Union Station
 

Here is Pacific Crane and Rigging planting the palm trees around Union Station. If I was a kid in 1930..I would be the one on the bike.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...o/scan0001.jpg
Personal collection

This picture of Hollywood/Cherokee must've been taken around the same time as those posted by Martin Pal. USC dates it at circa 1936/1958. The same picture can be found at hollywoodphotographs.com where it's dated 1937.

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

Here's a close-up of the box on the roof. It appears to have a ladder and hatch at the rear, but otherwise I'm none the wiser. The sign on the corner of the building states that the "owner will erect new building".

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...eVirginia2.jpg
Detail of picture above.

Laying pipe
 

The Belyea Truck Co. on the job laying pipe on the Gorham Ranch. Does the Gorham Ranch sound familiar to anyone?
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...o/scan0002.jpg
personal collection

Cheers,Pat

Wallich's Music City
 

.

Looks like you've found our In SRO Land blog and the Union Rescue Mission history section, CityBoyDoug, since you're quoting from this post in yours.

We discovered the 120 year old archive of the Mission a few years back and have been working with the URM to explore and share its extraordinary history on Main Street, through the blog, free walking tours, and screenings of the remarkable short color film shot at 2nd and Main in the 1940s, Of Scrap and Steel. Do dig deeper in the links if downtown rescue mission history interests you--it's a different side of the neighborhood than is typically shown, and we've learned a lot from the URM's documentation.

Ghost Signage Mystery
 

Here is a puzzle, perhaps you can solve it. (Apologies if this building has already been discussed - I could not find it using the search function or Google.)

Yesterday I did some work in the central library and then took a bus to Little Tokyo for dinner. As I was waiting for the #30 at Broadway and 6th, I noticed a gem of a building on the west side of the street. Although the street level was hidden by scaffolding, the upper floors were gleaming with art deco accents.

I took a picture:
http://i.imgur.com/zNuwjNd.jpg

When I got home, I googled the address and found a better view:
http://i.imgur.com/Km1tHAP.jpg
http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/17671...os-Angeles-CA/

The county assessor's map site indicates that 537-539-541 South Broadway was built in 1931. So I found the 1906 Sanborn map:
http://i.imgur.com/AWO1mky.jpg
LAPL

This showed a 3 story hotel above street level shops, with a 5 story building next door at 535, which dated from 1903 according to the assessor.

On February 22, 1931 we learn from the LA Times the following:
http://i.imgur.com/YM1uIIm.jpg

The F&W Grand-Silver company was a lesser competitor of Woolworth's Five & Dime. It is surprising that they would build a big store in the midst of the Depression. It didn't last too long, because on September 8, 1934 the Times tells us there is to be a new tenant:
http://i.imgur.com/bQo80oD.jpg

The Times did not mention that the National Dollar Store company, which had stores from Salt Lake City to Honolulu, was founded by Joe Shoong, a Chinese-American businessman from the Bay Area. Mr. Shoong, proud of his ethnicity, hired college-educated Chinese-Americans to manage each of his stores, as you can learn here:
• Video Link.

The 537 building became a Richman Brothers clothes outlet in 1950, and later was a Hartfield's department store (corporate parent of Zody's).

So where is the mystery?

The ghost sign here:
http://i.imgur.com/KatmJQ1.jpg?1

...is on the north side of the 537 building. But this building had a 5 story neighbor at 535 since the former's construction in 1931, which must have hidden any sign. Obviously 535 was leveled off some time later. How much later? Well it had to have been after 1950, because on the Sanborn map of that year, we see 535 is still 5 stories high:
http://i.imgur.com/YmSMD8h.jpg
LAPL

Looking at street directories, we find 535 was a Gallenkamp's Shoe Store until 1965:
http://i.imgur.com/Cz8bKpt.jpg
LA Times

The directory notes Gallenkamp's occupied "four floors" of this building. But by 1967, no more Gallenkamp's. Evidently they decamped, as it were, for greener suburban pastures far from downtown. In that year, 535 is occupied only by something called "Broadway Sundries" - I wonder if this is indirect evidence 535 was lowered around then.

So my guess is that, for it to have been visible, the ghost sign has to date from after 1965-ish. BUT, the font used in the lettering looks much older. Does it say "[m]antels and [gr]ates"? And who is this J.W.? The only J.W. that comes to mind is J.W. Robinson which was at 7th and Grand, not 5th and Broadway.

Any thoughts? :shrug:

:previous:

I haven't found anything on the ghost sign, but here's the grand opening of the F & W Grand-Silver Stores in 1931.

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

This 1939 picture has 537 S Broadway on the left, and shows some of the building next door.
NB. I've lightened the original image to reveal more detail.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
USC Digital Library


There's a good collection of recent photos of 537 S Broadway here:

http://downtownfilming.com/537broadway.html

J. W. Frey—mantels and grates—was at 537 S Broadway from at least the turn of the century to late 1906, when he moved to 1150 S. Los Angeles. His CD listing disappears after about 1911... He is seen in the 1886 CD as a "woodcarver" at 446 S Los Angeles; in 1894 he was at 700 N Main dealing in mantel and grates and "Moorish fretwork."


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-v...2520AM.bmp.jpgLAPL

The Mackie-Fredericks Furniture Co is at left, followed by the predecessor to the dime store.

Ghost Signage Mystery
 

http://i.imgur.com/KatmJQ1.jpg?1

Thanks HossC and GW for the quick (and interesting) responses. I am still trying to get my head around how that sign came to be visible to us in 2014.

I think what must have happened is this: the ad for J.W. Frey was painted sometime before 1903 on the north exterior of the Milton Hotel, formerly 537 S. Broadway. Then the 5 story commercial structure at 535 was built in 1903, and covered up the sign. When the hotel at 537 was demolished in 1931, for some reason the new store was built *inside* the shell [why??] of the old hotel, at least on its north side. The former exterior of the Milton Hotel (just a sliver, as you can see in the picture) was preserved and separated the new art deco building at 537 from the old commercial building at 535. And when the latter was scalped in the 1960s, the old exterior of the Milton was revealed. How cool that such a thing survived 100+ years.

Cord Headlights
 

Not surprising to see the headlights still up. They were hand cranked individually. The Cord is referred to as a Coffin Nose Cord, kind of obvious.
Too many innovations for 1936 and 7 hurt sales. Supercharged model available, electric shift, retractable headlights and front wheel drive, all high tech stuff compared to all other production cars.

USC has a zoomable version of the LAPL picture. The 1909 CD lists the Canfield Hardware Co. at 537-539 S Broadway. The picture also shows the sign for the Milton Hotel.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original
Detail of picture at USC Digital Library

"The Milton"/"The Milton Hotel" appears on the Baist maps. The ones below are from 1910 and 1921

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...SBroadway4.jpg
www.historicmapworks.com

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...SBroadway5.jpg
www.historicmapworks.com

LOL, HossC! And thanks for the info, I didn't think "apartments" when I was wondering what it was. Maybe the "box" thing on the roof was a studio apt., heh!

G-W wonders if that box was advertising something and I was wondering, too, since it’s angled like other roof-top signs for oncoming traffic. I don’t even know where to begin to search this question.

That's funny -- "after visiting the bar 40 or so times" -- LOL!
Apparently John Kingsley and the Hollywood Citizen didn't agree with Bradley's slogan:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aTlFJsCJcD...radleyscap.jpg
eBay

I don't know when Bradley's closed, but in the 60's this location was a popular hangout called M'Goo's. (photo dated 1969)
http://hollywoodphotographs.com/photos/lrg/RN-100-1.jpg
H.P./Torrence

The Jade Restaurant and The Virginia location were a Love's restaurant in 1972:
http://hollywoodphotographs.com/photos/lrg/HB-408.jpg
H.P./Torrence

A fire closed down M'Goo's sometime in the early 70's. Love's was there until the 90's at least, maybe longer. Now I believe it's partly a check cashing place.

:previous:


That is funny... "after visiting 40 times"... I'll have to read things more closely, or at least not so early, before having coffee. I also thought until now that it actually was a 5&10-cent store called Bradleys--that the signage might have been repurposed.


Well, I see one woman...and Truman Capote. Case closed.


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics40/00069968.jpgLAPL


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics40/00069966.jpgLAPL


http://vintagematches.webs.com/photo...ks/brad3-1.JPGVintage Matches

Looks like it was a chain...

LOL!, and maybe Cesar Romero on the end!

Great interior photos, thanks!

Internet sources say [the Hollywood] Bradley’s closed in 1948 and for a short while it became an outlet for Kaiser Dishwashers.

After that it was Chuck’s Hofbrau. (photo dated 1955)
http://hollywoodphotographs.com/photos/lrg/RN-035-1.jpg
H.P./Torrence

Lots of glimpses of other places in the photo: after Chuck’s we see The Hollywood Barber Shop, a Chop Suey restaurant, Musso & Frank’s (still there), the Vogue Theater showing “This Island Earth” (still there, but not showing films) and off in the distance we see the shady outlines of the Bank Building on the NE corner of Hollywood and Highland (still there) and a bit of the Hollywood Hotel on the NW corner.

M’Goo’s opened in 1959 and the fire that closed it was in 1975.

Don't think we've met sweet little Lola Titus before....


http://i.imgur.com/uRI1Yl5.jpg?1?9899Black Dahlia in Hollywood


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-X...2520PM.bmp.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-M...tusarticle.jpg
LAT July 16, 1949

Way back on page 96 ...

Ten years later, and here's a larger version of the Broadway picture posted by GW earlier today.

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

Behind Mercantile Place, the Delaware Hotel now has much closer neighbors.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
Detail of picture above.

The Delaware Hotel still appears on the 1910 Baist map (posted earlier), even though the first Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles was built on the site that year. The theater, later known as the Arcade Theater, closed in the late-80s, and is now used for retail.


Previous posts on Mercantile Place/Spring Street Arcade:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10539

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10540

Mysterious....most mysterious...
 

I wonder why she would call her ex-boyfriend a ''cop lover''. Was it because the cops gave him vice protection?:???::cool::cool:

Mark Hansen....the ''boyfriend'' she shot in the back. Handsome? Not really by Hollywood standards of that era. I would add that Lola was no raving beauty queen either. Her method was that ''you love me or I kill you''. Ahhh...such a healthy noir romance.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps7c2701f0.jpg
LATimes