Love this thread!

In response to a REALLY old post, I found out where La Vista Terrace was. The building behind it is the Mary Andrews Clark Memorial Home at 306-336 S. Loma Dr.

Both buildings are visible in the lower left corner of this photo.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...W-C1-12-4-ISLA

And a few more of Sister Aimee and her 'Four Square Gospel'.


Below: That's her in the middle.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9...templesaim.jpg
ucla archive




http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/4...templesmcp.jpg
ucla archive




http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/4...templefloa.jpg
ucla archive




Below: I can't tell if this is the Angelus Temple under construction, or an entirely different building (the sign says training center).



http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3...templecons.jpg
ucla archive








http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/2...templemcph.jpg
ucla archive

^^^LASpaceCadet, you solved one of the oldest mysteries on here.

I can clearly see the bungalow court AND the Mary Andrews Clark Memorial Home in the aerial photograph.

Thanks!!

:previous:

Great photos, all! And yes LASpaceCadet, thanks for telling us where that bungalow court is. I remember being really curious when I first saw that photo. :)

Here are a few before/afters of Little Tokyo. I took these photos today (4.27.10).

1st Street looking west, Little Tokyo, 1941
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3158/...letokyo194.jpg
LAPL

1st Street looking west, Little Tokyo, 2010
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/5595/p1120486.jpg
My Photo

Mrs. Jack Iwata, 1942
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/9...etokyo1942.jpg
USC Archive

Here I am standing where Mrs. Iwata was standing 68 years ago.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/1622/croppeds.jpg
My Photo

Sopas_ej, your before/after shots of Little Tokyo are fantastic!

It looks like the area has retained a lot of it's charm.
I actually like the sidewalks better now. Are the sidewalks inlaid with
different kinds of stone/cement...or are they painted?

I believe it's the first time I've preferred something in an 'after' photo.


Oh....and nice calves. ;)

Great before and after Little Tokyo pics, sopas. And your Sister Aimee shots are great, too, ethereal. The building above is still there, just at the right end (Echo Park side) of the temple itself, on the corner of Park Ave. and Lemoyne St. It seems to be basically a separate building, but part of the complex.

^^^It's the least I could do for such an amazing thread, ethereal_reality & sopas ej!

Now I just need to find El Centenario Cafe. In the meantime, here's a brief essay on Skid Row and how it developed into the zone it is today. Interesting and very Noir.

[PDF] http://www.unitedwayla.org/getinform...yofSkidRow.pdf [PDF]

Hehe thanks. :)

I really like Little Tokyo; great food, and great vibe. It's changed a lot over the years. More Korean businesses there now, as well as other types of restaurants. More housing has also gone in. But you still see some of the old-timers going there, and there are still active Buddhist temples in the area. It's become a lot more vibrant than it was in the 1990s (which was its low period within the past 40 years, I think). Back in the 1980s I remember a lot more Japanese tourists there, plus homeless people. The homeless are fewer and further between now; back in the 80s I felt like I was running the gauntlet, dodging a lot of them, particularly at night.

That sidewalk is composed of different colored concrete, and is inlaid with brass symbols and some quotes, hehe I've never read them in their entirety, I think they talk about Little Tokyo's history and about specific things that are there.

A few more shots of the Angelus Temple complex, showing the Bible school--and in the second one, Sister Aimee's "residence"--residence? Nothing "small" about our Sister (it's the pictures that got small etc).

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075046.jpgLAPL

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075056.jpgLAPL

La Vista Terrace reminds me of 404B S. Alvarado nearby, where Miss Minter or her termagant mama, Mrs. Shelby, or the butler/lover(?), or whoever it was shot William Desmond Taylor in 1922. (Now, of course, it's a parking lot.)

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics02/00010507.jpgLAPL

El Centenario Found
 

In looking for a picture of Mary Miles Minter's house at 701 S. New Hampshire, look what I found:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061725.jpgLAPL

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061726.jpgLAPL

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061702.jpgLAPL

These pictures are dated 1910--this is 81 New High Street--the number was changed at some point to 501
and the Restaurant Moctezuma, mentioned in the captions as being in this building, apparently became El
Centenario. The house had been the residence of a famous Angeleno, Prudent Beaudry, who was mayor
from 1874-1876. Part of New High Street still exists, parallel to N. Broadway from Chavez to Alpine, with a bit
at the Plaza--which, according to Google, would be where the house once stood. (New High once extended
southerly to about Court St. next to the Hall of Records.)

And now--take a look at this, just "unearthed":

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf9h4nc02b/hi-res
CDLIB

At first I thought that the Beaudry house has been demolished, but now I see that the lettering at far left is on the back
right side of it. This must be a shot from about 1925 or after--notice the Hall of Justice looming.

:previous:

Oh mah gah that is EXCELLENT, GaylordWilshire! Another mystery solved! All so very fascinating.

And great pics you posted too of the Angelus Temple area and a cool nod to William Desmond Taylor. I've driven by that parking lot a number of times, wishing that apartment complex still existed. They just took those idols and smashed them, didn't they. ;)

^^^GaylordWilshire, that is one of the best post EVER!
All those photos are great....and the history as well (Prudent Beaudry).

That's why this thread is so fun. You go to search for one thing,
and you come across all these wonderful tidbits of L.A. history and lore.

Did you ever find Mary Miles Minter's house?

Oh My Gawd!!!!!!!!
 

GaylordWilshire you are amazing! the find on the location of el centenario cafe is brilliant. On page 131 of Gernot Kuehn excellent 1978 book, "Views of Los Angeles" he has the photo of the el centenario with a caption that reads;

The El Centenario Cafe, 1920's
A corner of Old Los Angeles that no longer exists today. Does anybody know where it is?

now we do!

the image you posted showing the hall of justice would be at the NW corner of Spring and Aliso today.

excellent work!:worship:

This is really awesome! In looking at these pics of Prudent Beaudry's house, and knowing where it was located, I now know the context of the other buildings.


In these two pics, the building on the right...
... is the Brunswig Building (built in 1888), which I had posted a while back:

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/171/chs41321.jpg
USC Archive

Or at least it was part of the Brunswig Building, or attached to it. That part is now gone.

A pic from November 2009:
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/1856/p1060925s.jpg
Photo by me

I'm gonna have to go by this again soon to see how it looks now. I'm hoping the temporary fencing is gone and I could actually walk up to and around the building.

I think it's so sad that a lot of LA history has been erased, but the things that still do exist are really a treasure.

Google Map images of the location of the Beaudry House
 

The Beaudry House was located at the intersection of New High Street and Republic Street Just West of Main Street. The Brunswig Building is at the NW corner of Main Street and Republic Street

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3463/...04541383_o.jpg


In this wider view, the hall of justice is in the lower left hand corner. The plaza is just right of center

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3416/...413c2628_o.jpg

Sopas EJ, I can't wait to see your updated photos of the area!

i went back and took a look at the photos i had posted on the destruction of the broadway tunnel and forrt moore hill to see if the location of the beaudry house was visible.

and sure enough, in this LAPL aerial, the brunswig building is visible at the bottom of the photo towards the left side. New high street runs from the intersection of spring street and sunset, (Cesar Chavez today), on the lower right, and runs south to terminate at Arcadia. The Beaudry house would have been just about where the three story building is that backs up to spring street.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4069/...90619617_o.jpg


Gaylord Wilshire and Sopas EJ, you two are true urban archeologists extraordinaire!

I'm glad everyone liked my chance discovery of Prudent's house.
It was great to see that the Brunswig building still stands. I hope
all that covering is for its renovation and not its destruction.

As for Miss Minter's house--I swear, finding a picture of it was
tougher than finding the El Centenario--which is odd, since the house
still stands on S. New Hampshire and was once the home of a movie
star. Anyway, it has been the Children's Institute since 1951. (It is
described as 701 in Wm Desmond Taylor-related writings, but the
Institute gives its address as 711--and by the way, Jerry Seinfeld's
Upper West Side apartment building is just down the street at 757.
I know that's a non-noir aside, but maybe someone was murdered
in the building, who knows.)

Minter and her mother seem to have been between several houses around the time of the murder, including 2039 S. Hobart (where Mary apparently was the night of the shooting) and 701 S. New Hampshire:

http://looking-for-mabel.webs.com/00...asa%201922.jpg
Looking for Mabel

now:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...2520AM.bmp.jpg
GSV

I thought you might get a kick out of this illustration GaylordWilshire.

It's a diagram of the bungalow court on Alvarado where William Desmond Taylor was murdered.






http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/4...ungalowcou.jpg
unknown








I've had this drawing forever. I can't even remember where I found it.

(note silent film star Edna Purviance had a bungalow here as well. Her demise was tragic as well.)