First--I'm confused by the picture below. In spite of the sign, this doesn't appear to be the same building as the one in your pic above, ethereal:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044405.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044405.jpg


But as far as the building in your pic goes, here another shot of it--can't make out what the rooftop sign says--the rooftop sign is for Wrigley's spearmint gum; Owl Drugs is there (also with a different sign):

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018578.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018578.jpg


Foreman & Clark--the "World's Largest Upstairs Clothiers"--moved at some point to Hill & 7th:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033893.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033893.jpg


But it's the company's branches that are most intriguing--6353 Hollywood Blvd, 1947 rendering and now:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033891.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033891.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...92938%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...93110%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View


5657 Wilshire Blvd
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033889.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033889.jpg

Well, the massing suggests that this could possibly be the same building, heavily remodeled:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...93549%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View



And are these still standing?

Burbank:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033887.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033887.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033888.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033888.jpg

Pomona:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033890.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033890.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...11628%20AM.jpg
My sentiments exactly.


And here's an interesting video about the making of Baby Jane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY5hC...eature=related

It includes this shot of the studio re-creation of the actual house at 172 S. McCadden:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...12430%20AM.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2346/...bc86fc.jpg?v=0
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...12430%20AM.jpg

Hey Boys and Girls!

Stumbled upon a thread somewhat similar to this one....

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=786986

Evolution through time of Los Angeles California

In near Bizarro-World fashion, is almost as large (120 pages) as Noirish.

(Personally I think it's a bit more hodge-podgish and not quite as scholarly as this one, but......shhhhhh....don't tell Jesus that. Because it is an excellent work in its own right.)

LOTS of great photos - old and new.

============================================

Follow up.......................................

Photos are good, documentation lacking......

Page 52, bottom: Caption reads "Port of Los Angeles, 1898". But that's clearly a Liberty Ship tied up at the dock. And the warehouse has "Worldport LA" painted on it. Don't think such branding was in vogue in 1898.

Page 51, near bottom: Caption reads "San Pedro wharf, 1897....". But that's EssPee's Long Wharf depicted in the watercolor, which we know was in Santa Monica Bay.

malumot-

I've visited that site/thread several times.
It doesn't have the discussion like this thread....it's basically photo after photo.

That said, I think Jesus E. Salgado REALLY loves Los Angeles.
I'm surprised we haven't heard from him on this thread. Perhaps we should invite him. ?

Great research on Foreman & Clark GaylordWilshire!
I hadn't noticed the Foreman & Clark sign in that large photo I posted.
You definitely have an eagle eye. :)




Below: An early view of Pasadena.
USC labeled it as Oak Ave. from Colorado St.(should it be Fair Oaks Ave from Colorado Blvd?)
Obviously this is a long time ago, so perhaps the names of the streets have changed.

I believe sopas_ej is very knowledgeable of the Pasadena area. I bet he can easily pinpoint this photo. sopas?


http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/7...aoaksavefr.jpg
usc digital archive


Does the sign on the streetcar say Cottage Farm or Ostrich Farm?
(the more I look at it I'm pretty sure it is Ostrich Farm)

This is definitely Fair Oaks Avenue looking north, from just south of Colorado Blvd. I definitely know this area well, I used to work on the northwest block of this corner, which is shown here at the left. This section of Colorado Blvd. lost all of its Victorian architecture when Colorado Blvd. was widened in the early 1920s, I believe. For some blocks along Colorado, the buildings' facades were remodeled into Mission Revival, Art Deco and some Moderne. You can tell that the buildings are much older, though, when you walk the alleys behind them and see the old red bricks. The building on the left is now only 2 stories tall. The building on the right has a Pottery Barn on the bottom floor corner. This is literally the heart of Pasadena, even in terms of its street address numbering system; the north/south and east/west blocks originate from here for the whole city of Pasadena.

The streetcar does definitely say Ostrich Farm, I assume for the Cawston Ostrich Farm. In the first 2 decades of the 20th Century, it was a huge tourist attraction in the aptly named city to the immediate south, South Pasadena. People would ride the ostriches and be amused by watching them swallow whole oranges, watching the bulges go down the ostriches' necks. Their feathers were also used for women's hats and such. Changing fashions and times/what people considered entertainment contributed to the demise of the Cawston Ostrich Farm.

Wow. The south-looking Figueroa view in particular. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...76/cawston.jpg http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...76/cawston.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...80Wo/p198a.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...80Wo/p198a.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...rmKQ/voor5.jpg
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb....lton/voor5.jpg


People must have once been ostrich-crazy in northeastern L.A. Not only was there Cawston's--there was also the Los Angeles Ostrich Farm at 3609 Mission Road, across from Eastlake-now-Lincoln Park:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics16/00007632.jpgLAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics16/00007632.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics02/00010702.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics02/00010702.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics21/00045189.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics21/00045189.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics21/00045190.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics21/00045190.jpg

More here: http://www.lincolnheightsla.com/ostrich/

That's indeed the Metropolitan Bldg -- Parkinson & Bergstrom, 1913 -- the seventh and eighth floors used to be the Public Library.

The pic at the very top is of the Metropolitan Theater, AKA Grauman's Metropolitan, later known as The Paramount -- William Lee Woolett, 1923-1963. NE corner Hill & 6th. http://cinematreasures.org/theater/495/ Story goes, the demo company put in a bid to demo it, and went broke, because the structure was so well built...

GADOINK! Damn. That's a fine shot. Looking down Flower across First (I'd know that building http://www.onbunkerhill.org/WalkerBunkerRanger at far right anywhere)...

:previous:
Ooops duh that's Flower looking south, as you've mentioned. I must've had Figueroa on the brain.



This is indeed an amazing, amazing image, gsjansen.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/...9eebabae_o.jpg

I realize this picture was taken the year California became a state. You can see that LA truly was a little pueblo along a river. Wow.

LA's sure come quite a LONG way in a 150 years.:)

i am truly a sucker for people who drag photographic equipment up to dizzying heights to capture amazing images.

someone climbed to the top of the los angeles gas tanks to capture these images of the pre-union station site.

this 1933 image is looking west across the union station site which is bounded by aliso street on the south, alameda street on the west, macy street on the north, and lyon street on the east. the street on the left side of the photo is aliso street. chinatown is still intact in this image

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-14531?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-14531?v=hr

the exact same view 2 years later in 1935. only the western section of chinatown remains, however, within the next year, this will be gone as well.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-44127?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-44127?v=hr


this 1935 image is looking north/westerly towards the intersection of macy and alameda. the main road which leads off into the distance at the upper left of the photograph is sunset boulevard

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-41358?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-41358?v=hr


a similar 1936 image looking northwesterly at the intersection of macy and alameda.....bye bye chinatown

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...BUI-339~1?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...BUI-339~1?v=hr


i really like this 1927 image looking north from city hall, because the roof of the still standing Beaudry house is very visible lower left at the intersection of new high and republic street

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-44126?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archive http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-44126?v=hr

the 1850 aerial view with a google earth 1994 view

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5043/...df42b94b_b.jpg

That is quite amazing. Wow.

Another January 15 approaches – and if Elizabeth Short doesn’t define noirish – I’d be remiss if it passed unnoticed.

I crawled through my Hollywood cards until I found — The Brevoort...

...AKA first Hollywood address of Elizabeth Short. She and Gordon Fickling shacked here Aug 20-26, 1946.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/...b52cd28f_o.jpg

She thereafter bounced around, the Hawthorn, Mark Hansen’s, the Figueroa, the Guardian Arms, etc.

Up to the last Hollywood address of Elizabeth Short. The Chancellor.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5001/...5640ac1f_o.jpg

Room 501, top floor (left of the fire escape). Flopped here Nov 13-Dec 6 ’46, went to San Diego, some other stuff, the missing week, and bam, top totem on LA’s collective obsession with crime and itself, and the world’s obsession with crime and LA. (Lest we mention 1947 and its weight as a touchstone.)

"(Suspect) Glenn Wolf is the owner of the Chancellor Apartments, 1842 Cherokee Hollywood. It was the last place where victim resided in Los Angeles before she met Carl Balsiger and then left for San Diego. He [Wolf] was residing at 1617 North Las Palmas in an apartment house owned by Kate Harris at the time of the murder. He admitted knowing victim. She lived in a six bed apartment at the Chancellor Hotel and left there December 6, 1946 as she did not like the place. Wolf is known as a sexual maniac by other young women. Ray Pinker, LAPD Crime Laboratory chemist, checked the rooms in which he resided for blood and got no positive reaction. This was done upon request of undersigned. Marvin Hart, now living at Lido Apartments, Hollywood, lived at Chancellor Apartments at the time of the murder. He has not been questioned. Alice Lebedeff, private investigator, 1967 Carmen Street, Hillside 6279 states that a Miss Schell, who runs a hot dog stand on Santa Monica boardwalk, slept in the upper bunk of the bed occupied by victim on December 1, 1946 at the Chancellor apartments. Further that Polly Blits, Hollywood real estate broker is a known queen queer and knows plenty. There is reliable information that some of the five girls in the room at the Chancellor living with victim were queers. Victim stated on several occasions, however, that she had no use whatsoever for queers."
District Attorney Investigation Report

“She came here for a room last November 13. That’s a bad day, isn’t it? She wasn’t sociable like the other girls who lived in apartment 501 with her — more the sophisticated type.”
Juanita Ringo, manager, Chancellor Apts

Both buildings still look relatively the same. Perforce a bit less charming.

Everyone has an opinion on the Dahlia, and here's mine, that is, where I "choose up sides" when it comes to aligning with the experts. (This Dahlia business gets awful persnickety among differing folds of the faithful.) After all my study (there's only so much a man can learn about Caspar Bartholin the Younger and his relation to Liz Short), and doggy-paddling through oceans of so much crazy, seems I've found there's only one researcher whose methods are spotless: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...-story-ruined/ (not to say Halleluyah, I'm led to the Promised Land, because of course Short's mystery will remain Kennedy-esque in its riddles and conjecture until both are displaced by fresh enigmas; I will say that Harnisch's sagacious scholarship is replete with accuracy and insight).

^^^Very interesting.
That's the first time I've heard that some, if not most, of her room-mates at the Chancellor were lesbians.
I've always pictured a bunch of giggly ingenues having pillow fights in slow motion. ;)

One of the very first things I noticed as young man when I came to visit the west coast was the light, that somehow it was different from what I had grown up with in the midwest and east coast. The contrast between light and shadow seemed much sharper to me, almost like changing the contrast controls on a TV to a much sharper setting. Even the smog didn't fade that lighting all that much. Some people won't know the difference watching this version filmed elsewhere, or care I guess, but it will be a little distracting to me.

BTW, is Bunker Hill visable in that 1850 photo and if so, could someone point it out to me?

Bunker Hill proper isn't visible here, but you can see the feet of Pound Cake Hill and Fort Moore Hill at far lower left. (Topographically, these were effectively extensions of Bunker Hill, but the actual site of the neighborhood known as Bunker Hill is out of view to the left.)

-Scott