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Finding this Julius Shulman location has been the hardest so far. The title of the photoset, "Job 1343: Bank of America (Los Angeles, Calif.),1952", gave no clues, and I struggled to find definitive/consistent addresses for any of the businesses shown. I'll start with the Bank of America picture.
NB. Unlike the previous pictures, these photos were quite washed-out, so I've tweaked the contrast to make them clearer. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original To the left of the bank was Gay's Drive-In Restaurant. I've just noticed the sign hidden behind the tree on the left - I wonder if there was a Gay's Motel as well. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original To the right was Fuller's Real Estate, a chiropractor, W J Brandt Paint & Color Specialists (stockists of Boysen Paints), and a Totten Dance Studio. I found references to a couple of Totten Dance Studios in the LA area, but not this one. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original All from Getty Research Institute By Googling the chiropractor's phone number (DIckens 3-8888), I found this advert in the April 24, 1952 edition of The Van Nuys News (the same year as the photo). http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...4.jpg~original www.newspapers.com So, finally, Dr Mario Capretta's surgery gives us a street, but the real estate sign, which is visible in the photo, has the number 18319 on it. This is obviously three blocks away and on the other side of the street. The real estate office's address is confirmed by this advert from the December 29, 1947 edition of The Van Nuys News. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...5.jpg~original www.newspapers.com I think I've found the right block in this 1952 aerial image. The businesses in the photos were on the north side of Ventura Boulevard. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...6.jpg~original Historic Aerials This 2012 image shows that none of the buildings on the north side of Ventura Boulevard in the 1952 image are still standing, although there is still a branch of Bank of America in roughly the same spot. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...7.jpg~original Historic Aerials |
[QUOTE=HossC;7147435]This Julius Shulman location took a bit of tracking down, but the clues were there. Here's the main Bank of America picture from "Job 1049: Bank of America (Los Angeles, Calif.),1951".
http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...6.jpg~original This was my dad's bank, back in the day. Our family grocery store wasn't too far away, near 54th & Vermont. He had an account at this branch for over 25 years and I remember accompanying him to close out the account when the branch closed. He knew all the tellers by name and they knew him as well. The bank had tall ceilings and polished granite floors. My dad would also park his car along 48th Street, where the car is pictured. As kids, me and my siblings would also walk down that very street on our way to the Vermont Square regional public library a few block further west (that building has also been discussed before). This is my old neighborhood! Here is an old check from his business account with the branch info. http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/...psn5t9rwga.jpg |
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http://www.kcet.org/living/food/the-...-pasadena.html Cheers, Jack |
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A closer look at the arc light that probably promoted night time commerce and maybe curbed crime? :shrug: http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...EXT=DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...EXT=DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...EXT=DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single.../id/3704/rec/1 Chaotic parking as early as 1882. An early argument for mass transit and adequate parking? http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...EXT=DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...EXT=DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...EXT=DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...EXT=DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...EXT=DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...EXT=DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single.../id/3704/rec/1 Signs of the times. Not exactly sure what exactly J.Kennedy advertises, but it probably is not blacksmithing. The 1883-4 CD lists "J. B. Kennedy" as a farmer. Not clear if "J.B." is related to "J". It is equally unclear whether there would be any public listings for businesses of dubious repute - except in the negative. Three references to "gambling" in the 1886-7 CD specifically refer to "no gambling permitted." The Santa Fe Hotel at 339 Upper Main Street also advertises "No Liquors Sold" and "no Chinese employed." In the same breath, morality and repute are ill defined. The 1875 CD has several listings for saloon keepers and bar tenders and the 1886-7 has 92 listings for saloons, vintners, liquor purveyors and saloon keepers, including a few familiar names: D. Mahlstedt, Maier and Zobelein, Martin and Rinkenbach, Massey and Clark, P.J. McMahon , John McManus, Peter Mueller & Co., James Noel, Gus C. Perret, and Fred Public. Listings for "Dancing" seem mostly restricted to lessons and teachers. Perhaps, not surprisingly, there are a handful of listings for opium and - for the cures. In the 1898CD, Dr. J.S. Brown advertises a two-day guaranteed cure for various drug addictions. Rest assured, "no payment until cured" and everything is "strictly confidential". The CD publishers did not shy away from listings that included this Alley's name. It appears that the last published use of the name was in 1917. Anyone try the buffet? 1882 - J Kennedy's. http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0 http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0 |
Were any of you folks aware of this? I sure wasn't.
This article is from earlier this year, but I only read it just this Saturday: Before 1948, LA's Power Grid Was Incompatible With the Rest of the US By Nathan Masters 2/04/15 Before 1948, there was something funny about the Southland's electricity. Plug in a clock from New York and it would lose 10 minutes every hour. Spin a record on a turntable from San Francisco and it would sound deep and drowsy. Some gadgets wouldn't work at all. The problem? Southern California's power grid ran on a different frequency. Like the rest of the U.S., the region was wired for 120 volts, but its alternating current pulsed out of power plants and into electrical sockets at a slower rate—50 cycles per second (or 50hz) versus than the national 60hz standard. That standard had not yet emerged in 1893, when the Southland became home to the nation's first three-phase, alternating current hydroelectric plant: the Mill Creek plant outside Redlands, California. As General Electric workers were installing the generator, it was left to the supervising engineer on site, Louis Bell, to determine the frequency. GE's rival, Westinghouse, was then designing equipment to operate at 60hz. Bell could have followed suit, but instead he chose the 50hz favored by his company's European affiliate, AEG. With his decision, Bell unwittingly locked Southern California into a 50hz frequency. General Electric switched to 60hz just one year later, and as three-phase AC power came to more regions, the nation's power grid began to pulse in harmony. As an early adopter, however, Southern California was left behind. With so much equipment built for compatibility with Mill Creek's 50hz, switching to the emerging 60hz standard was simply cost-prohibitive. (Incidentally, the Mill Creek plant and its peculiar legacy was a product of the region's "Orange Empire," built to power an ice factory and keep the region's prized citrus crop fresh for market.) For decades, then, the Southland was a sort of electrical enclave... [...] Click here to read the rest: Before 1948, LA's Power Grid Was Incompatible With the Rest of the US I wonder if this was written about or portrayed in books or in film, about transplants moving to Los Angeles pre-1948 and the appliances they took with them not being compatible with the electric current. I don't recall any transplant old-timers ever telling me that. Edison Plant, Eagle Rock, undated photo. http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics48/00073944.jpg LAPL |
So Cal Edison's decision to supply current at 50hz seems overly simplistic and myopic. It seems difficult, if not impossible, for SCE to have ignored Hoover Dam's 60hz current supply throughout WWII - with advertised plans to meet increasing future demands. Coupling this with the fact that the majority of US power grids favored 60hz, the handwriting was on the wall. :shrug:
The Water&Power site references the 50hz-60hz conundrum. Quote:
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P.S. And one more image of the ship logo on a vinyl checkbook cover previously sold on eBay: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c...03400%2BAM.jpg According to this, BofA's copyright on the ship logo has expired. |
What a difference a day makes. This Julius Shulman photoset is properly exposed, and contains a sign with a street name and some extant buildings. "Job 1044: Bank of America (Los Angeles, Calif.),1951" shows the Bank of America at the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and W 54th Street. Next to the bank is The Alibi cocktail bar.
http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original There was an Associated Gas Station on the corner opposite the bank. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original Here's a close-up of the building on the left. It's been a while since we've had a "Chop Suey" sign on NLA, and this one's a long way from Chinatown. It belonged to the Kee Mee Cafe at 5417 Crenshaw. Otabell Hats was at 5419, and the United Linoleum & Shade Co was at 5421. Sadly, this is not one of the buildings that survived. If I'm reading the building records correctly, the demolition permits were issued in 1994. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original I like the curved House of Modern Furniture on the right - the shape makes a nice change. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...4.jpg~original Like some of my earlier Bank of America posts, a Thrifty wasn't far away. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...5.jpg~original All from Getty Research Institute Here's the bank building today. I know it has a new roof, but I wonder if the green tiles are the original color. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...6.jpg~original GSV The whole row next to the old bank looks pretty intact, although the curved furniture has gone. The stores have also lost their outward-sloping windows. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...7.jpg~original GSV Across the street, the old Thrifty building is also still standing. The corner of the building on the left can also be seen in the 1951 image above. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...8.jpg~original GSV |
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I can think of 101 reasons for their disappearance, but do any vestigial "safety islands" still exist? Could this be one? :previous: Still looking for info concerning the white lettering on black field larger street signs and whether any are still in use. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=30666 There has been passing mention, but nothing definitive. http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=3626; http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...&postcount=702 |
Seems fairly frequently now we're being gifted with yet another photographic treasure-trove!
250,000 Wayne Thom images are newly-acquired by USC and being digitized for popular consumption...these may be a bit modern for the Noirish taste (and many of the sites he shot are not Los Angeles) but as a record of the remarkable structures that replaced the vaster low-slung brick & mortar landscape of LA, they are some wonderful vintage photography. http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...6470493986.jpg Security Pacific, Atlantic Richfield http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...6503405858.jpg 1900 Ave of the Stars, Century City— http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...6814261282.jpg Long Beach Civic Center— http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...6917174306.jpg The Alhambra Sears— http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...7273286946.jpg See more images and read all about it here http://southland.gizmodo.com/trove-o...-be-1727255238 |
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I was just reading about James M. Wood, who is credited for modernizing LA (and also for proposing the Nickel as a solution for those displaced by downtown development). I did not know this before: "As the woman who stood by [James M. Wood], the man credited by many as the reason we established a real downtown for Los Angeles, [wife] Janice indicated that it was Jim’s “unique ability to “forge agreements between developers, public officials and labor unions. It was those agreements that made the building of our current downtown possible. Without Jim's leadership and constant efforts, some believe we could not have reached the level of revitalization we see in downtown today.” But Wood went farther than just redevelopment. He was concerned about the people. “He got developers to make agreements with the union that represented janitors so that buildings created with public funds or specially granted privileges would create decent jobs for the lowest paid workers.” SRO Housing, which Wood founded, began buying skid row buildings that needed seismic and other improvements to be upgraded to clean, safe, affordable housing for people displaced by downtown development. Those buildings are now a major source of affordable housing for the those most in need in our City. “Jim strongly opposed the idea of letting development simply run people off and insisted it was the City's duty to create somewhere for them to go,” Janice recalled. “As enormous as the problems on Skid Row are today, I believe they would be much worse if not for Jim's intervention.” To honor his efforts, SRO Housing built a community center at 5th and San Julian, the James M. Wood Center." -laist A portion of W 9th St., from Figueroa to Western, was renamed James M. Wood Blvd in 1999, which confused me at the time. I cannot believe it to me this long to look him up. P.S. BTW, Quote:
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St Vibiana
Also BTW, it's St. Vibiana's feast day, although I've read she was dropped from the RC calendar because of a lack of historical documentation.
Unearthed in Rome in 1853, Pope Pius IX was so taken by the find that he made Vibiana a saint bypassing the usual procedures (causing a certain amount of confusion re Vibiana's status ever since). Almost nothing is known about her. Vibiana's remains were shipped to California in 1855 via New York, Lima, San Francisco and Monterey to become the patron of the new cathedral here (I'm told a saint's relics are required at each cathedral). The Vibiana name was not transferred to the new cathedral, although her relics were. St Vibiana is mostly forgotten now by everyone, except Angelenos. As a symbol, not as vivid or loved as the Virgin of Guadalupe (whose image is everywhere), but still, having given her name to one of our best-loved buildings, this enigma's name remains familiar. Quote:
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Roman Catholic Saint. A 3rd Century Christian martyr, she is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psnirmnkix.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps8bjd6fkn.jpg backyardtouristla |
905 S. Bonnie Brae, 1900-1962
The house on the SW corner of 9th and Bonnie Brae was built by John F. Francis, seen here c. 1903:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...z.jpg~original http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...c.jpg~original USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...oll65/id/12690 http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...h.jpg~original May 5, 1899, Los Angeles Times @ LAPL http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...d.jpg~original April 8, 1900, Los Angeles Times @ LAPL http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...2.jpg~original 1901 LA City Directory @ Fold3.com 1906 Sanborn Map: http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...l.jpg~original LAPL 905 S. Bonnie Brae in an early but undated photo: http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...j.jpg~original Autry National Center -- http://collections.theautry.org/mweb...25226;type=102 (Mr. Francis' middle initial seems to be written as C at the bottom of the photo, but it was really F.) 1950 Sanborn Map: http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...i.jpg~original LAPL 905 S. Bonnie Brae was torn down in 1962 and replaced a few years later with this apartment building: http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...5.jpg~original Dec 2014 GSV |
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It may be that Horseshoe J Kennedy was a carpenter, although it seems an unlikely symbol for that trade. Conjuring an image of Diamond Jim Brady, the jewelery business seems more likely associated with a horseshoe symbol - but the "Alley" address does not seem to fit, unless it's very cut rate jewelery. |
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When St. Vib's was still the Cathedral of the LA Archdiocese, her remains were encased in a wax figure, and kept high above the altar in a glass case. https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...4e&oe=566E92CA USC Archive https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...4b&oe=5671123E USC Archive Both images from 1951. According to the USC Archive, that's Archbishop McIntyre in the 2nd photo. I guess that was before he became Cardinal McIntyre. Incidentally, the youngest sister of a childhood friend of mine was baptized at St. Vibiana's, way back in 1980. |
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