How do ya like that one newspaper dealer with the vest, off to the left (I would say newspaper "boy" but dude looks like he's 50)..........

He must have seniority. Hollywood and Vine was probably a coveted corner. You get to stand there and watch fafuna walk by all day long! :)

Sorry for the huge image repost, but good lord, women back then had some seriously nice legs! Maybe if everyone in this day and age didn't drive or valet everywhere, they'd rock some lean beautiful stems too! :slob:

And now let's take a look at Christine Sterling herself. I thought this is essential; remember this is a person who condemned a house that was then 112 years old, that had been built and inhabited by one of the early great Ranchero families, and then become the original location of one of the city's oldest universities. And she looks like just the sort of person who would do that.

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/r...A/Sterling.jpg

She may have saved the Avila house, but otherwise she marched right along in the mid-century rush to turn Downtown into a giant suburb.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/185...southonhil.jpg
usc

The steps you see on the right side of Hill Street lead to the Moore Cliff Apartments (recently discussed in post # 2604).

I believe this incredible photograph shows the future site of the Richfield Building. Is this correct?

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/4774/1916im21916.jpg
ebay



below: A slightly different angle showing the impressive Bible Institute.

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/7...essive1916.jpg
ebay

A few more photos of the Bible Institute.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/8...itutehuge2.jpg
usc digital archive



http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/3...titutehuge.jpg
usc digital archive


Despite my pantheistic viewpoint......I think the Bible Institute Building is quite beautiful.

Squirmy - You may want to judge people on other factors besides looks. Personally, I gave that up around age 15.

I'd suggest that without Ms Sterling you would have even more to pine about. Were all here efforts congruent with what we, the enlightened ones of 2011 would support? Perhaps not. But then again - something is better than nothing.


http://www.socalhistory.org/bios/chr..._sterling.html

I had to do this:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5215/...247c70b1_o.jpg

Actually ethereal the Richfield Building would be on the block just west from there, out of frame (at the bottom of the pic). What this picture does show is the site of what is currently the Standard Hotel and the surface parking lot behind it, and the California Club.

I'm not sure anyone would be interested but apparently there's a new video game coming out soon by the name of "LA Noire". The kid (28) across the aisle from me at work had a gaming magazine with this game on the cover. I thumbed through the article. It takes place in post WW2 LA and follows the exploits of an LAPD detective as he deals with lowlifes and dolls. Based on the company's past games, the graphics are supposed to be great or so I'm told.

I'm way too old to start playing video games (besides, my free time is taken up by my midlife crisis, learning to play the guitar) but maybe there's some youngsters on this thread into gaming.

A rainy day in 1952, 7th and Broadway.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/416...ndbroadway.jpg
USC Archive

@ MikeD i've been following this one since 2007, and rockstar has painstakingly recreated 1947 LA as best as they can, i've seen screen shots from the game and i swear they've been lifted from this thread, it's so accurate and gorgeous

Broadway, 1957
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2...oadway1957.jpg
USC Archive

Main Street, looking at old Plaza, Pico House, Merced Theater and Masonic Hall, 1957
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/368...edtheaterm.jpg
USC Archive

Spring and Temple, 1957. The LA Times Building, old State Building, old Hall of Records, retaining wall of the old County Courthouse with temporary courthouse bungalows on the site and Hall of Justice building.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/3...temple1957.jpg
USC Archive

Looking west from 2nd and Broadway, 1957
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5...oadway1957.jpg
USC Archive

The Jonathan Club at 6th and Figueroa, 1957
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/380...gueroa1957.jpg
USC Archive

:previous: Love these city views. Love the cars even more! :tup:

-Scott

Hill and First, then & now
 

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/v...southonhil.jpg
USC Digital Library

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/v...andhillnow.jpg
Google Maps

More then and now
 

I love this kind of pics (thanks to Los Angeles Past for his incredible and awesome work with his 'then and now' images)


Some of the next following pictures could have been already reposted. Please correct me if I'm not correct with locations and dates:

-3rd St intersection with Flower St. 1952 and 2009.


http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/2...er1952andm.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
West mouth of the 3rd St tunnel (or west side of the tunnel). Does anybody know about those beautifull victorian homes on Bunker Hill?


-Figueroa St, looking south, 1970 and 2005:

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/8...st19702005.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us



-Hope and Wilshire, 1951 and now.

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2...re1951andn.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us



-Northbounds of the Harbor Freeway, 1973 and now:

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/4...1974andnow.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
The tower in construction in the picture above might be the Aon Center Tower. The present day view shows a very dense skyline, and we can not see the Aon Tower anymore, as new towers are seen in the foreground, like for instance the 777 Tower.


-More northbounds of the Harbor Freeway: aerial views and some Google Earth help:


http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/1...borfreeway.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
First picture on the left shows a perfect view of the Statler Hotel, and the old art-decó, now vanished, Richfield Tower. Also we can see Bunker Hill far in the distance. The next one on the right, dated by 1968, shows the first works for the construction of the Union Bank Plaza. The lower picture on the left, dated in 1970, shows the 'bunkerhillization' aftermath: Union Bank tower completed, vacant lots, and no more Bunker Hill homes. The Richfield Tower is gone. And finally a 3d skecth from Google Earth: welcome to L.A.!


-Bunker Hill towers as seen from LADWP in 1988 and now:

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7...rs1988andn.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
The picture above shows a thin building under construction: The Library Tower taking shape. The present day photo give us a new tower: a little difficult to see, it's the Two California Plaza, behind his little brother, on the left part of the picture. The Walt Disney Concert Hall is also seen.


-Bunker Hill as seen from the City Hall deck observation, in 1939 and in 2009:


http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/6696/bunkerhill.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Thank you for the compliment! Personally, I'm a big fan of gsjansen's and sopas_ej's "then & nows" in this thread. Time after time, their stuff just makes me go "Wow!" :ohyeah

I'd also like to put in a plug for Brian H. Hu's excellent "Urban Diachrony" blog, which I check every day. Lots of great time-comparative images there! :tup:

-Scott

Apablasa Street in 1921. This is the first time I've noticed the planters with palm(?) trees in the center of the street.


http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1...street1921.jpg
usc digital archive

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/4774/1916im21916.jpg
usc digital archive

Thanks for the explanation sopas_ej.





This photograph is of the site shown in the above photo (except from a different angle).
The year is 1930 and the brand new building is the California Club. The Bible Institute can be seen in both photos.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8...niaclubbld.jpg
usc digital archive





below: I also found this photo of the California Club in 1928.
This is the previous location at the northwest corner at Fifth & Hill Street.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/809...niaclubbld.jpg
usc digital archive







below: Before the Fifth & Hill location (above), the California Club was located on the top two floors of the Wilcox Building
at the southeast corner of Spring and Second Street. The Wilcox Building was the first building in Los Angeles to have
TWO elevators-one for the public and one for the members of the California Club.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/9...1905spring.jpg
usc digital archive




________________

The original location of the California Club was in the second floor rooms of the Tally-Ho Stables at the northwest corner of First and Fort (now Broadway) Streets.

I thought I had a photo of the Tally-Ho Stables....but I can't find it. :( ......still looking.




I FOUND IT!!

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/7438/aaatallyho.jpg
usc digital archive

The Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trade also met in rooms above the stables.
This view is looking northwest from the Nadeau Hotel.

Well, if I had formed a judgment about her looks and then condemned her actions because of them, you'd have a stronger point. I read all about her in Estrada's book, and only then came across the portrait.

With the exception of the Olvera merchants, she was very much opposed to any kind of commercial use of any of the Plaza property, which is why all the buildings in the area--that is, all the ones that weren't knocked down for parking lots--decayed over the years. Now that may just be opinion of mine, but I don't think it's a completely unfounded one. The effective decision was to banish the kind of activity that makes a neighborhood live, like shops and cheap restaurants. The whole area might have become something like the French Quarter in New Orleans; instead, it became the biggest ghost town south of Bodie. Just the Placita church and the Olvera Street merchants--often at cross purposes with the original owners of the buildings on that block of Main--was not enough to ensure the ongoing viability of the area as a living community.

To the best of my memory, for a very long time none of the buildings were really used for anything, not even Park offices. They were padlocked by the State in 1953, and that was that for a very long time.

What was done to the Plaza neighborhood is in many ways the same as what happened a few blocks south. By replacing so many historic buildings not only with parking lots, but also "plazas" and "malls" that seem more than a little sterile like something out of a Di Chirico painting--except between 12 and 2 on weekdays, when the office workers come downstairs to have their brown bag lunches --much of Downtown was really given a suburban feel. There's lots of open space, lots of (expensive) surface parking, lots of green. But there's little in the way of coffeeshops, bookstores, pubs and restaurants. To find those, you have to go to the old financial district which was saved by the developers' and city fathers' preoccupation with "cleaning up" Bunker Hill, the Plaza, and the Civic Center.