noirish Los Angeles

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Speaking of Dairies that might have used Dixie Cups, here is one with a name not automatically associated with SoCal, El Monte's own: "New York Dairy."
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8156/7...1d3b9a68_b.jpg

By way of introduction, my second grade elementary school class toured this very dairy in 1954. Very nice folks, as I recall. Thanks to you and to the other posters for making this site so amazing!

[JScott]

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck

1964 - Santa Monica Freeway under construction at La Cienega and Venice boulevards.
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_fo...enega-UCLA.jpg

Above from this "Before Carmageddon" article: http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_fo...ays-35191.html

The photo above is reversed. Here is the corrected image.

[BifRayRock]

Glad you're here HenryH! Nice save, JScott!



4101 West Third Street - Business Exchange Corporation Did the original building use such distinctive lettering?
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7268/7...1a5281cc_b.jpg


Maybe someone is interested in a discount for an overnight stay at the Alexandria Motel? Will double beds be acceptable?

4562 North Figueroa, LA 65 50 Units
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8423/7...c8be443c_b.jpg

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by nexleffel

I'm the current manager of Nob Hill Towers...
Here is a beautiful picture I finally found after YEARS of searching on and off...

The building was called The Taggart Apartments in 1932.

It must be Nostalgia Nite for me. I worked in the building at the bottom of the hill (at Sixth and Carondelet) during 1971-2. The Nob Hill was clearly the class of the neighborhood, which I got to know a little by having to search it for parking on many a workday. The Westlake area generally has quite the array of attractions for us. Thanks for posting this remarkable photo.

[SoCal1954]

Originally Posted by HenryHuntington

By way of introduction, my second grade elementary school class toured this very dairy in 1954. Very nice folks, as I recall. Thanks to you and to the other posters for making this site so amazing!

Well, I am senior to you! In 1954, my Third Grade class, visited Olvera Street.

It is amazing, I can still remember getting on the Crown Coach bus parked in front of my Elementary School in Pasadena; as well as the trip, and most of the shops we toured, as well as the Plaza. It was part of the third grade, Early CA History lesson plan.

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by SoCal1954

Well, I am senior to you! In 1954, my Third Grade class, visited Olvera Street.

It is amazing, I can still remember getting on the Crown Coach bus parked in front of my Elementary School in Pasadena; as well as the trip, and most of the shops we toured, as well as the Plaza. It was part of the third grade, Early CA History lesson plan.

Fortunately for those of us of a certain age, it's the short-term memory that goes first. Given our attraction (or addiction) to SoCal history, that's probably a handy arrangement.

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by SoCal1954

Another one; source LaCanada Valley Sun--40th anniversary of collapse:



Six workmen died and 21 others were injured, six of them critically, when a 60-foot section of the Foothill Freeway bridge under construction collapsed and the workers fell 90 feet to the floor of the Arroyo Seco. The accident took place while concrete was being poured; two of the victims were entombed in the quick-dry mixture.

A major rescue and recovery operation that involved 120 county firefighters, 50 Pasadena firefighters and about 450 construction workers who answered an appeal for help lasted 18 hours.



Here is a copy of a photo I purchased on eBay sometime ago. The dam and e/w highway was built in 1920, so this photo is in the early 20's based on the traffic.





I took this photo in 2005, I was standing on the far west end of the road that runs across the crest of the bridge. The concrete structure at the right (south) is the 2nd road which was built in the early 50's, with much wider lanes to accommodate modern cars and trucks. Further south, another couple of hundred feet, is the current I-210 fwy. bridge, the one which collapsed in 1972, while under construction.

Macabre. While viewing your post, I hear a song, "Highwayman", with the following lyrics:

"I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide
Where steel and water did collide
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around..I'll always be around..and around and around and
around and around"

Coincidentally, Jimmy Webb, who wrote the song evidently in the '70s, grew up in So Cal.

I wonder . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsUM7V6Ku_8

[tovangar2]

Pershing Square pocket mirror - 1.75" x 2.75"


eBay

(After 1918) Note RB Young's Broxburn Hotel and his A. L. Bath Building at far right on either side of 5th. The Auditorium Building and the California Club at the top of the Square


A similar view, 20+ years on. The Biltmore's in on the left, the Auditorium has been streamlined, the Edison Building has replaced the California Club and the Broxburn fell for the Pershing Square Building. Only the AL Bath Building is unchanged from the previous view:

uncanny.net

[BifRayRock]

If Wing Co. is too busy, Knight's is the place, since 1928!

"Where guaranteed service is fact not an unfulfilled promise"


8606 S Western avenue (near Manchester)
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7129/7...d0b0c89a_o.jpg

known to Philo Farnsworth?

[tovangar2]

Here's one last shot of the AL Bath Building/Willoughby Hotel looking SW from 5th St. It gives a good view of the next-door building with the BBQ place and bookstore. Compare with the earlier shot below:

http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/subwayarea.htm

Looking SE cira 1905:

flicker via Beaudry

These pix have now been added to my original post

[JScott]

Does anyone remember a coin shop on Hill Street in the late 1960s? In my dim recollection, it was one block north of Pershing Square on the east side of the street. The proprietor got very upset with my mother for leaving me there for over an hour while she went shopping. "This is not a baby-sitting service, Madam!" Anyway, just a random Downtown memory!

[WS1911]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Here's one last shot of the AL Bath Building/Willoughby Hotel. It gives a good view of the bookstore in the building next door on 5th street. This was posted somewhere back in the thread but I've never been able to find it again:


http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/subwayarea.htm

_______________

Thanks for posting the photo of the bookstore. In the 60s I got off the streetcar or bus on Broadway and walked out 5th to the Central Library many, many times. I always stopped at the newsstand/bookstore. Don't remember the name of it, though.

Here are a couple more shots of the Willoughby Hotel from 1913.


USC Digital Library http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/se...hterm/CHS-5822



USC Digital Library http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/se...hterm/CHS-5819

[nexleffel]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Beautiful apartment building nexleffel. Thanks for sharing
I am curious about the extra tall 'column-like' thingys on the roof.

Those are the vents for the trash burn furnaces....
They have been since cut down...

[SoCal1954]

Originally Posted by WS1911

_______________

Thanks for posting the photo of the bookstore. In the 60s I got off the streetcar or bus on Broadway and walked out 5th to the Central Library many, many times. I always stopped at the newsstand/bookstore. Don't remember the name of it, though.

Here are a couple more shots of the Willoughby Hotel from 1913.


USC Digital Library http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/se...hterm/CHS-5822



USC Digital Library http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/se...hterm/CHS-5819

Interesting photos!!

The first one, in which the street is obviously unpaved, has a street scene feel, right out of the Grapes of Wrath; it looks like a lot of newbies to SoCal in the immediate area?

The next photo, at least several years later, the street appears to be paved? Question: Is that statue of what appears to be a soldier, still in the park? I have not been to downtown on foot for many years--my ankle bracelet seems to limit me to Pasadena/Altadena. LOL

[SoCal1954]

Originally Posted by nexleffel

Those are the vents for the trash burn furnaces....
They have been since cut down...

Makes sense; I remember the concrete pre-fab incinerator in our back yard in Pasadena. I also remember the smog so thick, you could not see the San Gabriel range, or Mt. Wilson. It is really amazing what has been accomplished over the years in this regard. Just go to a car show, with 1950's cars, and you can smell what we had to be subjected to every day--unburned hydro-carbons out the tail pipe. Technology has really helped in this regard; we can still have horse power and performance, but clean air too.

In addition, banning backyard incinerators brought the smog war to the home front and the campaign against smoky orchard "smudge pots" eliminated a highly visible source of pollution.

In 1947, more than 300,000 backyard trash incinerators puffed out white plumes -- and black soot -- across the city.

"People would complain -- especially women hanging up their washing outside -- that the ashes and soot from the incinerators would soil their freshly laundered clothing before it got dry," Brunelle said.

Many residents fiercely opposed plans to ban backyard incinerators, believing that oil refineries were the true cause of smog, and that refineries should be regulated first. More than a decade after the problem was first identified, trash collection programs were established and backyard incinerators were finally banned in 1958.

http://www.aqmd.gov/news1/Archives/H.../marchcov.html

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by WS1911

_______________

Thanks for posting the photo of the bookstore. In the 60s I got off the streetcar or bus on Broadway and walked out 5th to the Central Library many, many times. I always stopped at the newsstand/bookstore. Don't remember the name of it, though.

Here are a couple more shots of the Willoughby Hotel from 1913.

Thank you again so much. I thought once the A. L. Bath building was demolished, its history would forever me closed to me, but thanks to all of you and the net, almost every question I had about that forlorn little building has been answered. I imagine the Willoughby was once a pleasant place for people from outlying areas to stay when they were in town for a show or fair at Hazard's Pavilion.

I think the photo I posted of the bookstore next door was from the 50s. The vertical sign said "Bar-B-Q" then. I miss little hole-in-the-wall shops like that.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by SoCal1954

Interesting photos!!

Question: Is that statue of what appears to be a soldier, still in the park? I have not been to downtown on foot for many years--my ankle bracelet seems to limit me to Pasadena/Altadena. LOL

It's still there. The plinth is shorter now. It was last re-sited in the '93 remodel of the park:


http://www.shorpy.com/node/13244?size=_original#caption (detail)

The story behind the memorial: http://www.publicartinla.com/Downtow...ican_war1.html


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...ing_Square.jpg

LA Historical-Cultural Monument #480. Oldest piece of public art in LA.

[SoCal1954]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

It's still there. The plinth is shorter now and it was re-sited in the '93 remodel of the park:


http://www.shorpy.com/node/13244?size=_original#caption (detail)

http://www.militarymuseum.org/7thInfUSVMem.html

http://www.publicartinla.com/Downtow...ican_war1.html



http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/im...55d8dd4b&gid=3

LA Historical-Cultural Monument #480. Oldest piece of public art in LA.

All very interesting and informative!!

I do not care for the 'coldness' of the new park scheme.

I think this was the best looking version; before they scraped the ground clean! The older version was so appealing.



I am trying to get the right perspective, which corner was that statue on, in the early 1900's? I am assuming it was Hill and 5th, but not sure of the direction on the compass as to which corner it was at? S/W corner of Hill St. and 5th St.??

[BifRayRock]

Source: Circa '30 - '45

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8146/7...79a45d05_b.jpg

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by SoCal1954

I am trying to get the right perspective, which corner was that statue on, in the early 1900's? I am assuming it was Hill and 5th, but not sure of the direction on the compass as to which corner it was at? S/W corner of Hill St. and 5th St.??

The SW corner (which is the NE corner of the actual park), just across from the Willoughby. It's now a little further south, with its back to Hill St. In the new photo I posted above (and reposted below), one can see the back of the old Miliron's Dept store behind it to the left.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ing_Square.jpg

The original placement:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Found on ebay last Sept. 2012.

I thought it was interesting that the height of the plinth was reduced so dramatically because the roof of the then-new underground parking garage could not withstand the weight.

I don't like the "new" Pershing Square either. I was appalled when that went in. No one seems to like it. There's plans afoot to redo it again. 20 years is enough already.

"In 1992, the park was closed for a major $14.5-million redesign and renovation by architect—landscape architect Ricardo Legorreta of Mexico, and landscape architect Laurie Olin of the U.S. The new park opened in 1994 with: a 10-story purple bell tower, fountains, numerous public artworks including a walkway representing an earthquake fault line designed and executed by artist Barbara McCarren, a concert stage, a seasonal ice rink, and small plazas with seating. It is now predominantly paved expanses, with small areas of trees in raised planters.[1]
The park faces criticism from what many believe to be a poor design.[5] The walls along the sides and the raised entryway on the corners keep people out rather than invite people in. The arched seating and railings are intended to deter the homeless from laying down and sleeping causing the area to feel uninviting. The locals call the palm tree lined area near the Northeast corner "urinal alley" citing disgust over the frequent urination from the homeless.
The artwork and fountain on the South end created by Ricardo Legorreta often goes misinterpreted even though it was created with good intention. The purple bell tower, aqueduct, and orange concrete spheres are meant to symbolize the water flow from the California mountain ranges to the citrus farmers. However, most visitors misinterpret this as just being ugly without any meaning or significance. Visitors only see orange concrete spheres, uncomfortable seating, a fountain, and an abstract purple triangle-like structure with a bell inside without any further interpretation.
The "Cheese Wedge" structure that houses a closed snack bar also has significance and meaning, none of which is known at the time of posting.
AEG, the corporation currently operating the Staples Center and L.A. Live complex is currently sponsoring a $700,000.00 re-design of the Pershing Square.[6] Efforts are currently underway to re-envision ways to improve the current park"

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pershin...e_(Los_Angeles)