SkyscraperPage Forum

SkyscraperPage Forum (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/index.php)
-   Found City Photos (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=23)
-   -   noirish Los Angeles (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170279)

GaylordWilshire Sep 5, 2012 2:00 PM

I've just discovered a fabulous blog ;):D:rolleyes::jester:

Its latest installment has the story of rake-about-town Paul Otto Tobeler, who managed to get himself into a few noir-lite scrapes in the '50s: http://stjamesparklosangeles.blogspo...histories.html

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pD1Id5Gmkw...825rampage.jpgLAT

MichaelRyerson Sep 5, 2012 2:57 PM

Nice image from a time we don't see a lot of...
 
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8299/7...ab893606_o.jpg
Main Street, Los Angeles, 1916

USCdigital archive/Automobile Club of Southern California negatives, 1892-1963


And now, thanks to ProphetM's dandy detective work, we know this nice image is misidentified in the Automobile Club of Southern California's archives and is, in fact, Main Street, Santa Ana(!), presumably 1916. And as these things so often play out, we also now know a little bit (more) about the San Francisco Exposition, the San Diego Exposition, the Lincoln Highway, the 'Coast Route', the Exposition Trail and the degree to which we need to remain skeptical when finding information attached to archived photographs.

GaylordWilshire Sep 5, 2012 7:50 PM

:previous:

I'm wondering if this might be the Main Street of another SoCal town--maybe the intersection is several miles to the north or south of downtown, but why would there be a directional to Los Angeles on its own main street? Also--I guess I've never seen that type of streetlamp before....

oldstuff Sep 5, 2012 7:58 PM

The name of the business where the man is looking out the window on page 452 appears clearer around the corner of the building The business is W.M. Garland Real Estate. Mr William Marshall Garland was born in Maine. His wife's name was Blanche and they had two sons, William Marshall and John. The family lived at 755 West Adams in 1910. They appear in the 1910 census.

MichaelRyerson Sep 5, 2012 9:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5821186)
:previous:

I'm wondering if this might be the Main Street of another SoCal town--maybe the intersection is several miles to the north or south of downtown, but why would there be a directional to Los Angeles on its own main street? Also--I guess I've never seen that type of streetlamp before....

Well, I had similar thoughts, although at a minimum, it probably must be south of town as the sign points to Los Angeles in one direction and San Diego in the other. Ergo, the sign must be between Los Angeles and San Diego. That said, bear in mind Main Street ran pretty much unbroken all the way to Lomita Boulevard even in 1916. That's quite a distance and it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect some travellers to come upon 'Main Street' and not know which direction lay the town. I wonder if the 'Exposition Trail' is a clue. Vernon? Also the notation 'coast route' perhaps places the sign in Long Beach or maybe Wilmington? I don't know. Beings how it's an image from the Auto Club I place somewhat more trust in their identifying notes than if it were from the Historical Society but still many odd misidentifications show up even in their archive. Yes, the street lamp is very unusual though not unlike an Olympic Special, perhaps an early, more crudely wrought effort in that direction. Or, it occurs to me, the lamp may have more to do with the box that seems to be attached to the pole. There is a mail box sitting alongside to the right and then this lamp and box arrangement. Maybe the lamp isn't a street lamp at all but an indication as to the location of the box, so that from down the street people can see where the box is. Also Boyd's Studio?

KevinW Sep 5, 2012 11:20 PM

The Exposition Trail
 
Found this while looking for said Trail. Seems like they linked the 1915 San Francisco Expo with the 1917 San Diego Expo. That would put the time and place correctly.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8039/7...4462da94_o.png
lincoln-highway-museum.org

Now if I could only find a map of the route of the Exposition Trail. It's nowhere on the web that I can find so far...

ethereal_reality Sep 6, 2012 12:27 AM

:previous:...very interesting. I've never heard of this 'Exposition Trail'.

MichaelRyerson Sep 6, 2012 1:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinW (Post 5821484)
Found this while looking for said Trail. Seems like they linked the 1915 San Francisco Expo with the 1917 San Diego Expo. That would put the time and place correctly.

lincoln-highway-museum.org

Now if I could only find a map of the route of the Exposition Trail. It's nowhere on the web that I can find so far...



me neither. I've spent the better part of an hour and a half, using every combination of search terms I can think of, but nada.

ethereal_reality Sep 6, 2012 1:15 AM

...same here. :( it's quite frustrating.

KevinW Sep 6, 2012 2:22 AM

May Co. Parking Lot
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5819391)
snapshot...'location unknown'.

http://imageshack.us/a/img33/8980/aa...ayoriginal.jpg
snapshot/ebay

I believe this is the north side (rear view) of the iconic May Co. on Wilshire Blvd.
__

I've been looking for a picture of that hedge which would also have included the Gas Station we tried to find earlier in this thread. Here's a nice Ed Ruscha shot which shows the station. I'm convinced the hedge is there on 6th just east of the Gas Station.



http://www.spruethmagers.com/bilder/...scha_00110.jpg
Ed Ruscha

If you like aerials of L.A., this is a great site:

http://angelfloresjr.multiply.com/journal/item/8640

Then I found this shot of Wilshire/Fairfax and in the background right, you can see the vertical May Co. sign. Was this a gas station or was it the May Co. Automotive Department?

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6089/6...801cbe31_b.jpg
LAPL

Here's BifRayRock's post from before:

*Look closely and you can see the image of that station near the May Co. "M" in this photo (3:30 O'clock, far right hand side.) The picture indicates the presence of a spire - that I do not remember.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...-B46-ISLA?v=hr [URL="http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search/controller/view/whit-m1428.html?x=1335382897948"]

I also stumbled across this incredible site. Look towards the bottom for links to hundreds of pictures:

http://waterandpower.org/museum/Earl...1920_+%29.html

Lwize Sep 6, 2012 3:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinW (Post 5821669)
I also stumbled across this incredible site. Look towards the bottom for links to hundreds of pictures:

http://waterandpower.org/museum/Earl...1920_+%29.html

Holy crap! So many unseen pictures around LA! :tup:

Chuckaluck Sep 6, 2012 5:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinW (Post 5821669)
I've been looking for a picture of that hedge which would also have included the Gas Station we tried to find earlier in this thread. Here's a nice Ed Ruscha shot which shows the station. I'm convinced the hedge is there on 6th just east of the Gas Station.

http://www.spruethmagers.com/bilder/...scha_00110.jpg Ed Ruscha

I agree that the hedge is visible in the image you posted.

When I first explored this subject I discovered, per its advertising, that the May Co., like so many other department stores had an Auto Department that sold tires, batteries and the like. I can't be certain, but I believe the outlying building was constructed after the main building was operational. By 1960 (but possibly earlier)the Auto "Department" gave way to the May Company Service Station located at 600 S. Fairfax. WE-6-3600. This was apparently a joint venture with Standard Oil of California, since that is a separate listing for the same station, with the same telephone number. http://rescarta.lapl.org:8080/ResCar...oc=fairfax+ave So, it is probably safe to say that the building started out by doing light service on cars but later operation was primarily gasoline sales.

Since BRR's original posting, I have noticed quite a number of wide shots that include, for lack of a better word, the "station." It is obvious that the building went through a few face lifts before being reduced to gas pump islands and a small office. The parking lot lighting clearly changed too. I would wager that the hedges may have come and gone a few times as well.

Something that I found interesting was the existence of second, single story, building - that bordered Fairfax and ran between the main building and the gas/auto department. I have only seen the one photo of the building, see first image below, from BRR's posts. The cars suggest the image and the mystery building date from the mid to late '40s. (Sorry if some of these are repeats, but it can be helpful to view things contextually.)

See:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=7500 and

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=7965
_____________________

The "Second" mystery building:
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...84309401_n.jpg


A larger version of your image:
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...-EN-39-96?v=hr

_____________________

2011
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6220/6...448598c0_b.jpghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/tortuga...l-1409234@N20/



Circa 1946-1947? (Park La Brea had not been built yet.)
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...-4-A-ISLA?v=hr

Circa 1954 and one premier image!
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...-3-1-ISLA?v=hr

Circa 1968
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...2E2C49F9C?v=hr Aerials from: USC Digital

oldstuff Sep 6, 2012 9:08 PM

[QUOTE=BifRayRock;5760798][COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="2"][FONT="Tahoma"]
Transportation begets temptation?

1908 Burbank, unknown address.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics22/00030786.jpglapl

____________________________
The picture of the bicycle shop in Burbank was the shop owned by Orlando Lane, who built one of the "Rock Houses" on Olive Avenue at Ninth in Burbank. The Bicycle Shop was located on the West side of San Fernando Blvd. It was probably located between Angeleno and Tujunga. Mr Lane later had a Ford Dealership

ProphetM Sep 6, 2012 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson (Post 5820778)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8299/7...ab893606_o.jpg
Main Street, Los Angeles, 1916

USCdigital archive/Automobile Club of Southern California negatives, 1892-1963

That right there is Main & 4th, Santa Ana.

Luckily, the building in the foreground is still there, looking pretty much the same!
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2...ntaAnaACSC.jpg
Google Street View

I know there's not a lot of building for comparison, but I think it's the right place. There is even that one brick on the darker second floor (left of the windows) that is lighter than all the ones around it.

I arrived at this by searching for the Coast Route. The USC digital library has several ACSC strip maps showing the "Coast Route" from LA to San Diego. There's a 1917 map that's not detailed enough to show most of the street names, but another one from 1923 shows the part from LA to just past Santa Ana and on that one the Coast Route runs down Main St. in Santa Ana and then heads east on 4th.

First St. is still shown as a minor street on the 1923 map and the Coast route jogs back over to it east of the center of town, so in 1916 possibly the route turned east on 1st instead, which would account for the sign in the photo as it is south of the corner at 4th. (According to the 1923 map the Auto Club's Santa Ana office was then on 4th just east of Main St. so that would give them a reason to suggest using 4th St. instead of 1st.)

Lwize Sep 6, 2012 11:30 PM

No street corner can remain anonymous in this thread. :)

GaylordWilshire Sep 6, 2012 11:51 PM

You got it, Prophet--

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-W...2520PM.bmp.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B...2520PM.bmp.jpg

Above are a couple of shots of the buildings along 4th Street in Santa Ana-- complete with the Boyds Studio sign.


More of Main & 4th:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...2520PM.bmp.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i...2520PM.bmp.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-M...2520PM.bmp.jpg

In this one, Kress has replaced one of the buildings on the north side of 4th--probably after the 1933 earthquake:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-D...2520PM.bmp.jpg




All shots from http://santaanahistory.com

ethereal_reality Sep 7, 2012 12:10 AM

Great detective work ProphetM! Your discovery ranks as one of the best on 'noirish los angeles'.

__

ethereal_reality Sep 7, 2012 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5820738)
I've just discovered a fabulous blog ;):D:rolleyes::jester:

Its latest installment has the story of rake-about-town Paul Otto Tobeler, who managed to get himself into a few noir-lite scrapes in the '50s: http://stjamesparklosangeles.blogspo...histories.html

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pD1Id5Gmkw...825rampage.jpgLAT

Anyone who loves Los Angeles history should visit GaylordWilshire's blog on St. James Park. It's absolutely truly amazing in all it's details!
http://stjamesparklosangeles.blogspo...histories.html

__

GaylordWilshire Sep 7, 2012 12:24 AM

:previous:

:blush:

I try. The blogs are a labor of love.

Thanks for the kudos, e_r, Our Esteemed Founder :worship:

ethereal_reality Sep 7, 2012 4:01 AM

Has anyone noticed this type of sign in any of the old Bunker Hill photographs?

http://imageshack.us/a/img254/5982/aabunkerhillsign.jpg
found on ebay



below: a description from ebay.

http://imageshack.us/a/img827/6327/a...igninfoeba.jpg

For the life of me I can't figure out the purpose of this type of concrete 'sign'....was it embedded in pavement?

__


All times are GMT. The time now is 9:19 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.