Amazing motel postcard pics. I realize that I drive by some of those all the time.

I thought I'd do a then and now. Or rather, a then, then and now.

Santa Ana/San Bernardino Fwy merge east of downtown LA, circa 1950-1951 (?). Notice the PE tracks and tunnel. I believe the PE stopped running here in 1950. Or was it '51? Hmm.
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6241/19511953.jpg
USC Archive

Santa Ana/San Bernardino Fwy merge east of downtown LA, circa 1955. What I found odd was the long overpass, because I don't remember it ever existing...
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/3307/1955f.jpg
USC Archive

Santa Ana/San Bernardino Fwy merge east of downtown LA, December 11, 2010. See, no overpass. I can't think of where it went from/to. Might anyone know? And might anyone know when it was knocked down, and why? Also in this pic, I see a few of the old lamp posts still exist.
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/224/p1150633g.jpg
Photo by me

You can add this to the motel list, on Alvarado St south of MacArthur Park. I thought the sign was neat, reminded me of the early sixties. Had I known about this thread, I would have gotten a picture of the building.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...10part1256.jpg


Not a motel, but I thought this sign was pretty neat also (geez, I'm talking like Beaver Cleaver). I could be wrong, but I thought the sign had to be old. I couldn't see new money being put into this McDonalds. The neighborhood was a little rough.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...10part1269.jpg

I dig that Alvarado too and its crazy atomic starburst. Might have a postcard of it somewheres...hmmm...notice how it has the same accents the Sun now sports...

Speaking of the Sun...can't get enough of that one...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5002/...2065ddc3_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5043/...dc2f1a8c_b.jpg

going airborne over hollywood
 

1938 view looking east up hollywood boulevard towards barnsdall park

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-9-ISLA?v=hr
source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-9-ISLA?v=hr

1937 aerial looking north east towards los feliz

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-1-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-1-ISLA?v=hr

1938 aerial looking south east towards downtown

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-8-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-8-ISLA?v=hr

1918 aerial looking north from highland and sunset

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-10041?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-10041?v=hr

1926 aerial looking north

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-35266?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-35266?v=hr

^^^Great then/then/after sopas_ej. Beautiful aerials gsjansen.


Beaudry, your motel scans were great!
I hope you have many more to share with us.




Here are some examples I have in my files.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2...sandslodge.jpg
ebay

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/8...andslodge2.jpg
ebay




Below: Stillwell's Auto Hotel, 2 miles east of the new Union Station.

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/633...llsautomot.jpg
ebay

This is my favorite.



http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/7...tel1136nla.jpg
ebay




Below: Contemporary photos of the Crown Motel.....nothing seems to have changed at all.





http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/9...telisstill.jpg
walterworld



http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/3...ownmotel2a.jpg
walterworld



http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4...tel1awalte.jpg
walterworld




http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/5...rownmotel3.jpg
walterworld




http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/6...rownmotel4.jpg
walterworld

A mystery! From my 1960 Renie atlas, and Bing Maps...now you see it, now you don't...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5202/...70ddb9b5_z.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5126/...de05d8c4_z.jpg

Couldn't find anything in Proquest on the overpass other than this, Dec. 2, 1953 --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5283/...f2cc6497_o.jpg

-- a viaduct with verve! "Adequacy of this width remains to be seen." Guess it wasn't so adequate.

I know there are freeway experts out there who'll know a thing or three about this one...

The picture of the gas tanks reminded me of the scene in "The Best Years of Our Lives" when Dana Andrews meets Theresa Wright at the lunch counter with the tanks in the background.

Here's where Theresa Wright lived with her parents,Fredric March and Myrna Loy. The apartment building is on Beverly between LaBrea and Highland. There was scaffolding covering two sides of the building so this was the best view I could get - this year.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...10part1279.jpg

Beaudry-- I think you're absolutely right--that the front part of the current hotel is not new, but a remodeled Sun. The slim sign tower is the same. Great stuff.

That flyover ramp (completed in 1955) connected to the 101 and was removed in 1995 due to redundancy of the same connection in the early 1970's reconstruction, and mainly because of seismic damage from the Northridge quake in 1994 (it didn't collapse).

City records give the year built as 1946. The white house to the left was built in 1920, which looks it. What I didn't realize at the time is that that structure at the far right in post #2163 still stands! It's pretty clear in both 2163 photographs but I didn't look hard enough. It was built in 1916 (with a small addition in 1922) -- stucco'd, with the addition of some concrete screen, but at least it maintains its original windows!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5086/...c22c9b53_o.jpg

(Just for the record, the Paradise was also 1946, the Vine Lodge 1942, Nitey-Nite is 1947; La Brea Towers and the former Tick Tock are "off the grid" when it comes to Zimas.)

Ta-da! Cool. Thanks.

Spent a year working on a site called 1947project http://1947project.blogspot.com/...
"To visit a list of cases that took place in Los Angeles we dug up a site called 1947 project [sic] which lists an enormous number of criminal cases that took place in the city during that period of time..." -- glad to see someone got some use out of it! http://www.gameguru.in/action/2010/2...-life-murders/

Bumper crop of goodies
 

Those vintage Motel postcard scans are a dream. Thanks! More please! (Wish I knew how to scan and post some of my postcards.) My favorite is that Sunset Bungalow Motel Court at 5154 Sunset. A classic 40's shot). Vine Lodge sounds very familiar...In singer Rosemary Clooney's bio, "Girl Singer" she wrote that when she and her sister Betty first arrived in Hollywood in 1947, traveling with a big band, they stayed at the Vine Lodge. She said it was "where all the bands stayed." It was very near the huge Palladium on Sunset, "Hollywood's Premier Dancing and Dining Spot in the Heart of Hollywood," where the top big bands played.
The Bunker Hill photos were a great treat too.
I'm still trying to hunt down info on what was definitely called "Normandie Village" or "Old Normandie Village" apts on the Sunset Strip., described as "a picturesque jumble of peaked roofs, jagged chimneys and meandering walkways from Hollywood's old party days." (LA Times) 1962). Came across this photo (scroll down) of "Normandy Village, Hollywood 1928," but it looks like a recent photo. so not sure of its connection to the old Normandie or Normandy Village which was razed in the 60's. http://www.preservenet.com/archtime/ArchTime.html
Also, here's a blog with good photos about "French Hollywood" architecture. http://doves2day.blogspot.com/2010/1...hollywood.html
So that French style apt. house on Beverly is the one featured in "The Best Years of Our Lives." Very interesting.

Thanks so much for your response. You too Beaudry, thanks for that article and that scan from your Renie Atlas.

I'm now wondering how a driver today would transition from the westbound 10 to the southbound 101, if that's even possible to do now...

I live in the building at the top of this 1924 photo of Main Street in Culver City. Now it has a 1980's stucco facade.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6...tsouthside.jpg
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6...tsouthside.jpg

You do it at the interchange with I-5 just east of there, that was built in the 1970s. I-5 and the 101 merge together just south of there.

:previous:

Ah OK. So I guess if you did want to get to points just east of the LA River from the 10, say, just west of White Memorial, you'd just have to get off the freeway a little east of there.

I rarely drive through that area on the freeway; being that I live in South Pasadena, I just take the 110 or even just surface streets to get to downtown.

I remember this place! It was south of the SB Fwy just past Soto St. It vanished after the freeway was widened there in the mid-'70s...

-Scott

i apologize in advance for making everyone have to scroll on this photo, due to it's size, however, this is definitely an image that needs to be seen full size to truly appreciate.

it is a screen capture from the 1921 harold lloyd thrill comedy, Never Weaken

apparently some hopped up developer is building a large steel framed skyscraper on top of the hill street tunnel, (wonder how they worked the piling's around the hollywood
in and out-bound P&E tracks??!!??).

I just realized that the building behind harrold lloyd is not the cecil, st. mark, gladden....(whatever), that i first identified it as, ..........it's actually a building on olive court
next to the moorecliff with a nifty rear exit on to hill street

the building down hill street with the union league sign on the side is the hotel belmont, (the old ywca) just north of third. the mission hotel can be clearly seen
at the intersection of 2nd and olive.

the railings of the roof terrace of the nelson building, (third and clay), is visible, as is the cupola bell tower of the astoria just north of third on olive.

lloyd was working with the hal roach studios at this time, so they wouldn't have had to travel very far for this location shot, as the studio was located almost from
the vantage point of the photographer, in the bradbury mansion at hill and court street .

enjoy!

http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Ll...Weaken)_01.jpg