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  #22061  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 3:43 AM
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Originally Posted by jefn View Post
Yup, it's me. I lived there for a little more than 19 years.

I cobbled together a page of some of my own photos of the house at 1190 Country Club Drive in Sunset Canyon above Burbank and posted it to my website: http://www.birdjanitor.com/1190.html


Jef
Excellent photos, old friend, and a rare glimpse of something we rarely see here--inside views of the unique private homes whose exteriors we post here so often.

Speaking of mudslides, the house where I grew up and where my parents lived on for many years was sited against a steep hillside of the typical decomposing granite you find in these parts. Debris flows like the one you pictured were an annual occurrence, until one year the hillside was taken over by some kind of wild plant in the potato family. These were able to establish their tubers into the usually hard hillside with no problem, and thereafter it was as solid as concrete.

Great bird photos, too. One day I shall give you the link to my fat cat pictures on Flickr.
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This Is Probably The Oldest Intact School Building In L.A.
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  #22062  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 3:47 AM
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Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
Here's an amazing glass slide I found earlier this evening on ebay.



City of L.A.

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So do they look like they're counting up bribes?
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  #22063  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 4:03 AM
Lwize Lwize is offline
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photographs from this book


$149.50 Whoa! That's a bit steep.

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Only $80 on Amazon.
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  #22064  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 4:22 AM
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Incinerator Noir

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics43/00041028.jpg

Sept 29, 1957: The LA Junior Chamber of Commerce held a mock funeral for “Smokey Joe” the backyard incinerator. City leaders had been after him for years as a scapegoat for the smog problem. Oh sure, they knew it wasn’t entirely his fault, but unlike the other suspects, cars for example, Smokey Joe was short, concrete, slow-moving.

LAT 10-1-57

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030222.jpg

They’d already written his obituary, back in ’55. But Smokey Joe refused to go quietly. He told anybody who would listen that he was being set up by a powerful combustible-garbage collection racketeering syndicate. Over the next two years came allegations of corruption, bribery, blackjacking, guns, dire threats, mysterious witnesses who disappeared or were too scared to testify.

LAT 5-26-55

LAT 6-12-55

Mayor Poulson and the Board of Supervisors clashed over Smokey Joe. The Mayor didn’t like smog either, but he figures, maybe Smokey could just clean up his act a little. He accused one especially anti-Smokey supervisor, Herbert Legg, of trying to “blackjack” cities into killing off Smokey Joe in favor of trash collection systems pushed by Legg. Legg denied the charges.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics21/00060244.jpg
(Police Chief Parker, testifying at Mayor Poulson’s “investigation into alleged rubbish collection racketeering,” June 20, 1955).

But……in October 1955, garbage dump proprietor Andrew V. Hohn testified before the grand jury that he’d paid Legg’s field deputy George Turner two $5k bribes in exchange for 5 county garbage contracts, and that Legg later thanked him for the “package.” Turner, along with “refuse operator” Theodore Hamlin, was indicted on bribery charges. While Legg “admitted the existence of a vicious and ruthless monopoly in the garbage disposal business,” he denied any knowledge of bribery. In early 1956 Legg was brought up on perjury charges for lying to the grand jury. George Turner, who was to have been the prosecution’s key witness, eluded the process servers, and Legg was ultimately acquitted.

LAT 1-31-56

Turner and Hamlin came up for trial in March 1956, but the star witness for that case, Andrew V. Hohn, refused to testify, telling told the court gunman had broken into his house and threatened his family with death if he did. Without his testimony, the case collapsed.

LAT 3-19-56

Then there was the Assembly “Interim Committee on Governmental Efficiency & Economy,” who in May 1956 conducted a week-long probe into corruption in the Southland’s “garbage, rubbish and trash” industry. There were more allegations of bribes paid and citizens threatened, but nothing came of it except people who had been using the words “garbage,” “rubbish” and “trash” interchangeably learned that they were, in fact, three different things.

LAT 5-10-56

With Smokey Joe out of the way, homeowners wondered what to do with the corpse. The City recommended it be “bashed into small pieces with a sledgehammer and dropped into a five gallon can That way the remains could be carted away by municipal collectors on regular trash days.” (LAT 10-1-57). “In other words, pay my enemies to haul me off.” Smokey Joe really smoldered over that one.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics43/00041026.jpg

This guy had a better idea. Why not turn Smokey Joe into a barbeque? Haul out your breakfast nook table and a rubber air mattress, your newspaper and you’re living the California dream, smog-free, baby. Back in Ohio, they’re still shoveling snow off the ground…

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics43/00041029.jpg

Some dames, though, couldn’t get over ol’ Joe that easily.

“What are you gonna do? Arrest me for smoking?”

***
And while some at city hall may have been breathing easier, scandals and inquires went on. Some people were starting to question why an incinerator been buried, not cremated. Others wondered why trash pickup was going to cost the city almost $1.5 million more than originally estimated. Then too, not everybody was happy about the willy-nillyness of L.A.’s garbage cans.

LAT 11-13-57

11-13-57

Plus, there was still smog…. But they couldn’t pin it on Smokey Joe this time.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics27/00048416.jpg
1958
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  #22065  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 12:34 PM
Tourmaline Tourmaline is offline
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In connection with recent focus on the mid-city area and Vineyard Junction, HossC posted some wonderful photos of the Rimpau loop here>http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/...ostcount=21088 I always thought of the area as a misbegotten confluence of rough roads, doubtlessly due to the poorly paved-over tracks. One imagines that nearby tire sales/repairs and wheel alignments were very profitable I was also fascinated by the Sears which took advantage of the area's topography to hide what may have been at least four different levels. In the few times I visited the store, one or more of the escalators were being repaired or maintained. The exposed escalators' inner-workings created a stir among many kids who blocked the area by standing around to view the greasy attraction. (Wouldn't be surprised if the kids didn't add to the need for repairs.)

Do images of the Pico-Sears construction exist? Can't help but wonder if some of the construction materials observed in earlier pictures were for shoring up the surrounding adobe although it is more likely the materials were railroad related.

Any history regarding the name "Vineyard" Junction? Was it aspirational? Could the area have resembled a tiered vineyard? Or was any of the area ever devoted to commercial agriculture?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vQeF3y8NWV...ars%2BPico.jpg
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  #22066  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 1:32 PM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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WBH


I've parsed through all the myths of ownership of, and movie production employing, 641 South Irving Boulevard, more famously known as 10086 Sunset Boulevard. For a house that was barely lived in, it has quite a history, now told here: http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...lease-see.html



I adapted the picture above from a 1925 hardware advertisement, which in turn was based on a 1922 rendering by the architect, T. Beverley Keim:



J. Knowles Hare for Corbin Russwin/LAT July 5, 1922

Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Jun 17, 2014 at 2:14 PM.
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  #22067  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 2:09 PM
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Oh man, what a beautiful color illustration.
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  #22068  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 3:13 PM
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Tourist's snapshot, view from hotel window.



ebay




below: Union Station with sign advertising Cafe Caliente, curios-novelties.


ebaY




below: Rooms 4 Rent sign, 1920s


ebay

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  #22069  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 3:19 PM
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Pasadena Ice Company, 1910


ebay
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  #22070  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 3:22 PM
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"City of Wonders" 1914


ebay
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  #22071  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 3:45 PM
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Originally Posted by HossC View Post

Harron, Rickard and McCone advert from the 1918 CD.


LAPL
After posting the 1918 advert yesterday, I found that Harron, Rickard & McCone were at 164-168 North Los Angeles Street in the City Directories between 1909 and 1915.


LAPL

I also found a picture of 225 South San Pedro Street dating from 1940. I wonder if it's the old Harron, Rickard & McCone building.


Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

At the time of the picture it was occupied by the Robert I Steen Company, a supplier of confectionery equipment. They also moved to the premises from an address on Los Angeles Street.


LAPL

Here's the full 1940 picture. It was commissioned by the Western Wholesale Drug Co., but also shows Moffitt & Towne Paper and the General Paper Co.


USC Digital Library
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  #22072  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 4:31 PM
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Where'd they go?

I happened to be looking at a photograph the other day (which we've seen here) which showed, among other things, the scattered remains of the Fremont Hotel including the front stairs, a curved affair of some beauty. As thought trains go, what followed was not surprising. I thought for a few minutes about how many times we've seen the Fremont, talked about it, measured other buildings from it, oriented the point-of-view by it, estimated the date of an image by it's appearance. It now seemed especially sad to contemplate this largely vacant lot even though, I'm sure, the useful life of the Fremont had come to an end. In some small way, it was similar to the feeling of having to put down a long-time pet when the deteriorating quality of their life demands it. An essentially bitter moment in an otherwise sweet association. But nonetheless, seeing those stairs brought to mind the thousands of feet that had trod them, going in or coming out of the Fremont. And then it occurred to me, a question that has always haunted me is where did the people go? Where did they end up, the people who were forced off of Bunker Hill? Or was the Bunker Hill diaspora sufficiently gradual as to allow them to simply be swallowed piecemeal by the city? Or did they find themselves in common eddies, arriving in cheap hotels, retirement homes or County Hospital in waves, a cohort of the disenfranchised. Has anyone ever published a study of this largely involuntary emigration. It seems like a worthy thing to know about.
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  #22073  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 5:18 PM
Martin Pal Martin Pal is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire View Post
WBH


I've parsed through all the myths of ownership of, and movie production employing, 641 South Irving Boulevard, more famously known as 10086 Sunset Boulevard. For a house that was barely lived in, it has quite a history, now told here: http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...lease-see.html



I adapted the picture above from a 1925 hardware advertisement, which in turn was based on a 1922 rendering by the architect, T. Beverley Keim:



J. Knowles Hare for Corbin Russwin/LAT July 5, 1922
Enjoyed your link GW, thanks.
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  #22074  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 5:33 PM
Engine54 Engine54 is offline
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Originally Posted by HossC View Post
Returning to West Boulevard Bridge, I believe this is one of the images that was used in Engine54's videos. It shows the demolition of the original, temporary bridge. It doesn't look like there was much room for automobile traffic on the left. If you zoom in, you can seen the name "Vineyard" on the large pole in the center.


USC Digital Library

Like the picture above, this one is also dated vaguely at 1930-1960. I'd say that everything looks pretty new, and there's no moving traffic, so I'm guessing it's quite early. You have to look harder for the "Vineyard" sign in this picture - it's on the first pole after the bridge. It's a shame that the dividing wall, which matched the design of the bridge, has been replaced by a wire fence.


USC Digital Library
Hey guys...

Wow, you guys have been layin' it on with these photos and images of the West Boulevard Bridge. It's amazing how many images of this area and the bridge actually exist in archives. The digital age rocks. HossC and Tourmaline, thanks for those additional images of this great bridge.

HossC...Yeah, I think I did attack my subject, Mitzi, with that "back in the dark ages" image of Bunker Hill. My intentions were ourely honorable though, believe me! (Smile)

Speaking of Dr. Marxmiller, I believe he left the area not long after the 1913 accident and took what he had learned into World War I. They say he ended up in France where he gathered and perfected his skills in trauma medicine. Mitzi and I were talking about how his work at Vineyard Junction really is part of the history of emergency medicine which later gave us M*A*S*H and even today's Paramedic Squads. I also have to smile because in hearing the story of Marxiller and others TAKING THE INJURED AND DYING TO THEIR NEARBY HOMES is something we'd never see today for a thousand reasons, but it shows just how different things were back in those days.

In looking at the bridge, then and now, it's a shame that it stands there today without even a commemorative plaque. The historical societies, the neighborhood councils, and the city council office broke off talks long ago about doing something celebratory as they all got into massive pissing matches which is sad.

In looking at the area overall, I am always surprised as to how much the same it is now as it was in 1939. Most of the homes have survived with very few additions with the biggest changes taking place below the bridge. The tracks, as we know, are long gone and all of that is now Venice Boulevard. Sadly, Sears Pico is gone and replaced by the new Midtown Crossing Shopping Center. In fact, that whole Vineyard Junction rail yard is long gone. The Rimpau Loop is still in existence to a certain degree. Though the bus station has been moved due west, the entrance to the old bus yard/loop is still techincally there. Buses use it for a turnaround today and it also serves as a parking area for the shopping center. It's not there in the strictest sense, but it is there in some sorts.

Finally, I think, I agree with those who said that center divider that separated street traffic from rail traffic on Venice was very cool. It had the same arched motif of the bridge itself and I wish it were still there. That chain link fence has been there for as long as I have been alive and looks like crap.

Oh, I will tell you all this...there was a push to TEAR DOWN that bridge. When Lowes became a tenant, they noted that their loading dock was on the Venice side just past the bridge. In fact, if you look at Tourmaline's pic of the train exiting from under the bridge and you look father left, you are looking at today's Lowe's dock. Lowes compalined that the bridge was TOO LOW for their trucks to pass under. The city did consider demolition. At the time, it had not been granted city monument status and there had been some questions about its functionality. Luckily, historians, homeowners, and others mobilized to stop it. Also, in the 1980's, the city of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting considered removing the lantern style GE Form 18 lights that were installed with the bridge. Luckily, again, all of those people came out to save them.

Thanks guys...love that bridge!

Chin/E-54
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  #22075  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 5:53 PM
Engine54 Engine54 is offline
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Originally Posted by Tourmaline View Post
In connection with recent focus on the mid-city area and Vineyard Junction, HossC posted some wonderful photos of the Rimpau loop here>http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/...ostcount=21088 I always thought of the area as a misbegotten confluence of rough roads, doubtlessly due to the poorly paved-over tracks. One imagines that nearby tire sales/repairs and wheel alignments were very profitable I was also fascinated by the Sears which took advantage of the area's topography to hide what may have been at least four different levels. In the few times I visited the store, one or more of the escalators were being repaired or maintained. The exposed escalators' inner-workings created a stir among many kids who blocked the area by standing around to view the greasy attraction. (Wouldn't be surprised if the kids didn't add to the need for repairs.)

Do images of the Pico-Sears construction exist? Can't help but wonder if some of the construction materials observed in earlier pictures were for shoring up the surrounding adobe although it is more likely the materials were railroad related.

Any history regarding the name "Vineyard" Junction? Was it aspirational? Could the area have resembled a tiered vineyard? Or was any of the area ever devoted to commercial agriculture?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vQeF3y8NWV...ars%2BPico.jpg
Tourmaline,

I remember those rough roads especially along Pico Boulevard. Who am I kidding? I still know them since I live there (smile). However, with teh building of Midtown Crossing, they did remove the few tracks that remained and the streets are much more smoother these days. It's a little sad historically, but my car's happy.

Sears Pico is a wonderful subject. I remember that store mostly in its 1970's to close configuration. I know those old OTIS Ecsalators that criss crossed every level of the store. They always worked for the most part and rolled as smooth as butter for the most part. When they did crack it open, it was like the guts of a giant beast. It was a lot of fun to watch. I recall one time, I think mostly ALL of the escalators were out and, for some reason which I cannot recall, everyone had to enter the store from the roof parking level. Sears employees shuffeled us through some creepy areas not otherwise seen, but it got us in the store.

I recall reading that Sears Pico was actually a store where they were testing out a whole new floorplan. If it was a success (and it was), the floorplan would be instituted in its other new stores. That made Sears Pico a very worth landmark. Architecturally, the store was built into the existing hillside and it's flowing automible design (which sported three different levels of parking) was "futurama" for its time. There was a guy who lived over in that area until about 10 years ago. He had a BUNCH of photos I used in a historical piece I did back in 2006 or 2007 of Sears Pico and the area. He didn't even have construction photos. If they exists, I'd like to see them as well. I can tell you that a small part of the building's foundation is still in place and supports the new Lowes/Midtown Crossing building. I had always hoped they would find a way to repurpose the old Sears Building, but they wanted to alter the footprint to fit modern styling and needs so one day I looked up and it was gone. I still remember the green neon signs that read "Sears" all over the building especially the one that used to tower over Pico Boulevard. I am surprised that sign was not original to building. In the pictures you guys have posted from 1939-1940, that sign is NOT there at all.

The name Vineyard Junction DID point to the old Vineyard that was in the area. Mitzi spoke of it when we talked about the bridge. I'll have to go back and look at the footage as I may have cut any mention of it when editing. That vineyard was owned by a big name and I can't recall. I'll try to find the details.
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  #22076  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 6:06 PM
Tourmaline Tourmaline is offline
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Originally Posted by Engine54 View Post
In looking at the area overall, I am always surprised as to how much the same it is now as it was in 1939. Most of the homes have survived with very few additions with the biggest changes taking place below the bridge. The tracks, as we know, are long gone and all of that is now Venice Boulevard. Sadly, Sears Pico is gone and replaced by the new Midtown Crossing Shopping Center. In fact, that whole Vineyard Junction rail yard is long gone. The Rimpau Loop is still in existence to a certain degree. Though the bus station has been moved due west, the entrance to the old bus yard/loop is still technically there. Buses use it for a turnaround today and it also serves as a parking area for the shopping center. It's not there in the strictest sense, but it is there in some sorts.


Thanks.

The "sundial/compass" cartouche looks like it may have been painted. Would be interested seeing it in color.

Area may be virtually unchanged . . . except for years of vegetation.



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...coll65/id/3946













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  #22077  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 6:35 PM
Tourmaline Tourmaline is offline
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Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post


This is fun. (although it's a bit south of Los Angeles County)


ebay

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http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single.../id/4075/rec/1





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  #22078  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 7:09 PM
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Is there a NLA Merit Badge?
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  #22079  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 7:14 PM
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Top of Bunker Hill

Quote:
Originally Posted by HossC View Post


There's so much to look at in this picture, I could study it all day. On the left are some old favorites like the Rex Arms and the Sunkist building and the Jonathan Club. Moving across we see the 4th Street Viaduct project in its early days with Stuart K. Oliver's house overseeing the work. Across the Harbor Freeway there's a building between 3rd and Miramar that's signed "TANNER GRAY LINE". In the lower right corner you can see 3rd Street emerging from underneath Hope Street, and the recently discussed Rollin, Bozwell, St Regis, Marcella and Winton on Flower Street.


USC Digital Library
I remember someone among us (I don't remember his name) asking in the beginnings of the thread : « Where was the top of Bunker Hill ? It's hard to say. My guess is at the Angel's Flight station on Olive. »
Studying this picture, I guess it's safe to say that it was at Bunker Hill Avenue and Third street (bottom center of this picture). I noticed on an Harold Lloyd movie that the short section of Third Street between Grand and BH Avenue is steepy. And remembering several pictures from our scholar friend Scott – pictures from the late XIXe where the houses are sparse so it's easier to see the streets – it appears that everything seems to go down North and South from the whole section of Third Street on Bunker Hill.
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  #22080  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2014, 7:22 PM
CityBoyDoug CityBoyDoug is offline
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From a previous post by e_r.....


Last edited by CityBoyDoug; Jun 17, 2014 at 7:51 PM.
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