5401 Wilshire
 

According to David Gebhard and Robert Winter in Guide to Architecture in Los Angeles in Southern California 5401 Wilshire was originally a Spanish Colonial Revival Building from the 20s. (I've spent way too much time over the years staring at the filigree-embossed chimney pot at the apex of the tower tying to figure it out.) They list Marcus P Miller as the architect for the 30s remodel as opposed to Anderson & Norstrom listed by the you-are-here web site. I don't know which is correct.


I can't make out the sign in this highly airbrushed and colored view:
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_fo...8-d3e12667.jpg
Werner von Boltenstern Postcard Collection, Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University Library

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4098/4...6d8618c2_z.jpg
jasperdo/flickr

What a style and what a building. So glad it's survived!

The postcard shows the 1935 design for Sontag Drug--a 1935 Times article about the corner's acquisition by Sontag makes no mention of a previous building on the site, but then most of the article is a quote by a Sontag spokesman who was emphasizing the newness of its building. Perhaps a picture of 5401 prior to late 1935 will turn up; if there was a Mediterranean Revival building of some description on the lot, it was most likely by Norstrom & Anderson, who seem to have built mainly in that style. Marcus P Miller was known more for his Streamline and other modern styling--he did the famous Darkroom just to the east and across the street of Sontag Drugs, for one building.

Below is a Times drawing of a planned building that perhaps never came off--there isn't much info as to architect, though this is very much in accord with the work of Norstrom & Anderson. The exact location on the corner of Wilshire & Cloverdale isn't indicated. Maybe it was eventually built elsewhere, but perhaps the project, built or unbuilt, evolved somehow, for some reason, into Miller's Sontag.


http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/3...cloverdale.jpgLAT

It is somewhat unfortunate that the building's contours are dwarfed by the busyness of the neighborhood. The neighboring buildings (Lee Tower) win the competition for space by a mile. Even clouds can have a dramatic impact. The Black/Gold Security Pacific Bldg suffers the same fate.

As noted elsewhere, if I squint long enough I can imagine seeing a wingtip of Bob's.

Interesting framework covering the exterior of the building across the street - on the NE corner of the intersection. That's a lot of glass brick in jeopardy of light-loss. But I suppose you can't always have your cake and be able to eat it too.

Spills will happen at Simon's. I keep a spare "End-Lock tie" under the rumble seat for special occasions, like running into Mayor Shaw. :cool:

The Valley has a tendency to get warm. :cool:

Curious what this or similar buildings (built before WW2) did for ventilation and cooling. It is not easy to open glass brick windows for a breeze. Or maybe the glass brick was an afterthought. Air conditioning, although available, may not yet have been a given.

I recognize the slope of Marchessault Street, South sidewalk of the short section between Alameda and Los Angeles (to the Dragon Den).

Then it is Marchessault and Alameda, from the Clock Tower of Union Station. Sunset is the next up North.

Wilshire and Cloverdale
 

Thanks for the clarification. I knew the postcard view wasn't pre the supposed remodel. I just couldn't resist putting it up as it's a good illustration of how one photo can get doctored into day and night shots. Notice too how the building across Cloverdale from Sontag drug is Streamline in one postcard and Spanish Colonial Revival in the other. Signs and awnings come and go too.

I'm guessing the proposed building (above) did get built at 5401 and later remodeled into the Sontag plus the A&P. Three cheers for finding that. If it was built in '26 it would have been due an update by '35 given the location. This is on the SE corner of Wilshire and Cloverdale, later remodeled into The Darkroom/Chandler's Streamline Building.

The facade of the poor, abused Darkroom does have protected status, however the signage was not included in that. I recently saw an article about the sign (which is actually, of course, integral to the design). Some guy rescued it and had it in his apartment (it's missing the "K"). I can't find the link just now. http://www.flickr.com/photos/79761301@N00/2672275949/

Gebhard & Winter also identified 5401 as a Chandler's shoe store. I'm now thinking they may have gotten their corners mixed up as Chandler's was diagonally across the intersection.

Still can't figure out that chimney pot at 5401.

We've seen these before but...
 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8358/8...4e7d6bf5_o.jpg
Los Angeles High School in transit, 1886

Photo of the Los Angeles High School building, being moved over Temple Street as a couple of people look on. A man standing at the corner of Temple and Broadway (formerly Fort Street) watches a double trolley traveling by, and two people can be seen exiting the Clifton House on the left. The high school building would be placed on Fort Moore Hill on a site north of California Street and west of Hill Street where it would serve for another five years before being functionally replaced by a new structure, the second Los Angeles High School on Hill Street on the brow of Fort Moore Hill over-looking Sunset Boulevard. This original high school building would persist on the Fort Moore Hill site until it is demolished in 1950 to make way for the Hollywood Freeway. Photograph dated 1886.

LAPL


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8323/8...b350e392_o.jpg
Aerial of Los Angeles, 1887

I've always liked this murky aerial. Aerial photo of Los Angeles on June 27, 1887 taken from a balloon. North is to the left. Note the farmland south of Second Street and east of Main Street to the Los Angeles River. The town's population was a little over 20,000 at this time. The circular form of the Plaza is visible to the center left. Of particular note, Poundcake Hill (look for the stub of Court Street pointing directly at it) is vacated for the coming construction of the new county courthouse which will be dedicated next year, in 1888, while the high school building has been moved and is visible over on Fort Moore Hill just above California Avenue.

waterandpower.org

here are some annotations to make it clearer,

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8467/8...0dfb149a_o.jpg
Aerial of Los Angeles, 1887, annotated

Also it is easy to see how the intersection of Hill and Court Streets might be a safe haven for children at play. This from Sarah Bixby Smith's autobiography Adobe Days (1931, Jake Zeitlin), 'North of us were several houses containing children-and here I found my first playmates-Grace and Susie, Bertha and Eileen. The level street at Court and Hill, protected on three sides by grades too steep for horses, was our safe neighborhood playground.'

Also from Adobe Days, 'After a couple of years we built our own house in the same neighborhood on the southeast corner of Court and Hill Streets. It began as a seven-room cottage, white with green blinds to suit father. Later the roof was raised and a second story inserted and the house was painted a more fashionable all-over gray, to suit the ladies.'

The Llewellyn Bixby house was directly across Hill Street from the Bradbury mansion. It can be clearly seen here,

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...104a6e2b_o.jpg
View of Bunker Hill from the Court House roof, C.C. Pierce, ca.1895

Court Street cul de sac (before the installation of Court Flight) is evident. Bradbury Mansion is shown at the intersection of Hill and Court Streets. The Bixby house (two story directly across Hill St. from Bradbury) appears at the center of frame. The Bixby house is partially hidden by trees and is not to be confused with the small cottage here at the very end of Court Street

C. C. Pierce Collection/The Huntington Library/Los Angeles Times

The architecture firm of Norstrom & Anderson seems to have been very active in L.A. from the mid '20s into the latter half of the '30s. It looks like not a lot of their buildings survive, though one that does is well known:


http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4336/elpaseo1.jpg1932

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/8...paseo31124.jpg1955

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9...paseo21124.jpg1968

http://imageshack.us/a/img22/6817/elpaseonow.jpgGoogleSV 2011


El Paseo, Westwood. The backstory:


http://imageshack.us/a/img560/6762/e...imnescompl.jpgLAT



A couple of other Norstrom & Anderson survivors:


2121 San Fernando Rd (1936):

http://imageshack.us/a/img685/2817/2121rd.jpgGoogleSV
Originally built for the Hemphill Diesel Engineering Schools


6809 Stanford Ave (1937):

http://imageshack.us/a/img33/4459/6809o.jpg


Does anyone know if this Westwood Newberry's still stands, if it was ever built?

http://imageshack.us/a/img39/5065/newberrywestwood.jpgLAT


No picture, but same question about a small store N&A is reported to have built at 1254 3rd Street in Santa Monica in 1937... couldn't get a street view, but a Google Sat view indicates that it might have Streamline detailing.


Another unknown:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C...ministbldg.jpgLAT



These were reported to have been planned, but if built, do not now stand:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z...ntownbldgs.jpg



The following were reported to have been designed and soon to be erected, but all seem to be gone now:

952 Wilshire
3170 Wilshire
615 N Alameda
423-27 Santa Monica Blvd SM
8850 Santa Monica Blvd
9585 Santa Monica Blvd


Top three pics: Daily Bruin/Bison

Brennan Hotel Fire
 

One hundred years ago:

Brennan Hotel, 529 S Main:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cndyl7VEJu...anHotel-1R.png
lafdblogspot.com

Seven more photos: http://laist.com/2013/01/24/historic...hotel_fire.php

The LA Examiner's thrilling account:
http://lafd.blogspot.com/2013/01/100...s-angeles.html

The Darkroom
 

Here's that link. MONA has the sign now. Counting the days until it's restored:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-r...251%2520PM.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79761301@N00/2672275949/

"The" and "K" are missing.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-e...933%2520PM.jpg
http://www.inherited-values.com/2011...-camera-shops/

Marcus P Miller
 

BTW GW, do you know if Marcus P Miller did the whole building on the SE corner of Wilshire and Cloverdale or just the shop-fitting for The Darkroom?

http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_fo...8-d3e12667.jpg
Werner von Boltenstern Postcard Collection, Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University Library

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4098/4...6d8618c2_z.jpg
jasperdo/flickr

(Still having fun playing 'Spot the Difference' with these cards, but I guess the main one is the NE corner building.)

:previous:

In each of the descriptions of the Darkroom I've seen, the building is made to sound as though it's a stand-alone building; it's hard to tell if Miller just did the facade or a more complete design. He did seem to make a specialty of these few blocks of Wilshire.... He is credited in one 1937 Times article with 5356, between the building at the sw corner of Detroit and the row of buildings that contains the Darkroom. Perhaps he actually did the entire southerly block from Detroit to Cloverdale over time. As for the northerly block, according to reports in the Times, his design for a Union Bank branch at 5351 (nw corner Detroit) seems to have morphed between July and November 1937 into a Melody Lane...


http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/4450/melody1.jpgLAPL

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/6789/melody2.jpgLAPL

Wilshire & Cloverdale
 

The Darkroom looks to be just one shopfront in a larger building:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B...931%2520PM.jpg
Werner von Boltenstern Postcard Collection, Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University Library

Hard to tell from gsv now with all the facia boards:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5...142%2520PM.jpg
gsv

But the roof still gives it away:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-K...832%2520PM.jpg
google maps

Neat trick remodeling the building at the NE corner of of Wilshire and Cloverdale without disturbing the rooftop sign:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-q...425%2520PM.jpg
lapl

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_...225%2520PM.jpg
originally posted by godzilla

And thx for this. I love "special" doorways:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--...756%2520PM.jpg
lapl

P.S. Miller did the building with the weird vertical at the sw corner of Wilshire & Detroit (or just the green one)? Hasn't the corner one come up on the thread before? I seem to remember it was a Kress.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-E...931%2520PM.jpg

Yes, here it is: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=9819
Godzilla ID'ed it:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009344.jpg
lapl

How I'd love to go down to the Miracle Mile some night with a crowbar and pry all the extraneous crap off it. How does anyone think all the cheap "cosmetic" junk looks better than decently maintained buildings?

I still prefer it to this though. Disney creeps me out.:
http://www.guide-to-disney.com/disne...kroom2-big.jpg
www.guidetodisney.com

New tools coming....
 

....LA will get its turn:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/goo...ties-50004490/

And one I hope LA will never need:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...don-Blitz.html

Orchestra music? Baja Marimba! Count me in!

A familiar view, 1930 with some buildings recently discussed (Dyas) and barrel tile roofing. (Yes the image has been posted before, but USC's new format has wiped some of the slate clean.) It may be old, but looking at it does not get old . . . yet. :)


Pre- Kress and Sontag
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=0
USC Digital




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=0



1939 - Nine years and a year after the Orchestra packed up its accordion.

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=0





Gimme a "K"
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...rea&DMROTATE=0 All from USC Digital

Miracle Mile
 

A few more (apologies for reposts):

1928, Wilshire and La Brea looking east. Dyas-Carlton Cafe (opened 1928) at left. Gilmore station on the NE corner with a Security Bank building beyond (pre Clements' black & gold replacement), Bank of Italy (before the name change to BofA) on the right:
http://waterandpower.org/Historical_..._Brea_1928.jpg

1929, looking east from Ridgeley and Wilshire. There's more 'Wilshire Specials' than anything else.
http://waterandpower.org/Historical_...shire_1929.jpg

1930, looking west from Sycamore. Wilson Building at center bottom. Desmond's at center left. Tar Pits at upper center. Salt Lake Oil Field at right. Carthay Theater in the distance at upper left center:
http://waterandpower.org/Historical_...shire_1930.jpg

1932, The Darkroom/Chandler's building (SE corner Wilshire and Cloverdale) is still Spanish Colonial Revival. Dyas-Carlton Cafe Building lower right corner next to a Standard Station:
http://waterandpower.org/Historical_...rview_1932.jpg

all images: http://waterandpower.org/museum/Earl...1925%20+).html

The above and the pix BRR just posted of the Miracle Mile answer the question posed by the below:

The above drawing is of the building as built on the SE corner of Wilshire and Clovedale, future home of both The Darkroom (1935) and Chandler's Shoes, later given a Streamline remodel.

From Spanish Colonial Revival to Streamline to shapeless hodgepodge:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B...931%2520PM.jpg
Werner von Boltenstern Postcard Collection, Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University Library

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5...142%2520PM.jpg
gsv