Absolutely correct. Occasionally, one gets pleasantly lost in the minutiae and forgets that the E Clem Wilson building is a relative newcomer to the neighborhood (1930).

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6007/5...5d63ee31c4.jpg Flickr



1928 - Northeast corner of Wilshire and La Brea
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ion&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ion&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ion&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ion&DMROTATE=0USC Digital

Circle Theatre. It would seem that the right weather conditions (Santa Ana winds) and excessive use of the fireplace connected to the chimney at right, might result in a potential Herald Examiner headline. :uhh:
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ion&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ion&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ion&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ion&DMROTATE=0

Function of the divot in the street? Vent? Is the large building with the prominent fire escape the Pacific Telephone Exchange?
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ire&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ire&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ire&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ire&DMROTATE=0


Name of the coffee shop - steak house next door to Harbold Bros shop?
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ire&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ire&DMROTATE=0




1928 (Are there any better posts of the building/cafe that preceded Tilford's (at left)?)
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068481.jpgLapl

Tilford's
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6842
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1963-PC-Tilfo...Er6Gw~~0_3.JPG


What a difference in a few years. Divot is still there and the Pacific Telephone Exchange building (or what later became the PTEB) is still at three stories.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0USC Digital


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6838

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6842


BTW--I am NOT a fan of the revamped USC Digital Library site. In addition to having seemed to have rendered all previous direct links to its photos void--I was able to fix two of the three in the link to post 6838 above--I find it incredibly cumbersome and slow. Not that I'm a computer graphics wiz, but zooming is available on any computer, and cropping is easy with any number of other programs. Also...the USC site seems to have more pages of old USC Trojan newspapers than pictures.... (Just my 2¢.)

The bump may just be a lane marker; there were some of these around L.A. that had raised letters reading "STOP" facing the traffic flow, presumably from before electric signals. As for the Southern California Telephone Building at 666 S La Brea... I wondered why a brick building that didn't look all that old would have been replaced by a Deco-ish structure, but these article explain what happened... (note the error in directionals)...


http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1...elephcompl.jpgLAT

Colima Restaurant
 

Thank you MR. Excellent.

Here's a little overhead shot of the site taken from the top of the hill from an earlier post:
http://www.lanopalera.net/LAHistory/OldPuebloFromW.gif
nopalera

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10391

(BTW, re the quoted caption above, that's a yucca, not a small palm)

Carthay Apartments Shops
 

Thank you GW and BRR for reminding me once again of the commercial development in front of the Carthay Building. When intact, the black glass facade was exceedingly norish and glamorous. So striking and evocative. It got inundated with signage and eventually stuccoed (I think not until the '90s)

Looks like regular old pea gravel.

Makes a nice crunching noise underneath your tires.

Back in the days before every community became so anal about paving everything, pea gravel was widely used for parking lots, alleys, driveways - it was cheap and made an "all-weather" surface (i.e. it didn't turn to mud when it rained, and it mostly kept dust down).

When it starts wearing thin? - bring in a couple more truck loads!

Sadly such an effective and low-tech approach is not even considered anymore.

The crunch of gravel
 

Yes. Gasoline and sawdust isn't a combination I'd care to brave.

You brought this to mind:
"Rich the makes of motor whirring
Past the pine plantation purring
Come up Hupmobile, Delage
Short the way our chauffeurs travel
Crunching over private gravel,
Each from out his warm garage."

(John Betjamin - Indoor Games Near Newbury)

One doesn't see many Hupmobiles, or Delages for that matter, at the local gas station these days.

Dear malumot... have you ever had a gravel driveway? They're a lot of work to keep neat and expensive to maintain & replenish. And a gas station would get hundreds if not thousands of times more use than a private driveway....

Brand New Parker Center - about 1955
 

Sorry about the lousy photo quality. I took these pictures of a printed poster with my cheap camera and zero photography skills.

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/7858/1000671copy.jpg
Earl Witscher, Modernage Photo Service

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/4...00671copy2.jpg
Earl Witscher, Modernage Photo Service


If my dumb question allowance for the month has not been used up...what are these rows of markers up where the DWP building is now? Looks like a graveyard.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1638/1000674copy.jpg
Earl Witscher, Modernage Photo Service

Lots
 

The oddest surface I've ever seen was a parking lot on the old MGM studios lot, at the corner of Washington & Overland (later replaced by the Producers' Building where e_r worked).

It was oiled dirt. The lines marking each parking space were made of lengths of old fire hose spiked into the earth. Just weird.

A recent find on ebay.

http://imageshack.us/a/img405/4069/a...washington.jpg


Has anyone seen Washington Rock in Chatsworth? I wonder if it's still intact?
__

Yes. The E Clem Wilson wrapped itself around Stiles O Clements' beautiful little black and gold bank building which used to be the biggest building at the end of a little row of shops.

I'd be interested to see that too. It's very reminiscent of a house here in my neighborhood (2357 Parnell) that I'm very fond of. I like the porthole windows in the tower of each:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-m...244%2520PM.jpg
gsv

I don't know about the rest of you folks but I am scrolling right past the "split" pictures...as has been said..."frustrating" to say the least...