Quote:
Originally Posted by JScott
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It is a big tree, but it's not El Aliso...
Forgive me
JScott. I got fatally turned around for a bit. Great find! When I first looked at that photo I didn't even see the tree.
In early days, old Aliso branched off to the NE from Aliso just west of the tree, at the Ramirez property, and did, I think, eventually cross or join the Macy street roadway (someone will know
much more than I do about this). The Aliso St bridge was south of the covered bridge. Wait, now I remember, Old Aliso was renamed Lyon St and crossed Macy:
Quote:
Originally Posted by JScott
I still think the photo dates to the mid-to-late 1880s, though.
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As C.C. Pierce took the photo from an upper-north window, or the roof, of the Vickrey-Brunswig building, it cannot be earlier than 1888.
I wish I could confirm the date of the Plaza design shown in the USC photo, as that might help. It looks very new. The Plaza was first cleaned up,
rounded and
landscaped in stages starting in 1871 (after demolishing the
reservoir, of course), an attempt, I think, the clean up our collective act, probably in response to the
Chinese Massacre (I'm sure Pio Pico had something to do with it too, as Pico House was very new). The fountain was elevated then; one had to access it with steps.
In time, the Plaza landscaping became very
overgrown and was again redone. The Morton Bay figs were saved from the old landscaping (they're still there BTW) for the lovely new Wheel-of-the-Year design of the park, but what year this happened, I don't know. I was hoping Nathan Masters would know, but he didn't say on his
blog.
I talked to Jack Feldman over at the Water & Power Museum. He was not at all surprised to see the light masts. He says 240 of these 150-foot-tall masts were in place by the mid 1880s, some quite far-flung.
Here's a second C.C. Pierce photo to compliment the one
HossC posted. Time to play spot-the difference (hint: they were
not taken on the same day):
usc digital library
zoomable version
Quote:
Originally Posted by HossC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
Anyone know what the large building is just to the right of this tower? It's pretty impressive.
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LA Orphans Home/ the Poor Home?