Welcome BulletBob-- As a PE expert, maybe you can solve the mystery in the photo in this old post: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2002 : Why is this PE car, apparently heading east on Venice Boulevard (at Catalina) toward the Hill Street Station downtown, traveling on the north side of the street? And while it's probably an optical illusion, why is it so close to the curb? (or is it for some strange reason Photoshopped?). Also-- your PE interests remind me of Ralph Cantos, the great foamer (meant as a total compliment) of the PE, who appears in This Was the Pacific Electric with his tour of PE remnants. Do you know him? He is easily Googlable, with a good many items to his credit, about the PE as well as other subjects of L.A. history. (And Edsels!) It would be great to see your material.

West Adams and Hoover
 

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics13/00026128.jpgLAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics13/00026128.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TM...14258%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
Casa de Rosas, 950 W. Adams

Per Wikipedia: "Casa de Rosas, also known as the Froebel Institute and the Sunshine Mission, is a historic building in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. The building was designed by Sumner P. Hunt and built in 1893. It was originally an experimental kindergarten and has also been used over the years as a prestigious college preparatory school for girls, an inn and restaurant, a military barracks in World War II, the headquarters of L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics Foundation, and a shelter for homeless women." Quite a history.

The name Froebel reminds me of Frank Lloyd Wright. As the story goes, his mother gave him Froebel building blocks for him to play with as a child, which supposedly influenced his later architectural massing--such as L.A.'s Ennis house. (Friedrich Froebel was an early-childhood-education pioneer who developed the blocks in the mid 19th century. In the Wiki paragraph above, the Froebel Institute is presumably the "experimental kindergarten".)


And across Hoover is a building that has proved somewhat of a mystery. It looks to me as though it could easily be a heavily remodeled Victorian house. There is reference online to the Wilcoxes and Arugellos (-as?), old L.A. families, on this corner: The "Maria Antonia Arguella Wilcox House... at 1100 W. Adams Blvd. This Spanish Colonial Revival-style house was reportedly designed by the noted architect Frederick Roehrig in approximately 1899." But no picture.

Today the building on this corner (of whatever vintage) belongs to the Sisters of the Company of Mary, according to the sign in front. I can't find any pictures of an old house. Can anyone here?

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...54706%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...54015%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
1100 W. Adams. Could the arches be an indication that this was once the Spanish Colonial Revival Wilcox house?

a few images form the USC Digital Archive, i honestly don't recall seeing before

a view from behind the south side of union station looking sw towards downtown. i'm dating this photo either late '39 or early'40

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...3-10-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...3-10-ISLA?v=hr

image looking sw from behind the north side of union station towards downtown 1939

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...37-1-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...37-1-ISLA?v=hr

Union Station under construction 1938

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...28-5-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...28-5-ISLA?v=hr

looking ne at the main entrance of union station 1939

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...32-4-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...32-4-ISLA?v=hr

view looking looking nw across the baldwin hills shopping center on crenshaw boulevard towards downtown from a residential backyard in the baldwin hills

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...4507-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...4507-ISLA?v=hr

even though the lady behind the counter looks familiar, be very careful when shopping at the lingerie counter at this may co. locale.......... i hear the clerk can be a tad cantankerous............................

:previous: Well that stinks. They're all missing. [05 2017]


Beaudry, thanks for the history of the Snow/Southland Hotel.
I've often wondered about that building. The old newspaper article you posted described it as a nondescript building.
Did they not notice the rather cool penthouse on top? Go figure.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5084/...6e8e0ef4_o.jpg

(AP news photo, my collection)

Well, someone with the 1971 mindset would probably see its best features as its worst. That the Southland by that time had lost its lovely, distinctive parapets and finials probably made it more attractive to the eye of the day...

This one?

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...50639%20PM.jpg20th-Century Fox/Warner Home Video
Fallen Oscar-winner Margaret Elliot, clerking at May's Crenshaw and soon not to be, lets "two old bags" have it.

Bette was actually pretty awful in The Star--or maybe it was the screenplay. In either case this is not to say that I don't recommend the movie highly. Here are some choice scenes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjUoG3KgqfI

What a great shot -- love how the table exudes obtuse in the middle, and it matches the fluorescents above -- one always thinks of the zigzags of deco marble on the interior and less of http://content.cdlib.org/search?face...ffices&x=0&y=0

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5287/...9a3ce703_b.jpg

I don't really get the trashcan, or whatever it is, you'd bump your feet on. Dig the ashtray, the 300 set, water pitcher, the floor-to-ceiling drapes I picture as being sort of a gold color. Most of all, check out the button on the table. It allows, I presume, the Chairman of the Board to press it and someone who has displeased him flips back into a pit of flame.

:previous:

Ah, a man who knows a Western Electric 300 set when he sees it.

http://i.ebayimg.com/15/!B+Q8NbgBmk~...9(H(!~~_12.JPG ebay



The 302 and the 202 (below)--the classic noir telephones.


http://i.ebayimg.com/03/!B+,v--!!mk~...,LNtw~~_12.JPG ebay


To reach Richfield's offices in the Richfield Building, dial TRinity 2231.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...geRenderer.jpgLAPL

I agree, that first one IS especially great. Not sure where the second one is (Cafe Colon? Really?) and the third is your standard-issue Castle.

So here's a couple of buildings one never sees well enough --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5084/...7b175f0c_b.jpg

L, The Crown Hotel, 702 W. Third. R, the Havlin Hotel at 706. Above Launderette it says "Whiter Whites." Under Cafe Bob's there's a neon sign that says "TELEVISION". The household goods storage building at 710 apparently began as a laundry. The big beast in the background, jutting horizontally, is the Sawyer, discussed midway here http://onbunkerhill.org/AlltheMoreMann .

See the side of the Havlin here http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...arch/CHS-42056 and then there's the Reagh shot east town 3rd across Flower, you can see the top part of the Crown and side of the Havlin --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5167/...9805500f_b.jpg
http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/reagh/1990-1367.jpg

(That's a Reagh pic; those three buildings in the foreground are in another contemporary Hylen pic shot from atop the tunnel) --
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5081/...e47fd2c1_b.jpg

You really get a feeling of how the hill crested and flattened and became a sort of no-man's land, especially on this side and in this area.

^^^Wow. What a great post Beaudry!

The Department of Water & Power Building in 1968. I love this photograph.


http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8...dingnoir19.jpg
LAhistorian.com

Why is this PE car, apparently heading east on Venice Boulevard (at Catalina) toward the Hill Street Station downtown, traveling on the north side of the street? And while it's probably an optical illusion, why is it so close to the curb? (or is it for some strange reason Photoshopped?).

- There is a passing track at that location to let the faster and bigger
interurbans pass. That type of car is a local car and it appears to have
simply changed direction heading back toward downtown. I don't think it
is photshopped though the tracks and that car in the background look
like there could be a clearance problem. The shot is from the very late
40's. PE lines and streetcars needed periodic passing tracks on their
lines and they always looked strange in street running segments.

- My parents when they lived in West LA and before the Santa Monica Fwy
drove past Gilfillan regularly on Venice Blvd all the way out to the
Inglewood Blvd area. It was a busy place with cars parked everywhere.
By the time my kiddie memory kicked in the PE Venice line was through
operating but everything including the signals was intact for a rather
surreal scene. As Ralph pointed out the rails on that line were rolled in
the early 1900's and the entire line, actually the entire PE was in dire need
of a thorough upgrade and refurbishing.

Also-- your PE interests remind me of Ralph Cantos, the great foamer (meant as a total compliment) of the PE, who appears in This Was the Pacific Electric with his tour of PE remnants. Do you know him? He is easily Googlable, with a good many items to his credit, about the PE as well as other subjects of L.A. history. (And Edsels!) It would be great to see your material.[/QUOTE]

- Yes, I throughly enjoyed Ralph's segment on This Was Pacific Electric.
My first info/pictorial post will have the cover of original PE booklet
This Is Pacific Electric. No doubt the production did a nice play on words
with the title. Where Ralph ended up in Azusa is but blocks from where my
brother now lives and I'd seen many of the locations Ralph visited. I can
well identify and sympathize with his anguish at LA missing a terrific
opportunity to utilize what the PE had built. It's ironic that so many
original PE traffic corridors have been rebuilt with light rail and even the
subway.

- I live in Mississippi now and away from LA for decades which makes this
thread so special to me. It has raked my memory.

- So I'm building some info now and it will probably have to be in a series
but it will be fun to revisit my PE material and the videos to provide
something of interest to everyone.

- No offense taken at the term foamer. There could be worse. This is just a
nice relaxing and highly divergent and contrasting-to-work hobby for me.

We have somehow overlooked the Garden of Allah.
The Garden of Allah was located on Sunset Blvd. at the east end of the Sunset Strip.

Silent film star, Alla Nazimova owned the mansion at 8080 Sunset Boulevard.
Nazimova built a complex of 25 villas around the original building in 1927.
The complex had the address of 8152 Sunset Boulevard.


http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5...pcsmallish.jpg
ebay



http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3...115garden1.jpg
unkown


http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/488...rden2pool1.jpg
unknown


http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2...ountainbun.jpg
unknown


http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3...gardensign.jpg
unknown


http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2...1abrochure.jpg
lamirror

Here is an aerial photo of the Garden of Allah.

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/6...erialhugeu.jpg
usc digital archive

Here is an image of the Garden of Allah pool area.
It shows the swimming instructor Dick Stagg (can you believe it) teaching diving to a group of young boys.


http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/8...ickstaggin.jpg
usc digital archive


Supposedly, the pool was in the shape of the Red Sea.

So many great posts lately!

Welcome to the forum, BulletBob!

No prob, CASIGNS. I love your website. Great freeway sign you have, too.

California freeway entrances are always so well-marked compared with other states. The modern green "FREEWAY ENTRANCE" signs, do you know if maybe those evolved from signs that the Auto Club might've made?

Here's another photo. The 101 headed towards downtown near Alameda Street, 1961.
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/7...medastsign.jpg
USC Archive

Here are a few photos of the silent film star Alla Nazimova, the owner of the Garden of Allah.

Below: Nazimova in the 1923 production of Salome. Supposedly an all gay production.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5598/salome1923.jpg
fox


http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1...lanazimova.jpg
fox





Below: Nazimova in the silent version of Camille.

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/9...aincamille.jpg
unkown


Very exotic even by Hollywood standards.

Fascinating photos of The Garden of Allah , and Nazimovoa. Speaking of unusual, long-gone apartment complexes that I don't believe have been featured here, a pal who lived in West Hollywood in the 50's says that there was a very large complex of stage-set like French cottage-style apartments, probably built in the twenties which may have been called Normandy Village. (Similar in architectural style to the small and still-standing "French Village Apartments" located in a quiet residential area of Hollywood, supposedly having a connection to Charlie Chaplin).I believe it fronted on the Sunset Strip and was a block square in size. I came across a photo of it on the LA Times a few years ago. Lots of peaked roofs and picturesque stairways. Anyone have photos or info?
A tidbit of gossip (my pal is probably the world's expert on old Hollywood and forgotten celebrities; he wrote many books on the subject) is that among the residents there was Harald Ramand (also known as Harald Maresch, originally from Vienna), the man who got Lupe Velez pregnant before she committed suicide in 1944 (he was blamed and it ruined his budding movie career). He lived at the complex with a gay lover.

Nazimova's goddaughter
 

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archive...rge/H42-27.jpgMGM/University of Texas

Imagine all that she might have witnessed at the Garden of Allah... all the stars, all that sapphic romping (the only effect that seemed to have on her was her later attending Smith).... And you know she must also have great memories of noir-era Hollywood. All no doubt destined to remain but a

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...85244%20AM.jpgMGM

in which she starred with Ann Sothern, Zachary "Monty Berrigan" Scott, and the great Gigi Perreau:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...85148%20AM.jpgMGM