noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

So you're saying this is the pool, right GW? (there looks like there might be another pool to the north) -under the IA of the word AERIALS



But to get the house in the right spot, the photographer would have to be at the back of the pool facing Westlake Avenue.
Yet this can't be the case, because there's a building where the street should be in the vintage photo.

Am I being slow?
_

You're never, ever slow, ER. But I think, yes, the pool is being viewed from the east end of the lot-- note the arched windows of the Regina--one lower than the rest toward Westlake, plus the 90 degree and for the wider portion of the building, all seen in the current aerial:




Hard to tell in the other historic aerials, but there appears to be a small building in some of them (i.e., 1952), adjoining the south front portion of the Regina, which may be what appears in the pool shot.

[ethereal_reality]

OK, now I get it. So there was a building (now gone) between the pool and the street.

Thanks Hoss and GW.
_

[CityBoyDoug]

American Airlines Lobby at LAX in 1952. Far different than what we see in 2016.


CD file.

[ethereal_reality]

That had crossed my mind as well CBD. (CBD changed his post making my comment obsolete. He had mentioned that the Regina pool photograph might have been flipped)

but I believe Hoss & GW have solved the mini-mystery'.

[CityBoyDoug]

North Beach Santa Monica....1891.


File CD.

[rbpjr]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

The school was at 1908 S Bronson from 1922 to 1962-- now a parking lot.

Looking at Google (Instant) Street View...it looks like the school is still there...

[GaylordWilshire]

rbpjr-- Building records indicate that the school was built in 1922 and demo'ed 40 years later. The building appearing in the current GSV is 1920 S Bronson, built in 1922 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross as a residence, presumably for themselves. (John C. Austin is listed as the architect.) It is a gable-roofed building of similar size to 1908, but clearly with a different design than in ER's vintage view of St. Paul's School. (See also historic aerials.)

[John Maddox Roberts]

Concerning the Crane company on the previous page. Crane plumbing had an exhibit at Disneyland in the '50s. It was in Tomorrowland next to the Monsanto exhibit and had some cool hydraulic gizmos that kids could play with. In those days my Pasadena family had friends named Dick and Maggie Crane. I was told that Dick Crane was some sort of scion of the Crane plumbing fortune. I believe they lived in Pacific Palisades.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

We haven't visited the Hotel Regina on NLA.

Here's the Hotel Regina in 1929, before the construction of the narrow building to the right (and probably before the construction of the swimming pool).

"Exterior of hotel building, for Mr. Carey, 420 South Westlake Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 1929."


USC Digital Library

There was even a Regina Cafe.


Detail of picture above.

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for finding this Hoss. I want to go to the Regina Cafe.

Originally Posted by John Maddox Roberts

Concerning the Crane company on the previous page. Crane plumbing had an exhibit at Disneyland in the '50s. It was in Tomorrowland next to the Monsanto exhibit and had some cool hydraulic gizmos that kids could play with. In those days my Pasadena family had friends named Dick and Maggie Crane. I was told that Dick Crane was some sort of scion of the Crane plumbing fortune. I believe they lived in Pacific Palisades.

Very interesting JMR. I didn't know about the Crane exhibit.


Tomorrowland 1955

http://davelandblog.blogspot.com/201...land-1955.html

It looks like the kids turn the valves and water comes out of the triangle thingys.



......and in living color.

pinterest
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[ethereal_reality]

This is a rather noirish looking place.

" 1930s Matchbook George's Supper 5873 W. Adams Los Angeles Culver City"


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1930s-Matchb...oAAOSw6EhURLW3



"Phone YORK 9336"*


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1930s-Matchb...oAAOSw6EhURLW3



5873, where W. Adams intersects with W. Washington Blvd.

google_earth

The matchbook mentions "after theater specials". -So what theaters would have been located in this area back in the 1930s?


* I can't find a Los Angeles "YORK" prefix. Culver City was VErmont per http://www.laalmanac.com/communications/cm01e.htm
So is this matchbook definitely Los Angeles
________








I wonder if it was affiliated with this George's?


eBay

100 miles south of Los Angeles - Cardiff By The Sea - 25 miles north of San Diego
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[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

mystery location

eBay




Hoss, there's a noirish connection. The 1950s-era structure housed the County Coroner's office until the offices were moved to the county health center.
The building was turned over to the Center Theater Group in 1967.

"So what had been the morgue became rehearsal space." -said Stephen Rountree, Music Center pres.

from
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/m...96a8befaa.html
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Here's the front of the building. (which they're thinking of tearing down)


gsv

I wanted to post a photograph of the building when it was the coroner's office, but I haven't located one yet.




below: *This is the best i could do at the moment. It's dated 1967 (so the coroner's office had already moved)


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/21768/rec/10

No-one'll shed a tear when they tear down this structure, save perhaps for me (and I like to think some of y'all). It's a nifty 1949 Late Moderne office building.

Here's an image from another of these two slides, that I cobbled together. It may be the only good vintage shot of this building unless there's one lurking in the Shulmans.



Save for some futzing around with the windows, survived pretty well unmolested since then, remarkably:


The architect was Jack H. MacDonald, who was a major force in 1950s commercial and industrial Los Angeles. He's no Welton Becket, or Victor Gruen, but he was top-notch and designed tons of stuff. If MacDonald didn't build it in the CMD (Central Manufacturing District) then he was probably the contractor. I've included some here that are Cejay Parsons; MacDonald & Parsons were partners after '53 and worked hand-in-hand on designs; MacDonald providing contracting, too.

Here's just a smattering of his stuff, all curtain-wall'd, concrete-screened, terrazzo-and-travertine-lobbied Corporate Modern 50s LA in a nutshell:

here
(Above, Valley Times, the rest below from the LAT via Proquest, all about '55-'60. 601 W Temple, being 1949, is very early for MacDonald.)









(speaking of 5820 Wilshire, check out this)




















Jack H. MacDonald is likely best remembered for the Carolina Pines bowling alley, at the NW cnr of Aviation and Century, I say famous because it's fondly remembered as the "Live Nude Nude" everyone saw coming in from the airport:

flickr

I love how MacDonald moves from Late Moderne (that 1955 design at 6th & Ardmore is quite masterful) to Corporate Modern to full-blown Googie—Carolina Pines's boomerang roofline and that undulating canopy, and all that floor-to-ceiling glass, etc. Facing parking lots on three sides! Such an ignominious end.

I hope his 601 W Temple/County Morgue/Music Center Annex doesn't fall, but if it does, I hope it gets some recognition. What does it cost to get a marching band to play funeral marches in the street?

[Flyingwedge]

Some prior posts:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5408
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=19458
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=19483
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=33068

These two buildings were located on what is now the south side of Beverly Blvd., between Loma Drive and
Witmer Street (north of Beverly, Loma turns into Belmont Ave.). EVC/BH was near Loma, and EC/BH was to
the east, closer to Witmer. Here is the wider area on a modern map:

Googlemap

And here it is in 1888, when Beverly and Loma were Diamond Street and Belmont Avenue, respectively.
Lakeshore Avenue north of Diamond Street, now Glendale Blvd., leads to today's Echo Park Lake. What
we see here as Figueroa Street became Boylston Street:

1888 Sanborn Map @ LAPL

The online copy of the 1888 Sanborn Map that shows the two buildings is divided into two. [HossC did a much
nicer job of stitching the maps together than I did, so I've substituted his effort here for my original image.
Thanks HossC!] Ellis Villa College, later the Belmont Hotel, was first, then the second institution/building
was just Ellis College, later called Belmont Hall:

LAPL

This is the corner of Belmont and Diamond, near the Belmont Hotel. Please note the lone home to the west of
the Belmont Hotel, the small one-story-with-front-porch office building on the NW corner of Belmont and
Diamond, and the store on the NE corner of Belmont and Diamond that has its front porch out in the street:

1888 Sanborn @ LAPL

The next two photos provide an overlapping panorama looking north from the EVC/BH building. The first photo is
captioned for us and might actually look a bit NW. In the foreground is Diamond St. west of Belmont Ave.
Please note the porch on the right rear of the dark home above "1886" as well as the post behind the home:

0001379125 @ CA State Library

The left end of this photo overlaps with the right end of the photo above. At far left, you can see the tip of
the porch from the house in the previous photo, plus the post behind the house. A couple of houses in the
background and what looks like a long white fence are also in both photos. From the last Sanborn Map,
the little office on the NW corner of Diamond and Belmont, and the store on the NE corner, appear to be in
the foreground here. I believe we can see Echo Park Lake in the middle distance, just to the left of center:

00054855 @ LAPL

UPDATE: HossC gets another tip of the NLA cap for stitching together the two above photos into a panorama. Wow!:


Again, this was the Ellis Villa College building. It opened in September 1884, reopened as the Belmont Hotel in
June 1886, and burned down in December 1887. We're looking west. The home on the west side of Belmont Ave.,
west of the Belmont Hotel, which we saw on the last Sanborn Map above, can be seen here at right, peeking out
from behind the Belmont Hotel:

00007003 @ LAPL

This photo of "Belmont Park" looks west at the site of the former EVC/BH. You can match up the sidewalk
patterns and the short stairway that was between the two wings of the structure. We can see all of the
house on the west side of Belmont Ave/Loma Drive that we saw part of in the photo above. In the rear,
the building with the cupola is the Union Avenue School. This photo was probably taken from the Ellis College/
Belmont Hall building, which opened in September 1886. LAPL dates the photo 1888, but the Union Avenue
School was built in 1890:

00009977 @ LAPL

Here's the Union Avenue School on the 1894 Sanborn:

LAPL

"But FW," you must be thinking, "you told us that the Ellis College building burned down on July 2, 1888.
If so, how could the photo above showing the site of the Belmont Hotel have been taken in 1890 or later
from the Ellis College/Belmont Hall building?"

The July 3, 1888 LA Herald article on the fire used phrases like "Destroyed by Fire" and "a mass of ruins,"
and the Times, too, said Ellis College had "burned to the ground" (after three previous fires?):


July 3, 1888 LA Times @ LAPL

In any event, Ellis College was rebuilt and reopened in September 1888:

Sep 1 1888 LA Herald @ LOC


Sep 8 1888 LA Herald @ LOC


1888 LA City Directory @ fold3.com

But apparently the money ran out the next year:

Nov 12 1889 LA Times @ LAPL


Dec 2 1889 LA Times @ LAPL

For a few years in the early 1890s, the building was home to a school known as Belmont Hall, run by Professor
Horace A. Brown and his wife:

Aug 4 1891 LA Times @ LAPL

Here is a photo of the building as Belmont Hall (there is a sign on the roof). The photo is undated but is said to
depict a "young ladies' seminary":

00026170 @ LAPL

Below is a photo of the Ellis College building published in 1889. Between the 2nd and 3rd floors is a sign that says "The Ellis College."
Although the landscaping has matured in the larger photo, the buildings look identical. Therefore, the photo below likely shows the
post-fire Ellis College building. There may not be a close-up photo of the pre-fire Ellis College:

Los Angeles, Illustrated (1889) @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=13

The two photos above seem to match the 1888 Sanborn, so the larger photo must have been taken before 1894
(the west side is different):

1888 Sanborn @ LAPL


1894 Sanborn @ LAPL

By 1895 the Browns had apparently departed Belmont Hall, which then became home to
Ms. Josephine M. Holmes and her followers. Ms. Holmes is somewhat googleable:
https://books.google.com/books?id=3K...ngeles&f=false
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d...19040124.2.312
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...&GRid=75428800

Anyway, Ms. Holmes caught the attention of the LA Times. If the Times can be believed,
Ms. Holmes felt that all science and education were the work of devils:

Feb 17, 1895 LA Times @ LAPL

When the LA County District Attorney refused to arrest Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis for libel as
a result of the Feb 17, 1895 story, Ms. Holmes tried to have the District Attorney removed from office:
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18950406.2.24
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2006...ives122606.htm

Ms. Holmes sued Otis for libel and lost. She left the country in 1897 but returned to Belmont Hall in 1902.
An October 1902 Times article said Belmont Hall was run as a boarding house and had 35 residents, most
of whom were "unacquainted with the rites and other practices of the disciples of Miss Holmes and have
nothing to do with them; other boarders are her converts." The article said Ms. Holmes had returned to LA
as the "Perpetual Advisory-General President of the Indo-American Woman's Restoration League."

Belmont Hall's last address looks to have been 1511 Silver, which is now 2nd Street. This is the 1904
LA City Directory:

fold3.com

The 1905 LA City Directory:

fold3.com

1906 Sanborn:

LAPL

OK, I think this really was the end of Ellis College/Belmont Hall:

Nov 28, 1909 LA Herald @ LOC

[HossC]

Originally Posted by HossC

It looks like the Crane Co's first appearance in the City Directories is 1893, when they were based at 118-124 Requena Street. 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.

I've just found this image of "Los Angeles Street, north from First Street, Los Angeles, ca.1910".


USC Digital Library

Down the right side of the street, just past the stripey awning, is the Crane Co building. I've stretched the detail view below to make the text easier to read. I think the upper sign says "Plumbers and Steam Fitters Supplies".


Detail of picture above.

USC also have a trio of 1926 photos showing trucks lined up outside the Crane Co's E 3rd Street building (seen yesterday in the Shulman pictures).


USC Digital Library

[John Maddox Roberts]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for finding this Hoss. I want to go to the Regina Cafe.





Very interesting JMR. I didn't know about the Crane exhibit.


Tomorrowland 1955

http://davelandblog.blogspot.com/201...land-1955.html

It looks like the kids turn the valves and water comes out of the triangle thingys.



......and in living color.

pinterest
__

ER, the water didn't come out of the triangles. They were shallow metal cones shaped like Chinese hats and rested on top of vertical spouts. You turned the valve and they shot up on columns of water. Turn the valve off and they sank back. We tried to turn the water off and on fast to knock them off but we never could. They just rose and fell with the water column.

[ethereal_reality]

That's much more fun than what I was imagining.

I see that the conical shapes are on the floor in the color photograph.

[HossC]

We've seen the Vern Theatre before when gsjansen posted a then-and-now in post #1911 way back on page 96. That post also saved me from having to search any further for the address, which is 2811 E Olympic Boulevard. This is Julius Shulman's "Job Lee-V: Vern Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1941". The first photo is a larger version of the one posted by gsjansen.



Here's a closer view of the ticket booth.



The interior is quite simple, but very elegant.



All from Getty Research Institute

As already shown by gsjansen, the building is still there, minus its pylon. The palm tree on the right was only a foot high in the 2007 GSV image. I've gone for a view from 2012 because that tree now obscures the circular holes, and the building hasn't changed much. Some of my Google results suggest that Don Quixote is now closed.


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

I see in the first photograph that the Vern had 10 acres of free parking! That seems quite large for an 800 seat theater.
I wonder how many cars, 1940s size, can fit in an acre. Is anyone good at figuring that sort of thing out? (I'm not.. unfortunately)
_

[BifRayRock]

1924 - 1675 West Santa Barbara Ave. (now MLK jr. Blvd.) (Looking N. on Western)

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/5221/rec/28



GSV








http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/5221/rec/28






google SV

[ethereal_reality]

originally posted by Beaudry




and today.

gsv

It appears to be in pretty good shape, except for all the excessive signs and banners. (I count 43 of them!)
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