noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Woodruff's offices in Los Angeles.

originally posted by GaylordWilshire

http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...e-see-our.html

Thanks for this GW!



I just found this. (the 3043 Wilshire Boulevard address is at the bottom)


detail / from map (below)





"Tract Map Dana Point, S.H. Woodruff Community Developer, Hollywood Blue Print Co."

Here's the entire map; it's quite LARGE, so be sure to pan right--->

http://www.raremaps.com/gallery/enlarge/30475

One of the first things to catch my eye was the romantic sounding "Street Of The Blue Lantern". (do you think there were actual blue lanterns involved?)
_____


*I just noticed there's another street (at lower left) named "Street of the Green Lantern."

This guy Woodruff, had quite an imagination.
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[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

[COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="2"][FONT="Tahoma"]

Adding to the many available 1933 accommodations already mentioned here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=31233

I have an odd connection to this motel. My grade school was two blocks north of this location...McKinley School. I somehow visited one of my 6th grade classmates at this motel after school one day. His family had just come from the East coast to buy a mattress business in Los Angeles. Our teacher was very impressed.

They lived in 2 rooms on the right side of this photo. I thought the motel was rather below the tracks.

A few months later the family moved to a large 2 story Spanish style home in the upscale part of Pasadena. It was like a mansion to me. They went from this motel to a mansion.

Its strange and noir how this site can bring your past into the present. .

Here's the location of my old school and my friend's temporary motel.


HistoricAerials

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

detail
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Originally Posted by lemster2024

This is the intersection of Figueroa and Jefferson, a view from the SW looking slightly NE at Felix Chevrolet. The immediate small intersection in the center of the photo is the entrance to USC. The tall buildings to the left are residence halls on the USC campus, the photo likely taken from either a parking structure or another building on campus. e_r, the A frame building used to be a futuristic styled Lutheran church. Growing up not far from here, my dad used to drive past it quite often. My cousin, big hen, confirmed this when he looked at the L.A. phone directory for the early 60's....it's at 3440 Figueroa, I believe.

2-18-1965:






ladbs

A demo permit was pulled in 1991


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[bighen]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

detail (that watermark sucks)

Thank you for the information lemster. I was really surprised to hear the cosmic turquoise A-frame was a Lutheran Church!
I've been googling all kinds of word groupings and haven't been able to find any other information.

I wasn't able to find it in the directories either. I'm curious, did your cousin big hen find it online at lapl ?

1964

lapl
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"cosmic turquoise": You all thought I made that up didn't you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_latte

"The original color thought to describe the universe, cosmic turquoise." (later proved to be incorrect)

__

Yes I found the listing in the 1967 LAPL City Directory in Section 12 page 667 which listed as follows:

3330 Felix Chev
3410 Mike's Shell
3440 Lutheran Church
3540 A-1 Trucking

The site is now the Galen Center. I too remember seeing the building while traveling on Figueroa.

[Booski]

Here are several pictures of Los Angeles in the '20s from the 'Vintage Everyday' Facebook group:
http://www.vintag.es/2015/03/20-stun...graphs-of.html

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Wig-Wag

http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...s.jpg~original

"LA's INTERNATIONAL BEAN FIELD

"Wheat, barley and lima beans once grew where Los Angeles International airport stands today. Back in the 1920s it was part of Southern California's prosperous ranching business. The city's energetic Chamber of Commerce promoted the idea of building a municipal airport on the land even though flying was still a wing and a prayer activity. There was no federal money for airport investment, but the city fathers decided it was a risk worth taking. In 1928 they chose Mines Field from a list of 27 possible sites.

"The name came from real estate agent William W. Mines who represented the ranching interests and he claimed his own bit of history when he clinched the deal. For years Angelinos refused to call their airport anything else. The city leased 640 acres for ten years and aviation got an immediate boost when America's National Air Races brought the crowds flocking to Mines Field to see pilots like the legendary Charles Lindbergh.

"Los Angeles Municipal Airport was officially dedicated in 1930 when the lease was extended to 50 years. But there were hard times ahead as the Stock Market crash frightened off investors and the major airlines stayed away. Los Angeles was saved by the arrival of companies like Douglas, Northrop and North American who established the area as an aircraft manufacturing center. As the Depression Years began to subside the airlines turned to Los Angeles as their favored base on the understanding that improvements would be made. For that funds were needed but they proved difficult to raise while the airfield was on lease. In 1937 the city took another great leap of faith and became full owners.http://dmairfield.com/places/losangeles/mines/index.htm

1928 Mines air races
http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...ow-800x619.jpg




1928 Bond measure, election material











Unissued stock certificate





http://vannuysairport.dailynews.com/...an-Airport.jpg









Fly Western Express (~1930)

[August Verflixt]

The original building in the top of the photo still exists.....

[August Verflixt]

ooops...here...

http://binged.it/1iU41Eq

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by August Verflixt

ooops...here...

http://binged.it/1iU41Eq

That's most interesting. I didn't know that the old building is still standing.!

Here is an old airport building in the cargo area....at LAX.? It looks old but I'm not sure what building this is.

GSV

[Flyingwedge]

John J. Schallert and his wife Mary lived at 121 W. 11th Street starting in about 1890. This photo looks west on 11th
from Main in 1890. The wall at left borders the Childs Estate between Main, Hill, 11th, and 12th. The Schallert home
might be the one we see the roof of at the right edge of the photo:

LAPL -- http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067468.jpg

This is definitely the inside of the Schallert home. Theirs was reportedly the first private home in LA to have a pipe organ,
which we may see a bit of through the doorway at right:

LAPL -- http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061742.jpg

Not much is known about the organ: http://database.organsociety.org/Sin...?OrganID=51263

Sadly, Mrs. Schallert, who had already lost two of her three children in infancy, lost her husband in April 1895:

April 20, 1895 LA Times @ LAPL

But Mrs. Schallert seems to have been a practical woman who kept looking ahead:

June 20, 1895 LA Herald @ LOC -- http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=1


July 26, 1895 LA Herald @ LOC -- http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...6/ed-1/seq-10/

And there they are, 955-57 and 961-63 Orange Street at the NE corner of Loomis, by Eisen and Hunt. Eventually,
Orange became Wilshire Blvd., and Loomis became Wilshire Drive:

From Los Angeles of Today Architecturally (R. B. Dickinson, 1896) @ LAPL -- Flyingwedge photo

Here are the double residences on the NE corner of Orange and Loomis on the 1906 Sanborn:

LAPL

In 1902, Mrs. Schallert moved to 938 S. Beacon Ave. (between Burlington and Union), a home I could not find a photo of:

April 19, 1902 The Capital @ Hathitrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...q=297;size=200

The houses at the NE corner of Orange and Loomis were moved in c. late 1923 to just north of the NE corner
of Temple and Lake Streets by Mrs. Schallert's second husband, Dr. Arnold Burkelman. This building actually
became 416-418 N. Lake. The other home, 961-63 Orange, became 412-414 N. Lake:

LADBS

This c. 1925 view looks southwest at Loomis Street between 6th and Orange/Wilshire. The Rex Arms is in
the lower left corner. The empty lot to the west of the Rex Arms is where the Schallert homes were. Near the
upper right corner, the Brown Leigh Apts were at 626 S. St. Paul Avenue (thanks to HossC for that address):

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...coll65/id/1369

Across Loomis Street from the empty lot mentioned above is The Loomis, which we see closer here in 1912:

HDL -- http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...id/12550/rec/2

Here's an early (pre-1920?) photo of the Rex Arms. The retaining wall and grass at the left edge of the photo
belong to 955-57 Orange:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...coll65/id/2608 (previously posted by er)

This is a 1933 photo of the Rex Arms having its face ripped off to accommodate the widening of Wilshire.
There's still the old Schallert retaining wall at left:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...ll170/id/36308

The site of the Schallert double residences just west of the Rex Arms would eventually become the northbound
Harbor Freeway (early 1960s photo?):

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...ll170/id/21684 (previously posted by er)

I could not find a photo of the Schallert homes at their Temple and Lake Street location (and Historic Aerials
is down for maintenance). But here they are on the 1950 Sanborn:

LAPL

The demolition permits for both 412-414 and 416-418 N. Lake are dated November 21, 1960:

LADBS

The small commercial building on the 1950 Sanborn Map, fronting on Temple just south of where the homes
were, lasted until around 2012-13. Here it is in 2011; the Schallert homes had been between the back of
the commercial building and narrow Zalvidea Street, the corner of which is just visible in front of the
two-story brown building:

GSV

I mentioned that two of Mr. and Mrs. Schallert's three children died in infancy. But their middle child
lived to adulthood. His name was Edwin:

Originally Posted by Otis Criblecoblis

Edwin Schallert is the father of actor William Schallert, a familiar face on television whom you may recall as Patty Duke's father, and before that Dobie Gillis' homeroom teacher. Father Edwin was the longtime drama critic of the LA Times.

A little more info:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...&GRid=23487460
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...GRid=140985074
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0769974/?ref_=nm_dyk_trv1
http://william-schallert.com/

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Booski

Here are several pictures of Los Angeles in the '20s from the 'Vintage Everyday' Facebook group:
http://www.vintag.es/2015/03/20-stun...graphs-of.html

Thanks for the link, Booski. Many of the images are familiar from NLA, but there are some I don't remember seeing before. Please note that the last image is incorrectly labeled as "Vine Street at Sunset Boulevard circa 1925." I recognized the picture because I posted it nearly a year ago in post #23941. As the USC title says, it's actually "View of Western Avenue looking north from 1st Street, Los Angeles, ca.1924".

Originally Posted by HossC

USC Digital Library

[HossC]

Originally Posted by bighen

Yes I found the listing in the 1967 LAPL City Directory in Section 12 page 667 which listed as follows:

3330 Felix Chev
3410 Mike's Shell
3440 Lutheran Church
3540 A-1 Trucking

The site is now the Galen Center. I too remember seeing the building while traveling on Figueroa.

Originally Posted by tovangar2

A demo permit was pulled in 1991

The Lutheran church is definitely in the CDs after 1967. I was interested to see that the demo permit is from 1991, because the 1987 CD lists Fatburger at 3440 S Figueroa. Surely the church didn't become a restaurant before it was demolished.


LAPL

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by HossC

The Lutheran church is definitely in the CDs after 1967. I was interested to see that the demo permit is from 1991, because the 1987 CD lists Fatburger at 3440 S Figueroa. Surely the church didn't become a restaurant before it was demolished.

I dunno. The demo permit listing didn't have an image of the actual permit with it.

...............................................................................................

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

More familiar NLA haunts from a 1932 brochure previously featured here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=31234

Hotel Park Vista

Now the "Parkview on the Park":

gsv

Back in 2007 (the 200 rooms were rehabbed into 79 one-bedroom units for senior housing in 2011):

gsv

Revealing the 1925 construction methods:

lahousingpartnership

A cheered-up air shaft. "A bit of the country in the heart of town":

lahousingpartnership

[HossC]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

"Venice in the Snow" Mural by Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad.

Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad's page on the mural is here. It was painted by Victor Henderson and Terry Schoonhoven who also did "The Brooks Ave Painting" (15 cents Wash, 5 cents Dry) you just posted about (it also came a cropper).

The mural was at 1905 Ocean Front Walk on the side of artist, Ed Moses' then studio.


los angeles fine arts squad

I've just realized that the "Venice in the Snow" mural we discussed in July appears on the cover of Little Feat's eponymous debut album.


www.flickriver.com

[Handsome Stranger]

Can anyone tell me where Vampira's car is parked as she signs autographs in this 1954 photo?



[image source: magnumphotos.com]

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger

Can anyone tell me where Vampira's car is parked as she signs autographs in this 1954 photo?



[image source: magnumphotos.com]

Around 269 N Beverly Drive, BH.

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger

Can anyone tell me where Vampira's car is parked as she signs autographs in this 1954 photo?



[image source: magnumphotos.com]

Tourmaline beat me to it! But yes, looking N on N Beverly across Dayton Way—
gsv

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by bighen

Yes I found the listing in the 1967 LAPL City Directory in Section 12 page 667 which listed as follows:

3330 Felix Chev
3410 Mike's Shell
3440 Lutheran Church
3540 A-1 Trucking

March 1964 issue of the Daily Trojan / the Lutheran Church of USC's address was 665 W. 34th Street.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/se...nosort/page/14




By the September 1965 issue of The Daily Trojan, the church had moved to the A-frame on Figueroa.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/se...nosort/page/14

"visit the newest building on campus" -so I take it the Lutherans built it from the ground up.

I still haven't been able to locate another photograph or illustration of the mid-century A-Frame/ Figueroa location. There has to be one out there somewhere, right?



Thanks for your help lemster, big hen, tovanger2 & HossC.

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[HossC]

Still in Long Beach, this is Julius Shulman's "Job 1033: Bank of America (Long Beach, Calif.),1951". This bank was on the corner of American Avenue (now Long Beach Boulevard) and E 3rd Street. The store to the right of the bank seems to extend behind it to the left. Unfortunately, Historic Aerials appears to be down for maintenance, so I can't check it out from above.



This shot is looking roughly north. I think the sign on the stripey building on the left says something like "El Capitan Hotel". The other stores south of the bank are the Blue Print Co, Belcher and Schacht (? & Office Supplies), the Vacuum Company of America, and I think the drug store is the Finer Pharmacy.



To the right (north) of the bank, Aaron Schultz appears to have been a furniture store. Next to that is the Fancy Bakery. The old Municipal Auditorium is visible at the end of the street on the left.



All from Getty Research Institute

This view roughly duplicates the third Shulman photo. The bank and most of its neighbors have gone, although the Times Building on Broadway is still there.


GSV

Another survivor is the old Blue Print Co building. It's just a shame that the hotel next door has gone.


GSV

This building isn't visible in the Shulman photos. It's directly opposite the building above. I hope someone tidies it up - the historic GSV images show it's been this way for a while.


GSV

Just like the shoe store on Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena, this narrow building goes all the way back to the alley behind. It's now one of only two buildings on the block.


GSV

There are a few more survivors on the surrounding streets if anyone fancies taking the Googlemobile for a spin. I'm going to finish with this 1924 south-facing shot of American Avenue.


USC Digital Library

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

Bank of America, 1687 E Colorado Boulevard,1951.

Here's a view of the arch sign. The oldest operating McDonald's is the branch in Downey that opened in 1953 (i.e. two years after this photo was taken).
I wonder if either company "borrowed" the arch design from the other.

I had no idea the Bank of America arched sign was so similar to this earliest example of McDonald's signage in Downey.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...yMcdonalds.jpg

The elongated arches are exactly the same dimensions. I wouldn't be surprised if we found out they had the same designer.
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(do arches have dimensions?)