Kosciuszko was the name of an ancient demolished riverfront neighborhood here, I looked up the origin of the name once and that's what I think I came up with as well. I didn't think it was really local because I haven't seen it referenced anywhere else here.

Loving this thread!

i was going to wait until Beaudry responded to this, (his posting at On Bunker Hill a lost neighborhood found, about the central, is how i had 1st realized that this was the building with the circular fire escape used so brilliantly in the William Holden movie "the turning point"), i just didn't want your question to get too far buried, so i am responding in lieu of him. (i'm sure he can add more)

you can read all about the Hotel Central here http://onbunkerhill.org/claycentral

the actual physical location of the central is a bit of a surprize, as you will read about at On Bunker Hill:stunned:

:previous:

Very fascinating info on the Hotel Central. Oh man it makes me wanna ride Angels Flight yet again! I've never ridden it at night; oh man that'd be fun. I gotta do that soon.

I was just looking at this picture again:
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6...ndhill1939.jpg
USC Archive

I was looking at that Arrow Drug No. 1 on the corner there. It was open all night. People back then were lucky, being able to get an egg creme, lime rickey, cherry phosphate or chocolate soda at 3 in the morning.

Why, why, why did the Richfield Building get demolished??

Apparently it was still in pretty good condition even on the inside, right up to its demolition.

Some images from the American Historic Buildings Survey... it was such a gorgeous building.

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012408pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012412pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012402pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012423pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012415pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012421pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012418pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012429pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012427pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012433pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012425pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012432pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012435pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012438pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012441pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012443pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012440pv.jpg

Even this door hardware was Art Deco!
http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012442pv.jpg

And now I just had to include one to sober me up and snap me back into reality:
http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012458pv.jpg

Sopas--this may be the singlemost arresting set of pictures ever posted here. The only thing more mind-blowing than this building
is that it was destroyed. You have to wonder at the cretinism of those who made the decision to take it down. I suppose it's some small
consolation that its destruction was seen by some as L.A.'s Penn Station, in that it woke Angelenos up to preservation... more or less.
And at least we still have (in the shot above) the Goodhue Central Library and Farquhar's California Club.

[QUOTE=ethereal_reality;4846568]A view of Clay Street with Angels Flight in the distance.


http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8...ightovercl.jpg
usc digital archive

I was immediately reminded of The Glenn Miller Story, among other movies. Here is a great compendium of Angel's Flight as used in the movies:

http://www.electricearl.com/af/index.html

The upper station of Angels Flight in 1960.


http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/614...ationin196.jpg
usc digital archive

what a great photo of the upper angels flight station ethereal_reality. since the photo is dated 1960, the Hillcrest Inn on the left has very little time left in it's existence.

here are some photos from 1961 showing the hillcrest being demolished.

All photos are USC Digital Archive

The caption for the photographs is;

Community Redevelopment Agency representatives Richard Thor and Miss Vicki Alonzo survey interior of old Hillcrest Hotel at 258 Olive Street which is first to be leveled by Bunker Hill project

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...020-001~1?v=hr

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...020-001~5?v=hr

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...020-001~7?v=hr

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...020-001~8?v=hr

It also makes me wonder when this style of Art Deco started becoming appreciated/admired again. Zigzag Moderne was already passé by the mid-1930s, and of course the 1950s and 60s were all about unadorned Modernism. I'm wondering if by the late 1960s, many people thought Art Deco was ugly or old-fashioned at best?

And yeah, at least we have the Central Library (which at one time even before its arson fires, was considered ripe for demolition) and the California Club, the latter of which I actually went into for the very first time last year.

I love this little photo, but it's somewhat a mystery to me.


http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4...ill3rdstre.jpg
ebay

I recognize Bunker Hill in the background.
But I can't place this exact location in my mind.





Below: 1st & Hill Street.


http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7...sthillsta1.jpg
lamta

Hill Street looking south from 1st Street.



http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/3...ookingsout.jpg
usc digital archive

Hmm, I don't know where that it either. I seem to recall an old photo I saw a while ago where there was an actual waiting station for the PE car, but I don't remember where I saw it and I don't remember where the station was actually located.

Incidentally, I haven't looked at this website in a number of years but in case anyone else hasn't looked at it yet, I think it's a pretty good one:

A Visit to Old Los Angeles and Environs

I like the way it's presented in a 1st person, journal entry-like way. Great photo and postcard images too.

that is the fremont on the right at the corner of Olive and 4th. You can even see the rose mansion peeking out from behind.

the building in the center of the photo is the hotel trenton

that places the main attraction of this photo, the train station, between 4th street on the north and 5th street on the south, and that would be olive street on the west in the background, and hill street on the east in the foreground.......................................OMG! this is an early version of the Pacific Electric Subway Terminal Building!!!!!!!!

http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/newdowntownmap.jpg
Image from; A Bit of Downtown History: Tour of the Subway Terminal Area - Tom Wetzel

the subway terminal building (which was constructed in 1925), outlined in red, is the exact location of the train station in the photo.

here is another photo taken from a higher elevation

http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/OlivW4t5.jpg
California State Library

the building between the trenton and the fremont is the Olive Street School. Th train station is visible at the lower left across from the fremont

great photo ethereal_reality..........simply great!

^^^WOW.....great work gsjansen!!

I've wondered for quite some time about that photo.
I'm amazed it predates the Pacific Electric Subway Terminal Building.

Oh wow, that's really great! I was wondering about that, because that sloped street in the back reminded me of Olive, but then something about the large building on the left threw me off, I figured that should be the back of the Philharmonic Auditorium that fronts 5th street, but somehow I didn't think it was.

But this totally makes sense; I just assumed that the Subway Terminal Building housed a completely new station that never existed before, but it makes sense that that site would contain an already existing station that was just later upgraded.

Good job, gsjansen!

Panoramas
 

I apologize in advance for posting these images which will require you to scroll to the right forever...........they are just so spectacular to view i had to post them.

they are all from the Library of Congress Panoramic Photograph collection


From Third and Olive Streets, Dec. 3rd, 1909 - This image is taken from the roof of the Kellogg, 317 S. Olive, (next to the Ems),which would later be known as the Palace, then finally the Casa Alta

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/pa...0/6a18022r.jpg



Looking northwest from Second and Spring Streets, Feb. 23rd, 1909

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/pa...0/6a18032r.jpg



Los Angeles business district as viewed from the Richfield Tower 1929

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/pa...0/6a18004r.jpg



Civic Center March 11, 1946

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/pa...0/6a02397r.jpg

:previous:

Very fascinating panoramas, gsjansen. I'm particularly taken by the 1st one; I like how you can see that the Continental Building appears to be the tallest in LA, plus you can see smoke from what I assume are the factories east of Alameda and along the LA River.

This photo really got me interested in learning about the site of the Subway Terminal Building, being that I'm fascinated by the history of transportation in LA.

Apparently it was the Pacific Electric's Hill Street Station. Here are other images of it:

Circa 1922
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics07/00013190.jpg
LAPL

Circa 1920. This was the photo I saw some time ago that I happened upon but didn't remember the locale:
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8...tation1920.jpg
USC Archive

You can read about it here: Pacific Electric Hill Street Station

Here are some pics of the station inside the Subway Terminal Building, all courtesy of LAPL:

Alfred Vick, head gateman at the Pacific Electric Subway Terminal Building, waits to close them on May 24, 1946, due to a rail strike.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics26/00047592.jpg

The last passengers to buy tickets home on May 24, 1946, from the Pacific Electric's Subway Terminal, before a rail strike.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics26/00047594.jpg

Two Pacific Electric employees return the last running streetcar to the Subway Terminal Building as a transit strike is about to begin. Photo dated: May 24, 1946.
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067017.jpg

Interior view of the Subway Terminal building with its coffered ceilings and porcelain columns. Building is unusually crowded with people buying tickets or boarding cars, because of the transit strike.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics14/00006985.jpg

1946. There's no room available on the 5:22 Pacific Electric Red Car leaving the Subway Terminal Building for Van Nuys. It's the last car of the evening. A man in front reads the Herald Examiner whose headline is "Rail Strike Begins; Station's Trains Tied Up". Overhead advertisements include "Bestform Brassiere", "Ex-Lax" and "Police Shok", a show at the Shrine Auditorium.
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics44/00071919.jpg

^^^Great post sopas_ej.

The two photos from the 1920s you posted are very enlightening.
I don't remember seeing a photo of the Hill Street Station (with the
curved roof and tiles) before. Obviously, it's just out of the frame of the
photograph I posted earlier.

The glimpses inside the Terminal Building are very interesting too.
I have some that I will post later this evening.

I enjoyed the panoramas as well gsjansen.