More Hotel Pepper/Wesley Terrace Hotel
 

This hotel (1904-66) was at 1800 W. 7th @ Burlington. er introduced us to it, and there were a couple other posts that I could find:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=9986
from Muji, who also wrote this on the Pepper/Wesley Terrace: http://urbandiachrony.wordpress.com/...nue-1905-2011/

and

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=12617
from Mr. Swink, who included some nice closeups from USC's 1905 photo: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...coll65/id/8256

But here's more . . . .

1906 Sanborn Map:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...4.jpg~original
LAPL

January 30, 1912:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...0.jpg~original
Huntington Digital Library -- http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single.../12554/rec/880

Let's take a closer look:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...0.jpg~original
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...a.jpg~original

1929; on the inside it looked a little more conventional. With so many light bulbs missing (removed just for the photo?), that room seems like it would be a little dark without the
flash from the camera. Perhaps that's why the woman at front left apparently has a flashlight:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...d.jpg~original
USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/13772/rec/3

1958:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...1.jpg~original
CA State Library -- http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...HYXT25E6BJ.jpg

1958:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...8.jpg~original
CA State Library -- http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...LKLQGAYA9T.jpg

1963:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...8.jpg~original
LAPL -- http://jpg2.lapl.org/spnb1/00017410.jpg

1964 (larger version than previously posted):
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...e.jpg~original
CA State Library -- http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...65YIXR35AU.jpg

1964:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...3.jpg~original
CA State Library -- http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...RPF4VHR3MJ.jpg

:previous:


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-r...erpiccompl.jpghttps://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-s...rdualcompl.jpg
LA Times, Nov 13, 1904/July 20, 1913


The Pepper seems to have had many changes of ownership over the years, including within a couple of years of opening. It was some time after the transaction mentioned below that it became the Wesley Terrace... not sure of exactly when, but it appears to have been before the end of 1918.


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-L...2520PM.bmp.jpghttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-k...2520AM.bmp.jpg
LA Herald, Sept 6, 1903/LA Times, Dec 3, 1916


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-8...2520PM.bmp.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4...2520PM.bmp.jpg
LA Herald, Jan 8, 1905

They look like glass blocks with a label around them, although why they would be sitting by themselves on shelves is a mystery

I know that all you affectionados of early 20th Century Los Angeles architecture are not going to appreciate this, but I have to say the Hotel Pepper has to rank right up there with the ugliest buildings I have ever seen or of which I have seen a photo image. Also ranking up there in the most "ugly" category was that architectural mishmash someone posted recently where each floor had a different exterior than the others.

Make your fortune in CA real estate....
 

Blessed Sacrament
 

Never knew there was an orphanage at Blessed Sacrament. The building you've marked is the parish school; always assumed that's what it was built for. Always something new to learn here - thanks!

I've really enjoyed all the color pictures of Bunker Hill that have been posted here recently.
Here's three more from the Huntington Digital Library which are all dated September 1970.
I'm not sure if any/all have been posted before, but bear with me.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z.../LAEdison1.jpg
Huntington Digital Library

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z.../LAEdison2.jpg
Huntington Digital Library

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z.../LAEdison3.jpg
Huntington Digital Library

They all seem to be taken from the same location at the same time, so I couldn't resist stitching them together. I've also tweaked the colors.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original

Odds and Ends
 

THANKS OLDSTUFF & EARL!
____________

Doug, enjoyed hearing about your mother and the Blessed Sacrament orphanage. I don't exactly know what they do there now.
___________

Great work on the Bunker Hill photos HossC.!
___________

I agree with your opinion of that building, too, Retired in Texas!
___________

Lol @ Lockheed employees reading comic books!
(Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Photo of Los Angeles Times bldg taken April 16, 1915
 

Indeed, very much so:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...d.jpg~original
Huntington Digital Library -- http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single.../15036/rec/607

P.S. I hold no brief for the design of the Hotel Pepper! But I think we can all agree that it was unique, anyway.

Hard times for orphans....
 

I heard this story many times from my mother. Her father was supposed to pay for her upkeep at the orphanage on Sunset Blvd., but he was hit hard by the Depression of the 1930s and had a difficult time taking care of himself.

The nuns finally asked him to remove her and she transferred to the Church Home for Children. [I've been there but I do not know if it is still operating.] She once told me about when a wealthy lady would drive up in a big black car and give the Home for Children a box of oranges. [circa 1932]

She was always trying to impress on me how good I had it as a child...[.after she married a successful professional man]. My life from age one to five was noir to the max. At one point we had to flee LA in the middle of the night to hide out in an attempt to avoid her first husband and his violent temper [he had burned all of her clothes-photos, smashed all of my toys and broke all the furniture.]. There was a warrant for his arrest for attempted murder of her father [pictured below] which I witnessed as a child. There was blood everywhere on the living room floor.

Here is my grandfather...[maternal], taken in front of his apartment on 1006 North El Centro Ave., Hollywood. The building is still there. He worked as a bookkeeper, stenographer, real estate sales but his favorite work was as a Spiritualist Lecturer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pscd8a625e.jpg

[IMG][IMG][IMG][IMG][IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3406/...1d2d135f_b.jpg[/IMG][/IMG][/IMG][/IMG][/IMG]

My Dad, Lawrence Rovere was the manager of his uncle's place Lucca. It was robbed on Mother's Day of 1955 of all the day's receipts. Mother's Day was one of if not the busiest day of the year. The criminals got away with aprox. $ 40,000 so my dad use to tell me. The place didn't have insurance and Uncle Bert was ready for retirement anyway, so they closed the place up. Bert died a couple of years later and our family made its way to Vegas where we've been since.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2564/...24c79344_b.jpg

My dad says they use to do around 10,000 covers a day. Pretty impressive.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...30584068_n.jpgVintage Los Angeles


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u...2520AM.bmp.jpgLAPL


Before the Vincent Thomas bridge was built, there was the LA's municipal ferry Islander between San Pedro and Terminal Island. The photo might look older than it is, given the '49 Buick...looks like a '55 or '56 Chrysler--maybe a DeSoto?--this side of it.

The Islander made her last run on November 14, 1963.

Good stuff if chilling...
 

Great panorama HossC. I'm always surprised to see how long the L.A. Gas & Electric Building held on. I poached a copy (with attribution of course) for my photo-stream. I hope you don't mind. Let me know if it's a problem.

What a story CityBoyDoug, noir indeed. Life isn't always a bed of roses.

LA's municipal ferry Islander
 

Wonderful photos, GW. Based on the size and angle of the windshield plus the shape of the hood, I would argue that the car in the foreground is a 1953-55 Studebaker.

Cheers,
Jack

The ferry building had the good fortune of becoming the LA Maritime Museum. And right outside is the only place (so far as I'm aware) that you can ride a red car on an actual former PE line:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-P...0/PICT0118.JPG
Photo by me, 2007

They have 2 replica cars for daily service, and one genuine restored PE car (pictured above) used mostly on special occasions, on a short line which uses part of the former PE line as clearly illustrated by the older pic!