noirish Los Angeles

[Moxie]

Okay, had another thought as I was posting that...check for Annie McCorkell in the 1910 Census. She, and her family, lived at 1955 Michigan Avenue. You can see from the page that a neighbor did live at 2004 New Jersey St., but the house there doesn't look like the one you posted, e_r. Narrows down the search area a bit, though.




* From Ancestry.com

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

OK. I am a certified nerd because I really got excited by this wall remnant.

You are not alone.
Walls sometimes have ears but they also tell stories.

[GaylordWilshire]

GoogleSV

More of the Butterfield wall....

Full story here: http://losangeleshistory.blogspot.co...histories.html

[MichaelRyerson]

What a beautiful wall. I wonder if the present occupants appreciate what a treasure their retaining wall is. I'm sure they can see the beauty.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

ebay

GoogleSV


I think this could be the house that Annie McCorkell is posing in front of--2001 New Jersey Street, home of Henrietta Myers in 1910, just a block up North Cummings Street from Michigan. Stucco has replaced some of the weatherboards, but there's the little Corinthian capital, the slightly upturned eaves, the attic vent. A lot of very similar houses (of varying styles) were built in these tracts, and I didn't go looking all over the neighborhood, but I think this might be the one. Boyle Heights is fascinating. I love the seemingly untouched neighborhoods of L.A.--real life in them is no doubt something else, and it's easy to romanticize them when cruising around in Google Street View. But only in less prosperous areas is preservation real (if that makes any sense).

[nostalgie]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

LAPL

GoogleSV

I ran across this shot of the house at 629 S. Lucerne, and naturally had to see if it still stands.
It does...the lions are gone from sidewalk...thought maybe they'd been moved up close to the
porch, but the ones there now seem to be different. This is one of those old Windsor Square
houses that seem untouched by time. The birds of paradise, what looks like it might be a casual
approach to keeping up the grounds. I wonder if the house isn't inhabited by the figure in the
left upstairs window, who I imagine is elderly....







Meanwhile, in the midst of the dystopian fantasies of some, apparently spawned by old movies, a DTLA revival is in full swing.... Which, it seems obvious, is signified by the restoration of the Chocolate Shoppe. To assume that cities are doomed is as mistaken as assuming that all suburbs are thriving and that rural places are like Mayberry. (If they are, what's with some American small towns seeming to have become nothing more than meth labs and some disappearing altogether? From what I read, cities are full of energy and the 'burbs and rural areas are not, and it's the way things are going these days. Thank God for those half my age.

Gaylord - as always, you bring something special to the conversation. Suburbia: (shudder!) God save us all from Mayberry.

About that house on South Lucerne Avenue: I've met the current owners (they've had it somewhere around 7 years now) & understand they've done quite a bit of interior restoration. No, they aren't elderly (best guess in their early-to-mid-40s) & seem to be taking their time on the work. That would help to explain the wild-garden look of the grounds.

[GaylordWilshire]

My imagining an elderly crone living in the house since it was built is purely my own fantasy, spawned by this house. I'm glad to hear that your friends are restoring 629. I'm hoping they will keep the lawn exactly as it is--a real lawn, not overdone, original-looking. Just my preference. Maybe you can find out if those are the same lions.

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

[/url]
la1231outdoorcoffeestan
Here is an enigmatic photo I found on ebay of an outdoor coffee stand in Los Angeles, ca. 1910

ebay

Notice the numerous stanchions made out of wood behind the coffee stand.
I can't quite figure out what is going on. Is it perhaps the beginning of a new building?

Can anyone here guess the location?

Isn't that the tower atop the Baker Block building in the far background - left?
It might be possible with an old city map to approximate the location. The stanchions look temporary to me. Like a Circus, festival or fair site being erected.

http://losangelespast.blogspot.com/

[ethereal_reality]

Interesting research going on this afternoon.
I didn't expect anyone to find the cyanotype house (to be honest, I hadn't noticed the street number above the porch),
and yet Moxie was able to offer some leads and G_W eventually found the house. Pretty cool!

[ethereal_reality]

Here is a nice kodachrome slide of the Richfield Building & tower standing guard over the L.A. Public Library.


found on ebay

The building with the two visible chimneys (there are four) and 'porthole' windows is the famous California Club.

http://www.californiaclub.org/about/about_club.aspx

___

[ethereal_reality]

ebay


Beeman refers to the sign on the side of the building, "Beeman & Hendee Infant and Juvenile Wear,Toys".

This is an odd little snapshot what with the glare and the position of the man. But what is that on the street that looks as wide as a boxcar....or am I seeing things?

___

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Interesting research going on this afternoon.
I didn't expect anyone to find the cyanotype house (to be honest, I hadn't noticed the street number above the porch),
and yet Moxie was able to offer some leads and G_W eventually found the house. Pretty cool!

Cool indeed!
That's the stuff that makes this thread extra-excellent.

[malumot]

I think that's LA City Hall getting off the ground.

Originally Posted by fhammon

Isn't that the tower atop the Baker Block building in the far background - left?
It might be possible with an old city map to approximate the location. The stanchions look temporary to me. Like a Circus, festival or fair site being erected.

http://losangelespast.blogspot.com/

[Moxie]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Interesting research going on this afternoon.
I didn't expect anyone to find the cyanotype house (to be honest, I hadn't noticed the street number above the porch),
and yet Moxie was able to offer some leads and G_W eventually found the house. Pretty cool!

Teamwork, that's what that is.

As a follow-up on Annie McCorkell, she was born on Dec. 8, 1893 in Upper Sandusky, Ohio (a town that always makes me think of Doris Day in That Touch of Mink -- "If that's what you think, you don't know the girls in Upper Sandusky!"). Her middle name was Elsie and her parents were both from Greenock, Scotland (which is on the Firth of Clyde, just west of Glasgow). I'm sure they had a very interesting journey to California, with stops in Ohio and Illinois, having 4 kids along the way. There are some additional records for the family post 1910 (like Ronald's WWI Draft Card), but not as many as there could be. Since the 1940 Census is not yet searchable for California, I may check back on that later to see if I can find out what happened to Annie.

Info courtesy of the Ohio, Births and Christenings Index, 1800-1962 via Ancestry.com.

[ethereal_reality]

I think you're correct fhammon that the building in the coffee stand snapshot is the old Baker Block building.

[MichaelRyerson]

I have the sense it may be a large wagon just coming out onto the street from the right and making a sharp turn to the right to continue on up the street away from the camera. I think you can make out the hooves of a team just under it and the front carraige is stressed all the way around to the right so it looks like the left front wheel is on the short side of the wagon when it is actually over on that side because of the sharpness of the turn. anyway that's my take.

[malumot]

Beautiful. Walked past several in the older hill section just north of Downtown Fullerton this past weekend...I'll take pics next time.

Cobblestones were once a pretty common building material, especially for chimneys.....after all, the price was right, so long as one was willing to pick 'em up and load 'em into a truck. Main problem is that cobblestones and earthquakes do not mix.

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

GoogleSV

More of the Butterfield wall....

[GaylordWilshire]

Just ran across this shot from the Times of July 25, 1926. Having always been a fan of John Parkinson, and fascinated by the '20s boom in house moving, I did a double-take. Here is the architect's own house, which wasn't demolished after all. Seems it was moved. But to where? It's a long haul to Windsor Square/Hancock Park along 6th Street. It's possible, I suppose, but if it still stands, it's probably somewhere along the 6th Street corridor but closer than WS/HP.


USCDL x2

I wrote about this house a while back in post #6942. Since then I've learned that Parkinson was living at 600 St. Paul Ave by 1901; he was at 688 Wilshire Place by 1915 (later a house that would be in the shadow of his Bullock's-Wilshire) and in Santa Monica by 1921. (Could he have taken his St. Paul house to Wilshire Place?--the picture above maybe be older than the date of the paper it appeared in.) Anyway... I'll be optimistic that it might still stand. Dinner at Romanoff's on me for you and a hundred of your closest friends to the first person who can find it... dead or alive. A couple of other notes--if Parkinson didn't take it with him, 600 became the Liberty Club in 1918, apparently for servicemen. Or maybe something else went up, something multi-unit, say.... another mystery: What was on the lot between Parkinson's house (whenever it was moved off of St. Paul) and the Westinghouse building? Forgive me for thinking out loud here....

EDIT: The house was found, but it's gone again, this time for good: http://losangeleshistory.blogspot.co...tories_12.html

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by malumot

I think that's LA City Hall getting off the ground.

I believe that would be the Federal Building on Main Street.
Remind me to post some stills from the norish film T-Men.
I think it's still available to view on Youtube.

[malumot]

That one on the right needs no further information ....

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

Flappers with Chocolates, by L.A. photographer Harry Wegner. Found on ebay, no other information available.



www.ebay.com