Speaking of Beverly Hills...
 

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-w...2520AM.bmp.jpgBeverly Hills Historic Preservation
The Beverly-Wilshire--so new, it doesn't have its rooftop signs yet. So new it almost could be a
building awaiting demolition. But it's still there, of course.

You've got to check out the great work my friend Kimberly Vinokur Reiss is doing with her
facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/BeverlyHills...icPreservation.

below: Eleanor Powell tap dancing on the roof of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
On the right is the E of the rooftop sign.

http://a.imageshack.us/img442/2472/e...evwilshire.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3345511...-79761301@N00/

Ghosts
 

Hello everyone. I’ve been a lurker here for a while. I’ve gone through every page of this thread and have found many gems. A thank you goes out to everyone. I work for a Civil Engineering firm here at 2nd and Broadway in LA. I’m in the process of decorating the office with old maps and photos of downtown LA and in particular, this building. This thread has been very helpful, and in the process has been enlightening on the history of Los Angeles. Now every time I walk through the Plaza and past Pico House I feel like I’m walking through the ghosts of the past. I look forward to future posts and to sharing some interesting tidbits I’ve found.

Speaking of Ghosts…. I don’t remember seeing this posted here. If it has just slap me around.

Have you heard the story of the original Calvary Cemetery and Cathedral High School? I’ll call it “Early Noirish”.
The best story I found was this from the Downtown News(2009): http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/t...f0ed1c0d3.html

-Mike

:previous: Welcome to the thread Mike! I love that Calvery Cemetery story.




File this under drunk driver:

A submerged car in Beverly Hills pool (1961).

http://a.imageshack.us/img638/5917/c...961bevhill.jpg
http://www.glamoursplash.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

LACMA's 340 Ton Boulder
 

Off topic, but this is a strange event that ties in to our discussions about the L.A. County Museum. An enormous 340 ton boulder is being trucked from a quarry near Riverside to Wilshire Blvd. It eventually will be the centerpiece of Michael Heizer's outdoor sculpture "Levitated Mass" at LACMA. The boulder travels between 10 PM and 5 AM and involves street closures, dismantling of power lines, and other complications. The journey is taking 11 days.

I dragged my wife down to Long Beach late last night to see the spectacle. Nearly 1000 spectators and workers were gathered around Atlantic Blvd. and 96th, it was quite a scene. There was some sort of delay but at about 10:30 loud horns sounded and the caravan began rolling, at about 5 MPH.

Besides the truck that tows the custom build transporter, there are two more that push it from behind. It was quite a sight to watch the enormous convoy make its way down Atlantic Avenue. (These photos are not mine and were taken a few days ago, east of Los Angeles.)


http://dkse.net/david/lacma-rock-rig.jpg
http://sanandreaslife.wordpress.com/...wland-heights/


http://dkse.net/david/left.turn.rock.jpg
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=340+t...O77G7Cw&zoom=1

A drowned '49 Roadmaster Sedanette--why they called anything so big a sedan- "ette," I don't know, but they did.


:previous:
As for the rock... call me a philistine, but this is the most extreme example of an artist's ego run amok I've ever seen, not to mention the gradiosity of the donors who paid the $10 million to move it into the city. Of course, NYC has its art-world foolishness too... we did have the similarly overblown Christo thing in Central Park a few years ago--interesting, until you realized that it was more like walking through a long carwash than art. Even out there, the rock seems to be more of a joke than art. From what I can tell, everyone is L.A. is already sick to death of hearing about the rock! Of course, I must remember that it's a "specially selected" rock.... but why move it at all?

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

Speaking of Buicks, here we are in a '54, cruising north on a lightly trafficked Highland Avenue.... I love these old color shots.


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-J...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogle

-2000 Years from now people will think that aliens moved it there.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-d...rclastreet.jpg Corbis


I've always had a thing for '53 Mercurys...here's one on Wilshire near San Vicente in 1961... plus a few random shots of the area....


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-d...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogle

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...11-1-ISLA?v=hrUSCDL

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...69734421_n.jpgBHHP

Van de Kamp's was on the southeast corner of Wilshire and Tower, where there's a Coffee Bean now; the building behind it is still there....

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

:previous: Great before and afters G_W!




The Brown Derby on the northeast corner of Wilshire Blvd. & Alexandria Avenue.


http://a.imageshack.us/img594/8536/b...1march2012.jpg
potcard found on ebay



below: I was curious to know if that handsome apartment building in the background still stands.

http://a.imageshack.us/img15/8025/bd...gindistanc.jpg
detail



It's still there folks!! Let me present the Evanston Apartments at 630 S. Kenmore Ave.

http://a.imageshack.us/img85/4201/ev...sangelesfl.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fridayi...n/photostream/

The building has 83 units and has one of those archaic rooftop signs that I love so much. The old sign says apts-hotel.






below: Some google views

http://a.imageshack.us/img210/9506/e...outhkenmor.jpg





http://a.imageshack.us/img825/9859/e...tsskenmore.jpg




http://a.imageshack.us/img825/5945/e...tssideview.jpg

Well, by pure luck the identity of this street has turned up. A while back I guessed a block over, on Alexandria, and I was pretty close. Prompted by e_r's post of the intriguing Evanston on Kenmore prompted me to look for more pictures of it. Among the shots that didn't turn up at first when searching the name "Kenmore" at the LAPL was this:


https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c...2520PM.bmp.jpg


So I clicked on the little "void" icon, and there was the picture...and it seems that the library has updated its description since rcarlton posted the pic:

"A car travels south on palm-lined South Kenmore Avenue, approaching Sixth Street, in Hancock Park. On the left are apartment buildings at 537 S. Kenmore and 531 S. Kenmore, and on the right is a building at 530 S. Kenmore."

(OK, I hate to be a total nerd, but who's going to tell the LAPL that Kenmore is many blocks east of Hancock Park...?)

Anyway, there's your street, rcarlton & Illithit Dude... and it turns out that all three of the nearest buildings in the vntage shot are still there:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-N...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogle

:previous: Excellent serendipitous discovery Gaylord_Wilshire!

:previous:
When I saw this, that Doris Day/James Garner movie, "The Thrill of It All," came to mind. :)

:previous:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Bb-4hOT65O...wimmingcar.jpgSunny Day

...a '58 Chevrolet, in that case....

Hehe I like the rock, actually. And at least in my own circle, no one seems to be sick of hearing about it. When it was in Long Beach yesterday, I wanted to go to the block party that they had for it, but I was at work, and by the time I got out, there would've been too much traffic to drive down there.

However, on Sunday, I did see it when it was parked in Rowland Heights, which is where one of the pics (that I know of) was taken that 3940dxer posted. I thought it was a sight to behold, the rock is huge, it's as tall as a 2-story building. I thought it was impressive. Call me a rock art geek, I guess?

I took my own pictures of it on Sunday:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...51901123_n.jpg
Photo by yours truly

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...45861674_n.jpg
Photo by yours truly

Look at all those wheels.
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...22357155_n.jpg
Photo by yours truly

The boulder should reach LACMA this Saturday. I'll probably be there to look at it again.

Say E.R.-- This is north facing side of 237 No.Hope -looking east from inside the roomy driveway of the Pedro Larronde home- also sometimes named the Etchemendy place- Successive generations of this clan resided here until the CRA went all out north of 1st street- Last residents were grandpapa's 2 spinster daughters-Did they move away to a nursing home ? Was razed with no mention in L.A.Times--Now site (in part) of L.A.DWP Building--

Just stumbled across an interesting web page at the blog of L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, detailing the site at which the rock will come to rest:

The Rock's Significant Other

http://zev.lacounty.gov/wp-content/u.../slot2-550.jpg
[source: County of Los Angeles]

Also, this event at the Central Library this Saturday looks interesting:

L.A. in Focus: Images from the LAPL Photo Collection - Valley Edition

Wow...that certainly answered my question rick_m! Thanks for the details.

Perhaps when the pyramids were being built some Egyptian citizens felt the same way.

But my wife fully agrees with you -- I guess I just have a thing for big interactive encounters like this -- which one might or might not call "art".

G_W, here's a shot of the pebble itself -- perhaps it will captivate and inspire a change of heart.

Kidding. :rolleyes:


http://wwww.dkse.net/david/LACMABoulder3.jpg

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=lacma...t:429,r:12,s:0

Oh, and sopas, thanks for your great photos.

edit. (I made a stupid comment about the rock)

___