and olives. McNally commissioned architect Frederick Roehrig to build him a handsome house and outbuildings at Windemere (McNally grandson Wallace Neff was born there in 1895). The home was reached via a pair of curious gateposts, topped with sphinxes. This view is circa 1895:

http://so-cal-arch-history.com/archives/1847

A later view, after the trees had matured. The sphinxes sport breast-plates, although one supposes these could have been added:

http://so-cal-arch-history.com/archives/1847

The breast-plates do not appear on the Windemere orange crate label:

http://so-cal-arch-history.com/archives/1847

Most of Windemere Ranch was sold for a 8,ooo-unit housing development in 1953. The McNally home and a couple of outbuildings still exist in Neff Park, San Cristobal & San Esteban Drives, La Mirada:

google maps

My, by now, painfully-obvious question (hoping I have not put you all to sleep) is, could the station sphinxes and the Windemere sphinxes be the same? Or were sphinxes common then, available at any garden center? Both were bronze or "bronze-colored" and just over life-sized. Where are they now?



Other info, both listing the Windmere sphinxes as missing:
http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NR...t/78000684.pdf
http://www.lincolnparkstatues.com/?attachment_id=1569

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Homework? Was it that bad?

I wasn't being sarcastic T2. I thought your post was really interesting. You put a lot of work into it is what I meant to say.
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[ethereal_reality]

Excellent discovery Flyingwedge!!

It was the entrance to the elevator:

1906 Sanborn map lapl


1904 close-up

usc

You can see the 'Entrance to Elevator' sign in the photograph below as well. I'm not sure how I missed it earlier.



originally posted by ethereal_reality

lapl

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past

The photo above is especially interesting because you can clearly see the open-air elevator shaft that was added to the building before the turn of the last century. The circular shaft can be seen just to the left of the left palm tree. If you look closely, you can see the elevator car is between the first and second floors.





lapl

And in this demolition photo above, you can see the two now-exposed pullies at the top of the elevator shaft. (Follow the roof-line in the foreground down to just right of center.) Supposedly this elevator was only used by clerks taking court documents between floors; it was NOT meant to be for the public's usage, which is why it was only really big enough for one or two people at a time.

The photo below dates to 1890, and you can see there is no elevator on the outside of the building yet. An interesting detail even most L.A. history buffs don't know about the old Court House!


unknown

-Scott