The California Hardware Company building seems to have been constructed around 1913 (there are also BPs for 500 E 1st Street dated 1910 and 1012). It shows up on the 1914 and 1921 Baist maps, and its shape can still be seen on the 1980 view at Historic Aerials. The demo permit is dated 1983. The California Hardware Company ordered a wall sign for the building as late as 1971.

The train in the original image is on Alameda Street. I'm guessing that the construction work is laying new railroad tracks, and that the "elevated track" is waiting to be lowered into the street.

"...lowered into the street"? Hoss, you know this was a method of laying track? I've never heard of such a thing. I'd really like to know about this.

I said it was a guess, I'm probably completely wrong. It looks like a section of track to me, and I based my guess on much more modern pictures I've seen where the track is laid in sections, lifted into place with a crane. I'll leave this one to the transport experts.

Ha! I know you and your sense of responsibility. I knew it couldn't just be a guess. I had no idea track was ever laid in sections like that, modern or otherwise. Goddam, learn something new everyday. Thanks.

Very interesting. I didn't know about the track lowering method either.
Maybe Wig-Wag will weight in on whether or not this is correct.

Do we know if Alameda street ever had three sets of tracks? (looking at the photo...the track in question would be #3)

Yes, I think so.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5490/...0d34d4d9_b.jpgSouthern Pacific Railroad lines and Alameda Street, 1930.

Looking south on Alameda with the California Milling Corp. at 5383 S. Alameda. Buildings still exist.

Huntington Digital Library, Dick Whittington photographs and negative collection

Thanks MR....so Alameda did have three tracks.

Here's the same view today. Even the small 'deco-ish building on the left is still there. (it looks under construction in your pic shown above)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/ZC92nb.jpg
gsv

If I remember correctly we visited this area once before on NLA. (it's been quite some time ago)

_

:previous:

In case anyone's interested here's a closer look at the building I circled.


looking north with downtown Lo Angeles in the far distance.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...924/0tgdDP.jpg
gsv

Have we seen this exceptional photograph of the Abbey boarding house on NLA?
(I searched the archives and couldn't find it)



from Shorpy....

"For Aunt Annie, Compliments of Mayme". My grandmother had this photo of a boarding house in Los Angeles in her photo collection.
I suspect the photo was given to her grandmother, but I never heard any stories about the photo - I first saw the photo long after she died.
Taken by "Mr. B. Howard, View Photographer, 147 South Main St., Los Angeles CAL. I managed to figure out the location using clues in the picture."


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/7goTNn.jpg
http://www.shorpy.com/node/6174?size=_original

"The address on the building is 232; the sign behind it for the "City of Paris" store suggests this is 232 S. Hill St.
The gothic building behind and to the right would be the old City Hall. This site would have been a block from the Angel's Flight train up Bunker Hill.

There's lots of photos of the old mansions of Bunker Hill that got converted into boarding houses, then flop houses, and finally torn down by the 1950's.
I suspect this one disappeared sooner than others because it was in downtown proper."
__

'mystery' location

Gilmore gas station somewhere in Pasadena.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/vTaOsA.jpg
ebay

what are all the wires and doo-hickies on that light pole? :previous:



the owner and his wife?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/A8Mo8Q.png

I just noticed the lion cub! I thought it was dog. lol



__

At the Left we see the below-ground railroad.

Water and air?

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7450/...78f7bb6f_o.pngWest Way Super Service


https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1602/...9c3e264d_o.jpgStandard Oil full service, 1935


https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1473/...8626614a_o.pngHillside Service Station, Temple and Alvarado Streets, 1930


https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8641/...6f3b36d2_o.pngStandard Service Station, Wilshire Boulevard and S. Coronado, 1935

I think those ''things'' are the balance weights for the air and water hoses.

Thanks Michael_Ryerson and CityBoyDoug.

but I'm not sure I understand the reason for it. Today's air hoses are just spooled at ground level (or usually on the ground itself)

___was it just for accessibility....so you wouldn't have to move the car to fill all four tires?

Hi all. I am going to hazard a guess that the structure is some kind of conveyor. It appears to have evenly spaced containers along the top.It is two narrow for a mainline railroad track.

At the time of the photo the tracks were constructed by first grading the right-of-way, then laying the ties and rail (usually in 39-foot lengths), after which gravel ballast was spread between and alongside the rails. Where construction was performed in a street or roadway the grading was extended below the street level, the tracks laid and ballasted and then resurfaced with dirt or asphalt to provide a level roadway.

The locomotive type and the trailing coaches argue for a Southern Pacific passenger train.

For those unfamiliar with this area, tracks still run along Alameda Street. They now run in a concrete lined trench seen to the left in the Google Street View. This trench is known as the Alameda Corridor.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alameda_Corridor

Cheers,
Jack

those hoses were suspended in the air so one does not have to bend over and pick them up. But most installations were hose reels underground.

Flyingwedge, that was an interesting article on the George Booth and Dolores Duffy Zukor murder-suicide.
(so I guess 'Dolores Dufay' was in error on the photo)

Earlier today I looked at google aerials of the 15500 block of Sunset Blvd., body dump site,
but couldn't decide where the body might have been placed. (morbid, I know)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320...922/TzLRtQ.jpg



The Booth home still stands. (hidden behind a huge tree)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/dMb568.jpg
gsv


I drove around in the area looking for the fraternal club mentioned in the article.
(I thought I might luck out and find an old masonic building at the end of the block on Vermont ave)

Really....underground?

Like MK said earlier, you learn something new everyday.

While I was looking for the fraternal club the Booth boys visited, I noticed this interesting building on Vermont between 76th and 77th streets.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/PPKz1o.jpg
gsv






At first I thought the building needed roof repairs.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/ultByt.jpg
gsv



but it was actually a couple of ventilation 'dormers'

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...922/b06Fkp.jpg
detail

In 1895, the proprietor of The Abbey, furnished rooms at 232 S Hill, was Mrs William R Curtis. There's also a Miss Mayme C Curtis listed among the residents, which ties in with the "Compliments of Mayme" comment. Mayme becomes a milliner by 1898. The 1899 CD lists Mrs Helen U Kernodle as proprietor of The Abbey, although Mayme (shown as Mamie) is still a resident. The last listing I can find for a hotel/furnished rooms as 232 S Hill is 1904, when the proprietor's name is now spelled Helen U Kernodie, and she's listed as the widow of Harvey G (her husband was called Harry in 1899).

By 1905, The Abbey was replaced by the Blanchard Music and Art Building, which extended from 232 S Hill Street through to 235 S Broadway.

I was initially thrown by the reference to the "City of Paris" store, until I realized that the poster had translated the more familiar "Ville de Paris" name.

Here's a circa 1894 view from the Crocker Mansion, which shows City Hall and the side of Ville de Paris. Assuming that The Abbey was standing when this picture was taken, it would have been just off the left side, two lots north of the church. In the center, the newly completed Bradbury Building and Stimson Block dominate their smaller neighbors. There's an extensive article on both buildings in the August 13, 1893 edition of the Los Angeles Herald at the California Digital Newspaper Collection.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
USC Digital Library