:previous: Amazing Flyingwedge! You are here-by awarded Sleuth of the Month. ;)

Flyingwedge, you are a wonder!

I. Magnin, Wilshire Boulevard
http://imageshack.us/a/img14/1791/im...redeco1dav.jpg
old cd of mine from 2006/possibly lapl or usc. I'll look into it


The art deco frieze that appears on the facade also appeared on gift boxes and shopping bags.

http://imageshack.us/a/img689/8438/a...tboxdecode.jpg
gift box/ebay



http://imageshack.us/a/img593/91/aab...myarchflic.jpg
gsv
__

Thanks so much for finding and posting that photo, ER. Special thanks also to T2 and JScott for your help with and interest in the palm(s) . . . but extra special thanks to ProphetM for the key breakthrough as to exactly where the palms were on San Pedro St., as well as for pursuing what happened to the remaining four palms.

I swung by the Hammel Palm outside the Coliseum today and was surprised to find no obvious initials or designs cut into the trunk. But what's there -- or not there any more -- is worse than that:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...pscacb5cd1.jpg
Photo by me

Did you gasp? It looks like some vandal(s) tried to end our palm's life not too long ago. It definitely needs a fence.

Ha! Thanks . . . is there a cash prize involved? ;)

I hope you gave the Hammel Palm a nice hug while you were there Flyingwedge. Did you talk to it? -be honest. :)

Yes, I was talking about the mid-Wilshire store's chandelier. The story I told comes from a 1970s interview with one of the Magnins involved. He readily conceded that the chandelier is a copy of Lalique's gargantuan one ... and he was very proud of the money he saved. Mr. Magnin also claimed in the interview that the chandelier was made by a local Southern Californian glassmaker in about three months; unfortunately, he didn't mention the glassmaker's name.

A few years ago, Lalique historian Nicholas Dawes confirmed to me that the chandelier's design is Lalique-inspired, to say the least.

The interview is described on page 201 of the book "Art Deco San Francisco: The Architecture of Timothy Pflueger", by Therese Poletti.

Nice find. Maybe needs more than just a fence, e.g., a moat and a wall.
The most obvious growth of this palm - over the years - is length-wise. Because of this, the scaring in your picture may be much older than you think. It may have even been caused when the plant was moved and replanted many years ago. The trunk may appear deceptively slender, but the plant's great height represents a lot of weight to support. Despite the best efforts to safely lift and support a large palm, mistakes happen.

Wonder if there were any documented incidents of Elephants roaming Exposition Park?

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...scratching.jpghttp://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...scratching.jpg

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...t-enjoying.jpghttp://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...t-enjoying.jpg




A hospital worthy of caring for an old palm?

1938 - St. Vincent's Hospital building, 2131 West Third Street, (Third and Alvarado) No longer standing.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00099/00099018.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/00099/00099018.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00099/00099019.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/00099/00099019.jpg

1954 - Destroyed in '59 St. Vincent's aka the Los Angeles Infirmary?
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00078/00078359.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/00078/00078359.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00078/00078360.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/00078/00078360.jpg

Los Angeles in full and purple bloom...
 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps8a449170.jpg

The famous Jacaranda trees of Los Angeles are currently in full bloom around town.

These colorful trees with the sticky purple flowers were not originally native to Southern California. They were imported from Argentina. What could be more noir for Los Angeles than a tree with a sticky purple flower.

First L.A. Streetcar?
 

I hope we haven't covered this before . . . I don't recognize this picture, or either of these two buildings. :shrug:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6309f811.jpg

CA State Library -- http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...R6SKCL18IL.jpg

There is no additional information with the photo, other than a date of c. 1875.

Does any of this look familiar to anyone?

The Senator is the one that used to be the Jovita Annex I think? (went through to the main Jovita at 726 S. Spring). According to the architects who did the work, it was apparently rebuilt except for the Spring St. facade:

The Senator Hotel, extending a full block between Main and Spring Streets, was completely demolished in late 1993 with the exception of the historic Spring Street facade, which, preserved and braced, survived the 1994 Northridge earthquake without a crack. The massing of the new construction reinforces the area's turn-of-the-century context, with alternating bands of dark brown and sepia glazed and split faced block offering the new facade a rich layer of detail. On the long side elevations, courts bring light and air into the guest rooms, communal kitchens, and lounges.(from here: http://kfarchitects.com/housingnewco...209&catID=12); LA Times article about the work from 1994: http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-..._senator-hotel

I have in my notes that LA Times reported the building permit being issued 10-11-1914 to a Mrs. Francesca Jesurun. Ethereal Reality had a photo of the Spring St. side back on page 428 (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...70279&page=428), from USC digital archive.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...726sspring.jpg

Spring St. facade from You-Are-Here:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...Youarehere.jpg

It was great seeing the (1913) Dewey pre-Jovita/Senator! I had only found this distant view of the Main St. side of the hotels, from LAPL:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...mainlkgest.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014163.jpg

And customers arriving in their cars, after being escorted into the store by doormen, would meet a concierge, seated at a lovely desk, to point them to wherever they wished to go. Doesn't happen like that anymore.

The ones in the Beverly Hills store were made by Lalique, but some of them mysteriously "disappeared" after the chain closed in the '90s. Saks recovered some of them. I represented Saks at the time and heard stories of how much trouble they went to to chase them down so they could be re-installed in the store after it was converted into an extension of the main Saks store on Wilshire in Beverly Hills.

Beautiful trees, but don't ever park your car under one when it's blooming.

Hmmm, and maybe flying buttresses....


http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...pscacb5cd1.jpg
flyingwedge


P.S.

....and a lightening rod?

A grievous wound. Evidently, though, the palm has coped with the injury in terms of it getting what it needs from its roots. I do worry about its structural integrity, however.

Did you get any pictures of the whole tree? It'd be nice to see something other than the murky GSV images. :)

Speaking of wounds, I found this odd carving in one of the Longstreet palms. Never been able to figure out what it might mean.

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/v.../P7177296A.jpg
Photo by me.

I think it's quite old, as it still bears marks of having been covered by ivy vines, which I don't think has been on the trees since before the property became Orthopaedic Hospital.

Hi Guys-

I'm trying to track down the location of this storage building I found on calisphere, dated 1928:

http://cdn.calisphere.org/affiliates...res/1986-1.jpg

I've been searching some of the city business directories for the company, Lyons Van & Storage, but I could be wasting my time. They seem to have had locations all up and down the coast.

ETA: I've also tried newspapers, hoping for an advertisement. So far I just get the company name and no location or phone number.

Do any of you have other suggestions of places/ways I could try to find out where the building was at? Thanks!

Sarah Bixby Smith gives some hints as to the routes of the early cars in Chapter XI, Adobe Days, 1931:

"In those days [the 1870s] two streetcar lines meandered, the one way out to Agricultural Park (Exposition), a large bare space with a few old eucalyptus trees, and the grand stand beside the race track; the other south on Spring to Fifth, up Fifth to Olive and around the corner of the park to Sixth, and then up to Pearl, the name of Figueroa Street, north of Pico, where the bend is. Each line boasted two cars so that simultaneous trips in opposite directions were possible. The cars were very small and drawn by mules; there was no separate conductor; we put our tickets - bought at the neighborhood drug store - into a glass box near the door. It is told on the Main Street line [to Agricultural Park] it was the custom for the driver on late trips to stop the car, wind the reins around the brake handles, and escort lone lady passengers to their front doors."


I hope this helps someone to identify the location. I do not recognize the buildings as being on Pershing Square. Perhaps the empty, fenced space is Agricultural Park?


P.S.

More from Nathan Masters: http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_fo...t-suburbs.html

and

"In Los Angeles, the Spring and Sixth Street Railway began operating horse drawn streetcars July 1, 1874, created by Robert M. Widney, a real estate promoter. Its route was from the Plaza on Main to Spring to 1st to Fort (Broadway) to 4th to Hill to 6th to Pearl (Figueroa). The single track, narrow gauge railway opened for service with one car. Its barn was at the corner of 6th & Figueroa. Business was good, a second car was soon in service. In November 1874 the line was extended to what is now N. Spring and Alameda, on March 1876 it was extended to East Los Angeles (now Lincoln Heights) via San Fernando St. (N. Spring) and Downey Ave. (N. Broadway) to Gates St. By August 1878 a line was completed via the Plaza, Olvera, Macy, Alameda to San Fernando St.

The Main Street & Agricultural Park Street Railroad was chartered by bankers John G. Downey, Ozro W. Childs, John Griffin, F.P.F. Temple, William Brodrick, Isaias W. Hellman and William Workman. The initial portion of the line opened with two cars in July 1875. Tracks were extended to Agricultural Park via Washington, Pearl (Figueroa), and Santa Monica Avenue (Exposition Blvd.) the following summer."
http://www.railswest.com/citystreetrailways.html

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7389/8...db2ecda4_b.jpg
Chester Place, 1925 ebay

I feel your pain. In the late '60s, Bullock's Wilshire bought and put into storage the Lalique light fixtures and Frederick Sage wrought iron balustrades that were being sold off from the Oviatt Building and its penthouse. Ten years later, the new owners of the Oviatt Building repurchased the balustrades from Bullock's, but couldn't afford to buy back the Lalique chandeliers and sconces. Bullock's Wilshire ended up installing those fixtures inside its store.

Macy's acquired Bullock's. In 1993, as the Wilshire store closed, Macy's took the Oviatt Lalique chandeliers out of the Bullock's Wilshire building and installed one of them in I. Magnin's flagship store in San Francisco. (The other chandelier ended up in the Bay Area home of a top I. Magnin executive. Hmmm.) The Los Angeles Conservancy then raised a ruckus, and ONE Oviatt chandelier was returned to Bullock's Wilshire. (Guess which one? Hint: it wasn't hanging in the executive's house.) In any case, the returned chandelier has since disappeared.

Photos of the 1928 Lalique chandeliers and sconce from the Oviatt Building. Some of you might remember having seen these inside Bullock's Wilshire:



http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps493f3e09.jpg


http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps34d6892b.jpg


http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...psafee4779.jpg