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  #1841  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2010, 6:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
I've always loved Neutra's Sternberg house.
It's a bit odd for a Neutra house with it's moat and curving metal (aluminum?) wall.

Years ago I had lunch in a Neutra house in the Hollywood Hills.
Ever since, I've been trying to figure out which one it was.
GaylordWilshire, do you happen to know how many Neutra houses there are in the Hollywood Hills?
ethereal-- There are about five or six Neutras still in what I'd call the Hills--the Ward, Scheyer, two Kun houses, the Mosk, the Bonnett are in what I'd call the Hills, I think. Frankly, I've always been a little hazy as to how far south the Hollywood Hills extend, since I've heard people refer to houses in the Hills that I would have said were in Los Feliz. There are Neutras among the hills of Silver Lake, including the architect's own. But anyway-- various districts of L.A. can overlap, I guess. There is of course what is the most famous of all, the Lovell--with a sort-of-maybe-round-about noir connection in that it was Pierce Patchett's house in L.A. Confidential. But for a definitive list of Neutra houses, this is the best website I know of. Lots of pictures, which might jog your memory:

http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/neutra.htm


Here's another von Sternberg house pic, from that site (is that A. Rand herself on the patio, to the right?). (Btw, yes, I think the walls were made of aluminum.):

trianglemodernisthousesdotcom


I've always loved that Neutra specified that a couple of the lights in the Lovell house be the rim and lenses of Model T Ford headlamps. Was he giving a nod to a city on wheels? Here's one:
trianglemodernisthousesdotcom
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  #1842  
Old Posted Oct 3, 2010, 11:34 PM
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Thanks for the information GaylordWilshire.
The Neutra house I visited was either in Silver Lake or Los Feliz (I mistakenly said Hollywood Hills).
I was quite young at the time and wasn't aware of Neutra's fame.
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  #1843  
Old Posted Oct 4, 2010, 5:38 PM
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Zanjas live!

Los Angeles's nineteenth-century system of water delivery channels, the zanjas, finally went out of service around 1904, when underground pipes took over the last of them. These were initially just ordinary mud-lined ditches. Later bricks were used as lining, and at some point some of them were lined with concrete. They were bigger than I imagined, two feet wide and three feet deep. Also until now I didn't know that there is actually a stretch of concrete zanja still in place in Los Angeles--surely one of the great remnants of the West Adams district. The zanja still with us is in front of the site (now a parking lot) of the Victorian house of one-time city councilman Frank Sabichi, the address of which was 2427 S. Figueroa (between St. Vincent's Church and the Stimson house at 2421). I'm finding that while many West Adams houses have been demolished, often left behind (as with the Waters house at 900 W. Adams) are their low stone walls and, sometimes, metal fencing. This is true of the Sabichi house, as you can see in the before and after shots here:


LAPL
The Frank Sabichi house, 2427 S. Figueroa


LAPL
A shot from in front of the Sabichi house north toward the Stimson, giving a good view of the zanja.


Recentering El Pueblo
The zanja now, which appears to be filled in (with dirt? concrete?), and a detail of the Sabichi fencing.


LAPL
Notice the pattern of the Sabichi fence. Btw, this is a great view of the southern facade of the Stimson house.


Google Street View
Note the small bridge over the zanja at the sidewalk entrance to the Sabichi house.


Google Street View
In the two shots above, you can see that the Sabichi house has left behind some of its fencing.
Two of the driveway posts in the shot above are also in the lower left of the top picture.
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  #1844  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2010, 1:42 AM
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^^^Very interesting GaylordWilshire!

I have never heard of a zanja before your post.
It's amazing that remnants of the zanja AND the Sabichi fence still survive.
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  #1845  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2010, 4:49 AM
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Gaylord, great pics of the zanja and Sabichi house. The book "The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death and Possible Rebirth" by Blake Gumprecht, talks about the zanjas.

I realize that the site of the Sabichi house is now the parking lot of St. Vincent Catholic Church, of which of course, Edward Doheny helped fund the construction, and Albert C. Martin designed it.
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  #1846  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2010, 10:53 AM
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a 1880's photo of the zanja on Figueroa between 1st and 2nd streets


USC Digital Archives

the same view today



the old zanja location is probably where the current street median divider gutter is

Last edited by gsjansen; Oct 5, 2010 at 2:41 PM.
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  #1847  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2010, 4:40 PM
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Addams Found

screenmusingsdotorg
The Addams Family tv-series house--a painting-on-photograph that includes one of the
six-globe streetlamps (at right) installed in Chester Place in 1903 (the "city's first
in a residential community," according to the L.A. Times) and soon after in
other parts of West Adams. It was based on the Los Angeles house below.


Don Sloper/Los Angeles's Chester Place/Sisters of St. John of Carondelet
The Newhall house ca. 1965. I haven't found a photo of the house closer to its construction.



screenmusingsdotorg
An actual photograph of the Newhall house used early in the series, without matte
painting added.



As it turns out, the identity of the Addams Family house of the 1964-66 tv series house has, in a sense, been hiding in plain sight. You'd think it was practically unknown if you Googled even recently, what with all sorts of off-the-mark speculation on various websites--it seems that there is a claim for just about every Victorian in America being the model for the tv house. One or two sites mention that it might have been "on West Adams Boulevard"--well, turns out that it was in West Adams, the district, a block from the Boulevard, at 21 Chester Place. I've discovered that Don Sloper, the expert on the street and author of the excellent Los Angeles's Chester Place in the "Images of America" series, includes in his 2006 book pictures of the house unavailable via the LAPL and USC etc and the information that it was built by Walter S. Newhall, son of the man for whom Newhall, Calif., was named. Walter Newhall had quite a major piece of property, and it actually predates the 1899 subdivision of Chester Place. Its original address was West 25th Street. The Dohenys moved into Chester Place in 1901 and proceeded to buy up almost all of the street's houses, and somehow even gained control of the short piece of 25th Street between Chester and St. James Park--including the Newhall house in 1915. The Dohenys rented out their many houses, including the Newhall. One couple, the Grafes, rented it from 1935 until 1969, according to their grandson, Joe Nesbitt, writing on a vintage-tv website that was puzzling over the mystery of the Addams house. (It seems Nesbitt should know, and the Grafes are indeed listed at 21 Chester Place in the 1939 Los Angeles phone book.) The house was demolished soon after the Grafes left to make way for a high school. I can't imagine Mrs. Doheny allowing the use of one of her houses for television--she was by all accounts a woman maniacal when it came to controlling her environment (her atrocious taste in interior decoration, gaudy even by Victorian nouveau-riche standards, is something else...but I digress)--but she was resting comfortably in Calvary Cemetery by then. (It seems that Mount St. Mary's College, which inherited Chester Place, didn't mind tv's use of the house, and, after all, it wasn't really the same house after the art department worked on it. And no doubt a little donation was involved.) Anyway, the Filmways art department found 21 Chester, and, after some tweaking, gave us the house you see in the series--at least a painting of it, with some altered windows, added third-floor mansard and tower, and other Addamsesque details. (The actual house only appeared in the first episode, I've read.)


UPDATE 3-28-2017: For more information, please see http://adamsboulevardlosangeles.blog...-also-see.html, part of an ongoing inventory of the houses lining Adams Boulevard.

And for a page wholly devoted to the house, see https://21chesterplace.com/

Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Mar 28, 2017 at 5:27 PM.
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  #1848  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2010, 6:28 PM
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Hi,
I recently found this forum & think its great! I've always been fascinated by LA, but have only been there once. I'm also into photography, so needless to say I've spent a lot of time lurking here
Everyone here is very informative, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out, but its a long shot. The video "Please Read The Letter" by Robert Plant & Allison Krause is filmed in a beautiful old house. The only info I've been able to find is that it was built in 1905 in Southern Los Angeles. There is never a full shot of the exterior, although there are roman statues in the yard. Y[IMG][IMG][/IMG][/IMG]ou can see the video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpjnaGOeHH4

Sorry, I didn't get the pics up the right way, trying to figure out what I did wrong

Last edited by jhny12; Oct 5, 2010 at 6:29 PM. Reason: couldnt get pics up
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  #1849  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2010, 8:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jhny12 View Post
Hi,
I recently found this forum & think its great! I've always been fascinated by LA, but have only been there once. I'm also into photography, so needless to say I've spent a lot of time lurking here
Everyone here is very informative, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out, but its a long shot. The video "Please Read The Letter" by Robert Plant & Allison Krause is filmed in a beautiful old house. The only info I've been able to find is that it was built in 1905 in Southern Los Angeles. There is never a full shot of the exterior, although there are roman statues in the yard.


NOTE added 3-16-13: The Alison Krauss/Robert Plant video has a new link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Xi5gvZ7Kk (You'll have to endure an mindless 30 sec ad)

That's the Beckett house at 2218 S. Harvard Blvd:

Big Orange Landmarks


Big Orange Landmarks

I'll let the erstwhile Mr. Floyd B. Bariscale take over from here:

http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.c...residence.html

I have to say that the interior looks great, or at least it does in the moody video lighting. The video is a must-see tour of what appears to be a seriously endangered house. If only its airy high-ceilinged spaces, with outside light coming in from all four sides, would inspire someone with a little cash to rescue it. (Hello Robert? Alison?) The scenes of exterior dilapidation are what tipped me off. Great video, and great song, btw.

Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Mar 16, 2013 at 11:12 AM.
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  #1850  
Old Posted Oct 6, 2010, 3:48 AM
JeffDiego JeffDiego is offline
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house in 1944 classic film

Thanks as always for your magnificent photos, Gaylord Wilshire. I repeat myself (from an earlier posting) for those who don't know, the facade and front garden of this house on West Adams were featured prominently in the classic 1944 film, "The Curse of the Cat People," available at Netflix etc. It was the house where a mad old lady and her strange daughter lived, and was supposed to be in Tarrytown, New York in the movie.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire View Post
USC

LAPL


One of great Victorian houses on West Adams Street (the "Boulevard" appellation was apparently adopted sometime in the '20s, perhaps in a vain effort to secure the diminishing cachet of the area as the Hancock Park and Westside districts developed) was the Russell Judson Waters house at #900, next door to the magnificent and still-extant (but for how long?) Second Church of Christ Scientist. Waters, by the way, was the founder of Redlands, and, later, a U.S. Congressman. The pictures above don't really show the fence, perhaps an enlargement of the original, comprised of iron, a low stone wall, and stone gateposts (though there are Bison Archive shots of the house in the "Images of America" book West Adams that do). But mercifully we have remnants of 900 West Adams, including the Portland Street side of the fence and another set of gateposts that match those lost at the front. And--the carriage house still stands, now addressed 2625 Portland. I've seen it described as a miniature echo of the main house--as you can see in these pictures, the barn does indeed have a turret with a roof matching the big house. The first picture puts one in mind of the Addams Family tv show of the '60s, doesn't it? According to some sources, the Victorian house used as reference for the show once stood on Adams, though this was not it. I'm trying to discover the true identity of the Addams Adams house (reportedly demolished in the '60s)--I love an architectural mystery. The top half of the tv house was a matte painting, making it even harder to trace. Anyway, it's not a cure for cancer, but after all, somebody's got to do this reseach....


LAPL


Google Street View


Google Street View


Google Street View
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  #1851  
Old Posted Oct 6, 2010, 6:16 PM
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Jeff-- I will have to take a look at Curse of the Cat People again--I couldn't find any movie stills of the house, but I see that the Waters house is listed as a location for the film on IMDB. It definitely fits a movie like Curse. Somewhere along the line I've seen the Capen house, which was at 818 West Adams just east of the Waters house, erroneously listed as Curses's locale. They're not dissimilar in massing. Here's a picture of that house, apparently demolished sometime in the early '40s:


LAPL
The Capen house, 818 West Adams: note the zanja in front. It ran on the south side of Adams
west from Figueroa and was decommissioned in 1901.


What is sort of interesting about the Capen house is that the porch entrance, with its elaborate scrolls, survives to the northeast in Sierra Madre, on the front of the Pinney House (architect: Joseph Cather Newsom). At least, that is my contention--some sources, including Gebhard and Winter, say that the entrance came from a house that once stood on Wilshire. There were, however, no high (by which I mean seriously turreted) Victorian houses built on the original westward-extending Wilshire--its development really didn't get going until the very end of the Victorian era. There were some on Orange Street, closer to downtown east of Westlake Park, which later became Wilshire in the '30s, but still I am of the opinion that the Capen porch entrance was the one installed on the Pinney house. (See what you think by comparing these pictures.) Producers of the 1942 Barbara Stanwyck movie The Great Man's Lady chose the Pinney house as a location, but wanted a fancier porch--apparently the Capen was being torn down and its entrance was recruited. (My guess is that other spindlework from the Capen was used to complete the new porch or else duplicated by studio carpenters to do the job.)


LAPL
Closeup of the Capen--note the entrance and the spindles in the arch.


LAPL
Another shot of the Capen. Note one of the six-globe streetlights that were installed in the West Adams
district beginning in 1903. The LAPL dates this photo 1941, so neither the house or the lamps have long
to live. Also note the post-zanja fire hydrant.


Kansas Sebastian
The Pinney house, Sierra Madre.


Big Orange Landmarks
The Pinney entrance--a far-flung remnant of West Adams (IMHO).


LAPL
Notice the similarity of balcony ironwork on the Hildreth house (above), which stood on Bunker Hill, and on the Capen. Both the On Bunker Hill website and Floyd B. Bariscale of Big Orange Landmarks cite J. C. Newsom as designer of the Hildreth--so I'm wondering if he also did the Capen. As I mentioned above, Newsom designed the Pinney house. Although the Pinney was originally of a plainer style (similar to the architect's San Dimas Hotel), and though I don't think the flamboyant Capen porch is an especially good architectural fit for it, I guess it's something that there is the possibility of Newsom having done both buildings.

Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Oct 6, 2010 at 7:28 PM.
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  #1852  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2010, 1:46 AM
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[QUOTE=GaylordWilshire;5005168]screenmusingsdotorg
The Addams Family tv-series house--a painting-on-photograph that includes one of the
six-globe streetlamps (at right) installed in Chester Place in 1903 (the "city's first
in a residential community," according to the L.A. Times) and soon after in
other parts of West Adams. It was based on the Los Angeles house below.


Don Sloper/Los Angeles's Chester Place/Sisters of St. John of Carondelet
The Newhall house ca. 1969. I haven't found a photo of the house closer to its construction.


screenmusingsdotorg
An actual photograph of the Newhall house used early in the series, without matte
painting added.


I always thought the Adam's Family House was 100% fictional.......simply an artist's idea of what a haunted house should look like.
I had no idea its origins was an actual house in the L.A. area.

Very cool GaylordWilshire.
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  #1853  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2010, 12:37 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire View Post
I've got to turn this window off...I can't get anything else done. But of course I can't resist answering. That's the Beckett house at 2218 S. Harvard Blvd:

Big Orange Landmarks


Big Orange Landmarks

I'll let the erstwhile Mr. Floyd B. Bariscale take over from here:

http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.c...residence.html

I have to say that the interior looks great, or at least it does in the moody video lighting. The video is a must-see tour of what appears to be a seriously endangered house. If only its airy high-ceilinged spaces, with outside light coming in from all four sides, would inspire someone with a little cash to rescue it. (Hello Robert? Alison?) The scenes of exterior dilapidation are what tipped me off. Great video, and great song, btw.
Thanks GaylordWilshire! You are awesome!! It is a great video & I wish, as you do, the house will be saved. Seeing the interior in the video, makes you imagine what it was like living in such a grand place, in its day.
Thanks again for the info, I've learned so much from this forum. One of these days I hope to make it back out there(permanently )

Last edited by jhny12; Oct 7, 2010 at 9:12 PM.
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  #1854  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2010, 6:28 PM
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LAPL
The J. D. Hooker house, 325 West Adams Street, a one-time jewel of "east West Adams"

The Beckett house, seemingly on its way to extinction, barring a miracle, puts me in mind of two other becolumned Los Angeles houses, one definitely extinct and one very much alive. First, the John Daggett Hooker house, which stood at 325 West Adams (on the grounds of what is now Orthopaedic Medical Center). It has an interesting history--J. D. Hooker was a big if apparently cranky and spiteful L.A. muckety-muck, a benefactor of Mt. Wilson Observatory founded by George Ellery Hale. Well, it seems that Hale managed to worm his way not only into Hooker's pocketbook but also into the heart of Mrs. Hooker. Less cynical and more knowledgeable folk than myself maintain that it was strictly platonic, this relationship, but whatever the friendship was between Hale and Mrs. H, J. D. stood it as long as he could before blowing a gasket and banning not only Hale but all people of the male persuasion from 325 West Adams unless he was present himself. John Muir also figures into the illustrious history of 325--but rather than go on here about the Hookers, I'll direct you to this link with the fuller story and good descriptions of the grandeur of 325 West Adams:

http://www.westadamsheritage.org/ind...do_pdf=1&id=87

One reason this house is significant, I think, is because it illustrates that West Adams, the district, once included more than just the area west of Figueroa. There were quite a few major estates east of Figueroa--not least, of course, the Singleton/Longstreet spread and its famous Palm Drive adjacent to the Hooker house, which has been written about previously on this forum.


Big Orange Landmarks

And then there is the often-photographed Sunshine Hall, a little bit of the Old South at 419 S. Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square. I'll let Floyd B. Bariscale tell the story:

http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.c...residence.html


Sunshine Hall now--in the sunshine:
Google Street View

Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Dec 15, 2010 at 7:02 PM.
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  #1855  
Old Posted Oct 9, 2010, 5:06 AM
JeffDiego JeffDiego is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire View Post


Jeff-- I will have to take a look at Curse of the Cat People again--I couldn't find any movie stills of the house, but I see that the Waters house is listed as a location for the film on IMDB. It definitely fits a movie like Curse. Somewhere along the line I've seen the Capen house, which was at 818 West Adams just east of the Waters house, erroneously listed as Curses's locale. They're not dissimilar in massing. Here's a picture of that house, apparently demolished sometime in the early '40s:

Among the interesting things about the Waters house when it was filmed in 1943/44 was a wonderful massive stone wall topped with decorative iron fencing and an impressive entranceway that ran along the sidewalk in front of the house. The yard then was wildly overgrown with ferns (possibly added to increase the spooky atmosphere) and the set decorator (I presume) added stone griffons (sp?) flanking the entrance steps. There was a vine-covered collonade approaching the right of the house.
There was a shot of a tower where the old lady calls down, but this was clearly filmed at another house, probably because the fronds of the vast Ivy-covered Canary Palm Tree would probably had been visible in any shot taken above the second story (since the house was supposed to be in a small NY state town.)
Again, it just makes one heartsick to think that magnificent, atmospheric old houses and buildings like this were demolished by the hundreds, many at the same time that Bunker Hill was bulldozed.
The Capen house is indeed a beauty, and has some similarities to the Waters house

LAPL
The Capen house, 818 West Adams: note the zanja in front. It ran on the south side of Adams
west from Figueroa and was decommissioned in 1901.


What is sort of interesting about the Capen house is that the porch entrance, with its elaborate scrolls, survives to the northeast in Sierra Madre, on the front of the Pinney House (architect: Joseph Cather Newsom). At least, that is my contention--some sources, including Gebhard and Winter, say that the entrance came from a house that once stood on Wilshire. There were, however, no high (by which I mean seriously turreted) Victorian houses built on the original westward-extending Wilshire--its development really didn't get going until the very end of the Victorian era. There were some on Orange Street, closer to downtown east of Westlake Park, which later became Wilshire in the '30s, but still I am of the opinion that the Capen porch entrance was the one installed on the Pinney house. (See what you think by comparing these pictures.) Producers of the 1942 Barbara Stanwyck movie The Great Man's Lady chose the Pinney house as a location, but wanted a fancier porch--apparently the Capen was being torn down and its entrance was recruited. (My guess is that other spindlework from the Capen was used to complete the new porch or else duplicated by studio carpenters to do the job.)


LAPL
Closeup of the Capen--note the entrance and the spindles in the arch.


LAPL
Another shot of the Capen. Note one of the six-globe streetlights that were installed in the West Adams
district beginning in 1903. The LAPL dates this photo 1941, so neither the house or the lamps have long
to live. Also note the post-zanja fire hydrant.


Kansas Sebastian
The Pinney house, Sierra Madre.


Big Orange Landmarks
The Pinney entrance--a far-flung remnant of West Adams (IMHO).


LAPL
Notice the similarity of balcony ironwork on the Hildreth house (above), which stood on Bunker Hill, and on the Capen. Both the On Bunker Hill website and Floyd B. Bariscale of Big Orange Landmarks cite J. C. Newsom as designer of the Hildreth--so I'm wondering if he also did the Capen. As I mentioned above, Newsom designed the Pinney house. Although the Pinney was originally of a plainer style (similar to the architect's San Dimas Hotel), and though I don't think the flamboyant Capen porch is an especially good architectural fit for it, I guess it's something that there is the possibility of Newsom having done both buildings.
Among the interesting things about the Waters house when it was filmed in 1943/44 was a wonderful massive stone wall topped with decorative iron fencing and an impressive entranceway that ran along the sidewalk in front of the house. The yard then was wildly overgrown with ferns (possibly added to increase the spooky atmosphere) and the set decorator (I presume) added stone griffons (sp?) flanking the entrance steps. There was a vine-covered collonade approaching the right of the house.
There was a shot of a tower where the old lady calls down, but this was clearly filmed at another house, probably because the fronds of the vast Ivy-covered Canary Palm Tree would probably had been visible in any shot taken above the second story (since the house was supposed to be in a small NY state town.)
Again, it just makes one heartsick to think that magnificent, atmospheric old houses and buildings like this were demolished by the hundreds, many at the same time that Bunker Hill was bulldozed.
The Capen house is indeed a beauty, and has some similarities to the Waters house
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  #1856  
Old Posted Oct 10, 2010, 10:26 PM
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Remnants of old Sonora Town.


Below: Adobe structures at 730 & 750 N. Spring St. in 1895


usc digital archive




Below: Buena Vista St. from Bellevue Ave. (later Sunset Blvd. now Cesar Chavez Avenue) in 1887.


usc digital archive






Below: Madam Begons corner store in 1905. No street address given.



usc digital archive






Below: This adobe housed a japanese fancy goods store and an unemployment office in 1890.


usc digital archive


Notice the HUGE piles of horse sh*t.
Can you imagine how cities smelled back in the days of horse and buggies.

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Oct 10, 2010 at 11:09 PM.
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  #1857  
Old Posted Oct 10, 2010, 10:44 PM
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This is an excellent photograph of an adobe in 1924.


usc digital archive


Above: Notice the Wrigley's chewing gum advertisement on the building in the background.






Below: This is a photo of the same area in 1924.
Notice the same turreted building as seen in the above photo. (the one with the Wrigley ad).

Would someone pinpoint the location of this photo. I believe I see Sunset but I'm a bit confused about the cross streets.





usc digital archive

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Oct 12, 2010 at 1:13 AM.
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  #1858  
Old Posted Oct 10, 2010, 11:35 PM
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The sidewalks of N. Broadway in Sonora Town, 1900.


usc digtial archives





Below: No details except a date, 1900.

Looks like the area just got brand new sidewalks.



usc digital archives




Below: The east side of N. Spring St.


usc digital

I like how the barber wasn't satisfied with just a barber pole. He painted stripes on the awning support as well.

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Oct 11, 2010 at 12:01 AM.
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Old Posted Oct 11, 2010, 3:21 PM
kanhawk kanhawk is offline
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I am interested in the appearance of utility poles in 1887 in the photo below. Did Los Angeles have electricity already or would these be telephone or telegraph wires?

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Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
Below: Buena Vista St. from Bellevue Ave. (later Sunset Blvd. now Cesar Chavez Avenue) in 1887.


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  #1860  
Old Posted Oct 12, 2010, 2:14 AM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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ethereal-- great pictures of Sonora Town etc below-- alot of it reminds me of the French Quarter of my hometown of New Orleans, which is actually Spanish colonial architecture rather than French.


kanhawk-- though I can't make out any wires between those poles, I'd guess telegraph--maybe they're brand new poles just waiting for wires. I don't think electric power had come into general use in 1887--there was some electric arc lighting in the streets by then, and some telephone service, but telegraphy was in wide use.
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