noirish Los Angeles

[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Perhaps they were just making an assumption, but the sources say it's a Rose Parade train--"About a block further north, at Glenarm Street, we see an inbound Rose Parade train passing the pseudo-Spanish style mini-mall at Glenarm Street in the '40s." uncanny.net seems to have gotten it from El Sereno Historical Society

GW, it is unfortunate that we can't enlarge the photo enough to read the banner on the second car. I think that would give us the answer. The light traffic is consistent with a Sunday Rose Parade day.

I checked the PERHS site to see if the photo might have been replicated there, but no luck.

Cheers,
Jack

[MichaelRyerson]

Mike and the 'vette and the Clay Street steps, 1955

Kiss Me Deadly, Robert Aldrich (1955)


Mike at the Hillcrest Hotel, 258 S. Olive Street, 1955


Mike has, unnecessarily, parked the 'vette down on Clay Street and climbed the stairs to the Hillcrest. He could have parked up here on Olive but it wouldn't have been as atmospheric. In any event, here he is entering the lobby of the Hillcrest looking for Carmen Trivago (Fortunio Bonanova) with the upper station of Angels Flight showing out the window and over his shoulder. 'No visitors after 10 pm'

Kiss Me Deadly, Robert Aldrich (1955)

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Here's a terrifying early view of the California Incline:

water and power

I can't see where it connects to the beach (?)

Interesting LAT article about the fragile cliff face. Palisades Park, gifted to us by Arcadia Bandini Sterns Baker, is 30 feet narrower than it was 70 years ago.

I always thought the early incline didn't go all the way down but lead to the top of the '99 steps'.


The '99 Steps' from the palisades to the beach below, Santa Monica, ca.1898

Photograph of the "99 Steps" from the palisades to the beach below, Santa Monica, ca.1898. Two small wood buildings -- one storage shed or shack, the other a dwelling or business with a small covered porch -- sit on the adjacent beach. The wooden steps bifurcate near the top at a landing.

USCdigital archive/Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

I always thought the early incline didn't go all the way down but lead to the top of the '99 steps'.

There don't seem to be any steps yet (?):

water and power

We seem to have a kind of mixed bag of "thens" (here's a five-flight version of the steps):

smpl

[ethereal_reality]

That side view is amazing t2!

So is this a second design of the '99 steps' that MichaelRyerson just posted?
It looks like they went to a lot of trouble in order to clear the railroad tracks and the new dirt road.


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[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

That side view is an amazing photograph t2!
So is that a later design of the '99 steps' that MichaelRyerson just posted?
Did they go to all that trouble just to clear the railroad tracks?

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LOL, I think it's an earlier version (?). I don't even know if it's the same location. I'm just confusing myself. MR's steps look like they go all the way to the top.

[CityBoyDoug]

This is the way LA Police made a movie record of their activity in 1946.



Today in 2015 they might use a tiny video recorder attached to their shirt.

[tovangar2]

OK, the Santa Monica History Museum blog says the steps were constructed in 1875 and altered in 1893 to let the trains pass under it. The steps were built at the foot of Arizona Avenue, well south of the present California Incline.

You were right e_r. MR's steps were earlier.

The Arizona Ave steps today:

gsv

[ethereal_reality]

I came across this interesting photograph on SkyscraperCity that I don't remember seeing on NLA. (I could be wrong, but I searched several times)

It shows an 'annex' behind the 409 room Hotel Figueroa that I hadn't noticed before.

I just noticed there's an arrow on the main building pointing down to the 'Plunge and Gymnasium'.
It also says the Y.W.C.A. entrance is on College Place.


http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=427

Did you notice the guy leaning on his wheelbarrow?


Here's College Place today.

google_earth


bing_maps

From the looks of things, the annex was torn down for today's swimming pool area.


http://weekenddelsol.com/our-favorit...n-tripadvisor/

Does anyone know when the indoor gymnasium and plunge portion of the Hotel Figueroa was torn down? -was it when it ceased to be a Y.W.C.A.

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[ethereal_reality]

As an afterthought, I decided to drive the google-mobile down College Place.


I came across this old neon sign for Figueroa Hotel parking!!


gsv



The parking lot is across the alley from the pool area.

gsv

I'd really like to know if the neon still works. Does anyone know?
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[tovangar2]

Thanks for the photo e_r. I had no idea there was ever any building behind the Figueroa Hotel.

Do you know anything about the statue at the west end of the pool? I assume it's not Jose


photoboxinc

I seem to recall that GW posted a fun ad for the hotel showing the back motor court entrance on Cottage Place, but now I can't find it.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Do you know anything about the statue at the west end of the pool?

I wish I did t2, it's really impressive.
That said, I think the lantern hanging from his arm was added later. It's much too large.
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[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I think the large lantern hanging from his arm might have been added later.
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Yes, the lantern is unfortunate and looks like it has telephone receivers painted on it:

flickr

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Does anyone know when the indoor gymnasium and plunge portion of the Hotel Figueroa was torn down? -was it when it ceased to be a Y.W.C.A.
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The YWCA built it (it opened in 1926) and lost it in 1929. History here. I don't know when the Y building got demolished. KCET dates your photo as 1940, but I think they're dreaming.

Lobby (1926)

dickwittington/uscdl via kcet

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

As an afterthought, I decided to drive the google-mobile down College Place.


I came across this old neon sign for Figueroa Hotel parking!!


gsv



The parking lot is across the alley from the pool area.

gsv

I'd really like to know if the neon still works. Does anyone know?
__

Gee, that's a nice old sign. I'd be a player for six hundred bucks.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I came across this interesting photograph on SkyscraperCity that I don't remember seeing on NLA. (I could be wrong, but I searched several times)

It shows an 'annex' behind the 409 room Hotel Figueroa that I hadn't noticed before.

I just noticed there's an arrow on the main building pointing down to the 'Plunge and Gymnasium'.
It also says the Y.W.C.A. entrance is on College Place.


http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=427

Does anyone know when the indoor gymnasium and plunge portion of the Hotel Figueroa was torn down? -was it when it ceased to be a Y.W.C.A.

USC have a zoomable version of the picture above - you can find it here. They date it at "before 1940".

I tried looking at Historic Aerials to find out when the building on the right was demolished. I'm pretty sure it's there on the 1948 image, and probably on the 1952 image too, but I think it's gone by 1964. The images are a little blurry at that zoom level.

Here's an advert for the Figueroa Hotel from the Hotel & Motel Red Book 1970. They used the same advert in 1965. It appears to show the Cottage Place entrance.


archive.org

[tovangar2]

Thx. That's the ad I remembered. It looks like Palm Springs. (And that's not how I say "Figueroa")

P.S. I wonder if the YWCA hung onto the Y building or leased it back. I can't imagine the hotel was using it (?)

P. P.S. I couldn't shake GW's prior post out of the search function to save myself, but once I had the image, it was mine.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

USC have a zoomable version of the Hotel Figueroa photograph- you can find it here.

I couldn't resist Hoss....I just had to look at these details.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...oll44/id/90469



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...oll44/id/90469



below: I've been trying to decipher what it says above this entrance. (I can read Hotel Figueroa and that's about it)


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...oll44/id/90469

I couldn't quite figure out the parked car at far left (at first I thought it was a golf cart), then I realized it's a convertible
parked in front of a small hut with an awning. -parking attendant? -magazines?

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[GaylordWilshire]

Times Aug 19, 1926


The opening was on August 14, 1926.



Previously posted by MichaelRyerson: http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=9135


Yes, there is the suggestion of Palm Springs in the city--prior post:http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=4579

[ethereal_reality]

Here's something I didn't know.


The Roosevelt Hotel has a bowling alley!


http://spareroomhollywood.com/home#menu


I went looking for the arched windows, lo and behold it says right there....'The Spare Room'.

gsv



One lane, per hour = a hundred bucks! $ $ $


http://spareroomhollywood.com/

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[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Perhaps they were just making an assumption, but the sources say it's a Rose Parade train--"About a block further north, at Glenarm Street, we see an inbound Rose Parade train passing the pseudo-Spanish style mini-mall at Glenarm Street in the '40s." uncanny.net seems to have gotten it from El Sereno Historical Society

GW, thanks to you and to everyone who tried to explain the photo. Experience teaches that Mr. Wetzel's normally quite meticulous in matters of PE/LARy; so I bow to him, to you and to Occam's Razor: a Rose Parade train it must've been.

The post-parade photos of S. Fair Oaks Ave. that I'm used to seeing tend to show multiple PE trains strung out, but this one might've been one of the later departures. In any case, it's a nice window into a vanished world.

Thanks again.