:previous:
Ooops duh that's Flower looking south, as you've mentioned. I must've had Figueroa on the brain.



This is indeed an amazing, amazing image, gsjansen.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/...9eebabae_o.jpg

I realize this picture was taken the year California became a state. You can see that LA truly was a little pueblo along a river. Wow.

LA's sure come quite a LONG way in a 150 years.:)

i am truly a sucker for people who drag photographic equipment up to dizzying heights to capture amazing images.

someone climbed to the top of the los angeles gas tanks to capture these images of the pre-union station site.

this 1933 image is looking west across the union station site which is bounded by aliso street on the south, alameda street on the west, macy street on the north, and lyon street on the east. the street on the left side of the photo is aliso street. chinatown is still intact in this image

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-14531?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-14531?v=hr

the exact same view 2 years later in 1935. only the western section of chinatown remains, however, within the next year, this will be gone as well.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-44127?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-44127?v=hr


this 1935 image is looking north/westerly towards the intersection of macy and alameda. the main road which leads off into the distance at the upper left of the photograph is sunset boulevard

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-41358?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-41358?v=hr


a similar 1936 image looking northwesterly at the intersection of macy and alameda.....bye bye chinatown

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...BUI-339~1?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...BUI-339~1?v=hr


i really like this 1927 image looking north from city hall, because the roof of the still standing Beaudry house is very visible lower left at the intersection of new high and republic street

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-44126?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-44126?v=hr

the 1850 aerial view with a google earth 1994 view

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5043/...df42b94b_b.jpg

That is quite amazing. Wow.

Another January 15 approaches – and if Elizabeth Short doesn’t define noirish – I’d be remiss if it passed unnoticed.

I crawled through my Hollywood cards until I found — The Brevoort...

...AKA first Hollywood address of Elizabeth Short. She and Gordon Fickling shacked here Aug 20-26, 1946.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/...b52cd28f_o.jpg

She thereafter bounced around, the Hawthorn, Mark Hansen’s, the Figueroa, the Guardian Arms, etc.

Up to the last Hollywood address of Elizabeth Short. The Chancellor.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5001/...5640ac1f_o.jpg

Room 501, top floor (left of the fire escape). Flopped here Nov 13-Dec 6 ’46, went to San Diego, some other stuff, the missing week, and bam, top totem on LA’s collective obsession with crime and itself, and the world’s obsession with crime and LA. (Lest we mention 1947 and its weight as a touchstone.)

"(Suspect) Glenn Wolf is the owner of the Chancellor Apartments, 1842 Cherokee Hollywood. It was the last place where victim resided in Los Angeles before she met Carl Balsiger and then left for San Diego. He [Wolf] was residing at 1617 North Las Palmas in an apartment house owned by Kate Harris at the time of the murder. He admitted knowing victim. She lived in a six bed apartment at the Chancellor Hotel and left there December 6, 1946 as she did not like the place. Wolf is known as a sexual maniac by other young women. Ray Pinker, LAPD Crime Laboratory chemist, checked the rooms in which he resided for blood and got no positive reaction. This was done upon request of undersigned. Marvin Hart, now living at Lido Apartments, Hollywood, lived at Chancellor Apartments at the time of the murder. He has not been questioned. Alice Lebedeff, private investigator, 1967 Carmen Street, Hillside 6279 states that a Miss Schell, who runs a hot dog stand on Santa Monica boardwalk, slept in the upper bunk of the bed occupied by victim on December 1, 1946 at the Chancellor apartments. Further that Polly Blits, Hollywood real estate broker is a known queen queer and knows plenty. There is reliable information that some of the five girls in the room at the Chancellor living with victim were queers. Victim stated on several occasions, however, that she had no use whatsoever for queers."
District Attorney Investigation Report

“She came here for a room last November 13. That’s a bad day, isn’t it? She wasn’t sociable like the other girls who lived in apartment 501 with her — more the sophisticated type.”
Juanita Ringo, manager, Chancellor Apts

Both buildings still look relatively the same. Perforce a bit less charming.

Everyone has an opinion on the Dahlia, and here's mine, that is, where I "choose up sides" when it comes to aligning with the experts. (This Dahlia business gets awful persnickety among differing folds of the faithful.) After all my study (there's only so much a man can learn about Caspar Bartholin the Younger and his relation to Liz Short), and doggy-paddling through oceans of so much crazy, seems I've found there's only one researcher whose methods are spotless: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...-story-ruined/ (not to say Halleluyah, I'm led to the Promised Land, because of course Short's mystery will remain Kennedy-esque in its riddles and conjecture until both are displaced by fresh enigmas; I will say that Harnisch's sagacious scholarship is replete with accuracy and insight).

^^^Very interesting.
That's the first time I've heard that some, if not most, of her room-mates at the Chancellor were lesbians.
I've always pictured a bunch of giggly ingenues having pillow fights in slow motion. ;)

One of the very first things I noticed as young man when I came to visit the west coast was the light, that somehow it was different from what I had grown up with in the midwest and east coast. The contrast between light and shadow seemed much sharper to me, almost like changing the contrast controls on a TV to a much sharper setting. Even the smog didn't fade that lighting all that much. Some people won't know the difference watching this version filmed elsewhere, or care I guess, but it will be a little distracting to me.

BTW, is Bunker Hill visable in that 1850 photo and if so, could someone point it out to me?

Bunker Hill proper isn't visible here, but you can see the feet of Pound Cake Hill and Fort Moore Hill at far lower left. (Topographically, these were effectively extensions of Bunker Hill, but the actual site of the neighborhood known as Bunker Hill is out of view to the left.)

-Scott

I can't stop looking at this phenomenal image! What an incredible historical treasure. First thing I went looking for was the semi-legendary ancient sycamore tree for which Aliso Street was named. I think I heard once that it was located near where the old Maier Brewery stood, but I can't see anything in that general area that stands out as possibly being the tree...

BTW, is there a URL link for this image? I'd like to learn more about its provenance, if possible.

-Scott

i had first found the 1850 photo posted by Jesús E. Salgado on his Evolution through time of Los Angeles California thread at Skyscraper city. it's at the bottom of the 1st page.

i did a little bit of researching the photo since, and have found a version of it on the USC Digital Archive site.

the image is reversed on the USC site, and is identified as a 1931 photograph of a 1850 model of the city.

after studying the image over the past several days, i still believe that it is an aerial that was taken in 1850 due to the angle of the image, the resolution of the buildings, and the consistent shadowing on the north/western side of the buildings, indicating that the image was taken during a winter morning sky. If it is a photo of a model of the city, why is the image centered on pasadena? why not show the whole model actually centered on los angeles proper?.....(of course i could be wrong)

it is a mystery, but i am trying to find out as much as i can about the image.

an amazing angels flight image taken at the grand opening of the railway, December 31st, 1901

http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ght14_9701.jpg
Source: Source Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ght14_9701.jpg

some additional images, i don't think i had seen any of these previously;

http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight2_9701.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Time Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight2_9701.jpg

http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight4_9701.jpg
Source: Los angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight4_9701.jpg


http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight5_9701.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight5_9701.jpg


http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ght14_9702.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ght14_9702.jpg


http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight16_970.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight16_970.jpg


http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ght13_9701.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ght13_9701.jpg


http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight9_9701.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight9_9701.jpg


http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight8_9701.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight8_9701.jpg


http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight6_9701.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight6_9701.jpg


http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight1_9701.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....ight1_9701.jpg


http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....today2_970.jpg
Source: Los Angeles Times Photography http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....today2_970.jpg

It IS a conundrum.

--The near-view looks photograph-ish......But the far view of the hills and mountains does have that diorama look.

--Who..and why......would someone build such a thing?

--On the other hand...ballooning was pretty primitive (and rare) in 1850, right? What are the chances a balloonist is going to wind up in a back-water Hooterville like Los Angeles?

Where is the clock now?
 

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics46/00042921.jpg
LAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics46/00042921.jpg
Per the LAPL: "W. J. Martin stands next to the clock formerly
mounted on the old Los Angeles County Courthouse on
March 2, 1936. He was a supervisor before the newly-
demolished courthouse was built."


http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics46/00042920.jpg
LAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics46/00042920.jpg
Per the LAPL: "Officials presenting the old courthouse clock to the Los Angeles County Museum on
March 2, 1932 [sic]. Left to right are: Hugh A. Thatcher, P. F. Cogswell, R. W. Pridham, Henry W.
Wright, James Hay, W. J. Martin, J. S. Dodge, Fred J. Beatty, W. A. Bryan (director of the museum),
J. J. Hamilton, J. R. Quinn, J. Don Wahaffey, V. E. Hinshaw, F. E. Woodley, Dr. J. W. Bovard, and
Frank Shaw."


http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics46/00042901.jpg
LAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics46/00042901.jpg
Per the LAPL: "The huge clock that once towered over
the civic center from atop the old red sandstone
courthouse at Temple Street and Broadway is on display
on March 20, 1974 in the lobby of the Criminal Courts
Building. The clock is part of an exhibit detailing the
history of the civic center growth from 1891 to 1973."


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics17/00018304.jpg
LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics17/00018304.jpg
Sometime after the 1933 Long Beach
earthquake, before the temporary hip roof on
the shortened tower and total demolition.

I've often wondered if there was a bell or chimes that sounded on the hour from the old Court House clock tower.

Were there also bells in the clockless tower of old City Hall on Broadway? And if it wasn't a bell tower, what was it for? Simple architectural adornment?

-Scott

Helms Bakery located on Venice Blvd opened in 1931 and was in operation for four decades. They had a fleet of trucks that would deliver baked goods direct to homes all over the Los Angeles area some going as far as the eastern San Gabriel Valley. The building was restored in the 1970's, including the neon sign, and is now full of furniture and interior design studios and show rooms and called the Helms Bakery District.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...i/PB300708.jpg
http://openhousestaging.blogspot.com...-shopping.html

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/1.jpg
http://helmsbakerydistrict.com/history/helms-photos

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/4.jpg
http://helmsbakerydistrict.com/history/helms-photos

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/2.jpg
http://helmsbakerydistrict.com/history/helms-photos

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/5.jpg
http://helmsbakerydistrict.com/history/helms-photos

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/7.jpg
http://helmsbakerydistrict.com/history/helms-photos

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/8.jpg
http://helmsbakerydistrict.com/history/helms-photos

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/31.jpg
http://helmsbakerydistrict.com/history/helms-photos

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/mdiederi/20.jpg
http://helmsbakerydistrict.com/history/helms-photos

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...deri/helms.jpg
http://blogging.la/2010/10/08/archiv...akery/helms-2/

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...eri/YtA0f2.jpg
http://gogonotes.blogspot.com/2009/0...lver-city.html

Some of the trucks are still around and collector's items.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...nderground.jpg
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=12&f=3988&t=6525515

I remember Helms well. I loved their buttermilk donuts. Mom loved their daily door-to-door service. They gave their customers a cardboard sign that had a ship's helm with a big "H" in the middle, and if you wanted the truck to stop by, all you had to do was put the sign in a front window. They came right around breakfast time, too, which Mom appreciated. I think Helms stopped their service to Covina in the mid- to late-'60s. I don't remember seeing the trucks anymore after I started high school in '68.

-Scott

San Gabriel Valley!!

pfffft!

A Question-------------
 

a then (1930) and later (1978) aerial looking east on wilshire boulevard across san vicente boulevard.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5162/...30dbe307_b.jpg
Sources: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...=1294669760167 and http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...=1294669803547

great sharings guys

^^^ Excellent before and after photos of the Wilshire area gsjansen.
All those years, and the school in the lower right remained virtually the same, except the track was turned into baseball diamonds.
(I just noticed that it looks like the football field became tennis courts)
Is that the Carthay Circle Theater directly above the track in the 1930s photo?

I loved mdiederi's Helm's Bakery post.
When I was in L.A. it was a cavernous antique furniture store.



Just this morning I read an article about Culver City on the BBC website of all places.
It features the old Helm's Bakery.

Here's a link.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20...r-its-close-up

Yes it is indeed the carthay circle theater. in the 1978 photo, it is the two squat right of center buildings. the theater was physucally located on the site of the squat building on the right

here's a 1922 image of the same intersection of san vicente and wilshire, (i think this photo may have been posted before)

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...R-VIE-004?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...R-VIE-004?v=hr

in this 1923 aerial of the intersection, you can see that McCarthy vista has been laid out, as well as the site of the carthay circle theater

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-11988?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-11988?v=hr


by 1926, the area was beginning to fill in quite a bit. the carthay circle theater has been completed

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-11990?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-11990?v=hr

here's a really nice image looking north/west from the tower of the carthay circle theater in 1929

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets.../CHS-7180?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets.../CHS-7180?v=hr

Starring the Talmadge
 

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...21947%20PM.jpgLifetime Movie Network http://www.mylifetime.com/watch-full...igslist-killer

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...22147%20PM.jpgLifetime Movie Network http://www.mylifetime.com/watch-full...igslist-killer

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...12105%20PM.jpgLifetime Movie Network http://www.mylifetime.com/watch-full...igslist-killer
An actual apartment in the Talmadge was used for interior shots, above; below, out of a west
window you can see details of the Immanuel Presbyterian Church across Berendo Street.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...reen%20captureLifetime Movie Network http://www.mylifetime.com/watch-full...igslist-killer

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...22048%20PM.jpgLifetime Movie Network http://www.mylifetime.com/watch-full...igslist-killer

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics14/00026660.jpgLAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics14/00026660.jpg
Newly built, ca. 1924--before the church went up across Berendo. The
big houses on Wilshire are falling, or being moved.



So I'm flipping channels last night, and I happened upon a Lifetime movie called The Craigslist Killer. I didn't recognize any of the actors other than William Baldwin (those boys don't age well, but I digress) and the faces of girlfriend's parents--but the real star of the show for our purposes here is The Talmadge at 3278 Wilshire. I was sure that we'd hit upon it here before, but a search didn't turn up anything, so now is as good a time as any to give her a post. Briefly, it seems that producer Joe Schenck built it as a present for his wife, Norma Talmadge. Or at least he built it as an investment and named it for her--no one seems to know if they ever actually lived in the building, and some sources have them moving into the Randolph Miner/Theda Bara/Fatty Arbuckle/Raoul Walsh house at 649 West Adams the same year The Talmadge was built. Btw: The bit of palm at left in the second shot above belies the movie's setting in and around Boston; this is supposed to be an apartment in Quincy, Mass. I'm not sure why I'm better able to employ my willing suspension of disbelief when an L.A. location is used for an Eastern scene, while (without having seen it yet, mind you) HBO using New York and Long Island as stand-ins for SoCal in their new Mildred Pierce just grinds my gears. But--to be fair to myself--murder though there may be, The Craigslist Killer ain't no Mildred Pierce, and, after all, as much as I like Boston, I don't spend alot of free time on a "Noirish Boston" website. We all know that Boston sends its noir west... i.e., Miss Short.



http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics14/00026649.jpgLAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics14/00026649.jpg
Per the LAPL: "Corner view of the Talmadge
Apartments at 3278 Wilshire Boulevard.
Sign above the entrance says, 'Francesca.'"
Not sure why the entrance sign might have
said that, but perhaps that was its name
initially: Norma starred in Paola and
Francesca in 1911.... (Btw, her career
faded with the talkies.)

Full story and some excellent interior and exterior shots here:
http://www.uglyangel.net/2009/05/par...re-almost.html

^^^Great post on the Talmadge Apartments GW.


In gsjansen's post #2474, I take it the rectangles along Wilshire in the 1922 photo are over-sized billboards.
(at first I thought they were drawn, like the arrow)

The last photo is great with the shadow of the tower of the Carthay Circle Theater.

I know they exist in other places, but one of the many things that have always suggested old L.A. to me are whitish concrete streets with contrasting tar lines randomly covering cracks--something I must have seen in movies and on tv and lumped together with sun and palms and mountains in the background. Your photo above, gs, came up just as I was looking for a shot to illustrate what I mean. Presumably, malumot, asphalt is cheaper to install than concrete initially, but I doubt it could be more economical over the long term. (Maybe the asphalt purveyors have a stronger lobby than the concrete boys.) At some point in my L.A. perambulations, I discovered an interesting juncture of asphalt and concrete in Windsor Square:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...23122%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...23116%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
West 4th Street, east from Lucerne toward Plymouth

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...22903%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
West 5th Street, west from Plymouth toward Lucerne


An excerpt from the Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society:

"The older part of the tract was bounded by Irving Blvd., Plymouth Blvd., Third Street and Wilshire Blvd. It had a linear street layout with wide streets, wide parkways, elaborate electoliers and trees for which $200,000 was expended. The ornamental light standards were erected with the trademark “WS” at the base. All streets were paved, utilities were underground, long term deed restrictions did not expire until 1965. $7,500 would get you a lot in Windsor Square.

"The area to the west of original Windsor Square, which includes Lucerne and Arden from Third to Fifth streets, was a different tract. This small tract was owned as of 1913 by the Wilshire Hills Land Corp.

"You can tell where the Wilshire Hills addition and the Windsor Square addition join. At the back lot lines behind Plymouth and Lucerne across 4th and 5th, you will notice that the street surface changes from concrete to asphalt which indicated that different developers laid out the streets. Also, the street lamps on the boulevards in the Wilshire Hills addition are stone, not metal, as in the original Windsor Square tract."

See also: http://www.wshphs.org/windsor.html


The concrete streets of Windsor Square are pushing 100 years old--actually, I don't really know if any of them in this district have ever been replaced, but, from the looks of them here, perhaps not. I wonder how many times the asphalt streets in the later part of Windsor have been replaced in the past century?

Concrete....
 

You're probably right on the upfront cost aspect, Gaylord. Though it seems shortsighted.

Great photos and screengrabs of the demarcation between the two paving surfaces!....

...Though it leads me to another annoyance (I have plenty.... LOL)

But seriously.......the loss of parkways. I should note that they are making a comeback, albeit in a skinnier form. But from sometime in the 50s until around the 90s they fell out of favor. Which was too bad. Even to untrained eyes like mine the softening effect a tree-planted parkway has on the visual landscape is tremendous.

Ah, the Talmadge! Love that building. I love that it's still standing.

Norma Talmadge's career may have faded with the talkies, but one of her co-stars, Gilbert Roland, made a successful transition into talkies. I'm sure he made many moviegoers swoon.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2...allstarpic.jpg http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2845/...allstarpic.jpg
both pics, allstarpics.net

Gilbert Roland himself was actually Mexican, his real name was Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso, born in Ciudad Juarez in 1905 (died of cancer in Beverly Hills in 1994). His family moved to the US during the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

Here are Gilbert Roland and Norma Talmadge in the 1928 silent film, "The Woman Disputed."
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2...doctormacr.jpg
doctormacro.com

Here they are again:
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/2...andnormata.jpg
allstarpics.net

And yet again:
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2...talmadgeno.jpg
doctormacro.com

I live in Culver City and I ride my bike past this place all the time. There is a large candle making store on Washington near National that has the most incredible smells coming out of it. Alongside the bread being made there, it makes for a overload of pretty smells.

Helms and Concrete
 

I grew up in the picfair area,and we use to go to helms property alot.they had an antique alley sort of thing.the neon sign was always there but never lit until maybe 5 years ago when they finished the culver/kirk douglas theatre.

as far as concrete,on my old street we had it(1400 block of spaulding)and from what i understand its always used on freeways because it lasts longer,and it continues to harden with age.the reason why you dont see tons of cracks in it is because of the "lines" that are put into the concrete before it dries.speaking of windsor park/country club area,did you know the la railway has tracks still covered up in that area.

charlie

There are covered-up LARy tracks all over town (or at least there were when I was living out there (been gone 12 1/2 years now)). You could see them on Pico, from Broadway (where the P line turned) until they abruptly ended just east of Flower St (where they were torn out for construction of the Metro Blue Line). Think I saw them on 6th St at Alvarado (the old 3 line). Basically, they were just covered up, and unless there was a big street project that required the street to be torn up completely (sewer lines, etc.), they remain for the most part.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018562.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018562.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059067.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059067.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...13758%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View
The Ducommun Metals & Supply Corporation, 4890 S. Alameda


The building shown above was built in 1941 and designed by the still-extant firm of Albert C. Martin. We've seen other A. C. Martin buildings here, ones as varied as St. Vincent's Church at Adams and Figueroa, the Million Dollar Theater, City Hall, and Water & Power buildings downtown, May Co. Miracle Mile, and, discussed most recently, the Eastland Shopping Center. Established in 1849 and referred to in some sources as California's oldest company, Ducommun has had an interesting history and exists to this day as Ducommun Incorporated of Long Beach: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-History.html

An historical chronology from the 1943 Renie Road atlas of L.A. City and County. It's interesting to me to note what events/dates were thought to be significant at the time...

https://otters.net/img/lanoir/chrono...ie1943-sky.jpg

^^^ I was looking over the list provided by Scott and noticed "1922 Union Stock Yards established".

Because of my Illinois roots, I have always been interested in various city's stock yards
Chicago was home to the largest stock yards in the world!!

It's very rare to come across a photograph of the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards.
I have a total of two photographs (and one I can not find in my files). :(

Below: This is my best photo of the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards. The photo is quite impressive as far as stock yards go.
I was certainly surprised to see such a magnificent dome-like structure.

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1...ockyardsun.jpg
unknown


Does anyone else have photos or information concerning the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards?

Three stages of the southwest corner of Grand and 2nd
 

http://jpg2.lapl.org/spnb1/00017414.jpgWilliam Reagh/LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/spnb1/00017414.jpg
The Minnewaska ca. 1964, newly decorated, according to the sign--
apparently in trendy windowless style.


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...84809%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
Now


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...ROAD-popup.jpg
Diller Scofidio + Renfro/The New York Times http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...ROAD-popup.jpg
Coming soon


Today in The New York Times is a very good architectural review on the forthcoming Broad Art Foundation to rise at the southwest corner of Grand and 2nd, a block down from Disney Hall. It describes not only how the new building might work as museum space, but also gives a thoughtful overview of 21st-century Bunker Hill and how it relates (or doesn't relate) to the 1920s commercial district over on Broadway. Btw, worth repeating, I think, is what has been pointed out here before: that it could be argued that the destruction of what we hold dear here (old Bunker Hill) saved, in essence, much of the architecture of the Broadway business district. As I look at the sterile cityscape along Grand Avenue, I am at least grateful for that. I like the looks of the new Broad, but I don't know how far it and the rest of the area's starchitecture goes toward giving us the texture Bunker Hill once had. Well, I do know: Not very.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/ar...angeles&st=cse

Below: Here is a rare photo of the interior of the Minnewaska.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2415/...innewaskai.jpg
unknown





Below: An overlay map by vokoban on flickr.
(The Minnewaska is located at dead center)

For a much LARGER image hit the link below the photo, and click on ORIGINAL size.

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/3...ewaskahuge.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban...n/photostream/

Have you seen the fly-through video for the Broad Museum that was posted in the LA Times last week? I think it's kinda cool.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/cult...he-design.html

I'm actually very excited about this building/museum. True, Bunker Hill isn't like the Bunker Hill of old, but it's evolving into a cultural Acropolis of sorts.

These are both very great images, ethereal. The overlay map really puts it in perspective for me what was destroyed.


Grand Ave. looking south, Bunker Hill, 1960
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/4...054790isla.jpg
USC Archive

ethereal-- the overlay shot is fantastic. It really gives an idea of the density once there--imagine all the daily human activity. The Music Center, Disney Hall, and the new Broad are definitely better than the parking lot or bland skyscraper alternatives, but they will still lack the urban vitality of the old Bunker Hill, or of Broadway to the east, in terms of density. Grand will likely remain largely desolate for a long time. I'm all for culture, but sometimes if its institutions are too concentrated, culture can become forbidding. Btw, it never occurred to me that Disney Hall had any kind of flat roof.

Vokoban's page has some other interesting L.A. items, including these pics of a single building I'd trade both the Disney and the Broad for in a NY minute (as interesting and significant as they are):


http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...90545%20AM.jpg
Rod Taylor in Zabriskie Point, released in 1970--two years after the fall.


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...90454%20AM.jpg
Reimagined for This Gun For Hire (1942).

Recent posts - The Minnewaska, Broad, sterile cityscapes......

The problem, as I see it, is that after The War the smarty pants urban planners got their way and ruined the organic way that make cities become what they are.

One example - plazas. Just about every post-1960 skyscraper is surrounded by some useless, unvisited plaza. The intent, of course, was to reduce the mass of the building and to promote social interaction. You have a one-acre site? Your building's footprint can be no more than 40% of that, let's say. The rest must be given over to "public space" and the inevitably insipid "public art". How many public space areas on Bunker Hill do YOU know that you would consider lively places of interaction? It's a short list. The steps at US Bank Tower are kind of cool. Beyond that I'm drawing a blank.

There was social interaction in the past of course, when buildings like the Richfield were built cheek by jowl. It just spilled onto the sidewalks. (Take a walk down present-day Broadway to see what I mean). Planner-types HATED this. They wanted the suburban office-park look. The Suburban office park model CAN work - in the suburbs. Not downtown.

What we got was the worst of both worlds.

This is not limited to LA of course. My least-favored part of Manhattan is centered on 6th Avenue Midtown. Huge skyscrapers surrounded by boundless prairies of plazas. This is New York? It could just as well be Anycity, USA.

GaylordWilshire recently posted several photos of the clock from the old county courthouse.


Below: Here is the clock in situ.


http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5...ingcourtho.jpg
unknown










http://img573.imageshack.us/img573/7...hingbegins.jpg
unknown

Demolition begins on the Los Angeles County Courthouse, 1932.

I'm hopeless......
 

Some nice ...in fact VERY nice..contemporary aerials of Downtown, plus Harbor, MDR, Beverly Hills, etc.

Very first pic of the thread......what is my eye drawn towards?.............


........The Figueroa, of course!



http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=187288

And as far as the Ritz-Carlton goes..........it looks like the thing is about ready to explode.

Here is an image from a stereoscope slide I found on ebay.


Below: The Downey Block 1887

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/2812/sblock1880s.jpg
ebay



Above: I like the arcade-like structure in the center of the photo.It looks large enough to accommodate a horse and buggy.
It is almost like a porte cochere on the front of the building instead of on the side where you usually find a porte cochere.



Below: I tried to heighten the details by using black and white.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/254...k1880scopy.jpg
img

the areas you mention ive seen some "peakings" or "trackcrack".when they tore down the big blue bus/mta loop,all the tracks were still there and seeing that was kinda cool.i still dont know why they tore down the sears building next door,i always liked that building,its been an empty lot for about 3 years now.

On the Travel Channel Ghost Adventures is exploring the Pico House.
(it's on right now)

Various locations of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange.



The 2nd Stock Exchange was in the Tajo/Taho Building at 307 W. First Street. (I LOVE this photograph)

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/3...jobldg307w.jpg
usc digital archive



http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/805...me307wfirs.jpg
usc digital archive


Below: Info on the back of the above photograph.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/179...ndhometajo.jpg
usc digital archive




Below: The 4th home of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange at 123 S. Broadway.

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/4...me123sbroa.jpg
usc digital archive




Below: The 5th home of the Stock Exchange in the Southwest Building on the east side of Broadway between 1st and 2nd Street.
The Chamber of Commerce was also located in this 1903 building.


http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1...me1151sbro.jpg
usc digital archive





Below: The 7th home of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange at 639 S. Spring St.


http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/615...me639sspri.jpg
usc digital archive





Below: The Los Angeles Stock Exchange. (this photo is from 1954)


http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6...exchange19.jpg
usc digital archive


If you were keeping tabs.....I am missing the 1st, 3rd, and 6th location of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange.




post script: There could be many mistakes in this post.
I tried to double check my information and I found more questions than answers.

Here is an example....read the comments below the photograph.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7294653@N07/3196364990/

:previous:

Great Stock Exchange pics, ethereal. In the first, I noticed the semaphore signal--don't remember seeing one with that little roof over it before.... Also, it appears that the Savoy Garage surrounds the back of the building, with two entrances. And what is the domed building in the second shot?

First location of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange: The Yosemite Building, 115 South Broadway.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...59260daa_o.jpg
USC Archive, Los Angeles Examiner Prints Collection, late 1920's - 1961

that's the old los angeles times building

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics04/00011935.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics04/00011935.jpg

a 1925 aerial showing the times building and the tajo/taho building directly across the street, (broadway), along with the surrounding area. the intersection of 1st and broadway certainly had a lot more character back then than it does today

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics26/00047858.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics26/00047858.jpg


here's a then and now of the 1st image

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/...59acefe6_b.jpg


E_R, really great photos of the stock exchange history!:)