Hehe for some reason I imagine "The Music Man" here and singing the praises of a monorail which everyone falls for but they're duped into a big fraud project that would never fly. :)

Thanks for the link, LA Past. I figured that the sign must be at least from the 1940s. When I first moved to South Pasadena I noticed a sign near the San Marino border, I think it was a "SOUTH PASADENA CITY LIMIT" sign, black lettering on a white background, with the So. California Auto Club logo on it. Some years later it was replaced with a modern sign. I thought it was a shame, I regretted not having taken a picture of it.

Regarding the pronunciation of "Los Angeles," it seemed that there were generations of British people who would say "Los ANN-juh-leez." In the 1990s I worked with a guy from Hong Kong who spoke English with a British accent and he also would say "Los ANN-juh-leez."

Union Stage Depot located at 5th Street & Los Angeles Street in 1932.


http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/5...agedepot5t.jpg
usc digital archive



I'm not familiar with this depot....anyone know the details?
What is a 'stage' depot?

The Santa Fe Station, Los Angeles.


http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7...depotlosan.jpg
usc digital archive


I LOVE the dog on the horse's back.

Another fine photograph of the Santa Fe Station in Los Angeles.


http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/3...aferrhuuge.jpg
usc digital archive

The Southern Pacific Station on Central Ave. between 5th and 7th Street.


http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6...ernpacific.jpg
usc digital archive



http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/5...npacificde.jpg
usc digital archive

The Santa Monica Depot in 1888.


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...537/zKeFA9.jpg
usc digital archive




Below: Santa Monica Depot in 1895.


http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7...lesindepen.jpg
usc digital archive

I did a quick search and it turns out that this was a bus depot for Original Stage Lines, Mt. Wilson Stages and Inland Stages. I assume those were bus companies. Interesting pics, btw! That Santa Fe La Grand station looked really monumental; that was the train station that some Olympic athletes arrived at from across country during the 1932 Summer Olympics, according to the LAPL's pics I posted in that 1932 Olympics thread.

Looking north on Spring from 2nd, 1939
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/5...erofhillan.jpg
USC archive

Northwest corner of Hill and 7th, 1939
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5...erofhillan.jpg
USC archive

Of COURSE it's 1939; "Dark Victory" is playing!

^^^Two VERY beautiful photographs sopas_ej.

Also thanks for the information regarding the Union Stage Depot.
I guess if I had thought about a bit more, I might have correlated
stages with buses. Also in the photograph (of the Union Stage Depot)
you can see where the buses entered on the far right in the photo.

Here's another that must have been taken near in time to the one above (note the "Dark Victory" ad facing the parking lot). It's the 900 block of South Broadway...

https://otters.net/img/lanoir/DW-B5-50A-2-ISLA.jpg


My mom had her picture taken by a street photographer near here in 1936.

^^^That's a great shot....love all the signs.

Thanks to Los Angeles Past for referring me to this thread. I read the whole thing during my free time over two days this week, and I saw so many cool things that relate to me in some way.

Last month, someone posted conceptual images of a proposed Music Center located at 6th & Hoover. Interesting, because that development would've wiped-out the building I live in (as well as my entire block)! If you look at the concept art you will see two unidentified streets: The one that forks off of Hoover is Occidental Blvd, and the parallel street to the east is Lafayette Park Place. The music center would've gone in the land between those two streets.

I believe the proposal was dated 1950, and my building was constructed in 1953, so obviously my building's developers were not worried about potential eminent domain by then.

I suspect that my building was part of a "second generation" of buildings on my street, replacing a single-family residence. The hi-rise apartment buildings in the area are third-generation, replacing the small multi-family buildings like mine. As of now, there is one single-family building remaining on my block, and as always seems to be the case in Los Angeles, it is maintained but not continuously lived in. I call such houses "Scientology safehouses", but I have no idea what they are actually used for. :P

Occidental Blvd is a divided street with tall palm trees planted in the median. They look almost as tall as the "Longstreet palms" discovered by Los Angeles Past, so I'd estimate their age to be 80-90 years, which just about jibes with the age of this neighborhood.

OK, I've rambled on about this long enough. Someone else's turn!


I'll try to paste the 1950 Music Center concept art below:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/647...dmusiccent.jpg

Nice contribution Johnny! Glad my blog got you over here. Also glad that proposed Music Center didn't gobble up your neighborhood. Enough of the old city has been done away with already, IMHO...

-Scott

Welcome to the site Johnny Socko!
Your post had a lot of interesting details. :)

Below: The Ambassador Hotel in 1929.

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8...ssador1929.jpg
usc digital archive




Below: A 1957 proposal for the site.


http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/4...amb1phase1.jpg

I just found phase II and III as well.


http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/874...assadorpha.jpg




http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/857...aseiii1957.jpg


Looks like the original Ambassador Hotel is lost between Phase II and III.
Developers never know when to stop.

(of course we still lost the Ambassador many decades later)

One last illustration from this series.


http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/630...dorcenter1.jpg