Welcome to NLA, Carter_Auto_Motive; and your first post is #60,000!

from Quora: "Brownstones were lived in by families that had servants. The Main Floor (the Parlor) was the ‘living area’ for the residents. The area underneath the Main floor was all for service areas. Coal was the predominant source of heat at that time, so the horse/carriages pulling coal brought the dirty stuff right up to the houses (remember, no ‘sidewalks’ and sewage often ran in the street, even in the nice parts of town.)"

From The Mud Flood Hypothesis: "The “mud flood” hypothesis is centered around the ancient empire of Tartaria, or Tartary, as it existed two hundred years ago, a continent-wide showcase of advanced architecture, transportation, free energy, and wireless technology. Tartary is generally described as occupying a large portion of Asia and Russia, bounded by the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains, the Pacific Ocean and Bulgaria, and the southern borders of China, India, and Persia. At one point, it took up the vast bulk of the Russian continent." Please pass the tinfoil.

Oh, wow, how about that! Seems quite an impressive landmark considering the quality of posters here, and the mastery with which they dig through the historical record to bring the past to life! :worship:

That is 1109 W Adams Blvd, 1896-1967. More here
PS: FWIW I realize I have had two versions of this post online; this link leads to the correct one, published in 2011, which has a colorized version of ER's ebay find as well as FW's trade-journal find. (The house partially seen at right in ER's wider version is 1101 W Adams.)


https://i.postimg.cc/NG960qrB/WAD110...FB-968x669.jpg

1109 West Adams
 

Hello, Carter_Auto_Motive! Gosh, you made quite a contribution right off the bat, using the grainy image of 1109 West Adams
to ID e_r's ebay photo of the same house.

I'm grateful you did, because I was finally able to ID this image, which I've had in my files for a while, as an earlier view of
1109 W. Adams:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag..._June_1904.jpg

The Inland Architect and News Record, Vol 43, Number 5 (June 1904) @ Hathitrust

Not a Historical Photo,
 

In fact it was in yesterday's LA Times, taken by Luis Sinco. I think it's spectacular and don't recall seeing too many photos showing the coastline, skyline and snow covered mountains all at once.
I can't positively identify which shoreline is shown. It looks like Redondo Beach, south of King Harbor with the steep banks and angled walkways but there seem to be too many large buildings for that area. There is an eight story apartment building on The Esplanade in Redondo that is a good match for the large white structure at the right forefront. The big multi story reddish structure just left of center is the one that doesn't look right for Redondo. I compared Santa Monica and Long Beach, other locales with sizable drops to the sand and they don't seem to match.
The angle, with L.A. City Hall being to the right of downtown might be a clue but the enormous depth of field makes things tricky.

https://i.imgur.com/zrIquIn.png
L.A. Times

:previous:

Thanks for posting that Bristolian, I hadn't seen it!

Is the tall building with the white spire pointing to Mt Waterman?
Then the beach is probably Manhattan Beach.
Big guess.

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Welcome to NLA, Carter Auto Motive! :) That was some impressive sleuthing.



Nah. We're not that picky and your first post was pretty much. .um. . perfect.

Glad to have you aboard.

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I believe the spire is pointing towards Strawberry Peak, with Waterman to the right (foreshortened of course) - it is a challenging perspective, but an amazing photo, thanks for sharing, Bristolian!

:previous:

The A-shaped arrangement of stairs and ramps at the lower right is at the foot of Avenue C in Redondo Beach.

:previous:

I agree. The left part of that "A" are stairs that run straight up and down the bank and here they appear angled which was throwing me off. Now, considering the perspective and everything appearing flattened it makes sense.

I found this shot on Instagram and thought it must have been taken by the same photographer but it's not. This was taken by South Bay photographer Brent Broza a little bit north but still off the coast of Redondo. The Portofino Inn and old Edison generating plant are in the foreground. Different backdrop but still striking.

https://i.imgur.com/Of5E8lr.png
https://www.brozaphoto.com/landscapes-1

this vid posted today, one of the classic properties of old timey LA.....

• Video Link

Left for 6 years, I come back to see the same familiar faces and the thread is still going strong.

You found the exit? I've been wandering these corridors for years, and haven't been able to escape!

Who wants to escape? This is Paradise.

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Here's a very cool billboard advertising the Hollywood Bowl. (1950s?)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/svoG63.jpg
eBay

I wonder where the billboard was located. It's obviously on top of a building so. .um. .Highland Ave. perhaps? :shrug:


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Mystery ephemera via eBay
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Have anyone heard of the House of Usher in Venice California?


Seller's description:..Original 1932 Vintage Horoscope House of Usher Venice Beach California.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/bsmZVU.jpg
eBay







And the reverse which is a bit difficult to read.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/1vClGA.jpg


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/vyxmeU.jpg


I need an address. :whip:

:previous:

No address yet, but I found the following at www.cointalk.com:

"The Ushers" were Harry and Frances Usher, a pair of entertainers who performed around the United States in the 1920's and 1930's as magicians, mentalists, and psychics. They retired from performing in 1935 and opened their store in Venice, a Pacific Ocean beach front community west of Los Angeles, California. The store operated until around 1950 when Harry Usher passed away.

There's more info and pictures of the coins at the link.

"Los Angeles Streets at Night. 1949"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Ztr1QqOdo


and honorable mention, Oil Wells >>



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yobg5SXTFro

PE downtown station, 1944
 

Another cover picture from the August, 1944 Pacific Electric employees' magazine. This one shows the street outside the PE Station at Sixth and Main. Lots of foot traffic. The picture is described in the magazine as follows: COVER PICTURE—Pacific Electric office building and terminal at Sixth and Main, where busses leave the Pacific Electric Station, where Pasadena cars turn north on Main Street, where the Watts-Sierra Vista Line picks up and discharges innumerable passengers, where pedestrians and automobiles are apparently always in a hurry.
https://i.imgur.com/xcn6Fdu.jpg

Not sure where it was located in 1932 but 1947 and 1952 directories have House Of Usher at 208 Pier Ave, Ocean Park


https://i.imgur.com/wmLbRzU.jpg
rescarta.lapl.org


Harry and Frances Usher in 1940.


https://i.imgur.com/LKeR1ua.jpg
geniimagazine.com


When Harry died in 1950, he and the family were living at 860 Chautauqua Blvd in Pacific Palisades.


https://i.imgur.com/mJH0EpL.jpg
cdnc.ucr.edu - Daily News (Los Angeles), 30 October 1950



In 1979 another "Harry" purchased the property and has lived there, with some additions, ever since.


https://i.imgur.com/lmLPUmH.jpg
ebay.com


https://i.imgur.com/9ldxVzh.jpg
urbansplatter.com

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Thanks for figiuring out the address, Noir Noir. :)



More on the House of Usher.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/GdZ2Ua.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/ssngh0.jpg
cointalk

Lots & lots of press! Sorry it isn't clearer.



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A new mystery location just listed on eBay.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/XnNvq0.jpg
eBay

Whoever took the photograph must have been awfully short or standing in a hole.

A quick search of the thread shows no other mention of Holterhoff on NLA.
.

:previous:

Time lapse.

The patio and garden at the Holterhoff residence.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/FL9Xpp.jpg
eBay

This photograph was on the same album page as the photograph in the previous post.
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Thanks for these links, very clear footage. You can read many of the signs on the streets; ones we know like the Rosslyn Hotel, Hotel Cecil with neon lines, Gayety Theatre, Maxwell's and Waldorf Cellar, and others I don't recall like Miyako Hotel, Sukiyaki, the Turquoise Room (advertising television in 1949), Club 153 (sounds familiar), Rhapsody, The Harbor and the 3 Star Cafe (that makes me laugh). I like that in some of the footage along the dark streets, the streetcar tracks are lit up by reflected light. Wonder what film these background shots were filmed for?

I notice that those who comment on historic youtube videos of Los Angeles continually remark in the comments how clean it looks/used to be, on film noir footage, no less. Someone even does it on this one, filmed in the dark, although another comment says "you can even see the smog lit up at night." I'd like them to watch the Oil Wells video and wonder if they think the same things? There are a lot of people who record trips along the streets of L.A., Hollywood and such now that one can watch on youtube and those streets look clean, too, so I don't understand that obsession with people making constant comments like that.

1360 West Adams. GW has a better picture and a load of information on his West Adams Boulevard blog.

:previous:


A view without the top cut off... if only ER's great find wasn't decapitated.


https://i.postimg.cc/C5k5Xz4W/WAD136...93x546-bmp.jpg

When that bldg, not far from skid row, several yrs ago was converted to apts, I thought the owners would end up with plenty of unleased units. I think it actually filled up rather quickly. Never underestimate human tenacity.

• Video Link

I hate to think of the condition of the PE bldg's roof before this contractor entered the picture....never say never :D....

https://youtu.be/A2nVJwYoV58

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This interesting slide from the 1950s just turned up on eBay


Does anyone recognize this intersection? :shrug:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/G1waly.jpg
eBay

Are we looking at the back of the Carthay Apartments or was that one-story retail building with the small shops built IN FRONT of the apartment building?

I'd also like to know more about the Tudoresque building and the modern market on the left.

I love the orange truck.
.

:previous:

Looking west from near the May Co building at Wilshire & Fairfax. The Carthay Apartments building is still standing, but its sign has gone.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...reFairfax1.jpg
GSV

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I wonder if the Carthay Apartments sign is in storage somewhere. It might be fairly easy to put back up since the old brackets are still on the roof.

Thanks for identifying the location, Hoss....I appreciate it. :)

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One of many posts touching on this familiar structure. E.g., https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...postcount=6274


https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-N...2520PM.bmp.jpg


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5...2520PM.bmp.jpghttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-B...2520PM.bmp.jpg

Wonderful, glad to help!

Thanks for the welcome, and thank you for starting this wonderful thread!


This picture was recently making the rounds, sounds like maybe Facebook initially based on the caption attached here. Was the March 1951 Hot Rod Magazine cover picture as well.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...2-jpg.5673070/
Link to thread at jalopyjournal.com where I saw the picture posted today.

And a link to a thread about the Mines Field road race that this parade of cars was soon to run.

I also wanted to jump back real quick to an e_r post from a few months back.

I left e_r's pictures intact, since the post was some time ago.
I believe this is 502 W 53rd. The photographer is standing on W 53rd facing South with S Figueroa to their left. So, it would indeed be a part of the property with the giant seashell on it, which is still a church. There have been numerous religious organizations at the location for many years in the CDs.

Anyhow, the reason that particular location caught my interest is that it just so happens to be across the street from one of the locations I've been researching. I'll get to that eventually, but here's a pic from a little further west on W 53rd looking back towards S Figueroa. The building in question is on the right hand side of the picture in the background, partially obscured by the utility pole. The unique front and roof shape is just visible.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ec1459fe_o.png

Picture cropped from Revs Institute Library

I was driving through Baldwin Park today and noticed this interesting and stately looking building at 14362 Ramona Bl.

https://i.imgur.com/EjVc8E1.png

With this detail:

https://i.imgur.com/dekq6nR.png

It is just across the street from the current civic center and I'm wondering with the scales of justice cast in relief, could this be the former courthouse?
A real estate site has a build date of 1926.

Edit: Viewing from Ramona Bl. certainly makes one think it is a rectangular box but it is actually built to fit the angles of the intersection and alley/parking behind.

https://i.imgur.com/PFJ1MeR.png

:previous:


https://i.postimg.cc/TwXhkkcT/baldwi...49x577-bmp.jpg
Dated Aug 19, 1951

BofA covering up the scales with its sign. Given the scales it might seem as if the building was a court building, or law offices...but seems it was built as the First National Bank of Baldwin Park, its address then being 102 W El Monte


https://i.postimg.cc/FF3p7MhN/bpbank...25x380-bmp.jpg
LAT May 21, 1927


The library's card covers most of it, but here it is in the 1931 BP city directory:

https://i.postimg.cc/yd2Gs71Z/bpbank31-CD.png

1932 labelled picture:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...928d9416_z.jpg

From this Baldwin Park book by Bob Benbow, Lorraine O'Brien, Baldwin Park Historical Society · 2011

And a cropped version showing a little more detail maybe.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a14669d9_h.jpg

:previous:

Thanks guys. It was obvious the building had a real story. It's amazing what you can stumble across when stopped at a red light.

GaylordWishire's abilities are well known here and although Carter is brand new, he is showing some real skills right from the start. I sense a ringer.

The wonderful Tudor pile at Wilshire and Fairfax was the original 1940s Tom Bergin's, The Horseshoe Tavern. It tends to get lost in the bar's lore, maybe because the address was often given as Wilshire and Fairfax (which the new one is close enough to) or perhaps because the signage was so low profile. Has anyone seen a photo of the old building with a readable Horseshoe Tavern sign?

Some great documentary photos of 1980s Melrose Avenue are on eBay from a seller called Zap Vintage.

Retail Slut 7517 Melrose Ave. with customers
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d46f26de_b.jpg
ebay
...and without
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...847b6d9e_b.jpg
ebay

Flash Feet of London 7423 Melrose Ave.
Time After Time 7425 Melrose Ave.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9e47c46055.jpg
ebay

Hama
Warbabies 7457 Melrose Ave.
Le Duc Restaurant 7455 Melrose Ave.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9a12c18f_z.jpg
7500 Block Melrose Ave.
A selective look at the 1987 CD includes:
Hollywood Neon Inc. 7553 Melrose Ave.
Z Gallerie 7555 Melrose Ave.
Hobson's Fine Blended Ice Creams 7555 1/2 Melrose Ave.
Industrial Revolution 7560 Melrose Ave.
Queen's Cafe 7561 Melrose Ave.
Twist 7565 Melrose Ave
Billie Jean 7565 Melrose Ave
Roppongi 7574 Melrose Ave
Aaardvark's Odd Ark 7579 Melrose Ave
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...97f189aa_b.jpg
ebay

Pacific Electric Building
Photo by Stephen Austin Welch
Los Angeles magazine
June, 2004
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...98898830_z.jpg

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You guys have been busy since the last time I checked in. :) ... Good to see!


Here's a sister slide to the Carthay Apartments slide I posted a few days ago.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/GzL1HW.jpg
eBay

I should definitely recognize the interesting apartment building across the street but there are several somewhat similar apartments & I can't decide which one this is. . .
. . .and -as you can plainly see- the photograph was taken from a Mobil Gas station. (I take it the round thing is an air compressor)


Thanks for the additional photographs of the Carthay Apartments, Godzilla. I appreciate it. :)


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P.E. Building
 

I had a part time job as Security/Night Watchman at the Pacific Stock Exchange just down the street from the P.E. but on Spring St. years ago. One night about 3AM I apparently hallucinated (maybe) and seen a crowd of men in suits wearing hats walking down the marble hallway going to the elevator. From then on I believed the place was haunted. I bet he has seen things too but won't say.

Haunted or not, the venerated Pacific Stock Exchange Building (618 Spring), remains. The trading floor has also served as a dance floor.




https://www.theclio.com/entry/42885
https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ostcount=48513


https://calisphere.org/clip/500x500/...17e758791465cahttps://calisphere.org/clip/500x500/...17e758791465ca






https://live.staticflickr.com/3410/3...0378dfca_b.jpghttps://live.staticflickr.com/3410/3...0378dfca_b.jpg



http://images.huffingtonpost.com/201...terior_155.jpghttp://images.huffingtonpost.com/201...terior_155.jpg



https://www.discotech.me/wp-content/...change_la3.jpghttps://www.discotech.me/wp-content/...change_la3.jpg

The actual Exchange, before a 2006-merger, eventually relocated to a structure at 233 S. Beaudry.





https://reaumerichardson.com/wp-cont...Richardson.jpghttps://reaumerichardson.com/wp-cont...Richardson.jpg

esotouric . . .

I'm sorry to say but, no, I haven't seen a photograph with the sign clearly in view.




Hmmm. .I see that there were two different 'full' names and two different phone numbers. (see below)

#1
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/WBiKvG.jpg
no date

#2
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...924/S23B7g.jpg
no date

Matchbook covers courtesy of jericl cat





This is probably a simple typo but Bergin is listed as Berglin in a few of the old city directories.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...924/uN6syA.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/HfbD7u.jpg
.

That's the Heather, which I wrote a bit about here.

It did not end well for the beloved Heather. Esotouric did a nifty post, and I did a short video about her, but now, there's just an empty lot.

And yes, I was the one who bought that slide! (That *and* the Carthay slide.)

I don't want to sidetrack ethereal's & others thread on the subj of old LA, but your post reminds me why truth is stranger than reality. If you go to this youtube page, https://www.youtube.com/@LMN, & watch its many vids, you'll realize that the supernatural isn't just the stuff of bad Hollywood movies or goofy ghost stories. :D This one in particular makes me think of your experience, although it involves an old bldg in Canada instead of one in LA. But many of the stories do involve old time sites in Calif too.


• Video Link

^ Since the hollywood theme & a variety of places in LA built decades ago are the topic, some of those locations very easily may be so-called haunted. It appears to be a way more common phenomenon than ppl may believe. I used to be a skeptic, but not anymore. I recall this story from yrs ago, about an actress & her writer-agent husband. I originally thought it possibly was a PR stunt, but it actually likely is based on a very authentic phenomenon. The husband of the celebrity did an article that appeared in a major magazine of the 1960s, which I recall seeing a copy of about 20 yrs ago.


https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/qZMAA...c-t/s-l500.jpg
ebay.com


https://lisawallerrogers.com/tag/elke-sommer/

^ FWIW, the house built in the 1950s apparently was torn down over the past 10-20 yrs & was an empty lot for awhile. Not sure if the current owner has since built a new house on the land.

Very interesting, citywatch. Thank you. I well-remember as a teenager reading the article about actress Elke Sommer's haunted house, which she and her husband fled after a mysterious fire.