Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 6076561)

1971 (below). I used to wait for my bus home to Hollywood in the mid-1970's in front of the former Willoughby's, which was looking very tired. Both the old hotel and the Auditorium Building had rooftop billboards then. Street lamps had changed yet again, not for the better. Pershing Square was very bare. Cops, sirens blaring, used to often drive right into it and spread-eagle suspects across the hoods of their squad cars. One of the things I was most struck by, returning to LA from London, was how old LA was. There were more 19th-century and early 20th-century buildings still around then. Not really much different from large areas of London.

The upper floors of the old Willoughby were abandoned. After being away for a few days at the end of the '70s, I returned to find that the top two floors had been demolished, the remainder covered with a flat, tar-paper roof. The single-story remnant hung on until 1984:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-l...114%2520PM.jpg
http://www.urbanity.es/foro/urbanism....html?langid=1

Now:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Q...925%2520PM.jpg
gsv

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 6076561)

1971 (below). I used to wait for my bus home to Hollywood in the mid-1970's in front of the former Willoughby's, which was looking very tired. Both the old hotel and the Auditorium Building had rooftop billboards then. Street lamps had changed yet again, not for the better. Pershing Square was very bare. Cops, sirens blaring, used to often drive right into it and spread-eagle suspects across the hoods of their squad cars. One of the things I was most struck by, returning to LA from London, was how old LA was. There were more 19th-century and early 20th-century buildings still around then. Not really much different from large areas of London.

The upper floors of the old Willoughby were abandoned. After being away for a few days at the end of the '70s, I returned to find that the top two floors had been demolished, the remainder covered with a flat, tar-paper roof. The single-story remnant hung on until 1984:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-l...114%2520PM.jpg
http://www.urbanity.es/foro/urbanism....html?langid=1


gsv

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 6076843)

from ebay

http://imageshack.us/a/img547/459/aa...tithinkeba.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img824/459/aa...tithinkeba.jpg


Devils Walk? Imagine my surprise when I saw the larger image.

http://imageshack.us/a/img842/459/aa...tithinkeba.jpg

Isn't this Court Flight?
__

Originally Posted by belmont bob (Post 6077235)

sure looks like Court Flight to me!

Originally Posted by gsjansen (Post 5327957)

the same view once again a year earlier


here is an image of the tunnel in 1928

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics17/00028090.jpg
Source: LAPL

Originally Posted by SoCal1954 (Post 6077253)

Yes. You can see the edge of the roof line of the nearby large building:

http://i45.tinypic.com/2q9xkkm.jpg

Originally Posted by belmont bob (Post 6077276)

what a great photo...no question about where that photo was taken!!! Has anyone ever noticed “COURT FLIGHT” painted on the surface twice between the two tracks?

Originally Posted by belmont bob (Post 6077231)

As a young man I used to spend a great deal of my time in downtown and this intersection was by no means foreign to me. In fact the last photo shows a clear sign “BOOKS” on the 5th. street side which was a news and magazine stand as well as books that I used to frequent a lot. I had little spare money in those days so I used to stop in here to browse (without buying…lol) all the time. I don’t remember much about the building. I guess I was not yet caught up with that being a priority with me in those years (1958-1968)

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 6076785)

What does it say on the dome in that first photo.....something Bath? All Baths maybe-

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 6075900)

This is a very interesting photograph from the archive of a sign company.

http://imageshack.us/a/img191/2999/a...alheathdot.jpg
http://www.federalheath.com/company-...r-past/?pid=13

Originally Posted by Oviatt Building Fan (Post 6077512)

You've made my day with the photo above. We're looking at the southwest corner of the Consolidated Realty Building, probably very soon after 1930. The luxurious "Alexander & Oviatt" haberdashery occupied this very space from 1923 to 1928, after which it moved into the just-completed Oviatt Building near Sixth and Olive.

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 6075990)

Originally Posted by belmont bob (Post 6077276)

what a great photo...no question about where that photo was taken!!! Has anyone ever noticed “COURT FLIGHT” painted on the surface twice between the two tracks?

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 6077502)

Angels Flight and Devils Walk. LOL. That's funny.




I don't blame you for not noticing the building. By the post-war era almost all ground-floor shops had been modernized on the old buildings. I noticed this one in particular because I walked towards it from 5th and Flower every weekday (I also have a habit of looking up to check out old facades, which sometimes leads to walking into lampposts, other pedestrians, etc. So dorky). When I knew it in the 70s, the guano on the bay-window roofs was inches thick and pigeons used to fly in and out of the windows. The remembered glamour of 50s DTLA had flown. I used to wonder about the history of the place. I never guessed it was once a free-standing hotel in a mostly residential district. Research was so difficult in those days. No one appreciates the net more than I do.

Thank you e_r and SoCal1954 for your kind words.

P.S.



https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-V...650%2520PM.jpg

I'm still unsure. "BATH" is clear enough.

Originally Posted by belmont bob (Post 6077596)

After spending a little more time just staring at this photo I have questions that maybe have been answered before – then again maybe not. But the “New” Hotel Broadway’s three buildings are not architecturally the same with the front building having greater detail. The simpler windows and cornice the rear buildings would seem to be from a later date. I’m wondering if there may have been photos that would show only the front building and was Court Flight in place before the rear portions were built?
And I wonder what all the debris in the street is about. But the fun part is the scale. Did they really have every passenger line up to be weighed during peak boarding? Haha, Send them to Weight Watchers. My wife will get them in shape!

Originally Posted by SoCal1954 (Post 6077380)

And also notice the 'scale' at the bottom entrance; must have been, for total passenger weight limits for the individual cars, which were counter-balanced, as I recall?

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck (Post 6077665)

Interesting observation or recollection.;)

Balancing the weight of each car makes sense. But I tend to agree with MR ^^ as I can't see how that would have been practically implemented, especially on busy days. A lot of coordination between upper and lower operators? What happened when there were many riders going one direction - on only one car? Non-human ballast for the other? I would guess that the electric propulsion was designed to handle the additional weight/effort - within limits. :shrug:

More likely that the scales were commercial enterprises on their own? Get your weight for a penny? To be sure, Angels' Flight seemed to be equipped with at least one scale too. To the best of my knowledge, which isn't saying much, the current Angel's flight does not require passenger weight estimates.

Originally Posted by belmont bob (Post 6077612)

And who remembers the Italian Kitchen on 8th.??? best lasagna I ever had….

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 6076561)

The Auditorium was destroyed in 1985. The site remains vacant. Also in the mid-1980s, the Biltmore turned its back on Pershing Square, relocating its entrance to Grand Avenue.

Now:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Q...925%2520PM.jpg
gsv