Among the saddest images ever on noirish. Of course, being on a junior high school campus, out in the open like that, one can expect nothing less. Now they've had their sandblasting and built the fence, planted the greenery and the little heathens have had to look elsewhere for stationary objects to torment.

Off-topic content moved here.

LOL, if we're talking about the relative artistic merits of the statue, that's an entirely different subject, hard as it is to separate that from the effect of the monument. I imagine some students might think it's a good thing to celebrate the vanquishing of races while other students, Indians in particular (the school publishes it's demographic on its web site), might react with a consternation equal to the expression modeled on the statue. I hope the monument hasn't emboldened anyone to harass the Indian students.

Still don't agree with you (I'm of the school that thinks respect for the student is the key to education), but I'll defend to the death your right to attempt to get the various laws and policies changed to make your idea come true. Goodness knows I spend enough time in such pursuits, with enough success to keep me at it.

Don't be silly GW, it was just a recommendation.

I would have thought it was little christians who robbed the monument of it's nose, fingers and toes, but that's just a guess.


Thanks guys for being such good company.

GaylordWilshire, do you remember where on the old campus the statue was? I was thinking at the south end of the main building, but I really don’t remember. And since these views show him painted green, do you remember did the school have official school colors then? I don’t remember that either. We had our class colors – Pink and Black as B9’s :yuck:and turquoise and white as A9’s.
Anyway, this is probably more conversation and attention about the old guy then he has had in many years. Glad to see he is at least safe (for now). Thanks to those who took the time to see how this link to the past has survived. Being sort of an awkward kid at that age, he was one of my better memories from 57 years ago at TSK – along with my drafting teacher who got me pointed in the direction of engineering.
:worship:

Yes! Three cheers for inspirational teachers.

What did the monument mean to you then? Did you know the title? Was it just a big, comforting presence, a comment on Indians or something else? Did staff ever explain it or decode it for the students?

And wow, pink & black and turquoise & white, the color schemes of '56. That took me back :-)

[QUOTE=Hollywood Graham;6026669

I attended Samual Gompers Jr. High about 1947-48...any other alumni at this site? If anyone has old or new pictures of "Gompers", as we called it...please post and take me down memory lane...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8249/8...07c113a7_o.jpg
Samuel Gompers Junior High School, 1938

LAPL

First of all keep in mind this was 57 years ago. But I don’t not remember EVER being schooled on the reason for the statue even being there on the campus. Was it commissioned for that school? Seems like a name of Thomas Star King might evoke some other type of tribute???? So was it placed there as a matter of convenience??? It was just there...and we called it Chief Itchytoe. Sort of a mascot but not in the same sense as high schools with team names and colors and all the rah rah that goes with school pride. Maybe Hollywood Graham might remember. I just don't recall any importance. I sure it wasn’t explained to my 12 year old mind and I’m sure my 12-year old mind never asked. But I know that the instant that picture appeared here the name came to me in a flash, so it had some lasting imprint.

Southern California and Island on the Land
 

Thanks to all of you I ordered my very own copy of Southern California an Island on the Land, and it arrived today. All I had time for (my wife keeps me busy) was to read about half a page of the intro. McWilliams talks about the unprecedented growth of Los Angeles in the twenties.

This remained me of the growth following WWII. My parents bought their first home in the Echo Park area in 1946. The house sat high off the street with a lot of stairs to the front door.

We had a basement area that was open to the front but unfinished. So dad put in paneling and finished a tiny bathroom. The only heat was a portable gas fire heater (I don’t think you can buy those anymore) and no AC. And there was no provision for cooking - long time before micros. This was in late 1946 or early 1947. And I remember they rented before it was even finished it to a man (Mr. Collins-how’s that for memory?) who had been discharged from the service and would take anything to stay in Southern California. He moved on eventually but we did keep it rented for over 5 or 6 years.

I’m assuming that the book will get into this growth of the late 40’s. But this growth also took place at the time when the big changes that most affected the view of the Los Angeles we know today were being sorted out – a time when those little wheels started turning in those little minds that changed the landscape forever and give us the reason to be on this forum wishing they would have let well enough alone!!! That house still stands although it looks awful with new windows and stucco replacing the clap board siding and a yard overgrown with bamboo. No one would want to rent there now.

^ Your post just prompted me to stop procrastinating and order that book. Thank you!

Came across the photo set on USC of the old Melrose Hotel about to be demolished...

http://imageshack.us/a/img802/6339/l...70408bunke.png

And I got to looking at the lobby shot:

http://imageshack.us/a/img109/6339/l...70408bunke.png

That painting to the right caught my eye, and with the help of USC's new setup I was able to zoom right in:

http://imageshack.us/a/img688/8760/l...70408bunke.jpg

It appears to show the Melrose right after it opened, as well as showing its environs on Grand (was there really nothing across the street at that time or is it artistic license?) and of course the Richelieu next door. I darkened it a bunch in the hopes that some detail might be brought out, but as it turns out there really wasn't much information to be gained back:

http://imageshack.us/a/img703/8760/l...70408bunke.jpg

Link to full photo set

Scott has a really nice progression of photos on the Melrose and Richelieu on his blog Los Angeles Past http://losangelespast.blogspot.com/2009/12/melrose.html Really first rate, as usual.

The painting is actually of the Hotel Del Monte up north...


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-z...2520PM.bmp.jpgebay


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Q...2520PM.bmp.jpgcaviews.com

Interesting apartment building in the heart of Westwood Village:

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/3002/00031150.jpg
lapl

Description provided on the library's web page:

Westwood Village-Residences-Apartment buildings
Date 1939.
Exterior view of the Landfair Apartments, "Modernistic Apartment Houses," located at Ophir Drive and Glenrock. Apartments were built in 1937/1938. Architect: Richard Neutra. "Composed of two one-story, five-room flats on the east side and six more compact two-story apartments to the west, the Landfair was in essence a block of densely packed row houses with staggered set-backs, unit by unit augmenting the effect of separate juxtaposed entities. A stairway led from the living, dining, and kitchen areas on the first floor of each of the smaller units to baths and bedrooms on the second floor, with related stairs leading from each apartment to the roof-garden sundecks. All occupants shared the common back garden."


The building is still there, and looks pretty much the same.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3904/captureysn.jpg
Google Street View

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/7702/capture1wt.jpg
Google Maps

I wonder if the residents are still allowed to use the "roof-garden sundecks". Doesn't look like it. It also looks like the "common back garden" may have been divided up.

Zoinks, well I stand corrected. I still give myself an A for effort, though!

BB: There appears to be only one building of the original campus still standing, which is the one with the southeast-corner cutout in the center of the aerial below. "The Vanquished Race" seems
to be more or less in the same place it is today. If you look at the first two pics, you'll see that the sculpture faced north, as it does today, at the south end of the quad near the southwest
corner of the original building--the first of the paired shots has the two-story building at left in the aerial (now replaced) as a backdrop; the second pic of the sculpture has the north side of
the single-story wing in the aerial as backdrop.) On the aerial I've circled in red the statue's current location; the dim gray item just to the lower left of the circle may be the actual statue,
which means it hasn't moved very far since it was installed. Perhaps these pictures will help you recall where it was on the campus you remember.


http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/6...sitiondual.jpgLAPL


http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8...rialredcir.jpgLAPL

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/9...dayindianc.jpgBing
The location of "The Vanquished Race" today.


I hadn't realized that at some point the campus was expanded west to Bates Ave, usurping Myra Ave between Sunset Drive and Fountain Ave and many houses...

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/6...mpusaerial.jpgLAPL


http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/6...ngaerialan.jpgBing

Great memories b b! Enjoy your new book :-) The only part I could never get through is McWilliams' section on cults. I know there was a craze for them here at one time, but I just don't find them interesting.

We also have Neutra's Emerson Middle School, 1650 Selby Avenue, 90024, in Westwood (directly north of the LDS temple) built by the PWA in '37-'38 on the old Harold Lloyd lot:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-p...651%2520AM.jpg
national archives and records administration/neg p-106

An icon of modernism, it's been published extensively all over the world.

Unfortunately it's been junked up with with some unsightly remodel and upgrade efforts, particulaly on the interior. "The first-floor classrooms have large, 15-foot glass and steel sliding doors that open to extend the spaces to the outside, while the second-floor classrooms have stairs leading to rooftop terraces" (http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu/pr...os-angeles-ca/) Neither are in use any longer:-(

Rebranding Junior Highs as "middle schools" resulted in Neutra's great 30s signage being discarded and replaced by generic lettering. The porch forms a "smoking balcony" for staff (still in use last I checked).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W...458%2520AM.jpg
gsv

Marilyn Monroe was a student at EMS 1939-1941.

EMS, sandwiched between RC SPA church and school and the LDS temple (the footprint of the old Harold Lloyd studio lot):
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-t...942%2520AM.jpg
google maps

All EMS's playing fields, baseball diamond, track, etc have been covered in asphalt.


EMS is lucky to have a Kay Neilsen mural, "Canticle of the Sun" (1948) in the library, one of only three of the Danish master's works in LA:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l...130%2520AM.jpg
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2...l_students.php

The mural shows a figure, representing the sun, passing over a landscape where exquisitely-detailed flowers are opening.

(sorry it's such a terrible pic)

More on Neilsen: http://www.library.pitt.edu/librarie...rs/nielsen.htm

Just saw this pic of my home, Westchester. Amazing to see all these houses that had to have been torn down within twenty years of being built.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...41800203_n.jpg

Here's the area now. They just added the golf holes a few years ago to make up for the ones lost to the Westchester parkway. But that all used to be houses...
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8508/8...936c7058_o.png

[QUOTE=MichaelRyerson;6029105]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8249/8...07c113a7_o.jpg
Samuel Gompers Junior High School, 1938

Thanks, Michael for the 1938 picture of my alma mater...on the left, when I attended, was a beautiful auditorium which matched the main buildings with a Spanish motif...looks like it hadn't been built as yet in this photo. I did find it on Google Street View and it looks pretty much the same...

A (tenuous) excuse to post a pic of the University High School Auditorium Building:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...713%2520PM.jpg
http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu/pr...os-angeles-ca/

"The school’s architectural style is very distinctive, recalling Spain’s Alhambra or the Romanesque of Northern Italy" and was meant to match that of UCLA.
The Auditorium, with its gorgeous interior was the pride of the school and the neighborhood. Altogether a very gracious and welcoming building.

It was torn down after the Sylmar quake, although many remain convinced that it was staff's desire for a new Boys' Gym on this site that caused it to be condemned. (Other "condemned" buildings are still in use.)

UniHiKid has previously posted on the UHS Auditorium.