:previous:


Mindblowing! I'm now equally convinced the triptych is complete at last. :cheers: :tup:

I remember when it was still the cosmetics store. At one point, they had those big, fancy jars of colored water in the windows like they did for a time in pharmacies. (apparently it was a trend) The windows at that time wrapped around the corner on the street side at least. I always wanted to go in there but we never did.

The County Assessor's office has the building which is now the church at 4949 York as being built in 1925 and remodeled or added onto in 1930

Thank you JScott and HossC for finding and assembling C.C. Pierce's panorama. It's just amazing.

Before I forget, thanks to Flyingwedge for the very interesting post on Mrs Shepherd and the 1st Street cut. As I said the other day, I'm glad all posts aren't that long, but I really appreciate the ones the are :).

Also, thank you oldstuff for digging up the build date of 4949 York Boulevard.


------------


Given the illuminated nature of the signs on Martin's Guns, reposted recently in post #26808, I thought I'd have another try at finding the address (the supplied address of 5816 S Broadway seems to have been discredited). I wondered whether I'd find a picture in HDL's Edison collection, but I found a picture of Weatherby's Sporting Goods instead. The picture below is credited to Doug White, who was also responsible for the Pomona Fountain Grill pictures we discussed recently. Weatherby's was at 2781 Firestone Boulevard.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
Huntington Digital Library

HDL also have this interior shot. That looks like a pretty fancy weapon.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original
Huntington Digital Library

When I first dropped the little Google man into Streetview, I thought the building had gone. Then I moved down the street and spotted the old sign wall on the right which was hidden by a tree from my original location. The current building has roughly the same proportions as the original, and city-data.com lists the year built as 1951 (they list the effective year built as 1963), so I think it's just been remodeled.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
GSV

Since no one solved this yet, I thought I'd give it a try.
...and I think I found it.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/540/s8q9Ap.jpg
GSV

The brick building in the distance (at 1143 N. Mission Road) is the hotel building in the vintage photograph. -but no Jo-Ann Café. :(


If you look closely at the side of the building, you can see HOTEL written vertically.... just as it appears in the old photo.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...910/01uVrj.jpg
GSV

above: also notice the old blade sign above the front entrance that says Paragon Apts.

below: Here's a front view.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...661/4AeRyy.jpg
GSV

I tried to find out more on the Hotel/Paragon building but all I found was that a sex offender lives in apartment #24.
__


Back to the vintage photo:

If the photographer would have turned his head to the right, he would have seen the Los Angeles Department County Department of Coroner (1104 N. Mission Rd.)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...908/1JCNGv.png
GSV

Also in the vintage photo there are globes on the taller stanchions
today they are capped. (see below)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...905/Sd6hW5.png
detail/GSV

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7599/...e3cbf954_o.pngSW corner of 6th and Hill Streets, Consolidated Realty Building, 607 S. Hill Street

Nice street shot. Looking generally northwest across Hill Street, Pershing Square background right.

USC digital archive/Dick Whittington Photography Collection, 1924-1987

OMG ER...will you look at how those palm trees on the Right side have grown. Amazing, as Huell Howser used to say.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psatogijkb.jpg
GSV by ER

7th & Figuroa St's., 1956 and 2015
 

ER recently alerted me to some photos on ebay, to which I was the successful bidder. In the next week or so I will be posting the best of those that show Los Angeles Railway/Los Angeles Transit Lines streetcars in context with their backgrounds and via Google Street View, the same locations as they appear now.

Here we have a Los Angeles Transit Lines H-type car inbound at 7th & Figuroa Streets from 8th and Western on the S-Line. Given I that I cannot identify any vehicles in the photo newer than 1956 that means that this H-type car built in 1924 is closing in on the end of a 34 year career serving the people of Los Angeles. The H-Type were the first all steel streetcars to be introduced by the Los Angeles Railway.

Along with former LARY lines J, P, R, and V, the S-Line will remain in service with modern PCC type cars until March 31, 1963.

http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...psdyyhqufo.jpg

http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6p2c8ymm.jpg

GSV

Cheers,
Jack

The entrance to the Jewelry Mart has been drastically altered. Gone is the soaring entryway. I don't like the change.
I know why but do we really have to change a once lovely building into a piece of junk.
:(:(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psvey5bjh8.jpg
gsv

Really nice shot. Thx

We all had a lot of fun with the Consolidated Realty Building back on pages 685-686.

The photo above shows the 1935 Claud Beelman streamlining. I liked it and the original. Too bad the facades got wrecked in 1967 by some anonymous hand, as CBD noted.

We still haven't seen the Globe's anticipated sign. It must have been removed in the 1935 redo.

Oviatt Building Fan posted some lush pix of when this space was Alexander and Oviatt.

And who could forget the newsstand in the alley?

So glad you were the successful bidder Jack! This is a marvelous snapshot.

Directly behind, and obscured by the transit car is the recently discussed Optimo Cigar Store (later Union Rent-A-Car).

below: Here we see old Optimo Cigar Store as a luncheonette. (I think we have probably seen this view on NLA....but not this large :).-and we prob. overlooked the small cigar store bldg.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...538/k1UdS3.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...538/mUq5Vl.jpg
old file




I decided to go back and look at the Optimo Cigar Store again. I didn't realize it had a lunch counter as well.

I've decided to post this close-up to savor all the little details. I love little places like this.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...540/HWHzNQ.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...540/BNu7T3.jpg
USC


..as a reminder, here it is again as the Union Rent-A-Car.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/537/PwgUJG.jpg
detail

Of course, as we discussed before, it's gone.

:previous: It's the "Best Little Store" "Liquors==Lunch"

Aw, thanks e_r

I used to spend so much time perusing magazines at the newsstands. Now, I'm just on the net.

I wonder if the owners ever rented that space they're advertising.

Pacific Electric "Porthole" Faced Cars.
 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/zuNQEU.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Los-Angeles-...item4ae4dae7b4


http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7vlkvwit.jpg

We have recently seen a number of photos of Pacific Electric red cars in service. Most of these have been of large cars with round porthole type windows on the ends. This is not surprising as these were the last and largest of “The Big Red Cars” to operate in Southern California. Car 409, originally posed by ER and seen in the photo above carries Metropolitan Coach Lines in place of Pacific Electric on it’s letterboard, while Number 1543 seen in a black & white photo in Long Beach by John Bromley wears LAMTA two-tone green with a white roof. I though it might be beneficial to NLA viewers if I provided a bit of history of these cars.

Pacific Electric operated two styles of cars with porthole style end windows. Both were inherited from Southern Pacific Electric operations. The first style was numbered from 1252 to 1263 and were known on the PE as “Portland Twelves” The “Portland Twelves “came to Pacific Electric in 1928 from SP after that company had abandoned electric suburban runs out of Portland to Eugene via Forest Grove, Newberg, McMinnville and Corvallis. Known originally as "The Portland, Eugene & Eastern Railway," the company later was "The Oregon & California Railway" and finally was simply known as "The SP Red Electrics," the latter being a nickname, not the corporate title. Opened in 1913, the electric operation at its height was impressive, yet by 1927 was suffering severely from automobile competition. By July, 1928, buses had taken over some runs and eighteen of the big steel interurban cars were surplus; these were sold to Pacific Electric in July of that year.” (source Orange Empire Railway Museum).

In addition to their portholes, Portland Twelves can be distinguished by a destination sign on the roof at each end of the car. For a visual comparison with the two photos above, a picture of a Portland Twelve can be found at the bottom of this page:

http://www.pacificelectric.org/categ...strict/page/3/

The second style of Porthole end window cars came from Southern Pacific’s electric operations In the San Francisco Bay Area and these are important to Los Angeles transit history as they closed out the ‘Red Car” era.

One group came from Southern Pacific’s Northwestern Pacific operations in Marin County to a ferryboat terminus in Sausalito. This service was discontinued in 1941 with the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge.

A second and nearly identical group also came from the San Francisco Bay area. These were from SP”s East Bay Electric Lines, renamed the Interurban Electric Railway after 1938. The IER was also abandoned in 1941, and with America’s entry into WWII the United States Maritime Commission purchased sixty-one of the NWP and IER cars that year for its Cal Ship operations to the LA Harbor shipbuilding facilities. These cars were operated and Maintained by the PE and following the war PE purchased the majority of them for its Southern District operations. At 72 feet in length and weighing 64 tons, these were the largest cars in operation on the PE, and were known as “Blimps”. They would end their days on the Long Beach Line on April 9, 1961, having operated for two subsequent transit agencies – Los Angeles Metropolitan Coach Lines (MCL) and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (LAMTA), still, with one exception, in their PE Colors. These were the only P.E. cars not to carry roof top destination signs.

MCL retained the P.E. 300/400 series numbering, but LAMTA renumbered them into the 1500 series.

Rail transit systems throughout the U.S. entered a steep decline following WWII and LA was no exception. However, In the case of the LA-Long Beach line there were serious issues plaguing it’s continued operation at the start of the 1960’s. Track and overhead were deteriorating and expensive to maintain and the Blimps, some of which had been built as early as 1911 were approaching the half century mark, and the cost of replacement with new equipment would be considerable. The LAMTA put one car, No. 1543, a 1911 product of American Car and Foundry through it’s shops for a complete overhaul that included new bus style upholstery and repainting into the two-tone green with white roof livery worn by it’s busses. Unfortunately, the cost to upgrade the rail infrastructure and the entire fleet of blimps was deemed to be uneconomical, and no other cars were rebuilt to this appearance. This lone car became known as the “Green Blimp” and is now on display at Traveltown in Griffith Park. To its credit, the LAMTA also borrowed a set of standard gauge trucks from the San Francisco Municipal Railway to put under one of its 42-inch gauge ex-Los Angeles Transit Lines PCC cars and made a number of runs between LA and Long Beach to test the feasibility of using those cars as replacements for the Blimps. However, the track proved to be to rough for these lightweight vehicles and that idea was abandoned and the decision was made to convert the operation to buses.

If we look strictly at the automobiles in the black & white photo above one could almost be tricked into believing that Pacific Electric had a two tone color scheme in the early 1950’s, but in reality this is the famous “Green Blimp” turned out by the LAMTA in April of 1960.

It did indeed, thanks so much.

Ah, Five Points. I assume that the El Monte locals still refer to it as "Five Points," and according to a local, it was always referred to as that.

Before the freeways, Garvey Avenue and Valley Boulevard were major roads to points east and west. And, to add a bit of noir, Garvey Avenue was also the street to find prostitutes, with the women walking and standing around along Garvey. There were (and still are) many motels along that stretch.

This Aerial shows that there was a large open space on the side of the Jewelry Mart building. The space is now partially filled in by a new building.

Thanks T for the date, etc. for the remodel whack job on this building. We agree!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psdfptm3vo.jpg
historic aerials

I didn't find any prostitutes JScott(;)), but I came across this aerial of the Five Points area.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/76pITe.jpg
http://crawfordselmonte.blogspot.com/


The large building at bottom right is the Tumbleweed Theater.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/538/EIY4nF.jpg
http://crawfordselmonte.blogspot.com/


And across from the movie theater is Crawford's.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...538/PQ6Qie.jpg
http://crawfordselmonte.blogspot.com/


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...901/3v4Edp.jpg
http://crawfordselmonte.blogspot.com/



It looks like a fun place! Is that you in the car CBD?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...537/6tKYjp.jpg
http://crawfordselmonte.blogspot.com/


below: aerial 1950s?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...905/edQEdy.jpg
http://crawfordselmonte.blogspot.com/

This place looks like a trip. Does anyone have more information on Crawfords?
__

Here's an earlier post by Beaudry on a couple Garvey Avenue motels from December of 2010.

sign still intact.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...538/dWvxG5.jpg
GSV

Speaking of Crawford's Markets....1951
 

Man from Mars Puts San Gabriel and El Monte in the News
Over the years crime in San Gabriel has also had a
drastic impact on the community. One of the most
unusual crime sprees to occur in San Gabriel was
perpetrated by none other than the “Man from Mars.”
The bandit was dubbed the “Man from Mars” because of the bizarre attire he wore while terrorizing
supermarkets in the western San Gabriel Valley. The notorious bandit, later identified as 27-year old Forest Ray
Colson, was described as a commuter bandit because he made it a habit to return to his parents’ home in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma between robberies. Colson disguised his identity during the holdups by wearing a
leather football helmet, goggles, gas mask, hood, and tight fitting black clothes with boots resembling a
motorcycle officer’s uniform.
The “Mars” bandit staged five successful holdups of supermarkets in a period of six months netting more than
$55,000.00 before his luck ran out on Thursday evening, October 12, 1951 when he was shot by Officer Harry
Stone while in the commission of a robbery at Boy's Market, San Gabriel.
Previous to that he robbed Crawford's Market three times.


Policeman wearing the robber's bizarre Man From Mars costume....circa 1951.
I well remember hearing about this guy when I was in Grade School in San Gabriel. The whole town was abuzz with the news. The area was very crime-free in those days, so this was a huge shock.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pssxkvqjof.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pskxlizrix.jpg
old CD file

Here's the full noir life story of the robber.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=5721,4710581



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