There's always a little extra added frisson of noir about this location as the last place anyone saw Elizabeth Short alive (except her killer) was as she exited the front door of the Biltmore on Olive and headed south. I guess we will forever be left wondering how far she got.

Residence of Col G.G. Green, Altadena (carriage house at left).

http://imageshack.us/a/img845/7987/a...colgggreen.jpg
ebay



The house is gone but the impressive carriage house still stands.

http://imageshack.us/a/img827/3762/a...olgreencoa.jpg
http://www.altadenablog.com/2010/04/





http://imageshack.us/a/img826/6900/a...riagehouse.jpg
http://www.altadenablog.com/2010/04/
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1936 Los Angeles Electrical Exposition.

http://imageshack.us/a/img542/5648/a...electrical.jpg
http://www.retronaut.com/2012/11/gir...al-exposition/
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December 17th, 1930

Buster Keaton

http://imageshack.us/a/img19/4264/aa...onwithdoll.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img62/4264/aa...onwithdoll.jpg
http://www.retronaut.com/2013/04/bus...r-keaton-doll/
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1941

Listening post and air raid lights in Pershing Square.

http://imageshack.us/a/img20/6886/aa...ostandsear.jpg
http://www.retronaut.com/2013/04/lis...e-los-angeles/




Listening device before radar. (no date given)

http://imageshack.us/a/img593/6932/a...ngpreradar.jpg
http://www.retronaut.com/2011/07/lis...-before-radar/
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A Short Post (get it?)
 

Since the subject of Elizabeth Short popped up again, is there any particular book about her murder that anyone here can recommend that might deal more with realistic possibilities than with random guesswork? I don't really want to read about offbeat speculation (maybe The National Enquirer's 'Bat Boy' did it!) Thanks guys.

Has one got something to do with the other?

I don't have a book recommendation but Larry Harnisch is a reputable source on the Black Dahlia. I don't remember if Larry has ever actually recommended a specific book but he has spent a lot of energy debunked some of the more dicey entries. You might start with some of his columns. Try 'thedailymirror' and look for the index on the Dahlia.

1230 W. 49th Street, circa 1911.

before
http://imageshack.us/a/img850/2982/a...9thstreet1.jpg
ebay

after
http://imageshack.us/a/img195/3382/a...9thsttoday.jpg
gsv
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Dr. A.U. Michelson, founder and radio minister.

http://imageshack.us/a/img541/2438/a...ynoguecopy.jpg
ebay
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Thank you so much, Michael. I'll definitely check it out.

Still there and holding its own. It needs TLC. Zillow says it has 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, 1,344 sq. ft., built in 1910.

.

ER, I was just walking by that very Lebanon Street (alley) on one of my recent trips to L.A. Here is a shot I took from 7th Street looking north between the HSBC Bldg and the Fine Arts Bldg. Apparently LA Sheriffs like to park here while they are checking for Metro tickets right below on the 7th/Metro Red/Purple/Blue/Aqua lines subway station. I know, one of them asked me to show my EZ transit pass on the way up to the street level.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8253/8...4f51605bf2.jpg

Fine Arts Building
 

And speaking of the Fine Arts Bldg.(1927) with the two reclining men on the front, I finally went inside and the guard was nice enough to let me take all the photos I wanted. He even let me use the restroom on the second floor which gave me opportunity to take some shots from the upper vantage point.

Above doorway of Fine Arts Building
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8541/8...8010deebee.jpg

Ceiling detail
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8264/8...800c0d8f61.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8398/8...735490365d.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8265/8...6c6292fa93.jpg

And from the ground floor
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8396/8...951ef49df3.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8544/8...7fdaeee7ae.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8395/8...d658ea6154.jpg

Merced Theatre
 

Last week it was announced that the long-vacant Merced Theatre at 420 N. Main Street will be renovated into the new home of Cityview, the government-access TV channel in Los Angeles. Here's the news article: http://www.latimes.com/business/mone...,3143182.story

Merced Theatre . . . this is your life!

You were designed by Ezra F. Kysor, architect of your next-door neighbor, the Pico House. You were built by William Abbott, the son of Swiss immigrants who came to Los Angeles in 1854. He named you after his wife, Maria Merced Garcia, whom he married in 1858. You were completed on December 31, 1870 and hosted the first professional engagement in your second-floor auditorium on January 30, 1871. Here's a photo dated December 1, 1869, showing your lot before you were constructed (BTW, Pico House construction was 9/18/69 - 6/9/70):
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8db1a9c3.jpg
USC Digital Library - http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si.../id/3351/rec/1 (and posted by ER way back on p. 21)

From 1871 to 1876 you served as the center of theatrical activity in Los Angeles. This photo of you is dated c. 1876, but may be a little earlier:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...psb7a7bd47.jpg
LAPL - http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics17/00008121.jpg

You closed as a theater January 1, 1877, due to competition from the new Woods Opera House (known as the Club Theater from 1883) four doors south and due to a smallpox epidemic. Perhaps this photo, given different dates by different sources, is around 1876:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...psb56f6bab.jpg
LAPL - http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics16/00007539.jpg

In this c. 1880 photo, your banner says "Dancing Academy":
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps90478243.jpg
LAPL - http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics16/00007561.jpg

In 1888 were you the scene of a different kind of drama, given that you housed both the Salvation Army and a wholesale liquor business?:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4dffae8a.jpg
Sanborn Map @ LAPL

By 1894 the wholesale liquor business had won out, eh?:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...pscf349bcf.jpg
Sanborn Map @ LAPL

By 1906 you had new tenants:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...psf13f0adf.jpg
Sanborn Map @ LAPL (Pssst. Party after school at 420 Sanchez Street. Pass it on.)

Here you are in c. 1909:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9dc2c6fe.jpg
USC - http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si.../id/2293/rec/1 (also posted by ER on p. 21)

Do you remember how you looked back around 1920?:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...psb3af4d71.jpg
LAPL - http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015405.jpg

And do you remember when your neighbor was called Old Pico House?:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8ff187bb.jpg
LAPL - http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics16/00007546.jpg

Was it especially windy on North Main back in the mid-40s? Seems like a lot of pedestrian-ensaring guy wire there:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...pse0c90d7b.jpg
LAPL - http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015402.jpg (MichaelRyerson posted a similar photo last August: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8703)

In this 1960 photo it looks like you and your southern neighbor, the 1858 Masonic Hall, are about to get some TLC:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps921e60cc.jpg
LAPL - http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015409.jpg

By 1968 you looked a lot better, at least on the outside:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps65704ca8.jpg
LAPL - http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015407.jpg

And in August 2012:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps146b4923.jpg
GSV

Good luck to you, Merced Theatre. I hope you last another 143 years. Now if they'd just open up the Pico House . . . .

# # #

More info here: http://elpueblo.lacity.org/elpmt1.htm and here http://elpueblo.lacity.org/elpph1.htm
More info, old and new pics, and plans here: https://sites.google.com/site/downto...merced-theatre

Amazing photo, e-r! This house looks amazingly like the one I grew up in...maybe that's because we weren't that far away at the 700 block of 49th Street! There are many wood frame houses in that area that date from the 1920's, many with Craftsman-like interior features: brick fireplaces with full width mantels, raised, coffered ceilings with moulding, built-in lawyer bookcases that served as room dividers, etc...Ours had a full plot length driveway that led to a 3-car garage with separate workshop space. My father purchased the house in 1954 for about $8000. We also had one of those backyard incinerators that were subsequently banned...I'll post a pic of my old house once I figure out what I'm doing wrong!:)

Beautiful building and photos! Is that a fountain in the middle of the floor?

No, not 'Every Single Building on the Sunset Strip' but close...so technically no, e_r, not the Ed Ruscha book you were hoping for but still one I really like. A copy of 'Every Single Building...' goes for somewhat north of a thousand dollars and a new copy of Then and Now will set you back a hundred and a quarter (I got mine used for about half that)...



http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8262/8...a8dd0b34_o.jpg
Ed Ruscha’s 'Then & Now' at Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles

VANISHING

by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp

Ed Ruscha gets it, and he’s made Los Angeles the subject of his art for decades. But these days, anyone living in L.A. gets it -- the city’s everyday landmarks have become expendable. It is not uncommon to round a corner and see that some beloved building has been eradicated, often in less than 24 hours. What has all this to do with Ed Ruscha? "Then & Now," his exhibition at Gagosian Gallery (which is also in Beverly Hills), on view Oct. 27-Dec. 24, 2005, is an extended meditation on this very subject. Inside the lush Richard Meier-designed space is a long white vitrine containing Ruscha’s photographs of every building along the main stretch of Hollywood Boulevard as he photographed them in black and white in 1973 and as he re-photographed them in color in 2004. The work references his ground-breaking 1966 artist’s book, Every Building on the Sunset Strip and Steidl Verlag has published these 142 Hollywood Boulevard photographs as Then and Now, the artist’s first book project in many years.
It is mesmerizing to see the ways that one of the city’s most notorious boulevards has been treated by time, like the proverbial movie star preserved in her youth on celluloid and then appearing in a matronly role at the end of her career. She is still fabulous in maturity but her sassy insouciance has been lost. It is not that the buildings on Hollywood Boulevard are less beautiful. In fact, they were tackier in the ‘70s. By now, they have been "improved" by the "good taste" that is being imposed on the city the way stylists now dress starlets for the academy awards. Bad taste is out, which is why the tasteful Montage Hotel must replace the tacky but authentically strange pseudo-mosque that charmed and intrigued for decades. Ruscha’s installation at Gagosian captures the upsetting nature of these developments. A serpentine vitrine leads a viewer from east to west or vice versa, with two sets of color and black-and-white photos, each facing opposite directions. No matter where one stands, one is faced with two lines of upright photos and two lines of upside down photos. Since one is looking down into the vitrines, as though reading the book, a sort of reverie of passing time takes hold.
The installation generates an intentional disorientation that mimics the effect of living in a city where entire blocks can be quickly transformed into malls or condominium complexes. Years of visual memories are roughly displaced, the character of funky neighborhoods is "improved" and one finds that the terra firma of one’s hometown is no more than the shifting sands of time. Ruscha’s photographs depict some losses: a 1920s Mediterranean apartment building was replaced by the hideous Galaxy movie complex; a modest ranch home is adorned by ridiculous columns and plaster statues on pedestals. Meanwhile, L.A. is greener today with towering trees and privet hedges wrapped around the most modest bungalows. Ruscha’s real theme is change and the bewildering pace of it.

<a href="http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/drohojowska-philp/drohojowska-philp11-28-05_detail.asp?picnum=2" rel="nofollow">www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/drohojowska-philp/droh...</a>

artnet.com

More of the Merced

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...eet/00001v.jpg
Library of Congress

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...eet/00002v.jpg
Library of Congress

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...eet/00003v.jpg
Library of Congress

Excellent post on the Merced Theater Flyingwedge!

-I never knew they renamed it 'Old Pico House'.
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Wow, what a 'old world' lobby. I love it!
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Los Angeles Brewery (off hand I can't remember where this brewery was located)

http://imageshack.us/a/img14/7905/aa...onasking90.jpg
ebay
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Hello,

This is my first post. I found this map that shows the LA industries that were served by rail in 1925. I thought this might be a good thing to put in my "toolbox" The link to the map is http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...id/10751/rec/8 You may download a copy from the site.

I have been following the thread for about 6 months now. Growing up in Pasadena in the 1950s was such a treat. I'm now retired and living in the Pacific Northwest.

PM

:previous: Welcome to the thread gDunn2! That's a great map.
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Luncheon at the Biltmore, 1949.

http://imageshack.us/a/img521/9251/a...ncheon1949.jpg
ebay
__

Edgeware & Temple

http://imageshack.us/a/img715/8029/a...mplesscjes.jpg
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/index.php

today
http://imageshack.us/a/img202/844/aa...mpletoday2.jpg
gsv




a better view of the house (a public elementary school is next door)

http://imageshack.us/a/img198/7560/a...mplehouse2.jpg
gsv





and the store on the corner.

http://imageshack.us/a/img716/2949/a...retemplet2.jpg
gsv

To the immediate left (and out of view) is the Hollywood Freeway.
__

Has anyone heard of MARBRO'S? (notice the Santa Fe ticket office across the street)

http://imageshack.us/a/img96/8660/ssantamonica.jpg
ebay

I believe this is Santa Monica.
__

That's where Eastside ("Put Eastside Inside") beer was brewed.

Post here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10485


Thank you Flyingwedge and alanlutz. Gorgeous posts.
(BTW, the tilework at the Fine Arts is by Batchelder Studios)



P.S.

Here's a current pic of the Brewery Arts Complex (formerly the Los Angeles Brewing Company)
2100 N Main (between the 5 and the river):

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-e...04814%2BAM.jpg
gsv

Good LAT article on Eastside. George Zobelein really was one of the good guys:

http://articles.latimes.com/1997/sep/07/local/me-29791

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-K...04318%2BAM.jpg
http://www.taverntrove.com/item.php?ItemId=55084

Zobelein was, if you recall, the one who tried to save El Aliso when he was partnered with Maier

I asked Jack Feldman over at the Water and Power Museum about this (I thought maybe it was something to do with the reservoir). Here's his reply:

"... With regard to the triangular shaped objects in the Plaza.....it looks like a truss that is used in construction. Around the time of this photo (1869), the water reservoir in the the middle of the Plaza was taken down and the Plaza was reconfigured round with a new fountain installed at its center. These trusses could have something to do with this new construction (just a wild guess)."

OPIUM Joint
 

By 1906 you had new tenants:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...psf13f0adf.jpg



So by 1906 Los Angeles had a semi official Opium Joint? Note the title at the right side, middle of block.

:previous: I hadn't noticed that. That's insane!


Arlington Avenue & W. 30th Street.

http://imageshack.us/a/img109/6291/a...vew30thsts.jpg
ebay


My how those palms have grown!

http://imageshack.us/a/img11/7770/aa...vew30thstt.jpg
gsv





The home is in fine shape.

http://imageshack.us/a/img7/7770/aab...vew30thstt.jpg
gsv





http://imageshack.us/a/img541/7770/a...vew30thstt.jpg
gsv
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Oh, and thanks for the info. on the old Los Angeles Brewery T2. -much appreciated.

http://imageshack.us/a/img266/3135/aabadlimos4hire.jpg
business card/ebay
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100 truck caravan visits Los Angeles March 5 to 13, 1955.

http://imageshack.us/a/img546/1866/a...ravanvisit.jpg
http://viewlinerltd.blogspot.com/



The 'Golden Sahara' at the 1955 Los Angeles Motorama.

http://imageshack.us/a/img69/2257/aa...1955motora.jpg
http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Main_Page




Preparing the 'Golden Sahara' for the show. Is that a mini bar?

http://imageshack.us/a/img819/6757/a...uckc11955b.jpg
http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Main_Page



Look at those tail-lights.

http://imageshack.us/a/img7/8089/aab...goldensaha.jpg
http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
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LA opium dens were licensed by the city. $25 per year.

'Old Vienna' beer.

http://imageshack.us/a/img541/2135/a...brewingcan.jpg
ebay



http://imageshack.us/a/img69/857/aam...wingcan1la.jpg
__

Beautiful little building...
 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8...1be91768_o.png
Maddux Air Lines ticket office, 636 South Olive Street, Los Angeles, 1928

USC digital archive/Dick Whittington Photography Collection, 1924-1987


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8264/8...796b7d77_o.png
Maddux Air Lines ticket office, 636 South Olive Street, Los Angeles, 1928 (2)

USC digital archive/Dick Whittington Photography Collection, 1924-1987

:previous: Beautiful Art Deco facade and graphics MR.

You may have noticed that Angel City Brewing took over the old roof-top sign at the former Los Angeles Brewery to use as a billboard targeting the traffic on the adjoining freeway: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=14180

But Angel City is actually located at 216 S Alameda in the Arts District:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T...056%2520PM.jpg
gsv

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Z...937%2520PM.jpg
gsv

What's the guy next to Maddux selling MR? I can't make out his signage:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...727%2520PM.jpg

Nice contrast with the Maddux facade.

I think it's a shine stand. I agree about the location although from his point of view it's all about the foot traffic.

:previous:

Oh, of course, now I get it. The customer perch is facing him. I like the juxtaposition. Very different services on offer, but both travel related.

Agreed, very nice. Though "TIA JUANA" is rather amusing.

Interestingly, just about the time of these photos, Tijuana had just opened a championship golf course and would begin hosting very respectable tournaments. Gene Sarazan played there. Tijuana was, at one time, a pretty popular destination for the monied set.

Thank you very much tovangar2 for asking for me. This is something we've discussed over at Pueblo Plaza before and the subject of construction forms was explored but in relation to the Pico House's construction as the photo seems to be taken from an elevation that might be consistent with an upper floor that might have been completed by then.

At any rate I'm disappointed in Jack Feldman's answer because it doesn't address the similar objects shown on the map in the same location drawn several years later.
For some reason I can't post this photo but here's the link again to the plaza section of the map:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95072967@N02/8663075373/

Thanks again for indulging me. That was kind of you and I really appreciate it.

:previous: That's my fault. I didn't send him the map. I'll do that now.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-u...01153%2BAM.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95072967@N02/8663075373/

http://imageshack.us/a/img23/1844/aabbrewerypc.jpg
ebay

I know we've covered this brewery in the past, but this postcard is so beautiful I just had to post it. :)
__

Funny objects in the Plaza...
 

just noticed these forms that are apparently being used to stabilized and protect some ornamental planting. This view from about 1880.


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8426/7...fd5ca398_o.jpg
Los Angeles Plaza and Mission Church from the Pico House, C.C. Pierce, ca.1880

Photograph of the Los Angeles Mission Church and Plaza from the Pico House, ca.1880. The church has a gazebo-like bell tower at left. A large tree grows to the right of the church. Other shorter buildings extend to the right and a short way into the distance. The mountains are visible in the background. Legible signs include: "Barnum Restaurant, Chop House". Trees and shrubs are apparently being planted in the Plaza.

USC digital archive/Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960

Shoe Shine...
 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps4a8d7aef.jpg
M.Ryerson posted this photo.

When I was ten years old my father and I would sit in one of these shine stands in Los Angeles and we'd get a shine. The attendant, usually a kindly old black man, would put the wax on our shoes with his bare fingers. Then he'd snap the shine cloth back and forth...snap-pat,snap-pat... It was a rare fun treat for 25 cents.

Dream Cars...
 

That is beautiful. Zobelein (1846-1936), a Bavarian, was incarcerated in Ehrenbreitstein Castle as a POW during the 1867 Prussian-Bavarian war. Not exactly the same architectural style as the Los Angeles Brewery, but weirdly reminiscent:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-G...02541%2BAM.jpg
http://www.rustycans.com/COM/month0305.html

The Los Angeles Brewery was apparently a great place to work. Unionized from the day it opened.

Your card also shows the "Eastside" eagle well, out by the sidewalk. Rather like the LA Times eagle. This one's at the bombing memorial at Hollywood Forever Cemetery (its wings have gone missing). Otis and Chandler are buried nearby:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l...02740%2BAM.jpg
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...e=gr&GRid=8919
fi

Jack Feldman is in guessing agreement with KevinW that those are troughs. I would think that they would have had to have been fed from the reservoir(?).