We've had a few pictures of streetcars on South San Pedro lately, but I think this is new to the thread. Taken in April 1962, it's very close to the location of the 1961 shot of 7th Street that I posted a couple of days ago in post #26695. Down the street is the West Coast Platen Co at 643 S San Pedro. I think the roof sign on the right belongs to the El Rey Hotel on E 6th Street.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
eBay

The old El Rey Hotel building survives, but is mainly hidden by trees from this position.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...anPedroSt2.jpg
GSV

mystery location.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...910/r3nqRF.jpg
personal_file

I really like the building with the dormers on the right. I hope it's still standing (wherever it is)

note the large building under construction in the distance.

__

The bulbous protrusions are boulders.
Somewhere, probably in a book about PE or LAP there is a picture taken during excavation showing a pile of them

:previous: But they look so uniform (man-made). Were they covered with something to make them appear that way?



Hoss, after snooping around in the area, I'm pretty sure the light tan building to the left of the N. Canepa building is still standing (or rather, parts of it are still standing).

I struggled trying to read the red blade sign on the building.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...537/PPMUJB.jpg
detail


below: Then I across the name of the 'new' building in it's place.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/393n59.jpg
GSV

Yankee.

Looking back at the blade sign it became apparent that it says Yankee as well.

When I took a closer look at the 'new' building I was surprised to see that they had incorporated remnants of the older building!

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...633/dL1eyM.jpg
GSV

And this wasn't the only vintage remnant incorporated into the building,
around the corner on San Julian Street there's this façade.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...538/ABfFEC.jpg
GSV

After a few more google searches I found this.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...903/qXLNaq.jpg
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sro...ng-corporation


Here is the only other vintage photograph I could find of the building. (hollowed out by the fire)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...661/4keMlU.jpg
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sro...ng-corporation
_________

Now for my favorite building in HossC's slide....the N. Canepa Building.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...910/ciOcwv.jpg
detail

I found a Nicola Canepa in the 1920 census.

"Nicola Canepa in Los Angeles County, California in 1920. He was the head of the household, 60 years old, and identified as white. Nicola was born in Italy around 1860, and both of his parents were born in Italy as well. Nicola was married to Louisa Canepa, and they had two children, Louis J. and Mary E. He could read and write, owned his own residence, and immigrated to the United States in 1870"

census information
http://us-census.mooseroots.com/l/14.../Nicola-Canepa

I don't know why the Canepa's home address was not included.
-maybe it is on some other 'heritage' sites.

__

I think they're just rocks too.

Here's an 1891 detail of the future site of Court Flight showing a pile of rocks that I assume were given up by the hillside when the retaining walls were put in:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5...91708%2BAM.jpg
uscdl: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/1740/rec/255

I don't see any rocks here though. Maybe one could if the shot was closer:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B...72434%2BAM.jpg
LAT

Thx e_r, I liked the fragments of the Yankee.

Nice find on the Yankee Apartments, e_r.


-------------


The picture is looking east on W Pico Boulevard near the intersection with Fairfax. The clipping of the 1968 CD below lists a few of the visible stores, including Albert's Appliance Co and Roy's Coffee Shop on the left, and the Waterdome Corporation on the right. I'm guessing that the "Flowers" blade sign belonged to Picfair Florists.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...coFairfax1.jpg
LAPL

Most of the buildings nearest the camera, including the one with dormers, seem to have been lost when Fairfax was straightened in the 1970s. For comparison, the aerial images below are from 1972 and 1980.

1972

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...coFairfax2.jpg
Historic Aerials

1980

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...coFairfax3.jpg
Historic Aerials

I think the building under construction must be the one below, although I've so far drawn a blank with its identity. Is it some kind of substation?

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...coFairfax4.jpg
Google Maps

That's an oil well.

That particular tower was built in 1968 and extracts crude from the Beverly Hills Oil Field.

Just for the record E_R, I am a she rather than a he.

This is a tricky one, since this "M. Polich" is only here in the winter, he and his family would probably not appear in a census which would have been taken in the spring or early summer. There are no persons named M. Polich in the census in the Los Angeles County area in 1920 which would be about the time that the picture was taken, given the clothes and hairstyles on the two girls on the bench.

Presuming that the two girls are the daughters of M. Polich, there is a Math Polich who is a farmer in Montana with two daughters who would be around the right ages of the girls in the photo. He might come to California when Montana was covered with snow. (unless he had livestock on his farm which would have required year round care)

There is also a Mike Polich, also in Montana, who was a worker at the Big Falls Dam in Great Falls. He may have escaped the snow and frozen river to come to California in the winter as well. He does not appear to have any daughters. It is possible that the two girls belong to someone else, perhaps the owner of the house.

Another Mike Polich, a laborer in a seed house in Woodbury, Iowa and a roomer in another house there, is a possibility as well. He does not have any children. A seed house would probably not be doing much during an Iowa winter.

Yet a third Mike Polich, was a carpenter in the "Silvis Shops" which are still railroad shops, in Silvis, Illinois. This fellow was a Serbian who had a son, Dushan who was 13 in 1920 and therefore old enough to be the other male in the picture. He also had two young daughters who were two and one in 1920 but would be around the right ages for the two girls if the picture was taken in about 1927 or so. He might be more likely since it may have been possible that he and his family could have taken the train to California if he worked for the railroad. This one might be the most likely to match.

There is a Martin Polich, a logger in Washington State, with one daughter who was eight in 1920.

There are several others but they seem to be less likely, either because of where they lived or because of their work which would probably continue through the winter.

Most of the people with the last name Polich are from Croatia.

Sorry there is no other more definitive answer.

You guys are fast! I was going to guess Pico and Fairfax,but the old Picfair Theatre is out of shot and so was the Safeway/Vons....not much building wise has changed in the area...the building to the right is long gone,the hamburger stand went down in the late 80s(it was called Meaty Meats...then Mo' Betta Meaty Meats...they were a drug front but had great burgers)..it is now a walgreens. If you look at the oil well pic and go further south on spaulding ave, thats the street that i grew up on...My grandmother bought both properties on my street mainly because of the oil well,it seems that in the old days you could buy your property with oil rights,then sell the property and keep the oil rights...her estate still collects around 600 bucks a month from one of the properties.

Looks like Sunset Blvd. and Coronado area.

A few comments on Tourmaline's Sunset Strip post:

I happened on one of the local news channels in L.A. last night and they were doing a story about
The Sunset Strip and it's history. It seemed as though they were lamenting the fact the glory days
of the Strip's rock 'n' roll notoriety was gone and remnants of it being replaced by high-rise hotels and
condominiums. It occurred to me people probably felt the same when the jazz and swing clubs of the
40's and 50's were turning into these same spots being lamented here.

I also became aware recently of a relatively new documentary about the history of the Sunset Strip
that I haven't seen yet. (There's a few other such documentary or television programs, too.)

This film was on TV last night and I caught a bit of it. A relic. Except for the fact that the teens issues
were getting some attention I'm sure they didn't like this film. It's very square, written in the tone
of a Dragnet episode! You know, "What're we going to do with these kids nowadays?"

This location (8878 W. Sunset Blvd. at San Vicente) is now a novelty/tchotchke/party store called "aah's".

Located behind this building (where the apartment building is in the b&w photo) is the ten story (I think)
London Hotel. Official address: 1020 N. San Vicente Blvd, It runs the length of the area from San Vicente to
Larrabee St. It originally opened in 1984 as the Bel Age Hotel (Le Bel Age) and remained so for fifteen years.
The rooftop of the London has a pool, cabanas, a bar and two restaurants! (And several palm trees!) One
can often see rooftop searchlights scanning the skies from there while a premiere party, wedding, Oscar
bash or some other swanky function takes place high above the shimmering lights of the city below.

http://o4.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dim...959e55c4e13ac4
http:/citygrid.com/dims-shared/dims3/patch/52aaac5f1c03c172ca959e55c4e13ac4

This is the aftermath of a water main break there last September on a Friday afternoon. I happened to
be up near there when it happened. The water, obviously, ran downhill to Santa Monica Blvd. where
it created a river (and mud bank) for a time.

Tourmaline wrote: In popular culture we know it as "The Strip" and "Sunset Strip" but was the name "Sunset Strip"
ever officially adopted on street signage? In other words, did any municipality or county actually accept
the name and put it on street signs?

I don't recall seeing any official signs like that, but notice in the above photo, on the advertising banner
to the right of the car billboard, it says "Sunset Strip" something. I believe it was advertising the Sunset Strip
Music Festival where they close off a portion of the strip for two evenings and bands play in the streets.
An event held for the past few years, usually held in August. I believe this is the first year it was in September.

The water main break caused "The Strip" to be closed off in both directions for a day and a half! On a weekend!
No cars. Looking a lot like this:

The above photo was taken between 1983 and 1999. The Marlboro man cowboy was an iconic visual on the
strip for 17 years. It was taken down in March of 1999 as part of a state lawsuit settlement against tobacco
manufacturers to begin removal of cigarette advertising in billboards across Los Angeles.

Here's a Los Angeles Times article about it's removal:

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/mar/10/local/me-15938

The area is composed of sedimentary soil, probably non-marine, so the rounded rocks would have washed down over time from the Santa Monica Mountains and become imbedded in the soft, sandy and silty soil. When the roadbed was graded, it exposed the sediments and the rounded rocks were probably too big to dig out without jeopardizing the stability of the hill so they were left in place.


The other possibility is that it is marine sediments and part of some ancient beach where the rocks would have been rounded by surf and buried in sand which subsequently was uplifted. Again the rocks were probably too big to dig out. They have probably fallen out in many places over time.

A Googlemobile drive through the area near Sunset and Coronado reveals that some of the cliff has been stabilized with what appears to be Gunite and some has vines on it while still other areas have retaining walls.

Geology for today.

That sure looks like a possibility:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-s...14605%2BPM.jpg
gsv

Looks like it could do with some more gunite at this point.

Thank you oldstuff. I was told that the entire LA basin was once a huge bay. Eroded soil from the surrounding mountains and hills filled it in over time, leaving the surf lapping at the unstable slope at Santa Monica, now a cliff b/c it was cut back for building lots and the roadway. This is supposedly why LA is so susceptible to earthquake damage, there's no structure to the ground. It's just silt.

The magic steamshovel
 

It's magic. Not only did they hide the boulders but they moved the Hall of Justice and the Hall of Records over to the east side of the Federal Building and the City Hall.

:previous: Ding-ding-ding!

You win an ice cream soda at Fagan's Fountain in the Amestoy.

And maybe I do see some rocks in that photo :-)


And, here Tetsu, far from perfect, but much better. The DLs do respond and are endlessly grateful:
http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...id/1040/rec/36

A purported glimpse of the Dome's interior, circa '27
http://photos.cinematreasures.org/pr...PNG?1362231195http://photos.cinematreasures.org/pr...PNG?1362231195




Looks like an interesting place, which evidently tried offering other amusements besides flickers. Unclear whether there was an attempt to rebuild the Dome's presumptive namesake, despite keeping the name, "Dome."


1926 - 3014 Ocean Front Walk, SMonica "Billiards, Bowling and Beds"
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...CCJB3PICPH.jpghttp://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...CCJB3PICPH.jpg




Our friends at Cinema Treasures include a photograph associated with the Dome Theater and its neighbor, the Fox Rosemary Theater at 2946 Ocean Front Walk (The lit Rosemary sign is in the background) One of the individuals pictured looks suspiciously like the late Mickey Rooney. Could this have been a still from one of his films or an impromptu snapshot? The photo is well lit, but maybe someone can shed a little more light on the subject.

1950 - Dome and Rosemary Theaters
http://photos.cinematreasures.org/pr...jpg?1399481561http://photos.cinematreasures.org/pr...jpg?1399481561

There is something odd about the uniformity of the protuberances. Their spacing also seems more deliberate than random. Most of the grading appears to be finished or close thereto. Even if the protuberances were granite, unskilled labor armed with sledge hammers could have conformed them much closer to the dirt shoulder, while leaving most of the bergs intact. Is it possible that this was a poor attempt to make the excavation appear natural, with or without the addition of some well troweled gunnite? More reminiscent of a studio set replicating Chatsworth's western topography than a city thoroughfare. :no:




Familiar adobe dirt and rocks for thought.


http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...732KJ3HVDQ.jpghttp://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...732KJ3HVDQ.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...36BI97F5CY.jpghttp://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...36BI97F5CY.jpg

A day at Knott's Berry Farm....
 

You can actually ''pan for gold'' at Knott's. I searched around on the google memories machine and found these.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psdffq8yye.jpg
KBF Inc.

Is Bruce somewhere in this photo? I think so. :D:tup:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psxvdg7kxb.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psxjdfnpkq.jpg
KBF Inc.

The Calico Log Flume Ride....wet and wild?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pswevfoffv.jpg
KBF Inc.

Here I am at Knott's... probably around 1954. How did I ever get up there? It might be Easter, as I'm wearing a suit.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psmi2w0aw8.jpg
files

Here's my all time favorite at Knott's. Aunt Nellie played beautiful old-time music on her Dulcimer. For just a kid...I was amazed and still am.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psoxtpnov3.jpg
KBFInc.

I always got a warm a fuzzy feeling driving by that spot on Sunset. Call me an "old romantic" but I love seeing a bit 'o exposed cliff or hillside in the city that isn't encased in concrete. I love seeing the old downtown photos with that feature. It's the first thing I notice. Most would notice the buildings but my eye is drawn to the dirt and rock first. I don't know if you can really call that romantic...

The films on the marquee are actual flms released in 1949.
South of St. Louis is a color western, not well-reviewed and
Lucky Stiff not reviewed much better. That one's a crime film,
don't know if it's noir, but it was produced by Jack Benny!

Mickey Rooney had 3 films released in 1950: He's a Cockeyed Wonder,
The Fireball and Quicksand. This one is Quicksand. A film noir, appropriately.

Synopsis from IMDB:
Motor mechanic Dan Brady lacks funds for a heavy date with new waitress Vera, the type whose life's ambition is a fur coat; so he embezzles twenty dollars from his employer. To make up the shortage, he goes in debt for a hundred. Thereafter, every means he tries to get out of trouble only gets him deeper into crime, while everyone he meets is out for what they can get.

The Santa Monica Pier is listed as a filming location.

http://www.foxarchive.com/wp-content...950-poster.jpg
http://www.foxarchive.com/wp-content...950-poster.jpg