noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

I'm sure there will be plenty of daylight shots in the coming hours, but here's one of the LA Times pictures.


LA Times

This is roughly the same angle showing how far the building had progressed in September.


GSV

Check out post #12415 by kznyc2k for several views of the area before the construction of the apartments began.


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Thanks for the great follow-up on the Buchanan kidnapping story, Lorendoc. You tied up several loose ends and found the house!

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by HossC

Another house, another 1930s kidnapping. This time the victim was 65-year-old Mary B Skeele, wife of Dr Walter F Skeele who was Dean of Music at USC (NB. the caption below gives Dr Skeele's middle initial as "K", but the 1929 CD and the article I link to both say "F").



eBay

There was no need to research this story and look for press clippings because someone beat me to it. The whole story can be found in three parts on derangedlacrimes.com. They calculated that the $10,000 ransom was currently equivalent to nearly $180,000.

Mary Skeele kidnap part 1
Mary Skeele kidnap part 2
Mary Skeele kidnap part 3

SPOILER ALERT: Mrs Skeele was released safely within 24 hours and the kidnappers were all caught. Police also discovered that the original target was someone else.

This time, thanks to the 1929 CD, I was able to find the address of the house. Other than the addition of a carport and some new roof tiles, 136 S Avenue 55 hasn't changed much since 1933.


GSV

All the censuses where Mr Skeele appears have his middle initial as "F"

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

-They're also putting their fingerprints on all the weapons.
I'm also curious about those brown jugs in the corner of the closet.
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S. C. Foy, Leather Depot


eBay


I found their AD in the 1875 directory.



LAPL

No. 17, Los Angeles Street
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Samuel Calvert Foy was born in Washington D.C. in September of 1830. He came to Los Angeles prior to June 1860 where he appears in the 1860 Census as being in the saddlery business with an older brother, John Foy. He and his wife Lucinda appear in the 1880 Census in Los Angeles with their five children. Their residence at that time was 489 Pearl Street, (later Figueroa) Los Angeles. Mr. Foy appears in that census as being a harness maker. An 1894 directory shows the family at 651 S. Pearl St., with his shop at 315 N. Los Angeles Street. That directory indicates that Mr Foy also made tents.

In 1900 the family was living at 651 S. Figueroa. By then they had a Chinese cook named Ah Luey. Mr. Foy was, at some point. the Chief of Police for Los Angeles.

A directory from 1907 lists Mr Foy's harness and saddlery shop as being at 315 N. Los Angeles Street. It lists it as his "estate". Mr Foy died in April of 1901

The house he and his wife built in 1872, which was originally located at 7th and Figueroa, was noted to be the first three story house in the city. At some point, the house was sold and moved to 631-633 S. Witmer. It was across the street from Good Samaritan Hospital and in the 1980's the building was donated to Good Samaritan. In the 1990's the house was moved a third time and is now located at 1337 Carroll Avenue in the Angeleno Heights district. It is the house featured on the "Charmed" TV series.


The early addresses come from the Censuses and from directories and the information about the house comes from Wikipedia.

S.C. Foy is still in the business of leather goods today. They have a website

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by HossC

I'm sure there will be plenty of daylight shots in the coming hours, but here's one of the LA Times pictures.


LA Times

This is roughly the same angle showing how far the building had progressed in September.


GSV

Check out post #12415 by kznyc2k for several views of the area before the construction of the apartments began.


-----------


Thanks for the great follow-up on the Buchanan kidnapping story, Lorendoc. You tied up several loose ends and found the house!

I park for work on the old bus deck next to the SubTerminal building and this morning there were chunks of burnt embers an inch across all over the deck from the fire a few blocks away. The smoke was just clearing when we came down Temple on the way to work and the lobby of Cal Plaza Two still smelled of smoke.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by oldstuff

Samuel Calvert Foy was born in Washington D.C. in September of 1830. He came to Los Angeles prior to June 1860 where he appears in the 1860 Census as being in the saddlery business with an older brother, John Foy. He and his wife Lucinda appear in the 1880 Census in Los Angeles with their five children. Their residence at that time was 489 Pearl Street, (later Figueroa) Los Angeles. Mr. Foy appears in that census as being a harness maker. An 1894 directory shows the family at 651 S. Pearl St., with his shop at 315 N. Los Angeles Street. That directory indicates that Mr Foy also made tents.

In 1900 the family was living at 651 S. Figueroa. By then they had a Chinese cook named Ah Luey. Mr. Foy was, at some point. the Chief of Police for Los Angeles.

A directory from 1907 lists Mr Foy's harness and saddlery shop as being at 315 N. Los Angeles Street. It lists it as his "estate". Mr Foy died in April of 1901

The house he and his wife built in 1872, which was originally located at 7th and Figueroa, was noted to be the first three story house in the city. At some point, the house was sold and moved to 631-633 S. Witmer. It was across the street from Good Samaritan Hospital and in the 1980's the building was donated to Good Samaritan. In the 1990's the house was moved a third time and is now located at 1337 Carroll Avenue in the Angeleno Heights district. It is the house featured on the "Charmed" TV series.

The early addresses come from the Censuses and from directories and the information about the house comes from Wikipedia.

S.C. Foy is still in the business of leather goods today. They have a website

The Foy House at 1337 Carroll Avenue. I've never watched 'Charmed', but you can see the Charmed Wikia page about the house here.


GSV

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by HossC

I'm sure there will be plenty of daylight shots in the coming hours, but here's one of the LA Times pictures.


LA Times

This is roughly the same angle showing how far the building had progressed in September.


GSV

Check out post #12415 by kznyc2k for several views of the area before the construction of the apartments began.


-----------


Thanks for the great follow-up on the Buchanan kidnapping story, Lorendoc. You tied up several loose ends and found the house!

These types of buildings have burned before. The suspicious arson cause at that time was found to be anger over union hiring rules.

The fight then was that the contractors wanted to hire the cheaper illegal drywall installers. The Union said NO.

One wonders if that noir battle is still raging.

[ethereal_reality]

Here's an amazing view of the fire.


http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6898
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[ethereal_reality]

World Cruise - Hamburg Amerika Linie - Weltreise

1932


City Hall - Los Angeles - Rathaus



reverse / interesting descriptions, especially the last paragraph.

eBay



http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb....db/ships_R.htm


The 'Resolute'

http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=resol
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[ethereal_reality]

1930s


http://www.storyofhollywood.com/Author.html

"The Pilgrimage Cross on the Caheunga Pass Overlook as seen from Hollywood Dell."
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[ethereal_reality]

One of a kind.

Rare 1920s snapshot showing film star Bebe Daniels in the back-seat of a car.


eBay

-with all kinds of interesting 'writings' on the back.
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[ethereal_reality]

Billboard next to the Mona Lisa Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard.


ebay

Thanks oldstuff and HossC for locating the Foy house.
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[HossC]

There don't seem to be many pictures of the aftermath of today's fire. I suppose it's understandable given that pictures of flames are more dramatic than pictures of embers. Here are a couple I've found.

I'm surprised that buildings of this size are still being constructed largely from wood. It reminds me of the fire at a nearly finished apartment complex in Houston back in March. This shot shows how the stairs survived while all around was destroyed. I would have thought that at least the stairwell should have been made of concrete. From what I've read/heard, the building behind suffered fire on three floors, sprinker activations on several other floors due to heat, and windows blown out on every floor. It even looks like the lettering at the top started to melt.


eric spillman on Twitter

Here's a wider shot that I grabbed from ABC7 News earlier. It looks like the section of the development on the east of Temple (on the left of this picture) survived unscathed. It could've been a different story if there had been a strong wind.


ABC7 News

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by HossC

There don't seem to be many pictures of the aftermath of today's fire. I suppose it's understandable given that pictures of flames are more dramatic than pictures of embers. Here are a couple I've found.

I'm surprised that buildings of this size are still being constructed largely from wood. It reminds me of the fire at a nearly finished apartment complex in Houston back in March. This shot shows how the stairs survived while all around was destroyed. I would have thought that at least the stairwell should have been made of concrete. From what I've read/heard, the building behind suffered fire on three floors, sprinker activations on several other floors due to heat, and windows blown out on every floor. It even looks like the lettering at the top started to melt.




ABC7 News

Downtown LA is now being flooded with these cheap wooden apartment building. They're reminiscent of the ones built on Bunker Hill in the 1920s. Its all about the quick buck for the landowners.

Most large cities would never allow this type of economy apartment buildings in their city center.

Long Beach allowed the horrific ''cracker box" apartments in the 1970s. Now we see LA descending into a similar dismal swamp.

[amybang]

Originally Posted by so-cal-bear

Seriously? A dmnd Starbucks here? I remember this gasoline station being a "Classic Texaco" from late 1990's to early 2000's when I worked in the area. No, I never stopped at it as their prices were very high to cover their olde tymey theme maybe catering to tourists with their rental cars. But again, this gasoline station will become a freaking Starbucks? This used to originally be a Gilmore Oil station when built.

Yeah, but that's people fuel.

amy!

[amybang]

Originally Posted by HossC

There don't seem to be many pictures of the aftermath of today's fire. I suppose it's understandable given that pictures of flames are more dramatic than pictures of embers. Here are a couple I've found.

Thanks for the aerial shot Hoss. I heard about the fire extensively on the newsradio when I ducked out at lunchtime today (so 9am for LA) and saw a couple of night time photos that were posted on Hidden LA but I couldn't get a real sense for where it actually was.

To CBD's point, those massive ~5 story luxury apartment complexes are popping up all over Boston too. 50 years from now, we'll look back at them fondly.

amy!

[malumot]

I couldn't let this pass. Wrong on so many levels. My mind boggles.

(For the record, as just about everyone here knows, Bunker Hill's apartment stock was pretty much built 1900-1915 or so. By 1920 it was built out (or to be more precise, the original 1870s and 1880s Victorians had been replaced.)

As to "cheap" "economy" etc.......

Frame built 4 and 5 story apartment buildings are the standard in So Cal. Provides good quake resistance. And what with modern engineered wood, etc. these are far better constructed than the Sunshine, the Alta Vista, or the Lovejoy.

Of course you technically could build a 4 story steel frame. Not that anyone would. Your pockets would be empty. It doesn't pencil, as they say. Not even close.

You must not spend much time in So Cal, Dougie.

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Downtown LA is now being flooded with these cheap wooden apartment building. They're reminiscent of the ones built on Bunker Hill in the 1920s. Its all about the quick buck for the landowners.

Most large cities would never allow this type of economy apartment buildings in their city center.

Long Beach allowed the horrific ''cracker box" apartments in the 1970s. Now we see LA descending into a similar dismal swamp.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by malumot

I couldn't let this pass. Wrong on so many levels. My mind boggles.

(For the record, as just about everyone here knows, Bunker Hill's apartment stock was pretty much built 1900-1915 or so. By 1920 it was built out (or to be more precise, the original 1870s and 1880s Victorians had been replaced.)

As to "cheap" "economy" etc.......

Frame built 4 and 5 story apartment buildings are the standard in So Cal. Provides good quake resistance. And what with modern engineered wood, etc. these are far better constructed than the Sunshine, the Alta Vista, or the Lovejoy.

Of course you technically could build a 4 story steel frame. Not that anyone would. Your pockets would be empty. It doesn't pencil, as they say. Not even close.

You must not spend much time in So Cal, Dougie.

Well Malumotie, for some odd reason, I just do not feel safe in these cheap new apartments. Plus, the neighbors are rather nervous.



LATimes

[malumot]

I still don't know where you keep getting off on "cheap" and "nervous neighbors". If you live anywhere within the sound of Jerry Dunphy's voice, chances are overwhelming you live in a building built JUST LIKE THIS ONE.

I will say one thing we agree on......personally, I wouldn't want to live in one either, but for density and noise reasons...not intrinsic safety.

Where do you live? The Bat-Cave in Griffith Park? LOL

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Well Malumotie, for some odd reason, I just do not feel safe in these cheap new apartments. Plus, the neighbors are rather nervous.



LATimes

[ConstructDTLA]

There are a ton of fire images on the other (modern-day, modern-architecture) LA threads. Here is some legitimate historic architecture, in legitimate danger.


Anyone interested in the only views inside the Roxie Theatre in Downtown LA?








More pics at www.SouthOnSpring.com


Or how about the only shots of the interior of the soon-to-be-destroyed Warner Huntington Park theatre. A baby brother to the grand Pantages Hollywood:

[caldor120la]

Hunter thanks for the images of the Roxie and WHP which I had seen just recently. I knew what to expect going inside the Roxie but one never knows for sure. What first interest me in the Broadway area and downtown LA was it's collection of movie palaces found nowhere else in the world, and the red and yellow streetcars that once roamed it's streets. The hope of bringing this section back with all its challenges fascinates so many of us. After the fire on Monday your photos were very welcome, still so much to be done. Enjoy your work very much.