:previous:


The Jaffee Trading Co was at 757 S San Pedro St, where the fence is today...


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

Not much to go no today at that address, except for the building at left, whose edge seems to appear in the vintage shot.

From the Times of May 30, 1948:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-R...2520PM.bmp.jpg



757 S San Pedro is just across the street from this building we've seen here before:

Ellroy has his detractors and followers—and few in between, to be certain! '53 is by and large a big glossy picture-book, though, which makes it all the more germane to NLA: ganze noirische crime scene images with which to play "compare via Googlemobile."

Re: Courthouse remnants, I heard tell that there were some other red sandstone walls near Ladera Park—in the parking lot at the Senior Center across the street on W 62nd, west of S La Brea. Now, I haven't been there myself to corroborate, so that piece of info remains to be proven.

RKO Hillstreet Theater
 

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


I may be the only person interested, but The LA Cement Gun Company was responsible for the RKO Hillstreet Theater's reinforced Gunite dome:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T...60804%2BPM.jpg
Historic Los Angeles Theaters

G. Albert Lansburgh also designed the Hillstreet's near twin, the Golden Gate in San Francisco the same year, 1922. It survives.

Both theaters are pictured in the November 1922 issue of Architect and Builder

So the Hildreth carriage house reference was a tease? Damn. Does anyone know how to cancel an Amazon order??

Hmmmmm....I think you may be on to something Beaudry.

There are red sandstone blocks bordering the parking lot at the Ladera Park Senior Center along W. 62nd.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...911/xuEmqj.jpg
GSV

:previous: Note the higher wall in front of the parked car........it also looks like red sandstone.





So how did the 1888 courthouse remnants end up here of all places?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...633/2c2WAX.jpg
Google Maps

Arizona Sandstone Company quarry, Flagstaff AZ / LA County Courthouse
 

:previous:

Windsor Hills was developed in the mid-to-late 1930s, about the time the stone became available. Oddly enough, Windsor Hills and City Terrace are both unincorporated areas. Maybe the city didn't want the county's old rocks or the county just decided it was easier to dump them where they didn't have to ask permission.

I don't see any carved bits of sandstone in the Ladera Park parking lot so it would be hard to prove where it came from except, of course, it's 240-million-year-old Moenkopi from Flagstaff. The Arizona Sandstone Company quarry sent 500 boxcars of it to Los Angeles in 1889 for the Courthouse. A big order. There were other orders from Los Angeles and Pasadena too. The Durand residence in Pasadena used stone from the Flagstaff quarry, for example.

Arizona red lost favor when it was noticed it deteriorated in other climates, which probably explains the fragility of our Courthouse. The Brown Palace (1892) in Denver, which utilizes Colorado red granite as well as Arizona red sandstone, seems to be doing OK with a lot of maintenance, but the Whittier Mansion (1896) in San Fransico had to be sealed and painted.

LA County Courthouse in the raw. Arizona Sandstone Company quarry, Flagstaff ca 1888:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...93715%2BPM.jpg
geocaching

ca 1887
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-0...95608%2BPM.jpg
azdailysun

Flagstaff's own County Courthouse (1894) is doing fine:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-n...94615%2BPM.jpg
pixelfugue

A new fire station has been built in the disused quarry site, if anyone has a mind to make a pilgrimage it's at
1701 Ponderosa Parkway, Flagstaff AZ 86001:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-F...03325%2BPM.jpg
gsv

more info:
A History in Stone Uncovered
Arizona Red, A Once-Popular Building Stone
Buildings Built of Arizona Red Sandstone
HistoricAZ66: Flagstaff Quarry
Stories in Stone
Moenkopi Formation

Oh no, the Hildreth image is the real deal. It doesn't really offer any new information than the 1951 shot we're used to. Still, the 1953 shot is arresting, if you'll pardon the pun. Definitely keep the book on order—it's a great history of early-50s LA.

You're a gentleman and a scholar, but you knew that. The book order stands. May 19th seems very far away.

From the Times, July 26, 1936:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-D...eraarticle.jpg


These shots don't offer much in the way of clues, but there is that back wall...

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-w...939%2520AM.jpgGSV


https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-g...eratheater.jpg
city-data.com


As for Ellroy--here's what I thought five years ago--I still remember My Dark Places as riveting (The Hilliker Curse, which I think was sort of a followup, less so):

That's the one. I remember it from before they boarded it up.

That is what I understood it to be from my mom who would have remembered when the streetcar ran up there. I did see something else online which mentioned it and that also said that it was a bathroom.

There is one more remnant that is more easily found. It is the cornerstone from the 1888 courthouse which was place in the Hill Street side of the entrance. It is located on the planter-plinth to the left of the steps on Hill street. There is a Greek Key design carved into the red sandstone.

In that photo you can also see the planters above Mountain more clearly where the catenaries were anchored.

Also note the house on the corner of Mountain and Brand to the left hand side of the photo. It is really impressive with the tile roof and wide porches. After the picture of the motorman smiling next to the car was taken in 1955, that great house was torn down to be replaced in 1956 by a large, pink apartment building, which is now condos and still pink.

My suspicion is, the back wall notwithstanding, this fragment out by the curb is Courthouse sandstone albeit painted white by some nimrod.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8825/...a977ffc3_o.pngPossible red sandstone fragment, Ladera Park, W. 62nd Street

And not to put too fine a point on it, I'll stand by Ellroy being unreadable, his 'tough-guy' patois being more otherworldly than underworldly, sounding suspiciously like a non-tough guy trying to sound like a tough guy. His material is consistently interesting, unfortunately he then writes the words. I wish he had a ghostwriter.

County Courthouse
 

Yes, remnants of the old County Courthouse Arizona red sandstone frame the signage/cornerstone at the current county courthouse and it's deteriorating:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e...93417%2BAM.jpg
JScott Los Angeles Past

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-w...95001%2BAM.jpg
gsv

The grey granite cornerstone from the 1888 structure is at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on what's left of Poundcake Hill as JScott notes on his blog.

And, actually, the ground floor and wall of the old courthouse were both built of grey granite. Maybe those remnants were employed in Ladera Park (as they are in the wall of the Foltz building), although I don't rightly know why they would have been broken into the smaller pieces seen in Windsor Hills.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-d...00856%2BAM.jpg
courtinfo.ca.gov

Michael Ryerson-

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...901/kzZcCc.jpg

:previous: I think you could very well be right about that slab of sandstone. It doesn't appear to be serving any practical purpose.
Why else would it be there?
__

Looks like a trip-hazard to me. Should be removed. :)

mystery location.

"As flood waters invaded colony of film star' homes Bel Air, Calif." 3/5/38

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/GWbBcM.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...661/AzXVdE.jpg
eBay

"An automobile belonging to Bob Burns, radio and film actor which was trapped in rising
waters which inundated this fashionable suburb of Los Angeles where scores of celebrities
make their home. This was but one Southern California communities where the deluge
took a toll of scores of lives and did untold property damage."
-ACME 3/5/38

The large Seagram's billboard at far left in the photograph makes me think the photo could have been taken somewhere along Sunset Boulevard..


reverse info / as seen on eBay
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...661/q02Dd3.jpg
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We've discussed the Marlborough School for Girls several times on NLA, but somehow we've missed the Marlborough Gardens apartments.

"The Marlborough Gardens, Hollywood California" (1800 Winona Blvd. per the 1917 city directory)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/m9vGYD.jpg
eBay



Today, the expanse of lawn that harbored Marlborough Gardens has given way to a monolithic apartment block. :(

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...537/CqDaYm.jpg


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/SMT7CR.jpg
GSV

__

I found the picture below in a collection of 1938 flood photos on www.vintag.es. It appears to show the same scene with a little less destruction. The caption says: "March 2, 1938: A mudslide at Harper Avenue and Sunset Boulevard caught this automobile and closed the area to traffic."

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...38Mudslide.jpg
www.vintag.es

And here's the house with the turret, just above Sunset on Lincoln Terrace. The house on the right can also be seen in e_r's image.

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